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Why do people take up teacher training in you area?
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Wed, 03/11/2009 - 21:50
Hi all,
Why do people take up teacher training?
What are their expectations?
Do they take up the carreer because they love teaching or because they love English?
Mon, 03/16/2009 - 21:42
#2
Hi Albert and Pilar,
I used to run a short professional development course for ELT teachers who wanted to teach EAP - I say 'used to' because the management at my university have just decided to close it, although it is a rather popular course.
However, to answer your question, my two colleagues and I started this course because we had just developed some distance learning materials, using a corpus of university first year texts, and we thought we had gained some new insights into what EAP teaching involved which we wanted to talk to other people about.
The course has been one of the best places for us to develop ourselves professionally. The participants bring all kinds of interesting problems from their own contexts which we can discuss with them and it has sharpened our own understanding of what we are doing and also given us confidence.
So I think it is more than just about needing a job although that is pretty important too.
Olwyn
Tue, 03/17/2009 - 03:31
#3
Hi Olwyn,
You are right, but I think we should make something clear: one thing is teacher training and another big issue is teacher development, teacher development is what comes after you are a teacher and as you said it is very important to make trainees aware of the importance of ongoing development . Needing a job is important , doing what you feel you are born for , loving what you do , passing the passion on others and being paid for it is some privilege we should be grateful for. Don´t you think?
Mon, 03/16/2009 - 22:08
#4
Hi Marya, Albert and all
I agree with Olwyn that mostly teachers take training courses to develop professionally as well as trainers delivering them. My little teacher training experience shows that EFL teachers in my country always put among their expectations learning something new and raising their awareness of the latest innovations in teaching English. Most of them see trainings as a good chance to communicate with other teachers and enhance their English both spoken and written as our L1 is quite different from English. Generally, our trainees are higly enthusiastic of various teacher training workshops and courses. This is proved by the results of the research done within National ESP Curriculum Project and Baseline Study, in particular.
Is situation the same in the other countries?
Tue, 03/17/2009 - 03:43
#5
Hi Zira,
Generally speaking, graduates are very eager to take up training, here we have two kinds of teacher training courses: the ones that are free and the ones that are paid, teachers have to choose between taking up courses that are English language teaching oriented- these are free- or courses that are for teachers of all subjects-these are the ones they have to pay- The issue is that in order to get a job as a teacher you have to certify that you have passed the courses and it is easier for teachers to pay for these "courses based on generalities" rather than take up the courses that are teaching-specific, teachers get an scoring for the courses they take and money makes the proceedings faster. Luckily, new regulations are turning the scales in favour of free-specific courses,yet, it is hard to change all teachers´ minds about this.
Tue, 03/17/2009 - 03:23
#6
Hi Albert,
Here, there are two main reasons why: one is because they like the language, and the other is because they like teaching English and they see the carreer as a promising future, sometimes the first group come to like teaching and they become really good teachers or, in other cases, they opt for a carreer change when difficulties arise; as for the second group, they generally are more tenacious and do all that is required in order to become teachers.
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 08:26
#7
Hello to all
I ll just quote Socrates
1. The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance
2. I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance
Natasha
Tue, 03/24/2009 - 15:01
#8
Natasha
Do we need to learn a lesson from Socrates?
Albert
Tue, 03/24/2009 - 15:01
#9
Natasha
Do we need to learn a lesson from Socrates?
Albert
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 08:43
#10
Dear Maria
I took up teaching because I love English but then again my obvious reason for opting out of translating jobs being
predominant in my career is because I love people, communicating, and most of all transferring knowledge of what I
have always excelled at
But some would pursue professional development because:
- it is required and imposed by the Minitries od Edu,
- for networking purposes
- pure ambition and career-mindedness
/we should try and think how to take the sting out of this choice of words/
- the fact that we live in a competitive world so it would be good thing for your CV
/ which is a bit offputting comment though/
- we live in the world of rapid change so it keeps you on your toes
Natasha
Tue, 03/24/2009 - 14:57
#11
Dear Natasha and others
I became an English language teacher for these reasons:
1. I love English.
2. I enjoy interacting with others.
3. It is a wonderful opportunity for me to share my experience with others.
4. As an ELT writer I need to be in touch with the reality (classroom environment)
Albert
Hi Pilar
Why do people take up teacher training? It is a very interesting question.
There are a number of reasons for taking up training but the most important one is that they need a job. We cannot say that all teacher trainees love teaching or love English.
What about trainees in your region?
Albert