STUDENT TEACHER TRAINING AT MCRU1

Student Teacher Training for First, Second and Third-Year English Majors at MubanChombuengRajabhatUniversity

Bradley Opatz

EDU623.90 Designing Learning Environments

Dr. Kaiser

Student Teacher Training for First, Second and Third-Year English Majors at MubanChombuengRajabhatUniversity

Introduction

Muban Chombueng Rajabhat University (MCRU) is a bottom-tier, higher education institute in Thailand with no admission requirements, other than the completion of 12th grade. MCRU started as a teacher training college and has evolved to offer bachelor, master and doctorate degrees in a variety of fields, ranging from sciences and mathematics to the arts and humanities. The Faculty of Education includes an English Major program; graduates of the program become English teachers in Thai government schools.

Needs Analysis

English Majors are given real-world practice during two practicums during the 4th year of instruction. At this point, the students should already have the level of teaching theory they need to execute classroom language-learning lesson plans for secondary school learners. During student teaching, the students are confused aboutsynthesizing and executing lesson plans because they have never had practice putting elements of theory into practice. This results in dissatisfaction from host schools and required, remedial training for student teachers. The proposed training will give students the tools for effective classroom teaching in a real-world environment during the first three years of the program. The training consists of a blend of classroom instruction, student observation and student teaching. This would allow students to become familiar with classroom teaching from the outset while gradually increasing in complexity.

English Majors at MCRU are 18-25 years old, roughly 95% are female and all have completed 12th grade. All students are Thai citizens, of those, there is a minority population (around 7%) of Muslim students. Thai is the first language of most learners and a dialect of Malay is the first language for Muslim students. English is the second or third language for learners. The student learning style at MCRU is overwhelmingly passive and lecture-based; each class session lasts for 3.5 hours. Learning assessment consists of homework assignments, a mid-term exam and a final exam. Student knowledge in terms of teaching theory is nonexistent at the start of the first year and is gradually developed each year, although students have no practical experience. Mastery in developing and successfully executing an English language lesson is intended through student teacher training.

The primary learning environment at MCRU is the traditional classroom. Whiteboards, projectors, visualizers, laptops, the internet and speakers are available for training. Physical examples of visual aids such as interactive posters and banners can also be made available. During student observations and teaching at host schools, only whiteboards and physical, visual aids may be used in a majority of situations. A website will also be utilized to post training materials, making the training course a blended learning environment.

A list of the steps/skills in preparing a lesson plan for English Language Learners follows:

  • Determining a learning objective
  • Choosing adequate aids to enrich the lesson (flashcards, posters, realia, etc.)
  • Determining a suitable warmer to introduce and/or reinforce the lesson
  • Creating a procedure to teach the content
  • Correct modeling of content (dialogues, role play, etc.)
  • Reinforcing content through a follow-up activity (American TESOL Institute, n.d.).

All participants need to develop the above skills. However, focus on expanding the depth of each step needs to be determined based on grade level in conjunction with specific content taught during the English Major program.

Confidence in speaking English, and consequently teaching in English, is the biggest barrier found in delivering effective training at MCRU. Student-teachers must have confidence in classroom English in order to properly model pronunciation and grammar. Although most English instruction has traditionally been in Thai, correct English is paramount for English Language Learners (ELL) to mimic and master the content. Motivation to attend the training is another notable obstacle. Students are given little free time during the school week and are required to participate in ongoing, extracurricular activities; there are also many mandatory government holidays. Because a high majority of students are from surrounding areas, training during the weekends would not be ideal; Buddhist and Muslim religious holidays also need to be taken into account. A solution would be for the training to be mandatory, yet set at intervals so that students do not get overwhelmed by the content.

Media needs for the training include audio examples for modeling purposes as well as video of English teaching to emphasize specific examples. A training website for posting audio and video would also contain recordings of the training sessions themselves; students could re-watch any available sessions and keep up-to-date if a training session was missed. This would also be a platform to post videos of students role-playing and actually teaching. Given a different perspective, students could monitor and develop their own teaching style.

Student-Teacher Training Project Schedule

Student-teacher training can be expressed through the following project schedule:

  • Complete course outcomes and course objectives
  • Determine and provide rationale for the specific learning theory that will be implemented
  • Determine the structure of the lessons and divide the lessons into coherent units
  • Determine assessment/evaluation tools for the course
  • Determine the media specifications for the course content
  • Implement the training through trained facilitators
  • Evaluate student learning, course delivery, course content, subject matter experts (SMEs) and the instructional designer.

Course Outcomes and Objectives

Course outcomes for the student-teacher training are as follows:

1. Student-teachers will be knowledgeable about the Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) format of English language learning and will be able to create and execute a TEFL-style lesson.

2. Student-teachers will be able to model correct English pronunciation in the majority of the attempts made.

Course objectives for the student-teacher training include:

1. English major student-teachersshould be able to define an English language-learning lesson objective, given a real-life scenario and a specific topic with corresponding vocabulary and phrases, until a concise, correct objective is achieved.

2. English major student-teachersshould be able to identify and lead a warmer activity, given a real-life scenario with a specific topic and objective with corresponding vocabulary and phrases, until students show engagement in the activity through action.

3: English major student-teachersshould be able to present lesson content by making connections between English and Thai vocabulary, phrases and concepts, given a real-life scenario and a specific topic and objective with corresponding vocabulary and phrases, until students can demonstrate connections made between English and Thai vocabulary, phrases and concepts.

4. English major student-teachers should be able to model correct English pronunciation during an English language-learning lesson, given a real-life scenario, vocabulary words and practice sentences/phrasesfor 60% of the words and sentences attempted.

5. English major student-teachersshould be able to lead a student-student model dialogue activity in an English language-learning class, given a real-life scenario, a specific topic, corresponding vocabulary and practice dialogues, with students completing a dialogue activity, on their own, with 50% of the sentences correctly pronounced.

6. English major student-teachersshould be able to construct a lesson plan and lead an English language instruction lesson, given a real-life scenario and a specific topic and objective with corresponding vocabulary and phrases, until students demonstrate recall knowledge and correct pronunciation for 50% of the vocabulary and phrases in English.

The first five objectives are enabling objectives because they “are the supporting behaviors that, when grouped together; build the path to a terminal objective” (Hodell, 2011 p.88). Hodell (2011) describes terminal objectives as the “exit competencies expected of a learner” (p.87). For this training, the terminal objective includes creating an English language-learning lesson plan with the correct elements; successful completion of the given enabling objectives helps the student-teacher in realizing the terminal objective. The first, second, third and fifth objectives are within the cognitive domain, wherein processing data occurs (Hodell, 2011 p.93). Student-teachers need to have the knowledge to be able to define an acceptable lesson objective and warmer activity, present the lesson content and successfully execute a student-to-student model dialogue with secondary school learners. The fourth objective lies with in the psychomotor domain because it involves ‘doing’, which in this case is correctly pronouncing words and sentences in English (Writing Learning Objectives, n.d.). The terminal objective is a mix of cognitive and psychomotor domains, as completion of the student-teacher training should result in the knowledge to construct and carry out an English language lesson as well as model correct English pronunciation throughout the lesson.

Theoretical Framework

The student-teacher training is based on the constructivist theory of learning championed by Jerome Bruner. Under Bruner’s framework, learning is seen as an “active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge” wherethe “learner selects and transforms information, constructs hypotheses, and makes decisions, relying on a cognitive structure to do so” (Culatta, 2013). The constructivist theory is student-centered because it relies on learners’ prior knowledge; the teacher works as a facilitator to guide the leaner to construct a new concept by integrating new content into existing worldviews.

Bruner also stresses the importance of society and culture in learning, learning is not an individual activity. Culture is seen as vital to learning because the mind is shaped by culture and all existing worldviews are constructed from culture (Bruner, 1996). By drawing on learners’ worldviews, influenced largely by culture, the educator can assist in posing appropriate questions and learning activities that tap into pre-existing knowledge.

Bruner’s emphasis on society and culture was largely influenced by Lev Vygotsky’s social development theory (Smith, 2002). Social development theory claims that social interaction takes place before any kind of development occurs and that social behavior and socialization give rise to consciousness and cognition. Vygotsky asserts that social learning occurs first in the interpsychological realm, socially, and then individually, on the intrapsychological level. He also introduced concepts of the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The latter is the space within learning takes place: between the learner’s abilities and the educator’s goals or outcomes; this is where learning happens. The MKO is defined as anyone who has a higher cognitive ability than the learner; this can be the educator that facilitates the process or even a more knowledgeable peer that aids another learner. The focus is on social interaction and the relationships between the educator, the learner and peers working collaboratively (Learning-Theories.com, 2013).

The constructivist theory as explained by Bruner works well for the student-teacher training because the students have all been learning English, most with native English speakers at some point, since preschool. This gives a background of learning experiences to draw from, onto which they can synthesize TEFL techniques to enhance their teaching performance. Prior experience as a student within Thai government schools and knowledge gained through the English major degree track gives the foundation for constructing new meaning through student-teacher training experience. Vygotsky’s social development theory also fits this educational context because of the social culture of Thailand. In the Thai education system, students in the same grade are grouped together in different class sections; the class sections have the same school schedule and stay together until graduation. This holds true from primary school through secondary school and even tertiary education. This combats shyness in the classroom and equates to students becoming comfortable with each other, promoting ease of idea exchange and construction. Also, Asian culture in general has a large emphasis placed on society, which works well in fostering group work through activities.

Lesson Structure: Content, Rationale and Activities

Lessons will take place inside a physical classroom where course content is first introduced and explained by the facilitator, the facilitator teaches a demo lesson wherein content is highlighted through demonstration, students then teach practice lessons in small groups and, finally, students give a demo lesson to the class which will be recorded for future study. At the culmination of the semester’s content, student-teachers exhibit mastery of the training knowledge through teaching in secondary schools, gaining valuable, real-world teaching experience.

Content for the student-teacher training includes description and analysis of TEFL-style lesson construction with ideas and supplemental materials that student-teachers can use during their student-teaching and beyond. Students will be able to define lesson objective(s), warmer activities, present lesson content through making connections with Thai, model correct English pronunciation and lead a student-student dialogue; this culminates with a correctly-formed English language lesson.

Because English Majors are only given real-world practice teaching during two practicums in their 4th year, real-world teaching experience through the training will help students gain much needed confidence in lesson plan development and implementation. Also, student-teaching will help English Majors determine if teaching English is a suitable fit for a profession, instead of waiting to find out what teaching is like in their last year of instruction.

Assessment

Mueller (2012) defines authentic assessment (AA) as a “form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills” (What is Authentic Assessment?, para. 1).This is in contrast to traditional assessment (TA), which takes the form of true/false, multiple choice, fill-in-the blank and other standardized test formats that do not assess meaningful application (Mueller, 2012). AA is a more holistic way of testing knowledge through application and skills, demonstrating knowledge of a concept. This is also a more active approach than TA, where students can guess at the answers and the facilitator can only infer that the concepts/ideas tested can be meaningfully applied by students in the real world. All of the enabling objectives and the overall terminal objective will be assessed by the facilitator by observing an English language lesson and an oral interview which analyzes the student-teachers rationale for the lesson.

Media Specifications

Media for the student-teacher training will take place with PowerPoint presentations, where content, videos of native English teachers teaching, as well as audio of correct English pronunciation, are given. Video and audio materials will also be made available online on the training website along with supplemental materials, ideas for enhancing lessons and other useful websites. Students will also be recorded giving demonstration lessons so they can self-assess their own performance and become more effective student-teachers through engaging in constructive criticism with others.

Development

Student-teachers will be provided with a copy of a TEFL training manual and materials (posters, markers, etc.) to make props with during lessons and real-world teaching. The content will include detailed rationalization behind the TEFL-style English lesson as well as examples during each stage of lesson planning (objectives, warmers, etc.). Major sections include objectives, warmers, introduction, presentation, practice, production and conclusion (WECI, 2012.). Documents for each enabling objective include a topic with corresponding vocabulary words and phrases, as well as provided objectives where applicable. For example, during the production process of objective 1, the topic would be: “A day at the beach”; vocabulary would include: “beach ball, ocean, birds, island, towel, sunscreen, umbrella”; phrases would include: “Let’s go swimming!”, “Pass me the beach ball!”, “The bird is_(describe bird)_.”, “Where is my towel?”. These documents will be handed out prior to small and large group work and will be filed within the TEFL training manual for reference during the production process of the final, terminal objective while student-teaching, as well as for future reference. Materials for the facilitator include a TEFL teacher-training manual, PowerPoint presentations and physical props and realia to demonstrate teaching. The manual is based on the student-teacher TEFL training manual, and includes expanded resources for examples during the lessons and the training script.