The teacher as collaborator (with other teachers)

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 478.

The investment of time and effort required in this new teaching and learning environment implies a sharing of responsibilities and tasks among teaching staff. Collaboration with colleagues will lighten the burden and make the efforts more fruitful and rewarding. New management patterns must emerge to ensure fair distribution of workloads, and revised job descriptions will be necessary to share and coordinate the tasks in hand. The teacher as orchestrator(technology, learners, curriculum)

Teachers will need to develop fairly sophisticated management skills in order to be able to provide a healthy balance between the different elements, which make up the new learning environments. Mastery and confidence in the use of technology needs to be applied to the learning inclinations and abilities of individual learners whilst covering the prescribed syllabus or curriculum which is often set by outside authorities for teaching institutions. When the teacher is conversant with the learning styles of the students, and is able to synchronize learner styles, learning method and tools, then the symphony orchestrated and conducted by the teacher with the learners as performers will surely be timed correctly and well in tune. This is a highly sophisticated task, as the teacher needs to be able to identify with some precision the learning styles of learners, to choose from and apply with efficacy the relevant learning techniques, tasks and materials, and thus to initiate and successfully sustain the learning process, often within set frameworks which are less than ideal or conducive to collaborative learning.

The teacher as evaluator and self−evaluator.

The first evaluation task for a teacher is undoubtedly that of selecting materials, methods, and other means for the learners to work with. Furthermore, evaluation of both the learning process and the product, i.e. student level of competence acquired, calls for a radical revision of current models of evaluation like examinations.

If task-based, project oriented work in the foreign language classroom using the new media is to become the norm, or at least form an important part of activities, then models of evaluation need to be revised radically. Standard multiple-choice examinations are, for example, hardly likely to test the learners' newly acquired skills in (foreign language) web literacy. A portfolio-based approach to assessing language competence and skills acquired would seem to be a more appropriate way of recording progress in the target language. As the skills to be acquired by learners are largely identical to those to be mastered by teachers-in-training, this form of evaluation should be practiced in initial and INSET training courses, providing teachers with firsthand experience of the system and with direct relevance to their own situation. Current models of teacher education practices (Heyworth, 20039) are beginning to reflect a trend towards empowerment through introspection with self-evaluation and assessment. Teacher self-evaluation also includes self-assessment of the teacher training and development programmes they undergo, self-reflection on the impact of personal professional growth on the learners' progress, as well as on development of the teaching team. All this augurswell for the chance for teachers to succeed in their task of raising learners' awareness of learning processes and empowering them to carry out meaningful self-assessment, using their own resources.

2. Read the text again and prepare a comparative analysis of the following aspects:

· The teacher as evaluator and self−evaluator.

· The new media and the culture of learning