Raising awareness of our own beliefs about what teaching and learning are could be a good starting point for a Mentoring training course. How does my long experience as a student influences my judgements of what good teaching is? How does this influence my role as a Mentor or Supervisor.

1. 1 - Unpacking:
Beliefs about Teaching and
Learning
Prepared by: Ana María Hurtado M. for BE

2. Aim: Exploring my ideas and beliefs about
teaching and learning

3. Typical Teacher I Have
Had

4. Typical Teacher I Have Had
spoonfeeder

5. Exploration of my own
beliefs
1. What is learning?
2. What is teaching?
3. What makes a good teacher?
Task break 1_
Drawing of my classroom at school

6. Transmission Approach vs. Constructivist Approach
From Behaviourism to Cognitive Learning

7. Vygotsky’s ZPD
Zone of Proximal Development

8. Six elements of constructivist
learning model in ELT
1. Situation
2. Groupings
3. Bridge
4. Questions
5. Exhibit
6. Reflection

9. Constructivism and Language
Teaching and Learning
1. about constructing knowledge, not receiving it
2. about thinking and analyzing, not accumulating memorizing
3. about understanding and applying, not repeating back
4. being active, not passive. (Marlowe & Page, 2005)

10. What type of teacher
do I want to be?

11. What type of teacher
do I want to be?

13. Task Break
Drawing of my ideal classroom
What is the type of teacher I want to be?

14. Type of Teacher I Want to Be
A learning-centered classroom:
• Focuses on finding solutions
to real-world problems.
• Is about what the students are
doing and what the students
can do in the future.
• There are multiple ways to
accomplish an individual task.
• A partnership and a strong
level of trust between
educators and students.

15. Am I aware of my Apprenticeship of Observation?
• 12-20 years in classrooms
watching teachers teach
• A repertoire of teaching
strategies with which we felt
comfortable as students
• Assumptions about how
students learn based on our
own learning styles and
strategies
• A bias toward certain types of
instructional materials with
which we became familiar as
students
• Asymmetrical, since we
formulate a conception of
teaching based on perceptions
as students, not as teachers

16. A Blessing & A Curse
• Enables teachers to
function immediately in
the classroom
• This imprint may be
difficult to overcome
• Forms the basis for how
teachers carry out their
classroom practices
• Because the basis is
imitation rather than
understanding, they often
follow unchallenged
common sense principles

17. Few teachers have direct experiences in
learner-centered classrooms

18. Tension: Approaches to Teaching
Teacher Centred
1. Focus on teacher
2. Focus on what T thinks is
important about
language.
3. Teacher talks; students
listen
4. Students work alone
5. Teacher monitors and
corrects every student
utterance
Learner Centred
1. Focus on students and T
2. Focus is on how students
will use the language
3. Instructor models; students
interact with instructor and
one another
4. Students work in pairs, in
groups, or alone depending on
the purpose of the activity
5. Students talk without
constant instructor monitoring.

19. Approaches to teaching
Teacher Centred
1. Teacher answers
students’ questions
2. Teacher chooses
topics
3. Teacher evaluates
4. Classroom is quiet
Learner Centred
1. Students answer each
other’s questions. T is
one information source
2. Students have some
choice of topics
3. Students evaluate their
own learning, teacher
also evaluates
4. Classroom is often noisy
and busy

20. Developmental Stages
Teachers move through developmental stages
focus on self ->
teaching task ->
student learning

21. “Apprenticeship of Learning”
Diagram (A. Sheehan)
Mapping the route of your ideas and beliefs:
Key influences:
Miss Laura: Miss Cecilia: Pop band Puzzled
- Strict - Strict & warm Drama group Political
- Frightening Miss Dora: Friends awareness
- empowering Self-discipline
Autonomy
Pre-
school
Primary Secondary University

22. Task Break: Draw your
own apprenticeship of
learning diagram

23. Self-reflection: Can you identify important
stages in your development as a teacher?

24. Task break: What were your
best development
experiences?

25. What was it all about today?
• How is all this linked to
becoming a Mentor?
• What was the most
meaningful? Most useful?

26. Credits
• Based on: Karen E. Johnson’s ppt
Penn State University, January, 2007
• Diagram of “Apprenticeship of Learning” by Andrew Sheehan, Mentor
Training Course 2005
• Malderez, Angi & Bodoczky, Caroline (1999), Mentor Courses, CUP
• http://constructivisminelt.wikispaces.com/Constructivism+and
+language+teaching
• Head, Katie & Taylor, Pauline (1997), Readings in Teacher
Development, Macmillan