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

1. Are we preparing
teachers to meet the
education needs of the
21st century? (And
does anyone care?)
Mark Levy
GRETA conference 2014
www.britishcouncil.org 1

2. http://jakubmarian.com
www.britishcouncil.org 2

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

4. 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
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.
http://gr2014.eu/sites/default/files/142692_2.pdf
www.britishcouncil.org

5. Are we preparing
teachers to meet the
education needs of the
21st century? (And
does anyone care?)
Mark Levy
GRETA conference 2014
www.britishcouncil.org 5

6. “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
www.britishcouncil.org
This made me laugh …

7. 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?
www.britishcouncil.org 7

8. What do teachers need from training?
“WHAT to teach”
“HOW to teach”
www.britishcouncil.org 8

9. “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
www.britishcouncil.org 9

10. 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)
www.britishcouncil.org 10

11. 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.
www.britishcouncil.org

12. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) http://www.p21.org/
www.britishcouncil.org 12

13. 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
www.britishcouncil.org 13

14. 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.
www.britishcouncil.org 14

15. 21st century skills: Digital Literacies
(from Digital Literacies:, Dudeney, Hockley & Pegrum. Pearson 2013)
www.britishcouncil.org 15

16. 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/
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17. “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.org 17

18. www.britishcouncil.org
18
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)

19. Classroom & behaviour management
Relationships, classroom geography,
rules, discipline, lesson structure,
instructions, voice, pace, routines …
variety
www.britishcouncil.org 19

20. www.britishcouncil.org 20

21. 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)
www.britishcouncil.org 21

22. 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
www.britishcouncil.org 22

23. 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?
www.britishcouncil.org 23

24. 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
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25. Insanity is ..
www.britishcouncil.org 25

26. But not everything is about training ….
Every kid needs a champion
We’re educators.
We were born to make a difference!
Rita Pierson
www.britishcouncil.org 26

27. Stay in touch
mark.levy@britishcouncil.es
Twitter: @MarkLev99
www.britishcouncil.es
Twitter: @esBritish
Facebook: British Council España
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