On January 22nd 2016 I gave the Power Up Lecture (PUL) to group of English teachers with between 1 and 5 years of teaching experience at the Saitama Municipal Institute of Education. Power Up Lectures are a monthly workshop open to all teachers. This PUL was the first in a series planned on the upcoming implementation of Global Studies.
Change is coming
As Japanese teachers of English move toward the end of the 2015-2016 school year they are becoming increasingly worried about the upcoming implementation of Global Studies. As with any major initiative, it is important that faculty at all levels of education recognize the implications that school change brings with it. In particular we must expect and be prepared for:
- Our skill set and competency to be challenged
- Confusion
- Conflict
- Feelings of loss
Rather than seek ways of avoiding these (they are inevitable) it is important that teachers and administrators work to recognize when they surface, and be prepared to hand them as they come.
What can ALTs do?
Over the last 10 years Saitama City’s ECAD Program has essentially kept ALTs out of the English classroom. The result is a 10 gap in veteran teachers’ team teaching experience, and for the newer generations of teachers a complete lack of experience. During this PUL teachers explored how ALTs can be productive in the classroom. In particular three of the many possibilities were discussed.
- ALTs can introduce their own cultures.
- ALTs can support reading instruction.
- ALTs can support direct instruction.
This in no way describes the full range of support ALTs can give in the classroom, but these three were used to illustrate basic team teaching techniques. After understanding that ALTs can play a variety of roles in the classroom the focus of the workshop shifted.
Team Teaching is about Team Teaching
Rather than focus on what ALTs can (which is not effective since there is such a wide range of abilities in ALTs) the workshop focused on understanding team teaching. Six different kinds of team teaching were discussed:
- Setting and Maintaining the theme
- Focusing students
- Showing Macro/Micro examples
- Direct instruction
- Coaching/Practice
- Assessing (Diagnostic, Formative, and Summative)
Examples of each of these were also presented so that teachers could see the classroom implications of the theory being presented.
Teachers were encouraged to recognize the complex nature of team teaching, as well as the complex nature of teaching Global Studies. Such complexity, requiring an organized and systematic approach, should be viewed through the resources available to teachers. For example teachers were asked to study the overview of the Global Studies curriculum, the yearly plan and the CAN-DO List all made for the curriculum.
Teachers were also asked to organize their approach to professional development by following a PDCA cycle, give priority to actions that serve multiple purposes, and to be public about the nature of change and development in the school.