GRETA Conference 2014 - Opening plenary presentation by Mark Levy (BRITISH COUNCIL)

Are we preparing teachers to meet the education needs of the 21st century? (And does anyone care?)

Mark LevyGRETA conference 2014

www.britishcouncil.org 1


http://jakubmarian.com

http://jakubmarian.com/www.britishcouncil.org 3

Consejo de Europa: Conclusiones sobre multilingüismo y el desarrollo de competencias

lingüísticas de la reunión del consejo de educación, juventud, cultura y deportes

Bruselas, 20 de mayo de 2014

http://gr2014.eu/sites/default/files/142692_2.pdf

Invita a los Estados miembros a: adoptar y mejorar las medidas encaminadas a promover el multilingüismo e impulsar la calidad y eficiencia del aprendizaje y enseñanza de idiomas, incluyendo por enseñanza de al menos dos idiomas además del principal idioma de instrucción desde muy temprana edad y explorar el potencial de enfoques innovadores en el desarrollo de competencias lingüísticas.

www.britishcouncil.org

http://gr2014.eu/sites/default/files/142692_2.pdf

Are we preparing teachers to meet the education needs of the 21st century? (And does anyone care?)

Mark LevyGRETA conference 2014


“El 77.3% de los padres considera que la preparación de los profesores influye totalmente o bastante en la formación del alumnado”

Revista Padres y Colegio - Mayo 2014


This made me laugh …


So … what do you think?

What are the training needs of English/language teachers? Are they any different from the training needs of teachers of other subjects? Are they any different from the training needs of 20 or 30 years ago?

How much training is available?How much training do you do? (Reasons?) … and whose responsibility is training anyway?


What do teachers need from training?

“WHAT to teach”

“HOW to teach”


“What to Teach”

e.g.:

• Subject specific content – English

• Learning skills & strategies - ways to understand, remember, recall, use & apply information (How to Learn)

• Life skills – team working, initiative, flexibility, adaptability, social & cross-cultural skills, responsibility

• 21st century skills


Subject knowledge: What do teachers of English need to know?

How to teach learners to convey & understand (the correct) meaning in English

Speaking: pronunciation (sounds, rhythm, word stress …)

Writing: process (generating ideas, drafting, organizing, editing, reviewing ..)

Listening: understanding pronunciation features, using context …(& engaging your brain not just your ears)

Reading: approaches, using context … (& engaging your brain not just your eyes)

Consejo de Europa: Conclusiones sobre formación docente eficaz de la reunión del consejo de educación, juventud, cultura y deportes Bruselas, 20 de mayo de 2014


Se acuerda que: los temas específicos en los que la enseñanza de programas de educación deben tener más consideración incluyen métodos efectivos para ayudar a los estudiantes a adquirir las competencias transversales como la alfabetización digital, aprender a aprender, toma de decisiones, pensamiento crítico y creativo, así como para fortalecer competencias lingüísticas. Además, debe prestarse atención a formas eficaces de apoyar a grupos heterogéneos de estudiantes, incluyendo aquellos con necesidades especiales o socialmente desfavorecidos.


The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) http://www.p21.org/

http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework



http://www.p21.org/

http://www.p21.org/


21st century skills

• Ways of thinking. Creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and learning

• Ways of working. Communication and collaboration

• Tools for working. Information and communications technology (ICT) and information literacy

• Skills for living in the world. Citizenship, life and career, and personal and social responsibility


Collaborative Learning : Working Together

The PISA 2015 definition of collaborative problem solving:

Collaborative problem solving competency is the capacity of an individual to effectively engage in a process whereby two or more agents attempt to solve a problem by sharing the understanding and effort required to come to a solution.


21st century skills: Digital Literacies

(from Digital Literacies:, Dudeney, Hockley & Pegrum. Pearson 2013)


21st century skills: Global Citizenship

“Education for global citizenship is essentially about equipping the young people that we teach for the world they will live in as adults. We don’t know for sure what the world will be like in the future but we can have aspirations and use our expertise to help young people to acquire the necessary outlooks, understandings and skills to realize these hopes.”

British Council online course on Education for Global Citizenship https://connectingclassrooms-learning.britishcouncil.org/

Schools Online

http://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/

https://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/connectingclassrooms-learning/

https://connectingclassrooms-learning.britishcouncil.org/

http://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/


“How to Teach”

e.g.:

• Classroom & behaviour management - establishing a suitable learning environment & making learning possible, create a climate of thinking & reflection …

• How to support learning – motivation, teaching/learning strategies, scaffolding, use of appropriate teaching/support tools …

• How to teach specific content & skills - pronunciation, grammar, reading skills ….

• How to evaluate & assess learning

www.britishcouncil.org18

Motivating Learning (Motivating Teaching)

28.8 per cent of boys leave school before qualifying. According to data from the Institute for Economic Studies, from a study carried out by Eurostat, 28.8 per cent of boys abandon school in Spain. The number is double the European average. For the girls 20.8 per cent abandon school before qualifying. (El País 15/5/13)


Classroom & behaviour management

Relationships, classroom geography,

rules,discipline, lesson structure,

instructions, voice, pace, routines …

variety

http://rubble.heppell.net/places/


Do students perform better in schools with

orderly classrooms?

“Disciplinary climate is one of few school-level characteristics that show a significant positive relationship with performance consistently across countries, even after accounting for other school features and students’ background.”

“In fact, the strong relationship between students’ socio-economic status and disciplinary climate suggests that the impact of socio-economic status on student performance can be weakened by a positive disciplinary climate in school.”

(PISA in Focus 32 http://

www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisainfocus.htm)


http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisainfocus.htm



Helping Children Prioritise

“(… ) evidence from psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience suggests that when students multitask while doing schoolwork, their learning is far spottier and shallower than if the work had their full attention. They understand and remember less, and they have greater difficulty transferring their learning to new contexts.”

http

://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/05/how-does-multitasking-change-the-way-kids-learn

/ Annie Murphy Paul | May 3, 2013


http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/05/how-does-multitasking-change-the-way-kids-learn/





We live in a time of constant change

How can teachers contribute to the change when the system holds on to the old model?

Can we expect the 'new world' to behave in the way that the 'old world' was taught?


The role of technology

“Adults think of technology as a tool. Young people think of it as a foundation—it underlies everything they do.“

@marcprensky on twitter

Insanity is ..



Every kid needs a champion

We’re educators. We were born to make a difference!

Rita Pierson

But not everything is about training ….

http://youtu.be/SFnMTHhKdkw


Stay in touch

[email protected]: @MarkLev99

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