What if any ,courses have you done in Thailand ?
No courses but self-study.Originally Posted by pedagogue
Language and Technology for Teachers, Curriculum Development, Learning Management, Psychology for Teachers, Educational Measurement and Evaluation, Classroom Management, Educational Research, Educational Innovation and Information Technology, Teacher Professionalism.
How much do u make stamp?
An average EFL teacher salary.
Why do you want to know?
Stamp could you please tell me more about the courses you have done ?
I am passionately anti-pedagogy courses.
I taught for a decade in different universities in several countries, and my conclusion was the same: nothing beats practical, hands-on experience and an open mind.
A lot of so-called educational training courses really teach painfully obvious stuff or shove banal platitudes that have no basis in real life. One of my favorites from the TEFL world is "don't use the native language". Because teaching vocabulary is so easy to non-native speakers, especially at the lowest levels, when you don't use a bilingual dictionary.
There was a lot of stupidity bandied about during my PGCHE course, and most people in the room were a mix of irritated and impatient to get through it, so they didn't really challenge anything. I kept quiet too, even after they told us not to use the word "brainstorm" because it's offensive.
The fact is--nothing will teach you how to teach in Thailand than, well, teaching in Thailand. Same goes for the U.S., the U.K., or any other country. The students are fundamentally different and while there is some crossover, there is no one strategy that works everywhere on Earth.
Likewise, students who major in English are different from students who major in chemistry. And students at good universities are different from students at bad universities. The only way to learn how to adjust your teaching to the new audience is to spend time with them, listen to them, and adjust yourself accordingly.
The way I taught in the UK is massively different from how I taught in the US, and both are surely worlds apart from how one teaches in Thailand.
Stamp, I'm curious if you could tell me specifically what (if anything) you learned in any of those courses that made you a better teacher, and why you could not learn those things from spending time in a classroom.
What I studied were articles and books as outlined below.
The level of the content above is bachelor degree in education or graduate diploma in education/ teaching profession. I studied this to be eligible for the teacher license from The Teachers' Council of Thailand.7.1 Language and Technology for Teachers
- English languages for teachers
- Information technology for teachers
7.2 Curriculum Development
- Philosophy concept and theory of education
- Historical background and system of educational management in Thailand
- Future goals and development plan of Thai Education
- Curriculum theory
- Curriculum development
- Standards and curriculum stage standards
- Institution curriculum development
- Problems and trend in curriculum development
7.3 Learning Management
- Techniques and learning theory
- Learning models and teaching-learning model development
- Learning experience design and management
- Integration of learning substance groups
- Integration of group learning
- Learning management techniques and technology
- Production and implementation of media and learning innovation
development
- Learner-centered management
- Learning evaluation
7.4 Psychology for Teachers
- Foundation of human development psychology
- Educational psychology
- Guidance and counseling psychology
7.5 Educational Measurement and Evaluation
- Principles and techniques of educational measurement and evaluation
- Production and implementation of educational measurement and
evaluation tools
- Authentic assessment
- Portfolio assessment
- Performance assessment
- Formative and summative evaluation
7.6 Classroom Management
- Management theory and principles
- Educational leadership
- Systematic thinking
- Organizational culture learning
- Organizational human relations
- Organizational communication
- Classroom management
- Educational quality assurance
- Teamwork
- Academic project performance
- Occupational training project
- Development projects and activities
- Management information systems
- Education for community development
7.7 Educational Research
- Theory, model, design and process of research
- Statistics for research
- Classroom action research
- Research training
- Research presentation
- Research study in development of learning management process
- Research process in problem-solving
- Research proposal
7.8 Educational Innovation and Information Technology
- Educational concepts, theory, technology and innovation to promote learning quality development
- Technology and Information
- Problem analysis of using technology and information innovation
- Learning sources and network
- Designing, creation, implementation, evaluation and improvement of Innovation
7.9 Teacher Professionalism
- Importance of teaching profession
- Teachers’ role, duty and workload
- Teaching profession development
- Characteristics of good teachers
- Building good attitudes towards teaching profession
- Fulfilling potential and competence in practice of teaching profession
- Being learning persons and academic leaders
- Professional teaching standards
- Professional code of ethics
- Education laws
It's very difficult to determine whether my studying made me a better teacher as I don't have proper and valid performance indicators. What I can say is that students, parents, co-teachers and administration are very satisfied with the way I try to deliver science and mathematics to students at the age of 6 to 11. On the personal side I'm more confident seeing that my students are actually learning shown by the results of discussing and tests.
I have a full-time teaching job and doing a Graduate Diploma in Education/ Teaching Profession either on-line of off-line was costly and takes loads of time. Studying on my own at my own pace was for me the best solution.
Any study is IMHO looking at things that resembles or simulate the real situation. When you step in real life it is up to you how you interpret that situation and implement improvement tailored to that real life situation. The knowledge to do that is what you learned in a classroom environment.
^^
Just bring all your teaching in Thailand questions to TOAC.
I'm an OJT type but the best seminar for me was in Mexico when a team of TESL profs came from USC and did a week with us. The theme was on methodology and eclectic awareness.
So there were about 15-20 TESL methods covered and we were paired up to give a presentation and demonstration of each of them.
What I gained from it is that teaching is indeed an eclectic endeavor. And how much of which method(s) you employ is the art of knowing the chemistry of your classroom and how that chemistry becomes new and fresh with the sounding of each period's bell during a day.
I personally have sensed myself as one who learns best when material is presented in a certain way. I can't see any reason not to believe the world is full of others with the same "deficit". The trick and the magic of teaching well is being aware of your class, and to find a way to reach as many of them you can, even if it means extra hours for you. But from what I know of this forum's community I doubt there are many ready to give extra time without extra pay.
Stamp, to be honest that just looks like a laundry list of buzz words.
I fully agree. I think some people need that training to give them a space where they can step outside of the situation, analyze it, and think about it critically. Some don't. I've been in environments where some teachers spend 4 hours preparing for a seminar and other teachers spent 10 minutes--the former were not always better than the latter. In many cases, they weren't. (I was in charge with evaluating them, which is why I had insight into their teaching.)
At the end of the day, I think teaching is really like playing a musical instrument or learning a language. Some can do it naturally, some can't. Those that can't can spend as much time learning about the theory in class--but that doesn't mean they'll ever be a virtuoso.
The foundation of an education in teaching is nothing more than a laundry list of buzzwords.
---Update---
Teaching came easy to me. So easy I got sloppy.
I thought you got sloppy on a motorcycle.
I got two teacher qualifications in my academic career: a DELTA (worthless) and a PGCHE (offensively worthless). I always got above average student evaluations and had students write letters to the Dean at my last university begging to keep me when I announced I was leaving. I do think I am a good teacher, but because I treated my students as individuals and I actually cared about my subject matter and tried to make it important to them. I was also much more honest with them--my classrooms were always a conversation amongst equals.
That probably wouldn't work in Thailand, but it worked really well with most of my students. Some hated me--and those that did hate me had a passionate rage toward me. But that's good--I'd rather get a strong reaction than apathy.
Is a powerpoint presentation on "Formative and summative evaluation" going to help me get a strong reaction from students? I doubt it.
When I think back to my own teachers and those I evaluated, I don't think there was any correlation at all with amount of training and ability. It's innate.
---Update---
One more thing--no offense to Stamp, who obviously works hard and cares a lot about being a good teacher, but I think his response is indicative of what is wrong with pedagogic theory.
I asked a simple question: can I have an example of one thing taught in this training. I didn't get an answer--I got a long, long list of buzz words. It is as if I'm being beaten over the head with information instead of being engaged as an individual with a real question.
I experienced this a LOT in seminars as an undergrad, and saw other students experience this all the time. Ask a simple question: "but why is John Milton relevant to me?" and get eye rolling and beaten over the head with the teacher's arrogance, usually with a heavy dose of jargon.
So when it was my turn to teach and I was asked this question, I gave a straight answer. "Hey, Johnny, you like heavy metal, right? Ever heard of the band Paradise Lost? Yeah, their lyrics are inspired by Milton. A lot of movies, music, t.v. shows, and books you guys like were influenced by Milton. So let's look at why..."
Apologise, Thinkingofachange. What impressed me the most and what I liked to know much more about was educational psychology and learning management. Studying on how learners in different development stages feel, think and learn and bring it to the classroom. An example might illustrate this. When I was teaching science to G7 and G8 we discussed the dissolving of substances in water. You let them experiment themselves supported by the theory of molecules, atoms, solutions and suspensions. I also teach this topic to G3 students! Also here you let them do experiments but how do you explain what is really happening with water + sugar or water + sand. Knowing about developmental and educational psychology you know that they are too young to comprehend molecules and atoms. So, what did I do? Went to the kindergarten department and got myself a basket of coloured lego blocks and used the blocks to build two structures from different colours to illustrate water and sugar. I illustrate the dissolving/ solution by taking the two structures apart and built one structure consisting of all colours. The rest of the lesson you obviously know.
Here are some images. I blurred the students' faces to respect their privacy.
Now that's my kinda classroom!
I just don't think most people need to be taught that little kids can't easily comprehend molecules and atoms.
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