REFLECTIONS

WEEK 1

This is our schedule for the first week at WKC. 

Below are reflections written, based on the the daily lessons for the first week.

Day One - 24th November 2014

SESSION 1.1 & 1.2- Orientation & Induction -The UK Further Education & Skills Context with Seungeun Chang & Simon Goodier

It was a warm welcome by Westminster Kingsway College (WKC) by Seungeun Chang, Head of International Operations. She gave us an overview of WKC and introduced the group to Kirsty McLaren, the Project Manager for International Partnership and Simon Goodier, the Programme Manager for English Courses at WKC. WKC turned out to be one of the best colleges in the country for its hospitality and culinary courses with Jamie Oliver as its alumni! The college is situated right in the heart of the city and we were reassured that we were close to everywhere and everything. 

We were given a tour of the Learning Centre which has a superb array of books and learning materials, as well as computers with printing facilities. After that, the group had a session with Kirsty to discuss matters regarding our wellbeing being put to live with foster families scattered all over the suburbs of London. In general, everyone thought the travelling to the college was confusing, as the walking plus tube ride without knowing our north and south, east and west could get us easily lost among the morning rush hour crowd (some of us were an hour late, while Roza only managed to get to the class at 11am, poor girl) Some host families had strict regulations with the use of the bathroom and heating. Kirsty took in all our feedback and "will try to sort them out as soon as she could." Hurray!

Later, Simon shared with us a checklist used by WKC lecturers on practices for planning a lesson, and what to do during a lesson. One of the important lesson learnt in today’s session is that the focus of classroom observation should be on what the learners do instead of what the teacher does. Ofsted, which stands for the Office for Standards in Education, is an independent institution that inspects and regulates providers of education for learners of all ages in the United Kingdom. It plays the role that is somewhat similar to the Inspectorate of Schools in Malaysia. What is interesting is that when classroom observations are made by Ofsted, the focus is on what the students are doing, and not the teacher. This includes how the students respond to the teacher’s instructions, their participation in tasks and activities, the way they ask and answer questions, their enthusiasm, their ability to produce the intended lesson outcomes etc. Students’ written work is laso examined to determine if learning outcomes have been attained. This is something we can learn, especially when classroom observation is carried out. Currently, at least at polytechnics, much of the focus of classroom observation is placed on what the teacher does. 

After a short ice-breaking and introduction session, Simon went through the schedule with us, briefly explaining the content of the sessions and giving the background of the trainers/speakers. We also found out that we were going to teach an hour of ESOL classes at various WKC centres which was not in the original schedule given to us in Malaysia. Also added to our new schedule is the micro-teaching session with the group where we would have a sample of everyone's teaching style. Everyone felt anxious at this point, or was it the jet lag setting in, who knows. Simon conducted an activity which made us think about learning and teaching, and how everyone can have different feelings and opinions about them. This would be useful to understand and be aware of as different teachers have different needs to their respective students. 

Later in the afternoon, we were feted with a welcome lunch at Vincent Rooms with Andy Wilson, Principal of WKC and Associate Professor Dr. Mohad Anizu Hj. Mohd Nor, Minister Counsellor (Education) in attendance. Our vegetarian three-course meal prepared and served by the fine dining hospitality students was absolutely impressive and fantastic! We could see that the college not only give hands on practice to their students but also giving real life experience with customers.

Next, comes a delightful treat by WKC with Sueugeun and Kirsty as our guide, a London Orientation session!  We walked from WKC to the London Eye, passing by the magnificent Westminster Abbey and the famous Big Ben then crossing the River Thames. The 30 minutes London Eye ride gave an eagle eye view to the city and the sunset was priceless. 

By: Aida Fazlim Hisham, Aliza Abdul Razak and Tan Sui Chee 

Day Two- 25th November 2014

SESSION 1.3 Pronunciation - Segmental & Suprasegmental Phonology for Effective Communication  with Katerina Ashiotis

There are many teaching elements that we have to take into consideration when planning  our lessons. In teaching spoken English for example, which accent ‘variety’ should we teach to our students? Should we teach British or American English? Are native speaker accents the correct model that we should base on during our lessons? What kind of English are you promoting? These are some of the questions posed during the session with Katerina.

In pronunciation, two main features every English teacher should be familiar with are segmental and supra segmental. The segmental element refers to individual sounds, for example, the vowels, the consonants and diphthongs. The supra segmental comprises sentence or word stress, intonation, linking words and so on. For me, I tend to place more focus on the segmental aspect mainly because of the background of my students. First of all, most of my students are L2 speakers. Some of them can even be categorised as EFL learners. Many of them still face interference from their mother tongue when they try to produce English sounds.

Hence, the segmental element is crucial for the students to be able to pronounce words clearly and comprehensibly. However, Katerina pointed out that we should not leave out the supra segmental element all together. Thus, we could improve our lessons by implementing differentiation exercises. For students who are proficient in the language, we could go more in-depth into the supra segmental area whereas for weaker ones, we could emphasise accurate pronunciation of words in our lessons. This will enhance their interest in learning English.

In planning our lessons, we also need to consider the intelligibility, appropriateness and feasibility. By considering and integrating not only the four language skills, but also phonology, vocabulary and grammar, our students will be more competent English language users. 

By: Jaime AK Mundu

Session 1.4: Teaching Receptive Skills & Lesson Shapes with Katerina Ashiotis

In this session, the trainer gave interesting practical ideas for:
·         practising receptive skills interactively
·         dealing with teaching and learning listening and reading skills
·         producing productive and motivating practices
She ended the session with a review on ARC (Authentic, Restricted, Clarification and Focus), and a descriptive framework for language focus (specifically on grammar) lessons.

Everyone agreed when she mentioned that of all the four skills (Reading, writing, listening and speaking), listening and reading are always deceptively seen as ‘easy’ to teach, when in fact, there are many sub-skills involved teaching those two skills. Very often than not, tasks set in listening and speaking classes tend to test comprehension but not engage or motivate students. To make lessons meaningful, teachers can personalise and contextualised the materials, predict what interest the students have, consider any physical/cultural/personal problems students might have with the texts and tape scripts, exploit texts and scripts linguistically, and provide texts that are interesting, authentic and meaningful to the students.

It is imperative that teachers grade the task and not the text used in the classroom. This means that the same text can be given to students of different levels of proficiency, but the tasks can be differentiated.  Teachers also need to prepare tasks that encourage communication and interaction among students. While the focus may be on a specific skill in a particular lesson, the other skills should also be integrated in the lesson. After each task, students should be encouraged to discuss their answers before moving to another reading or listening task(s).

The Internet is an unlimited source of materials that are authentic for classroom learning. Teachers can also create activities which will encourage students to interact with one another. In addition, students can be directly involved in choosing the learning materials by giving them the chance to decide and create tasks for their lessons. When dealing with a task, it is good that a teacher sets the time limit, so that the students are more focused and challenged in doing the given task.


In the last part of the session, the speaker shared an interesting perspective of teaching a grammar class by using a framework called ARC; A stands for Authentic (the use of meaningful materials for the students), R stands for Restricted Use (specific activities pre-selected by a teacher for classroom learning) and C stands for Clarification and Focus (giving specific and clear instructions on what the students need to do. Depending on the needs of the class (for example, proficiency levels & lesson objectives), a teacher may use different combinations (sequences such as ARC or RCR, CRRA) of different activities to make the lesson more interesting and beneficial to the students as reflected in the examples below:

Example	Combination
This approach is more likely if an item is assumed to be new to the   students.	CRRA
This approach assumes that the students probably know something about the language item.	RCR
With this approach the teacher is less likely to waste time telling students things they already know.	RCR
With this approach the teacher is able to plan the lesson around specific example sentences selected before the lesson.	CRRA

Teacher can give specific task that students can manage. By doing realistic tasks, the 
students will use less L1 in the class. The teacher may also need to become a ‘policeman’ to monitor the students’ use of L1 in the class.

In conclusion, the session on receptive skill and lesson shapes is very interesting, insightful and gives ideas that the participants can share with their colleagues back in their own learning institution. 

By: Alfred V. Bakrin

Day Three- 26th November 2014

Session 1.5 : Working with published resources: What to adopt, what to adapt

Session 1.6 : Planning for learner-centred & differentiated activitiesWith Katerina Ashiotis

The day started with participants brainstorming areas and aspects to be considered when choosing resource books, such as relevance to the curriculum, suitable topics, level of students, clear layout and interesting visuals. The information was then put on mah-jong papers and presented by the groups. Participants then went to the front of the class where there was a display of ESL resources books on the table with specialised content for vocational courses such as engineering, accounting, business, tourism and hospitality. Participants were required to browse through the books and comment on the appropriateness of those books in relation to the teaching and learning process in their own classes back in Malaysia.

The pros and cons of adopting and adapting materials were discussed. It was also highlighted that it should be the task that is adapted and not the text. Examples of different types of tasks were also looked at, to highlight differentiation in activities. Participants were advised to provide materials of achievable level to minimise the use of L1 among learners.

Case Study : Employment Engagement and Curriculum Design With John Kelly, Programme Manager, WKC Soho Centre

At 1.35pm Kirsty McLaren, WKC International Partnerships Project Manager took us to the WKC centre at the Soho District for a talk by John Kelly. We were exposed on how TVET works in the United Kingdom. We shared some similarities in our set-up which are:

·         The Government decides on the manifesto for Vocational Education and Training

·         We are guided by Qualification frameworks by special awarding bodies

Basically the students are equipped with transferable skills whereby they are not only trained for a specific job but they could adapt to other jobs because the skills have been incorporated in the curriculum. Thus the students would have the flexibility to work across the board.

By :Marina Abu Bakar and Ooi Kien Bee

Day Four- 27th November 2014

Session 1.5 : Micro Teaching with Katerina Ashiotis 

This is the first session where we can sample each other's teaching methods. The micro teaching was carried out in pairs. There were 10 pairs all together. Each pair had 12 minutes to carry out an activity which was done as team teaching or each presenter took 6 minutes of the lesson.

The topics taught varied from tourism, job interview, description of places and things, travelling and language functions. Activities carried out included games, interviews, group discussions, role plays and an experimental web search. Aids or realia were used to captivate students interest in the lesson. This was able to generate ideas and promote interaction amongst the group members.

Katerina opened the floor for discussion, to reflect and comment on the presentations; what worked and what did not. There were some positive points such as the interesting games and visuals, and there was one negative point which was the internet not working at the time of the lesson. Katerina said in such case, do not panic and just carry on with the class with plan B! On the whole the positive comments overshadowed the negative ones. Bravo Soujourners!!!

REFLECTION

Overall, all of us were able to follow the ARC (A= Authentic, R= Restricted, C = Clarification and Focus) sequence learnt from the previous lesson. Most of the micro teaching applied the ARC rule. This was seen as a systematic way of conducting a lesson. One of the teachers highlighted that most of the teachers were aware on the sequence of what they were doing during the micro teaching session.

We also came up with interesting activities like using grid cards, showing pictures of interesting places, gallery walk and the use of gadgets in the lesson. They had planned their lessons effectively to cater for the students needs’. Besides that, according to Katerina, the teachers had good voice projection and instructions were clearly presented while conducting the lesson. The lessons were student centered and according to her, this should be practiced during our language classes.

In addition, Katerina highlighted that every teacher needs a backup plan when preparing for the lesson. Aspects such as technology is beyond our control. In fact, every teacher should plan a lesson that has continuity and always check on students understanding or to relate to lessons learnt earlier.

Another plus point of the micro teaching lessons was every pair mentioned the aims and objectives of the lesson clearly. This was done either in the beginning or the end of the lesson.

To enable an activity to be carried out successfully, modeling is an important aspect whereby a sample of what is to be done should be carried out so students have an idea on what they are supposed to do. It was also commented that almost all the lessons touched on local cultural aspects which is encouraged. This helps students to share their knowledge on the topic learned. Correcting students during presentations should be done discreetly as students need to know their mistakes. On the other hand, it needs to be done tactfully so that students are not discouraged to use the language.

Finally, class control is another important aspect which was evident throughout the micro teaching.

Indeed a very productive morning for us…

By: Kala Nathan and Gurminderjeet Kaur

Day Five- 28th November 2014

Session 1.9 & 1.10 : Teacher Development- Designing A Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Session with Carole Allsop

The session started off with the sharing of experiences in leading teacher development sessions. Few of us like Tan, Ooi and Marina were involved in designing teacher development modules while some of us were involved in the implementation and delivery of the programme. From the discussion, we found out that after any Continuous Professional Development (CPD), progressive monitoring should be done to create continuous interest in the teachers.

After that, we moved on to discuss the important features of an effective teacher development session. From the discussion, we finalized that there are eight important features of an effective teacher development session. They are:
i)     Relevance to participants.
ii)    Applicable.
iii)   Practical.
iv)   Deal with real needs (by giving out short questionnaires to know what the participants really need)
v)  Facilitator should be knowledgeable, sensitive to the participants, energetic and enthusiastic.
vi)   2-way process – let the participants actively involved in the session rather than being passive. This would lead to a more fruitful outcome.
vii)   Balanced activities – avoid overloading.
viii)  Clear aims – keeping the aims concise, clear and achievable. It is good and advisable to always have a reflection at the end of each slot/ session to check whether the aims have been successfully achieved

We also discussed about what are the DON’TS in conducting a teacher development session. They are:
i)     Don’t patronize the participants.
ii)   The trainer should not talk too much. Let the participants be actively involved in the session.
iii)  Don’t act as if we know everything. Be prepared to face the fact that we might now know something and we can always learn from the participants who are more knowledgeable especially in their fields.
iv) Avoid giving unclear assessments or instructions as this could demotivate the participants.

In ensuring the two-way communication, we could adopt few methods such as:
i)                  Socratic method (teaching by questioning)
ii)                 Display question.
iii)                Referential question.
iv)                Convergent question.
v)                 Divergent question.
vi)               Or a range of question types that require information processing, reasoning/                     drawing conclusions, enquiry, predicting, testing, improving, creative                                thinking, evaluating and recommending.

We also discussed the best formula/ recipe for a teacher training program. Before we finalised the best recipe, we formed groups and discussed among ourselves. Each group presented their findings and pasted the recipe on the walls for other groups to see and give feedback. After the discussion, the formula/ recipe was finalized. It consists of having:
i)                   Ice breaker/warmer.
ii)                  Questions to think about and discuss.
iii)                Ideas from participants.
iv)                Input via activities and tasks
v)                  Group work – plenary.
vi)                 Visual support.
vii)                Cognitive, creative and kinaesthetic activities.
viii)               Mix up groups.
ix)                 Re-cap.

This session with Carol was an eye-opener and very helpful if we need to design our own professional development programme in our respective institutions. Everybody was actively contributing ideas and experience to find the best ways in designing a CPD session.

By: Roslan bin Mamat


REFLECTION

I think today’s lesson is very relevant to what we will be doing when we return to Malaysia, namely the possibility of sharing teaching strategies with English language teachers or to conduct English classes for the content lecturers. Carole raised a very relevant point when she said teacher training has to be progressive and monitored, not a one off training session.  Discussions among the participants suggested that one of the major concerns, was the attendance and commitment of lecturers attending English courses. I like Mr Tan’s suggestion to maybe include English courses in the promotion criteria. Management can also pre-decide that out of the 10 days of training in a year, at least 2 days must consist of English courses. This is an important session and i wish there were more time allocated for this session.

By : Marina Abu Bakar

WEEK 2

Day Six- 1.12.2014

Session : Observing Good Practices (video)

The morning session on Day 6 started with Mr. Simon’s greetings. An almost perfect example of teaching and learning video clip was shown to us. We were asked to use the checklist which was provided on Day 1 in order to see and trace if the teaching in the video consisted each element of an ideal teaching and learning process in the classroom. We found that the aim of the lesson was stated clearly by the teacher at the beginning of the lesson. The teacher religiously tapped on students’ previous knowledge (i.e., topics learned in the previous lesson) to see students’ readiness in learning the topic of the day which was on Global Warming.

Group work was one of the strategies used by the teacher to maximise students’ participation in discussion among peers. Identification of meaning of certain words (popular words in relation to global warming) was implemented by asking students to use the dictionary independently and then, teach their peers. This promotes autonomous learning and the teacher should be commended for these strategies. In fact, research has shown that teaching others is the best strategy for learning as it enhances memory retention.

Along with the group discussion, teacher facilitation was also good throughout the lesson where the teacher prompted learners more frequently by eliciting their responses. Overall, the lesson was very well planned and we believe that the targeted objectives were achieved undoubtedly. 

REFLECTION:

It was indeed very beneficial for everyone to get to see how a successful teaching is carried out in classroom. This valuable input served a good source of example for us to set a standard and plan our lesson delivery effectively to achieve maximum target. The appropriate strategies used in this lesson can be adopted into our own teaching and learning session as it promotes learner autonomy where students are taught to be more independent and responsible of their learning.

By : Radika Subramaniam

Session 2.1: Quality Assurance & the Learner Voice with Angela Edwards, Head of Quality, WKC

This session focused on issues pertaining to self-assessment and quality improvement planning. It was indeed good to follow t his session as it enlightened us on the importance of sustaining quality work especially in teaching and learning. Various inspectors ranging from ofsted to Quality Assurance Agency play significant role in maintaining the quality of teaching and learning in the UK classrooms. Agencies which award the recognition of quality education vary according to the level of education. Some of the awarding bodies mentioned in the talk are Pearson, City and Guilds, AQA, OCR and OCN. The focus of monitoring and evaluation is more on how students have benefited from the teaching. This is similar to what Malaysian academic institutions are practising where the Malaysian Qualification Accreditation (MQA) stands as a statutory body to accredit academic programs provided by educational institutions.

One of the most interesting parts of the talk is when Ms. Angela shared about the QUAL4T project. It is a project which involves three major outcomes (i.e., a website, teacher guide and toolkit for teachers and quality staff). In this project, there are seven European partners who work to achieve the aims to provide teachers and trainers with materials to improve quality in education. The outcomes of the project can be used in all sectors ranging from EQF-levels snd curriculum areas of vocational education and training.

The seven European partners are such as follows:
1. Landstede Group (Netherlands)
2. Politeknika Ikastegia Txorierri (Northern Spain)
3. Westminster Kingsway College (UK)
4. Stitching ECABO (Netherlands)
5. Universitat Wurzburg (Germany)
6. CIOFCS – Formazione Professionale (Italy)
7. IDEC S.A (Greece)

More details about this project as well as comprehensive documents which can be used to evaluate one’s own teaching and making necessary continuous quality improvement can be obtained in the following website: www.qual4t-project.org

Some sample toolkit which has been downloaded from the website is such as below:

Reflection:
This session was a beneficial one as we found that the function of the toolkit and practical guide for improving the quality of education is simply amazing. This can also be used in Malaysian classrooms by the teacher and observer as a guideline to ensure that teaching takes place effectively by taking into consideration the quality improvement. Apart from that, various practical exercises (in the form of games) which are suggested in the toolkit can also be used to check students’ understanding of certain topics. This is a good resource which can be obtained from the website without any hassle. Hence, it should be explored and made use by every teacher as a move towards quality education. 

By : Radika Subramaniam

Session 2.2 : Workshop - The Practical Application of Digital Literacy with Gavin Dudeney, Director of Technology, The Consultants-E Ltd.

The second session of the day was on Digital Literacy – A Theoretical Overview presented by a renowned IT guru, Gavin Dudeney. The session exposed us on several useful websites to be used in creating interesting teaching materials to be used in the classroom. The websites that were introduced to us served different purposes namely;
1) Working with Images (http://www.photofunia.com)
2) Working with video (http://www.lessonstream.org and http://www.film-English.com) 
3) Working with Words (http://www.wordle.net)
4) Working with audio (http://www.podomatic.com)
5) Working with dialogue (http://www.difilm.com)
6) Working with presentation (http://www.voicethread.com)

Mr Dudeney did not only expose us to those websites but interestingly he demonstrated on how each website works. We were guided on how to use the websites right from A to Z and the explanation given was very clear. Undoubtedly, Mr Dudeney’s presentation was well organized and amazingly interesting. Besides, he also shared a few interesting activities that can be conducted with each materials prepared using the above mentioned websites.

Personally, I am impressed with how Mr. Dudeney uses technology in enhancing the effectiveness of the teaching and learning English in the classroom. His presentation has changed our view on how we see a language classroom before and most importantly, it also opens doors for us to bring new approaches to the teaching of English. The question is; are we ready to bring these technologies into our English classroom and face all the challenges that they might impose on us? 

I believe that, this is the time for all English teachers to take the initiative to paint new colours to the English classroom by allowing technologies to play roles in the teaching and learning process. We definitely do not want our students to learn English the same way as we did. Thus, technologies will be able to help our teaching process become more effective and interesting. As a result, it is hoped that it will motivate our students to be more engaged in learning English!

Furthermore, by bringing technologies into English classroom also giving signals to our students that they have many ways to learn English independently. Nowadays, they do not necessarily rely on the teachers to get input but they can explore the world of learning English at any time and place. The teachers are there to guide them along the way. In other words, technologies allow autonomous learning to take place.

In conclusion, it only takes a small step with a big courage and determination to start something new that might mean the world to our students. It is our responsibility as teachers to create interesting and effective teaching and learning environment so that the students are able to find the hidden enjoyment of learning Elish! So, teachers..let’s begin...

By: Noorasmawati Shafee

Day Seven- 2.12.2014

Session 2.3 & 2.4 : Introducing the Coaching Model & Applying Coaching Conversation with Julie Sinclair


Today's session talks about how coaching should be carried out at work. There are a number of benefits of coaching sessions as shown below.

A MODEL FOR COACHING: GROW

GOALS – What you agree the action to be (it could be either from you or from the person you’re coaching)

REALITY –where are you know and what you have done to get there

OPTIONS – all the different ways to reach the new goal

WAY FORWARD – ensure they actually do something (otherwise you would be wasting your time and money)

Below are the questions that can be used in each stage of GROW (Goals, Reality, Options and Way Forward):

How was the session conducted?

Firstly, Julie came early to the classroom to make sure that the teaching aids in the class (ie. computer, projector) were working. Before the students arrived, she even rearranged the chairs in the class to form groups of four and placed notes at each place. She was very systematic and organized!

For set induction, Julie got the participants to talk about the topic from their experience. She did not ask them to talk generally about ‘coaching’. Rather she gave a few questions to direct the discussion. For example, “ What does this mean to you?”, “Is it something you have used in your teaching career?” and “What might be the benefits of having support tool for teachers?” This is good for activating participants’ prior knowledge and provided a platform for focused discussion.

Next, Julie showed a video. It was accompanied by a focused listening task. As it was a little difficult for the participants to fill in all the answers (the video was fast-paced), Julie allowed the participants to discuss with their group members to get answers that they have missed. This discussion strategy is excellent for teachers if the authentic material that they are using is difficult.

Following that, students had to categorise example of questions according to the four elements in GROW. This activity is good as the participants were actively involved in the learning process as opposed to passively reading notes. Julie provided the right answers in a print out after that. This is also good because it saved time – Julie did not need to spend much time discussing the answers.

Next, in groups, participants listed down the dos and don’ts for each area. After that, two were elected as experts of the topic and the other two played the role of travelling members. The travelling members visited another group to learn new points about the topics. The expert members stayed back to explain the points to other visiting members. After five minutes, all the travelling members went back to their own groups and shared with their own group what they have learned.  

DO’s and Don’ts for an effective coaching session in the following areas:

1. Background and groundwork

Dos	Don’ts
Learn the person’s profile from reliable records	Don’t believe in rumours/gossip

2. Location for the conversation

Dos	Don’ts
Options: Formal- at the office Informal –cafeteria, out of office hours Let the coachee have a say	Do not have it at crowded/busy/noisy/public places because it might affect confidentiality

3. Establishing the session goal

Dos	Don’ts
- Build a rapport -What would you like to take away from this session?	Don’t dictate goals

4. Getting into the frame of mind for coaching

Dos	Don’ts
Pre & post observation Arrange meeting time Look at it as a constructive development	Don’t be judgmental (coach) or defensive (coachee)

In the next part, participants wrote problems that they have experienced in the class to be used in a role play of coaching sessions. The participants took turns to play the role of the ‘facilitator’ and ‘teacher seeking counsel’ and ‘observers’ using the problems they have listed. They used a dice to decide which problem to address. This activity was excellent because it provided an opportunity for participants to practice playing the role of a coach. Additionally, the participants themselves could provide feedback on their group member’s performance. This strategy is good because Julie had limited time to monitor each group. Therefore, giving participants the chance to provide feedback themselves would ensure that everyone’s role play was given feedback.

Reflection

There was so much to learn from this lesson. Not only from the way the class was conducted but also from Julie’s input. I realized how little did she talk. All the activities involved students doing something (i.e. discussing, presenting, and filling in worksheet) and teacher talk was kept at a bare minimum. It was a very student-centred lesson.

Additionally, I learned that coaching should not be viewed as a process of telling someone else what to do. Rather the role of a coach is to be a facilitator, and not as an expert. Therefore the coach should guide the teachers and foster co-ownership, both to build teacher’s autonomy and confidence as well as to protect the coach. Ideally, through the coaching session, the coach would be able to prompt ideas from the teacher. Only as a last resort, the coach may provide his/her opinions.

Apart from that, Julie believes that a coach should half of their contact hours teaching and another half coaching. Here in WKC, a coach has minimal teaching hours.   

By:
Anita & Azmira

Day Eight - 3.12.2014

Session 2.6 - Question Time - Ask the Trainers

For today’s class, we had a plenary session called “Burning Questions” with our trainers and fellow teachers Katerina Ashiotis, Peter Demetriou and Marian Loughran. We were asked by Simon Goodier to post “burning” questions related to teaching and learning on an online “question wall”. A total of 13 questions were posed on the “question wall” and below is a list of the said questions:

1. How do we make sure the quality of teaching/training that we give is actually at the same level of standard with what is expected by the content teachers or the employers out there?
2. How do I apply differentiation in a class of more than 40 students?
3. How do we motivate students who refuse to participate and talk in class?
4. What are the best approaches to teach a class of more than 50 students?
5. When is it suitable to apply drilling?
6. Is mobile learning used in WESTMINSTER KINGSWAY COLLEGE? How does the teachers monitor mobile learning?
7. Do you give online assessment to your students?  If you do, how do you do it?
8. Do you apply blended learning where you have certain number of hours teaching in the classroom and the rest you do the teaching online?
9. How do we monitor the progress of this program after this?
10. What are the challenges you faced implementing this methodology in WESTMINSTER KINGSWAY COLLEGE? And how do you measure success?
11. Should we involve learners as equal partners where they can collaborate with their teachers and schools to design more personalized and useful curricula and lessons? If yes, how do we do this?
12. Does group work help motivate weak students in a class?
13. How do we teach effectively to a large class of 30 - 40 students (sic)?

Due to time constraint, we were only able to discuss several questions; despite this, some interesting insights were exchanged and the trainers offered some useful commentaries regarding their own classroom practices. We were able to collect several of these insights to be shared with readers of this blog.

Should we involve learners as equal partners where they can collaborate with their teachers and schools to design more personalized and useful curricula and lessons? Collaboration is very useful in finding out what useful things that learners need; however, care should be taken so that the teacher is still in control of lessons and the class works together towards a common outcome. Both teacher and learners should also be aware of the various roles played by external stakeholders in providing education to the said learners and thus the teacher needs to find the correct balance between meeting learners’ personal needs and those of different external stakeholders. In contrast to Malaysian student bodies, local student bodies play more active roles in their respective institutions

How do we teach effectively to a large class of 30 - 40 students (sic)? It was revealed that most participants do teach several classes with large number of students, some more challenging than the others as some participants have very limited amount of contact hours with their students. There are no easy answers to this as no two situations are different. One, can however agree that a teacher can effectively utilize certain techniques available to him/her such as using task differentiation as well as creative class arrangement to meet needs of all learners.

Do you give online assessment to your students? Surprisingly, Westminster Kingsway College does not do that although they do have an online learning platform where teachers can engage students with extended learning activities. While polytechnics have already embraced similar approach to extended learning, community and vocational colleges have yet to do so and it may be something that both institutions can consider in near future.

Apart from the discussion above, we also talked about how we can create environments similar to that of London’s in order to create or simulate total immersion of our Malaysian learners. While it is true that it might prove harder to get our learners to use English in their daily lives due to certain circumstances, teachers can still get around this difficulty by using authentic materials and creating purposeful activities to maximize students’ chances of using English in the most authentic manner. Another interesting thing that came up during our discussion is how we can also make assessments more meaningful and whether we should use assessment as a mean to an end or to promote learning beyond formal lessons.

Written by:
Charles W.K. Cheng (Semporna Community College)
Mohd Fadzli Zulkeflee (Pasir Gudang Community College)

Session 2.6 - Preparation of Final Presentation

Day Nine and Ten - 4.12.2014 & 5.12.2014

Session 2.7, 2.8, 2.9 & 2.10: Final Presentation with Katerina Ashiotis

These two days were dedicated to final presentations by the sojourners. After being immersed and introduced to all sorts of new experiences, it was time to round up the programme in London.

Fourteen of the sojourners presented on Thursday whom was Marina, Tan, Dr Prasanna, Kian Bee, Aliza, Aida, Jaime, Roslan, Charles, Anita, Kala, Gurmin, Azmir and Asmawati. On Friday, six more presented and they were Radika, Fadzli, Alfred, Mira, Roza and Ros.
The power point slides of their presentations are available here.

We observed that the trainees gained valuable experiences in London and were able to share them using a variety of interesting approaches. Each of them had a different take on their experiences. They also approached the assignment question differently.  The session ended with Katerina reviewing their presentations. We like the manner Katarina deals with the review. She asked the presenters to first talk about how the positives they felt about their presentations and then the areas which they felt could have been done better. In giving her feedback she focused on what was done well and asked the others to comment as well.

Today is also our last day in WKC and in London. I am sure all of us have mixed feelings on this last day. We have gained a lot from WKC and London. We believe that we are bringing back a plethora of strategies, methods and experiences to our own institutions in Malaysia. We are sad to leave London. However at the same time, we do miss home and things back in Malaysia.

Thank you WKC for accommodating us.

By:
Tan Su Chee and Prasanna Kesavan
Ros Hana and Rozalita

REFLECTION ON PRESENTATION

Each of us was required to do a 10 minute presentation. Being teachers limiting our talking time is not easy. Looking at the 14 groups today, we all presented differently although there is only one question. We looked at the question from different perspectives, and some seemed different from what was given in the question. However, all of us did highlight the areas that were of interest to us. Majority of us seemed to have highlighted differentiation, digital literacies ,drilling and the use of the portable white board. Moreover, class observation should focus on students learning and not teacher teaching.  The challenge would be to go back and actually carrying out these changes.

BY:
Marina Abu Bakar