MAPDLE Trainer Development: Module Results

 

                                                Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

I just got the good news that NILE have marked my MAPDLE Trainer Development module assignments. I worked extremely hard to finish these pieces of work two months before the deadline and was delighted to achieve an A Grade Distinction. I feel quite proud of this achievement, as I was new to teacher training at the beginning of this course. I feel that I learned so much, not only from the reading but also from my tutor and the other course participants. They all came from contexts that were very different from mine and our sharing of ideas and experiences really made the course come to life.

The three assignments required a lot of reading and a considerable amount of time to research and write, but they were so interesting and relevant for my context that it was a pleasure to spend the time on them.

I've already written blog posts on the main assignment MAPDLE Trainer Development: Training course design (teflallinclusive.blogspot.com) and my first option MAPDLE Trainer Development: Analysing trainer talk (teflallinclusive.blogspot.com)

My final option was my favourite, and I ended up getting 88% for it. I was really pleased that all my efforts had been appreciated by the markers. The purpose of this option was to produce a sequence of materials to cover three hours of training time for an identified group of teachers.

The group of teachers I designed the materials for is a small group of native and non-native speaking teachers, who are part of a teachers' club that I run. The teachers are working in isolation and do not have the benefit of regular CPD or any support from a school. The purpose of the teachers' club is to provide additional support in developing their skillset, to help them to grow in autonomy, and to develop their skills of reflection. The materials were a sequence of two linked sessions for the online teaching context.

The focus was on teaching listening skills, as there can often be a lack of instruction on how to teach listening on initial teacher training courses. 

My materials were designed to be sympathetic to my trainees and the online context, as well as to take account of the following four principles: Materials should help the teachers meet their learners' communicative needs, give them social interaction skills to use with their learners and additionally, within the profession, and promote critical and reflective thinking (Beaven, 2017).

 In the design of my materials, I used a PEP (Practice, Evaluation, Personalisation) Affouneh and Bilbrough, 2016). In this framework, the participants practice a language class activity, before reflecting on the advantages and disadvantages for their own context, then finally create their own example, based on the needs of their own students. 

My two linked sessions followed a similar format, but each one was designed to suit the particular type of experiential learning being focussed on. Session one involved listening to a video that they couldn't understand and then attempting to answer questions, to enable the participants to appreciate the difficulties of their learners, and session two involved Loop input of the dictogloss technique (Woodward, 2003) (If you're not aware of Loop input see reference at the end). To provide a sense of continuity between the sessions, the participants completed an interactive listening task and met as a group prior to the second session to complete a group task.

This assignment, like the other two, involved extensive reading and my references list was lengthy. However, I'll just give references at the end for what I mentioned here.

Now that this module is finished, I have one more module to complete before the dissertation. I got an exemption from the Core Module, due to having completed the DipTESOL.

In my new job as a lecturer for City of Glasgow College, I am involved in a big materials creation project, and I have decided to complete the Materials Development module next for the MA. I really enjoy materials creation and feel this is what I would prefer to focus on in the future.

References:

Affouneh, S. and Bilbrough, N. (2016) ‘Context-specific teacher training’, The Teacher Trainer, 30 (3), pp. 2-6. 

Beaven, B. (2017) ‘Principles and practice in teacher education materials’, The Teacher Trainer, 31 (2), pp. 2-6.

Woodward, T. (2003) ‘Loop input’. ELT Journal, 57 (3), pp. 301-303.