TEFL Trainer Hub

A post-pandemic SWOT

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A post-pandemic SWOT (Trainer Talking Time)

Thanks to everyone who attended our return to Trainer Talking Time. You can find all the notes from our previous sessions here. Apologies for the state of the notes here…I’ve just copied them across from a Google Doc we worked on together in the sessions, so they might be a little haphazard!

Our January session is coming up with the question How do you include differentiation for your course participants?

STRENGTHS

Flexibility – opening up to new markets

A wider range of voices/experiences on a course

With online courses, participants have a lot more freedom/flexibility in when they learn

With Trinity moderation costs are now much lower, thanks to it all being done online, so it’s possible to run a course with fewer participants, which perhaps also leads to being able to do more with them – more specialised support, meeting their individual needs more closely.

A lot of trainer knowledge and the coming together of lots of minds with lots of years of experience

Opened our eyes to new ways of training in-house…keeping things online because it suits people’s timetables / doesn’t oblige people to come in when they’re on a part-time contract

Lots of resources available online to share with teachers to support their in-house development – a very rich library

WEAKNESSES

Course participants need extra support to develop strong relationships through online courses

The challenges of connectivity/access to devices for some people makes online training more difficult

A feeling of having less control over what people are doing when they’re working asynchronously…is everything going in?

The quality of observation that can happen through a screen if the lesson is delivered in-person

The need for more plan Bs in online classes

OPPORTUNITIES

Perhaps having more content available online can limit tutor costs (opportunity for the centre, but possible threat for tutors who lose out on contact hours)

Learning through observation

Different ways of giving feedback, giving TP points (e.g. video, images, voice message) – can be more adaptable to a trainee’s needs

More demand for teachers who are able to work legally post-Brexit

Making teachers aware of what routes they can take in teaching, e.g. not working a full-time contract and supplementing a school contract with online classes / private classes….giving them more headspace and time for themselves (a result of the pandemic when we were suddenly forced to stop and realised we didn’t need to go full pelt all the time)

Enabling peer observation through (recording) online lessons

THREATS

Course participants can choose cheaper online options and might be less likely to look for a course based in a particular country where they want to work

There’s a lot of competition! A proliferation of cheaper courses

Teachers gave a lot of themselves during the pandemic and perhaps post-pandemic their workload hasn’t decreased

Feeling the pinch of rising costs

As you can see, the strengths and opportunities seem to outweigh the weaknesses and threats. We also felt that there was often crossover – what was a strength was also an opportunity.

And then there were some other thoughts which didn’t quite seem to fit in any of the four boxes…so here they are!

  • Online teaching/training is nothing new to the pandemic
  • There are platforms which are for education…but nobody’s willing to try them out yet
  • Will people going for pre-service courses go for the cheaper option? Difficult to sell a ‘good’ course to people who haven’t done their research. People with more experience might shop around more, take recommendations from peers, etc.
  • Will we see people taking courses but not going into teaching long-term?
  • People WANT to take an in-person course rather than online
  • Allowing space for learners to chat post-lesson as well, mimicking the corridor experience and allowing for the social connection outside of classtime
  • Face to face communication (even if online) more effective / quicker than platforms like Slack. But it provides a good place for regular communication and bits that could easily be forgotten.
  • Self-discipline of not being available / having office hours
  • Trainers need to be more skilled to deal with blended (synchronous/asynchronous) courses
  • Is there a generational difference to how people learn? Do we need ‘trainee training’ at the start of a course?
  • Living life in the moment – post-pandemic lots of people wanted to travel, live elsewhere
  • Are there still good career development opportunities for folks who take higher level qualifications?

What changes would you like to see to initial teaching qualifications?

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There were trainers from different backgrounds in the session this morning and one CELTA trainer mentioned an upcoming course being cancelled due to a lack of numbers which led on to a discussion around the benefits and drawbacks of smaller courses. With a smaller course, it’s much easier to get to know individual trainees and there’s more time to connect and focus on their individual needs – particularly in terms of helping stronger trainees to do more. On a larger course, it can often feel like you’re spending time pulling the weaker candidates through and so there’s less time to focus on what the trainer called “CELTA+1” input, such as working on decoding in a listening lesson or seeing how to really explot a reading text. On the other hand, larger courses tend to be more dynamic and on a smaller course there’s perhaps more need for trainers to help foster the community and encourage trainees to build relationships between themselves.

We talked a little about the CertTESOL and CELTA, with a feeling that perhaps the CELTA is far more prescriptive. However, this can also depend on a centre or trainer’s ‘interpretation’ of the criteria. For example, imagine a lesson where the teacher demonstrates excellent responsiveness to students’ needs and makes the controlled practice stage longer to accomodate them and allow time to consolidate their understanding, but subsequently doesn’t have time for a chunky freer practice stage: one trainer might regard this as a fail lesson, whereas another wouldn’t.

Then there was the question of a ‘paper trail’ and the need to provide evidence of what happens in the classroom to an external moderator or assessor. This can make it tricky sometimes to allow teachers to show their planning in different ways. New teachers require a template to follow in the early days of lesson planning to show their understanding of the though process behind what they’re doing, but they tend to be linear – which isn’t always the way people ‘see’ their lesson. For example, alternative ways of showing their planning process could be talking through the lesson and staging, a brainstorm or, as one trainee once did, a clock with each stage broken into the number of minutes it would take. Whilst the latter two could be included in the trainee’s portfolio of evidence of the planning process, this would be more difficult with an oral plan – though may suit some trainees much better.

We talked about the benefits of the moderation process. If I understand correctly (as I work in a Trinity centre), CELTA course providers source an assessor themselves and though there should be different assessors looking at the same centre, there may be cases when the same assessor is called to a centre as this can limit costs if they live locally – though this may be less of an issue nowadays with online courses. In the case of Trinity, courses are externally assessed by a ‘random’ moderator, which means that each course is seen by fresh eyes which might pick up on different aspects of the course to comment on. Trainers who attended this morning who are moderators / assessors themselves also commented on the bonus of being able to steal things they like from different centres to use on their own courses.

One thing we all agreed on was a feeling of a lack of time on initial qualifications, which reminded me of Mark Carver‘s comment about the distinction between learning to teach and learning teaching. We said it would be good to have more time to explain the rationale of processes to the teachers. Leading on from this, we discussed differnt course formats. For example, one centre ran an 11-week CertTESOL course which was frontloaded, giving trainees time to ‘get stuff out the way’ – such as assignments and a lot of the input – before focussing on teaching practice from week six onwards. Another course provider runs a 6-week CELTA, with heavy input in week 1, TP in weeks 2 and 3, no TP in week 4 to focus on assignments and preparation for the final weeks of TP in weeks 5 and 6, with little to no input in these final two weeks.

On the subject of TP (and moving away a little from blue-sky thinking!), we talked about when TP starts – is it better to throw them in at the deep end early on in the course, or wait a little? There was a feeling that TP can become something scary if it gets built up for too long before it starts and we went on to chat a little about the ‘performance’ of TP. We noted how sometimes teachers do a wonderful job of chatting to students naturally whilst waiting for everyone to join with a sudden change of energy and demeanour when the lesson ‘actually’ begins. Similarly, sometimes teachers aren’t quite sure how to end a lesson naturally with an awkwardness of passing over to the next teacher or an announcement of, “Well, that’s my bit done. And now…”

This idea of the lesson as a performance is perhaps negatively reinforced by suggesting teachers rehearse their lessons or script their instructions. Whilst practising the lesson or your instructions has definite benefits, it doesn’t prepare you for dealing with the students’ responses in real-time.

One fabulous idea which came up was to compare the classroom to another situation which trainees might be more familiar with. For example, a dinner party. If you’re hosting a dinner party and someone arrives early, you don’t just ignore them and carry on with your preparation. Similarly, if you see a guest at your dinner party has an empty glass, you don’t wait for everyone else to fnish drinking before topping them up. In other words, chat to your students when they arrive and push faster finishers to do something more, such as underlining their favourites words from the text, or writing another sentence in a grammar activity.

Another great tip was that anyone can correct the answers if they have the teachers’ book. Encourage teachers to do more than just say, “correct” such as asking students to think of another form of the word or asking them where they found the answer.

What changes would you like to see in initial teacher training qualifications? Add your ideas below or click here to comment on the Facebook thread.

The benefits and challenges of being a freelance teacher trainer

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There were some interesting ideas in the chat this morning, as well as a number of tangents as we chatted about the difficulties of curriculum design and hiring practice during a pandemic, amongst other things.

Benefits

One huge benefit which ws mentioned was the flexibility to choose working days and hours, although we noted that this can also depend on the type of course you’re working on. For example, initial teacher training courses might require you to be available for full weeks of work, whereas other tutoring gigs give you the freedom to work a couple of days a week.

It was also highlighted that the move to online training has often given trainers more flexibility too and the option to deliver sessions they feel more comfortable with or specialise in.

There was a feeling that being a freelancer as well gives you the chance to ‘dabble’ in more things – to give something a go to see if it suits you as opposed to being tied into something once you start.

Another benefit was the experience which comes with working in different centres and an appreciation for and openness to different approaches.

Challenges

Working in different centres was also higlighted as a challenge though, as it can take time to adjust to a different centre’s policies. This can be particularly tricky if you’re joining mid-course, and unfamiliar with what has happened previously for the dynamics of the course (both for staff and participants) to be what they are.

Another challenge, though less of an issue in the online environment, was that freelancing work might be last-minute, with centres suddenly needing someone to fill a position.

One further challenge which was mentioned was the difficulties of development. Though there may be some standardisation training for accredited courses, it’s likely that centres run development programmes for their staff which you might not be available during the period when you’re working for that centre.

Linked to the point above about development, one participant mentioned how useful it is to watch other trainers in practice, but noted that there’s sometimes a reticence to be observed in a training capacity, perhaps with a sense of imposter sydrome about being observed by our peers. Someone else mentioned that they felt working in DOS positions had set them up well for teacher training as these roles often involve managing teachers and giving feedback on their teaching. One other aspect we chatted about was how much time teacher trainers spend teaching and how easy it is to be out-of-touch with what happens in the classroom when talking about the theory of what happens in the classroom.

We also touched on the feeling that a lot more experienced teachers are taking initial teacher training qualifications these days, often as a stepping stone to better-paid jobs. We chatted briefly about some of the challenges for these teachers and the people on courses with them. One challenge can be encouraging experienced teachers to try new things, another challenge for them can be receiving feedback on the teaching style which they have developed over the years and a further challenge can often be in reminding trainees who are completely new to teaching that they should compare their development over the five weeks from where they started in week one and not to the perceived development of someone who has many years’ experience.

 

How can we best help new teachers?

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The question morphed from “How can we help newer teachers continue their professional development?” to “How can we best help new teachers’” It was an extremely interesting and necessary conversation where we shared experiences and good practice.

Survival of the fittest?

For lots of new teachers the first few weeks and months are all about survival; survival in the class, of course, but also around all the non-teaching stuff too. It can be difficult for newer teachers to separate work and life resulting in long, long days and high levels of stress. We also need to remember it’s a new life, a new job, quite possibly a new country. Perhaps our key question should be, how much can they do without being overwhelmed?

There are some fabulous new teacher support programmes around where new teachers are paid a normal salary and have reduced hours, more development and mentoring. 

Me and my coursebook

We also need to remember that new teachers spend an awful lot of time along with their coursebooks and often need help with time management and answering the tricky question of what exactly should my working time be? Be careful of making any assumptions. Clear guidance is really helpful.

Death by powerpoint

Teachers are planning more and more on their laptops and even in shared, busy staffrooms there is a less communicative, less sharing atmosphere. We also noted a trend towards an increased reliance on teaching through powerpoint. Powerpoint is a perfectly good tool, of course, but we need to use it in teaching with caution. Powerpoint can give the illusion of security but often ends up with very passive lessons and “death by powerpoint”. Perhaps powerpoint has become the new, evolved version of cutting up pieces of paper so highly prized on pre-service training of old. Pre-service providers should be wary of over-use and over-reliance on powerpoint. Instead of powerpoint we should encourage sensible use of the publishers digital offerings and also be aware of the distancing effect of over-use of screen sharing. We need to try to create active learning environments, as one Hubber shared their story of kicking the powerpoint habit and going cold turkey.

Creativity step by step

New teachers should work with a coursebook where possible and then add in creativity step-by-step. We agreed that a good teachers book is a thing of joy, “Straightforward” was mentioned as a good one!

Do you remember how it feels?

We talked about a version of the CEFR levels for teachers and raising awareness of where we are and how we can move forward. New teachers should start slowly and move into things gradually, it all needs practice. How many hours do we need to teach to become “expert”? Trainers, mentors and managers need to remember what it feels like to be a new teacher and act accordingly.

PPPP – planning prevents poor performance

We all felt that a strong plan is the best start that a new teacher can have and support should be given around this. One school mentioned gives plans for new teachers to follow and gently increases their independence as appropriate. We know that the first year of teaching can be a baptism of fire, some of us shared our own horror stories of mixed levels, no materials and dodgy timetables, it still feels so close for so many of us. Another idea was creating space for teachers to practice “tricky” bits of the class with a mentor. A further suggestion was around level meetings where teachers meet once a week to plan lessons together. Here teachers can learn to plan and to ask about anything they’re not sure about, including grammar and other language questions.

Clear expectations

Clarity around expectations is also so important to help new teachers know what is and what isn’t ok. Issues around discipline procedures, classroom volume, studiousness, etc. all need to be as clear as possible. Teachers need to understand what is “good noise” and what isn’t.

Interview hints

We also talked about avoiding problems with some new teachers at the interview stage. We should ask them about how they react to stress and should probably steer clear of perfectionists. Sadly, we know lots of new teachers are “on the edge”, they are uncomfortable and unfamiliar with the role(s) they need to play in different classes. Teachers need to find their own identities. Sometimes the teacher can be younger than the students and that can require confidence and presence. At the same time our teenage students should not become our friends even if we are closer in age to them than with other people. At the same time teachers need to find their staffroom identity, “how do I fit in here?” and then again, a new country, new language, potentially new everything… it can be both exciting and terrifying!

Is there a new “N-word”?

We went on to talk about the pros and cons of hiring new teachers already in situ, and it can make a huge difference. And the conversation naturally drifted onto the teachers’ first language. Is the N-word (native speaker) acceptable? Should we instead be talking about qualified, competent, proficient teachers? We know we can’t change the world but maybe we can change our worlds. Perhaps we should see the world in general as it really is, less binary; less right and wrong, left and right, black and white, native and non-native. The conversation rolls on. 

How do you develop as a trainer?

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Wowsers! What an incredible session with lots of great ideas for how to develop once we get into teacher training, as well as some ideas for courses for would-be and experienced trainers. There are lots of really useful links here, but please feel free to add anything else in the comments. Thanks so much to everyone who came along, as well as those wonderful people who shared thoughts with me as they couldn’t make it 😁

Speaking at conferences

There were mixed feelings about presenting at conferences: some people love it, others don’t. Interestingly as well, there were mixed feelings about presenting online rather than at an in-person event. On the one hand, some people mentioned that presenting online felt less daunting, whereas when they had presented at conferences in the past the entire day felt it was taken up by your one-hour session. On the other hand, we talked about the energy of the room generating enthusiasm for the topic at an in-person event, which is difficult to mimic online. Another drawback to presenting at an online event is that the presenter is more responsible for the tech whereas in-person events often have tech set up already and room organisers to help deal with any issues.

We also chatted about the process of preparing a session and how we don’t need to feel that we are ‘experts’ in our chosen field, but rather using the conference as an opportunity to share what we’re learning ourselves. The conference presentation can be the end product after time researching or reflecting, but it can also be a mid-product, giving us the opportunity to share our thoughts with others and reflect on their input before we continue. We highlighted as well the old adage of ‘there’s nothing new in TEFL’ and noted that talks can often be a way to reassure participants that they’re doing the right thing, or encourage them to reflect on different ways of doing things.

As well as speaking at conferences, getting involved in the behind-the-secenes organization was mentioned. One Hubster was a regional coordinator for their national teachers’ association, which allowed them to interact more with other trainers in the process of organising events.

There was also a feeling that a lot of conferences could do more to cater for teacher trainers. It feels like a lot of conferences are aimed at teachers and often offer a lot of practical sessions which perhaps lack the research behind why those ideas are sound. There was a suggestion for conferences to offer a Teacher Training strand as they do with other specialisations, such as BE or YLs.

Training

We talked a lot about how we develop through the process of training. One way in which we can broaden our horizons is to interact with trainers from different centres, as this allows us to see how different people approach a topic. The topic of communication between trainers working together on a course also came up, particularly around the need to develop effective communication when working online. Those who have trained online felt communication with colleagues, for example via WhatsApp or email, was often more time-consuming than it would be if they were sharing a staffroom.

The staffroom – whether in a teacher training centre or language school – was also a source of inspiration. Eavesdropping on people’s conversations or finding a resource which somebody had left by the photocopier were both ways people felt they had developed, with one Hubster saying they’d probably picked up 90% of whet they knew from the staffroom.

Another aspect of training which we talked about was observing others train. This generally happens a lot during the process of becoming a trainer and some people mentioned how interesting it was to see the notes that observers made when they were deliviering a session as this helps us to reflect on our training style and the way information is conveyed. Furthermore, observing colleagues giving a session, or comparing notes on how you might deliver a session was considered a useful way of reflecting on our training style, and we chatted about the different approaches trainers take to delivering content, such as using a PowerPoint presentation or flipping the content and having trainees look at a topic individually then coming together to discuss it. Another suggestion was to use Padlet so that trainees could post any questions they have about a topic before an input session. Then at the end of the session, there would be a slot to look at any unanswered questions as a group – which may also bring in new perspectives for the trainer too.

We also said that the shift to online training has forced many of us to evaluate the way we deliver certain sessions, particularly when we’ve repeated sessions for a number of years in an in-person context.

A further suggestion for how we can develop through training is to record ourselves. One trainer mentioned reflecting on the lesson planning sessions had made her less prescriptive in subsequent sessions; another trainer talked about being particularly interested in evaluating the interaction techniques in her sessions, with a ficus on the type of questions she asks and how her trainer talk scaffolds the session and supports trainees.

We suggested the possibility in a future session of sharing a snippet of a recording and providing feedback on each other as a way of helping to develop our training skills. There was a feeling that training is perhaps more ‘closed door’ than teaching but that it’s important to have that accounatbility and feedback as we can easily become fossilized in our training techniques.

Another possibility for a future Trainer Talking Time would be to prepare notes on how we would deliver an input session on a particular topic and then compare our staging and activities.

There was lots of chat around ways we can share good practice – with an aside about a move away from calling it ‘best’ practice given that teaching and training contexts can differ so wildly. People mentioned wanting to see what goes on behind the scenes, for example the ways trainers use a backchannel during online training or the feedback people share on a lesson.

Doing standardisation activities is a way that we can share and learn from our colleagues. Instead of being an obligatory task that we need to carry out each year, it’s good to use them as a developmental tool, looking at the comments which other people have in terms of wording, the balance of formative and summative feedback, the length of comments, and so on. 

How people use their whiteboard was also mentioned as a way that we can learn from others and you can find a number of posts on Twitter where people share and comment on each others #ELTwhiteboard.

Trainer development courses

There was a definite feeling of ‘floating’ into training, with many of us working in training before taking any formal development courses.

We talked briefly about the Train the Trainer course offered by CELTAthens and NILE’s Trainer Development course. Both involve an amount of synchronous and asynchronous work, but it was felt that perhaps the Train the Trainer course offered more of an interactive experience, with two Zoom session per week over the 5-week course. If you want to read more about people’s experiences with these courses, Rachel Tsateri blogged about taking the Train the Trainer course through Anatolia Training Insitute and Sandy Millin took the face-to-face TD course at NILE a couple of years ago.

Another couple of courses mentioned were the IH Teacher to Trainer course, From Teacher to Trainer, also offered by NILE, and the e-Moderation course run by TCE. 

Differentiation

As always, there were other fantastic comments around training, which don’t fit nicely into the sections above!

Differentiation was discussed, both in terms of supporting trainees on pre-service qualifications and providing personalised CPD in-house. One drawback of moving towards a personalised CPD programme for teachers is that it may affect the ‘community’ as they are likely to be less moments when all staff are together. However, it does mean that teachers can have more choice in the areas they would like to develop.

Thinking about differentiation on a CertTESOL or CELTA, we said that it can be challenging to provide extra content to stronger candidates. We also touched briefly on the benefit of peer observation on these courses and noted that when given the option, many trainees continue to observe, though when someone chooses not to, it tends to be an individual who would most benefit from it.

Questions to reflect on:

  • What do you feel are the differences between training on a pre-service or teacher development course, training in-house and presenting at a conference?
  • How often do you have the opportunity to observe someone training?
  • What other suggestions do you have to develop as a trainer?

Further reading

Lots of teacher trainers have fantastic blogs about their experiences. As well as the ones already shared, here are five more you might like to check out:

Online training skills

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My apologies – I should have written these notes up immediately after the session when it was all fresh in my head! Please do add anything I’ve missed in the comments 🙂

A big theme of the chat today was around digital literacy, as well as the assumed digital literacy teachers and learners have. We identified a need for our teacher development sessions to involve introducing teachers to the tools they can use and demonstrating how to use them – similarly to how we (should) showcase a website for learners to use at home as a part of our lessons, as opposed to just sending them home with a list of links. As to often happens when we talk about tech, the question of the pedagogical value of the shiny new tool came up and the need for teachers (and trainers) to think critically about the benefit of delivering content in a particular format. Similarly, a reminder for tech not to overwhelm: introduce one tool at a time and give people the space and time to familiarise themselves with it.

Tech in training

From a tutoring viewpoint, we also asked how easy it is to assess someone’s teaching skills if the lesson is tech-heavy. I remember a few years ago, I observed a trainee who was superfluous to the lesson – everything was on the Powerpoint presentation and as long as a learner could press next (and didn’t have any questions), the teacher didn’t really need to be in the room! 

Thinking about the materials assignment on the Trinity CertTESOL too, we said how moderators are trained to ‘see through the sparkles’. And, similarly to how we often tell train to Select, Adapt and Supplement the coursebook, they need to learn to exploit digital materials in the same way.

Another point which came up was around having a specific question on the assessed lesson plan around anticipated problems with tech. In the past, we would also tell teachers to have a plan B for if tech didn’t work, but what happens when everything revolves around tech? We also noted that we had seen a lot of ‘tech-blaming’ in trainee’s reflections: either blaming the tech for them not achieving their lesson aims adequately, or (worse) blaming the learners for not using the tech effectively and so not achieving the desired outcome.

Cross-training

Online teaching was around before the pandemic and it’s not likely to disappear anytime soon! As such, we agreed that pre-service training courses should constantly encourage trainees to consider how things might be different in each environment. It’s tricky on an initial qualification course to know where someone might end up, but we can do our best to prepare them as far as possible in the time we have.

There was a suggestion for face-to-face courses to involve some online sessions, either with trainees working on their own devices in the centre or – as is much more realistic nowadays – working from home online. There was a suggestion that the Unknown Language component of the CertTESOL – which involves four hours of instruction – could have a 50-50 split with two lesson delivered face-to-face and two online. This would allow trainees to experience learning in both environments, even if all their teaching practice is delivered face-to-face.

We wondered as well whether the way people approach an online course might be different to how they participate in a face-to-face course. There was a question of whether note-taking is a generational ‘thing’ with some trainers saying they felt the younger generation seemed to be able to ‘absorb’ knowledge more easily nowadays.

However, we also felt that it was important to set up expectations for how they view and participate in the learning environment. On a face-to-face course, people come to the centre, they sit in the classroom and they behave in a particular way (hopefully!). 

Some challenges of training online

One thing we identified as being difficult as an instructor – and so something to think about as we train others – is not getting visual feedback from others. In the physical classroom, it’s far easier to read the room; in the online classroom this becomes much trickier, even if participants have their cameras on. However, working in an environment with cameras off is also something we should consider when training others. especially as it may lead to increased TTT to ‘fill the void’.

Another challenge was the distractions which participants might have around their online environment and the fact that it is far easier for people to be doing more than one thing at once, for example checking emails whilst watching an input session, popping onto Facebook during a lesson observation, etc.

Linked to this was a feeling that there is perhaps a more ‘casual’ vibe around video conferencing. We wondered whether this was perhaps as people might have used it before the pandemic to chat to family and friends, plus the fact that when suddenly we were thrown online, we spent a lot of time breaking down the affective filter, trying to make our online classes welcoming and enjoyable for learners as we all dealt with the disruption of a global pandemic.

Perhaps not a challenge, but an observation: we need to have more patience and do more learner training. At the start of a course, but also at the start of the academic year with our students, we should spend time looking at the resources they’ll be using. 

Some final thoughts…

One positive we all felt which had come out of the pandemic was a sense of community around teaching and training in ELT. There was a lot of helping each other out, with new skills being taught and learnt by all. And we highlighted the need for this community to be built for our trainees too and the need for there to be rapport-building opportunities built into the timetable for our online courses to try to mimic those moments when trainees would have a chat before or after the lesson, or ask each other how there weekend had been. Teaching can sometimes be quite a solitary profession and now more than ever we need to provide space for people to build relationships.