Post by Category : Schools

The pedagogy of hope in times of crises  0

 November 3, 2023  
Photo: Akil Mazumber. on Pexels

Last week I visited Germany for my study around the climate crisis and the issue of hope. One German student said: Can’t we as teachers just tell students to become vegetarians to save the planet? 

What do you think, would it be a solution, or wise, to tell students what to eat, drink, vote, do or think in order to bring about change? I mean, shouldn’t we do  something as we know that studies about the effects of climate change on young people reveal that pessimism, guilt, hopelessness and fear are common in the new generation?

 

Bringing about change in times of the many present day crises with all the doom stories and anxiety is an interesting, yet challenging research topic. Interestingly,  precisely in the midst of complex crises, those who provide education have a crucial role: to make the new generation appear to the world as powerful and innovative (Arendt, 1958). To not reinforce fear or impose what to do or think, but have the new generation discover from hope that a different future is possible and that even a crisis includes profound problems-though complex and intractable- for which solutions can be found. A focus on hope is key!

 

Hope as a construct has received attention from many different angles, such as psychology, theology, philosophy and recently even famous primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall (2021). Yet, although many authors endorse the need and importance of hope, to date there has been little innovation in the ways in which hope can have a practical impact and lead to change, let alone in education. In my research project, hope has been incorporated into a pedagogy of hope. It holds several powerful design principles for a pedagogy of hope stemming from pilots in teacher education institutes in both the Netherlands and Germany and is now tested in the context of the climate crisis. Around this climate crisis, pre-service teachers are known to feel very committed to teaching the topic, but at the same time concerned and anxious about the climate themselves and ignorant in how to provide hopeful and effective teaching about the climate crisis in their secondary school internship classes (Bean, 2016).

 

The pedagogy of hope was implemented in a Dutch and German teacher education institute. The preliminary outcomes show that participants were able to formulate specific intentions that are both directed toward hope for the climate as well as easy to implement in their actual teaching in secondary education. Also, many intentions show to be action-oriented and participants often used their creativity to find non-traditional ways of conveying climate hope. We also found hindrances for teaching hopefully, such as not enough time, curriculum coverage and a lacking attention in textbooks for climate change and climate hope. Also, the different opinions that others could have could make it a controversial issue to teach in school.

 

On to the next steps!

 

Michiel Dam, researcher at ICLON, LTA teaching fellow

Hoopvol klimaatonderwijs – Universiteit Leiden

Vijf nieuwe Teaching Fellows benoemd – Universiteit Leiden

 

References

Arendt, H. (1958). The crisis in education. In H. Arendt (Ed.), Between the past and present. (pp. 101-124). Leuven/Apeldoorn: Garant.

Bean, H. J. (2016). Pre-Service Teachers and Climate Change: A Stalemate? Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41(4).

Goodall, J. & Abrams, D. (2021). The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times. Celadon books: New York city, New York.

 Higher education, Schools, Teacher education, teachers

A disciplinary literacies perspective on subject teaching (Or: Why every teacher is not a language teacher)  0

 April 28, 2022  

As I have written here before, I am a great fan of the possibilities offered by Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Having taught multiple languages in various contexts in my time, there is something very appealing about what Kees de Bot once referred to as “The Sneaky Way” (2007: 276) of helping learners acquire a language while using it to focus on curriculum content. To those with a background in second language acquisition, it just makes so much sense!

If it makes so much sense, why is it so hard for CLIL teachers to live up to the expectations outlined in the theoretical and practical literature on CLIL? In the Dutch context, several studies have drawn attention to the apparent shortcomings of CLIL classroom practice (e.g. de Graaff et al. 2007, Koopman et al. 2014, van Kampen et al. 2017, Oattes et al. 2018) when held up against models based on theories of language pedagogy and second language acquisition. Clearly, for the teachers involved in those studies, CLIL as we understand it does not make as much sense as it does to me.

 

Every teacher a language teacher?

As a teacher educator in the World Teachers Programme, I have the privilege of working with enthusiastic and talented new teachers from a range of disciplines. While collaborating on a forthcoming publication recently, Liz Dale and I noted that the student teachers we each work with are most receptive to the idea of CLIL when we approach it in a way that leaves space for their disciplinary identity (Dale et al., 2018). Rather than preaching the adage “every teacher is a language teacher” and asking students of biology, history or computer science to conform to the ideals that title implies, I find it more helpful to ask students to consider the roles of language and communication as integral aspects of their existing expertise in their subject. “Every discipline has its own ways of thinking, behaving and communicating” seems a more constructive approach that does justice to teachers’ real areas of expertise. As a teacher educator, it is not my job to turn all teachers into language teachers, but to help them recognise and make salient to learners (Ball et al., 2015) the language and culture of their subject in ways appropriate to their age and level of readiness (see Coyle & Meyer’s (2021) Lego model for an illustration).

 

A new perspective on perspectives

This idea that each subject has its own “culture” (Coyle, 2015) is a crucial aspect of disciplinary literacies. This is a similar view to that taken in Fred Janssen’s perspective-oriented education, which takes as its basis the idea that different disciplines view phenomena through different lenses. What disciplinary literacies adds to the discussion, however, is the idea that different perspectives are communicated in different ways and through different means (or ‘text types’). A social scientist is likely to use different sources and produce different types of output than a mathematician or an art historian, and will therefore need support from a teacher who is an expert in the genres of their subject. This applies in foreign-language CLIL settings, but also in mainstream settings: after all, who speaks ‘Geography’ or ‘Physics’ as their home language?

 

So what about the language teacher?

Does this mean that language teachers have to relinquish their dream of teaching language “The Sneaky Way”? I think not. In fact, I would argue that a disciplinary literacies approach finally offers language teachers the opportunity to realise that dream within their own subject. Language teachers are experts in content areas such as literature, linguistics, culture and intercultural communication (Meesterschapsteam mvt, 2022). Rethinking language curricula around content such as these would reposition language subjects as disciplines in their own right, with their own perspectives and disciplinary literacies (see also an earlier post on this).

 

Next steps

Having established that teachers are well-equipped to support development of disciplinary literacies from their own subject perspectives without compromising their disciplinary identity, the question remains as to how best to support them in finding the best ways to do so. Do you have ideas for how to approach this or are you interested in carrying out research? Get in touch with your ideas via t.l.mearns@iclon.leidenuniv.nl.

 

And… Join us at World CLIL 2022!

Want to connect with colleagues in the international CLIL community? On 7-8 July this year, ICLON will team up with Nuffic to host the World CLIL conference in the Hague. We promise a packed programme with a wide range of workshops on location and over a hundred presentations and symposia available to both on-location and online participants. Registration is open until the 15th of June, but why wait? See www.worldclil.com for more information.

 

References

Ball, P., Kelly, K., & Clegg, J. (2015). Putting CLIL into Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

de Bot, K., 2007. Language Teaching in a Changing World. The Modern Language Journal, 91(2), pp. 274-276.

 

Coyle, D. (2015). Strengthening integrated learning: Towards a new era for pluriliteracies and intercultural learning. Latin American Journal of Content and Language Integrated Learning, 8(2), 84-103, doi:10.5294/laclil.2015.8.2.2

 

Coyle, D., & Meyer, O. (2021). Beyond CLIL: Pluriliteracies Teaching for Deeper Learning. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.

 

Dale, L., Oostdam, R., & Verspoor, M. (2018). Searching for identity and focus: towards an analytical framework for language teachers in bilingual education. Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 21(3), 366-383 DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2017.1383351

 

de Graaff, R., Koopman, G. J., Anikina, Y., & Westhoff, G. (2007). An Observation Tool for Effective L2 Pedagogy in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 10(5), 603-624. doi:10.2167/beb462.0

 

van Kampen, E., Meirink, J., Admiraal, W., & Berry, A. (2017). Do we all share the same goals for content and language integrated learning (CLIL)? Specialist and practitioner perceptions of ‘ideal’ CLIL pedagogies in the Netherlands. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Online first. doi:10.1080/13670050.2017.1411332

 

Koopman, G. J., Skeet, J., & de Graaff, R. (2014). Exploring content teachers’ knowledge of language pedagogy: a report on a small-scale research project in a Dutch CLIL context. The Language Learning Journal, 42(2), 123-136. doi:10.1080/09571736.2014.889974

 

Meesterschapsteam mvt (2022). Visie op de toekomst van het curriculum Moderne Vreemde Talen. Accessible via https://modernevreemdetalen.vakdidactiekgw.nl/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2022/04/Basistekst-visie-4.4.pdf

 

Oattes, H., Oostdam, R., De Graaff, R., Fukkink, R., & Wilschut, A. (2018). Content and Language Integrated Learning in Dutch bilingual education. How Dutch history teachers focus on second language teaching. Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(2), 156-176. doi:10.1075/dujal.18003.oat

 Schools, Teacher education, teachers, Uncategorized

Teaching and learning from home – what we have learned from pre-COVID-19 times  0

 May 9, 2020  

 

The last two decades have been characterized by extensive growth in the use of technology in education, such as the application of virtual learning environments, simulation software, games and gamification, virtual experiments, visualization of complex models as well as tools that enable students and teachers to communicate and collaborate through email, electronic forums, and instant-messaging systems. Due to the measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 schools around the world radically changed to teaching and learning at a distance. What can we learn from 20 years of research on technology-enhanced teaching? Are we exploring new practices or just consolidating our insights into teaching and learning? I present ten implications for distance teaching from home, based on a large body of knowledge on technology-enhanced teaching from pre-COVID-19 times.

 

 

Explore new territories instead of consolidating land

Despite extensive growth in the use of technology in education, innovations in teaching with technology have entered the school sporadically: many teachers use the technology to do what they always have done and choose those activities that will help them accommodate their own perspectives on teaching and learning.

  • Transform distance teaching by exploring new pedagogies instead of transferring pedagogies from pre-COVID-19 times.

 

Focus on the learner, not on teaching

Students differ in their learning needs, preferences and motivation. Yet schools should provide a place for all students no matter their social, cultural, economic, language, and ability background. It is important to understand students’ needs for autonomy and support to align teaching with what students need.

  • Mentor student learning, instead of transferring knowledge online.

 

Share control of learning activities with students

In online learning, with too much learner control, many students feel lost and do not know how to regulate their own learning path; with too much teacher control, many students are not motivated to their do work. Shared control means that students have the autonomy to decide their pace, sequencing, time allotment, practicing and reviewing within a larger framework set by the teacher.

  • The more intrinsically motivated students are, the more learner control can be established.

 

Teach students how to learn

Self-regulation appears to be a crucial aspect in online learning, but many students have difficulties with regulating their own learning activities. The development of self-regulation has not commonly been addressed. And if so, teachers are focused on how to prepare learning activities (planning and making choices) and less on self-regulation during and after learning.

  • Teach and provide feedback on how students can monitor, review and redirect their own learning processes.

 

Insert reflection

Adaptive software has been regularly used to support students in practicing with, for example, language and math skills. Yet learning does not happen so much through the extensive practice, but because students compare and refine information, and surface, criticize, restructure and test intuitive understanding. Students give ‘meaning’ to what they learn. In other words:

  • Encourage students’ reflection on what they have done and achieved.

 

Strengthen active learning

Students should actively construct knowledge by integrating new information and experiences into what they have previously come to understand, revising and reinterpreting old knowledge in order to reconcile it with the new.

  • Acknowledge distance teaching as means of knowledge construction and discovery, rather than as means of passive acceptance of knowledge transfer.

 

Situate learning in real-life world of students

Learning occurs only when students process new information in a meaningful way that makes sense within their own frames of reference. Interested students challenge their existing knowledge and are more likely to develop conceptual frameworks that integrate prior knowledge and new information into understanding. In distance education from home, the link with the real-life world is even more apparent.

  • Connect to students and situate learning in their real-life world

 

Encourage social interaction

Constructing meaning comes from interacting with others – teachers, peers, friend, parents, family and casual acquaintances- to explain, defend, discuss, and assess ideas and challenge, question, and comprehend the ideas of others. Social interaction is a critical component of situated learning –students become involved in a learning community that embodies certain beliefs and behaviors to be acquired.

  • Encourage social interaction to construct meaning and bind students to a learning community

 

Constructively align teaching, assessment, materials and tools

Teaching, learning activities, assessments, materials and tools should be constructively aligned to reach the learning goals that are set. The more these are aligned, the more students target their learning activities to reach the learning goals.

  • Teaching, materials and tools should be aligned to support targeted learning activities of students.

 

Share with colleagues

Many evaluations of technology-enhanced teaching in school show that the more interventions are school-wide approaches, the more shared by teachers and the more effective these are. Students are similarly approached by all teachers and in all school subjects, which strengthens learning effects. Additionally, more effort will be put into the educational design of teaching approaches and practices.

  • Share your practices with colleagues and the more effective yours will be!

 

 ICT, Online learning, Online teaching, Schools , , ,

Op naar 40 jaar inspirerend voor de klas  0

 June 1, 2019  

Het lerarentekort in het primair en voortgezet onderwijs is dagelijks in het nieuws. Scholen sturen vertwijfeld klassen naar huis, onderwijstijd wordt ingekort en beleidsmakers zijn ten einde raad. Lerarenopleidingen worden aangespoord meer beginnende leraren af te leveren, maar mede door het imago van docentschap lukt dat maar mondjesmaat. Je hoort maar weinig over het behoud van leraren voor het beroep, en dan met name van de oudere leraar.

 

Oudere leraren
In de discussies worden oudere leraren steevast weggezet als een groep verzuurde leraren die niets meer willen en geen click meer hebben met hun leerlingen. Uit onder meer de dissertatie van Veldman (2017) naar arbeidstevredenheid van oudere leraren blijkt dat dit maar een klein deel van de waarheid is. Het directe contact met leerlingen is voor de ene leraar wel een bron van tevredenheid met het beroep, maar voor de andere leraar een reden om het aantal uren lesgeven te verminderen, een andere functie in school te ambiëren of het onderwijsberoep zelfs te verlaten.

 

Vier typen
Op basis van gegevens over hun relatie met leerlingen en arbeidstevredenheid in het algemeen onderscheidt Veldman vier typen oudere leraren (met tussen haakjes het aandeel in de gehele steekproef):
1. Positieve overschatters (43%)
2. Positieve onderschatters (36%)
3. Negatieve onderschatters (9%)
4. Negatieve realisten (12%)

 

Positieve overschatters
Positieve overschatters hebben geen reëel beeld van de kwaliteit van de relatie met hun leerlingen. Zij overschatten deze, en dan met name het creëren van een veilig en positief leerklimaat voor leerlingen. Wel zijn zij mede daardoor tevreden met hun werk, met name over de aard van het werk en de ondersteuning door het management. Zij prenten zichzelf in een goede relatie met leerlingen te hebben.

 

Positieve onderschatters

Ook positieve onderschatters hebben geen reëel beeld van de kwaliteit van de relatie met hun leerlingen. Zij onderschatten de kwaliteit van hun relatie met leerlingen, maar leerlingen waarderen de relatie wel positiever dan bij de Positieve overschatters. Dat geldt met name voor het creëren van een veilig en positief leerklimaat voor leerlingen. Mede daardoor zijn de positieve onderschatters tevreden met hun werk, met name over de aard van hun werk en de relatie met collega’s in school. Zij wapenen zich tegen mogelijk negatieve beelden van hun leerlingen.

 

Negatieve onderschatters
En ook de negatieve onderschatters hebben geen reëel beeld van de kwaliteit van de relatie met hun leerlingen. Zij onderschatten hun relatie met leerlingen, die hen vergelijkbaar waarderen als de Positieve overschatters. Verder zijn zij ontevreden over hun werk en dan met name over de aard van het werk en de werkomstandigheden. Zij leggen de schuld van hun ontevredenheid vooral bij externe factoren in school en bij de overheid.

 

Negatieve realisten
De negatieve realisten, ten slotte, vormen de enige groep leraren met een reëel beeld van de kwaliteit van de relatie met hun leerlingen. Zowel de leraren als hun leerlingen waarderen de relatie laag, terwijl de leraren ook weinig ambities hebben op het vlak van de relatie met leerlingen. Verder zijn deze leraren ontevreden over hun werk en dan met name over de aard van hun werk. Over andere zaken, zoals relatie met collega’s, werkomstandigheden en ondersteuning door het management, zijn zij tevreden. Zij hechten meer waarde aan andere aspecten van het beroep van docent dan het direct onderwijzen van leerlingen.

 

Dus…
Ongeveer 10% van de oudere leraren uit de typologie lijkt op het stereotype beeld dat wordt geschetst. Maar voor de overige 90% van de oudere leraren lijken er voldoende mogelijkheden om hen voor het beroep van leraar te behouden. Oudere leraren kunnen worden begeleid in het helder krijgen wat hen nog drijft als leraar (negatief realisten), in het formuleren van meer realistische ambities waardoor zij meer werkvreugde halen uit hun relatie met leerlingen (negatieve onderschatters) of beter gebruik maken van de kwaliteit van de relatie (positieve overschatters), en in het verkrijgen van meer zelfvertrouwen in de relatie met hun leerlingen (positieve onderschatters).

Meer ondersteuning en facilitering van oudere leraren kunnen oudere leraren helpen om de interactie met hun leerlingen te herwaarderen, een weloverwogen keuze te maken om vanuit een positieve motivatie iets anders te gaan doen dan lesgeven en (opnieuw) te motiveren voor het beroep van docent. In beleidsmaatregelen rond het reduceren van het lerarentekort zou hiervoor veel meer aandacht moeten komen.

 

Literatuur
Admiraal, W., Veldman, I., Mainhard, T., & Tartwijk, J van. (2019). A typology of veteran teachers’ job satisfaction: Their relationships with their students and the nature of their work. Social Psychology of Education, 22(2), 337-355.

Veldman, I. (2017). Stay or leave? Veteran teachers’ relationship with students and job satisfaction. Academisch proefschrift Universiteit Leiden.

 Schools, Teacher education, teachers

Research into CLIL and Bilingual Education in the Netherlands: Where do we go from here?  0

 February 18, 2019  

My first encounter with bilingual secondary education (tweetalig onderwijs, or tto) was when I moved to the Netherlands in 2009, as a young and enthusiastic language teacher. Considering my already blossoming interest in Content & Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) at that time, I felt I had hit the linguistic jackpot. It seemed like pupils in Dutch bilingual schools were being offered the ultimate language-learning opportunity and I wholeheartedly embraced the opportunity to become part of the tto community.

 

Nine years on, Rick de Graaff and I had the honour of editing the Winter 2018 edition of the Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics (DuJAL), which was dedicated to research in the field of CLIL and Bilingual Education in the Netherlands. Publication of this issue is timely considering that 2019 is the year that will not only see tto celebrate its 30th birthday, but also the year of the introduction of ‘tto 2.0’. Tto has a long-standing relationship with research which will hopefully continue into this new era.  I agree, however, with Dominik Rumlich’s comment from his ‘outsider’ perspective on the special issue that there is still much ground that can be covered. He goes into depth on a number of excellent pathways for future research, but I believe that there are even more directions we could head in.

 

So where do we go from here?

A young participant in my own research commented recently that tto is about so much more than just learning school subjects in English. In the light of the upcoming changes to bilingual education, it may also be time for research to distinguish more clearly between CLIL and other aspects of tto, such as global citizenship and personal development. Furthermore, as schools investigate approaches to teaching and learning that reposition the roles of teachers and learners (e.g. personalized learning), it might be valuable to investigate the viability of ‘traditional’ understandings of CLIL methodologies in such contexts, or whether these too need rethinking. A first step in this direction might be the investigation of whether a pluriliteracies approach as advocated by the Graz Group might suit the Dutch context, or whether a new, context-specific definition of CLIL might be more appropriate.

 

New contexts, new opportunities

Alongside developments within tto itself, bilingual education continues to spread to other areas of education, with the first research projects into bilingual primary education currently underway, and an increasing number of colleges of further education adopting a new variant of the approach. This comes amidst a fierce debate regarding the Anglicisation of higher education and a recent call for universities to follow the pedagogical examples set by tto and CLIL. These developments into different areas of education may lead to new strands of research altogether, creating room for expansion of the Dutch CLIL research community. In a different area of higher education, the Netherlands is host to a number of specialized teacher education tracks at both higher vocational and university level (for example Leiden’s own World Teachers Programme), and it seems a missed opportunity not to investigate how we can most effectively prepare new teachers for the demands that await them.

 

Breaking the CLIL monopoly

The final area that stands out for me in terms of further avenues for CLIL research relates to my own baggage: that of the young, enthusiastic language teacher who could not (and still cannot) believe her luck at falling into the lap of tto. In Anglophone countries, CLIL is often the domain of the language teacher and not of the teacher of Chemistry, History or PE. This raises the question as to whether there might be room in Dutch CLIL research for approaches to integrating content into the broader language curriculum, in order to bring the benefits of this rich approach to language learning to a broader, more inclusive audience. Belgian CLIL could be a source of inspiration for this: as illustrated during the CLIL Connect Conference in Brussels this month, a key difference between our two contexts is that CLIL in the Belgian context is not restricted to English.

 

As I enter my tenth year in the Netherlands and of my relationship with her unique bilingual education paradigm, it strikes me that Dutch research in our field – while undoubtedly impressive – really is just getting started. I, for one, am excited to see where the next ten years will take us.

 

Access the DuJAL Special Issue on CLIL and Bilingual Education via https://benjamins.com/catalog/dujal.7.2.

 

For more thoughts on the potential for more content in the Modern Foreign Languages curriculum, see the website of the Meesterschapsteam mvt at https://modernevreemdetalen.vakdidactiekgw.nl/2018/03/30/visietekst-meesterschapsteam-voor-curriculum-nu/ (in Dutch).

 Schools , , , ,

Onderwijs met ict moet anders. Het roer moet om!  1

 April 21, 2018  

Docenten geven les met tablets en smartphones zoals zij altijd al deden. Afgelopen weekend bezocht ik de jaarlijkse IADIS mobile learning conference in Lissabon (http://mlearning-conf.org/). Een kleine onderzoeksconferentie met als focus mobiele technologie die het leren en onderwijzen ondersteunt. Veel presentaties zoals ruim 10 jaar geleden: mooie ict-projecten, opgezet door onderzoekers en ontwerpers, die vooral buiten het reguliere curriculum plaatsvinden. Veel betere techniek dan 10 jaar geleden, dat wel. Draadloos internet, tablets en smartphones zijn niet meer weg te denken uit de maatschappij, de school en het klasklokaal. Maar allemaal niet als onderdeel van de reguliere lespraktijk van docenten.

Doorbraak

Dat hoopte we met het onderzoek in het kader vaan Doorbraak ICT en onderwijs te doorbreken (https://leerling2020.nl/landelijk-onderzoek). In dit project hebben docenten uit het primair en voortgezet onderwijs experimentjes uitgevoerd in hun eigen lespraktijk om met ict gepersonaliseerd leren van leerlingen te faciliteren. Resultaten van dit onderzoek heb ik op de IADIS gepresenteerd. Maar wat wil het geval: overall gezien zien we van de interventies weinig of geen effecten op de prestaties, de motivatie en zelfregulering van leerlingen in het voortgezet onderwijs. Kort door de bocht:

  1. docenten passen hun experimentjes aan het rooster, curriculum en structuur waarin zij (behoren te) functioneren en doen dus wat ze altijd al deden, maar nu met mobiele technologie en
  2. het mobiele karakter van de ingezette smartphones, tablets en laptops wordt niet benut. Geen omgevingsonderwijs; leerlingen blijven in de klas en op school, op hun vaste plek. Het boek en de reader zijn vervangen door een tablet en de digitale leeromgeving.

 

Docentprofessionalisering?

Om dit te veranderen wordt vaak geroepen dat we meer moeten investeren in de professionele ontwikkeling van docenten. Eerlijk gezegd is dat ook een belangrijke suggestie die wij in het onderzoeksrapport hebben opgenomen. Maar het is de vraag of dit gaat helpen. En valt de docent wel wat te verwijten? Docenten passen hun projecten aan aan de reguliere methode en systematiek omdat zij hierop worden aangesproken. Er moet voldoende contacttijd zijn en alle geplande leerstof moet worden behandeld. Bovendien hebben docenten beperkt tijd hebben om andere dingen te doen dan lesgeven; niet-lestijd gaat op aan voor- en nawerk, administratieve klussen en overleggen met je collega’s.

 

Het roer moet om

Willen we een doorbraak bereiken in onderwijs moet het systeem om: meer ruimte (tijd, veiligheid en kunde) om onderwijs te vernieuwen, met ict of op andere manieren. Het roer moet om. Als wij kunnen aantonen in meer dan 40 interventies met meer dan 6000 leerlingen uit ruim 30 scholen voor voortgezet onderwijs dat het overall weinig uitmaakte of en hoe docenten gepersonaliseerd leren met ict in hun onderwijs inzetten, is het tijd voor actie! En dat is niet het afschuiven op de kwaliteit van docenten. Goed gebruik van de ict die nu beschikbaar is en moderne ideeën over hoe je leerprocessen van alle leerlingen kunt ondersteunen vereisen een grotere ingreep in het systeem:

  • Weg met onderwijs in kleine schoolvakken, maar onderwijs in grotere vakdomeinen en multidisciplinaire thema’s
  • Weg met individueel lesgeven, maar team teaching om ook ruimte te geven voor experimenten en leren van elkaar
  • Weg met het roosteren van al het onderwijs in contacturen, maar ruimte voor projectonderwijs, in en buiten de school, in de maatschappij en bedrijven

 

Geef docenten en leerlingen meer ruimte om onderwijs in te richten zoals zij dat willen.

 ICT, Schools , , ,

5 Success Factors of Multilingual Universities  2

 January 15, 2015  

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As promised in our last blogpost, in this post we share our view on what makes multilingual universities a success:

1. Promote teaching and learning through multiple languages
There is sometimes a tendency to promote the idea that being a multilingual university today means adopting English as the main language of instruction and marginalising courses taught in the national language. This is not the vision of multilingualism we imagine. As mentioned in one of the responses to our previous blogpost, our concept of a multilingual university is one that supports teaching and learning in the national language and additional languages. Decisions as to which language is used in which course will depend on the needs of the students, the program goals and the University profile.

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 Higher education, Schools , ,

5 Reasons Why Monolingual Universities Will Fail  9

 December 16, 2014  

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Last November a celebration was held to laud 25 years of bilingual education in the Netherlands. A month earlier a so-called “Manifest voor het behoud van het Nederlands” was published by four Dutch university professors making a plea to stop the development of English language university programmes. This “manifest” obtained some support in the Dutch media, for example in Volkskrant writer Aleid Truijens’ piece “In het Engels haalt niemand zijn niveau”. As bilingual and international education researchers and teacher educators at Iclon, we want to share with you 5 reasons why we believe monolingual universities are doomed to fail.
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 Higher education, Schools , ,

How to improve the speaking skills of individual pupils in secondary schools in classes of 30 pupils?  2

 December 16, 2014  

presentatie

Context
In September 2014 I started as a Ph.D-candidate at Leiden University (ICLON) in the context of the Dudoc-alfa program, supervised by Prof. Dr. Jan van Driel en Dr. Ir. Fred Janssen. The main purpose of the Dudoc-Alfa program is the improvement and innovation of foreign language acquisition in secondary schools.

Focus research: speaking skills
My research focuses on feedback on speaking skills in foreign languages. Many language teachers in secondary schools have difficulty paying attention to the performance of each pupil and adjusting their feedback on each individual. What type of feedback is effective, when and how to give?

Feedback: What, when, how?
If these are questions you are also interested in, as a teacher or as a researcher, please contact me to share your ideas, opinions, advices and wishes: devrind@iclon.leidenuniv.nl

 PHD, Schools, Teacher education, teacher research 

Academic research by teachers – a huge research capital!  9

 August 18, 2014  

Like practitioners as clergy, lawyers or clinical psychologists, teachers are tightly linked to a practice which is mostly examined by outside researchers. Teachers have years of experience with working with different instructional methods, tools and formats. They are all experts in their school subject knowing which learning strategies their students apply and which misconceptions they have. And teachers have an accurate idea of the context in which they teach. With other words, teachers have developed practical wisdom about their practice, which is invaluable for research on this practice. And –last but not least- they have easy access to information about teaching and learning which is mostly unreachable for external researchers. Yet, academic research about teaching and learning is mostly done by the outside educational researchers, who do not possess these advantages. There might be two reasons why this is common practice. Firstly, educational research requires particular competencies that researchers have acquired and are absent in teachers. Secondly, outside researchers examine an extensive set of practices, which allows them to generate conclusions about these teaching practices. But aren’t these actually myths? And shouldn’t we think better of how academic research can take advantage of teachers’ experience with and access to their practice? And wouldn’t that be via research by teachers themselves?

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 Schools, Teacher education, teacher research 
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