Skip to main content

Who's Improving?

I've taught three classes in which I never changed the content of the course and I only changed the teaching approach by very little. They were my advanced writing class at the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse and both methodology courses at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul. In all three classes, I noticed a marked improvement in the students semester after semester. Either the students were getting better or I was improving.

I taught the same material in relatively the same manner in Seoul for 3 years, which is 6 different terms. In La Crosse, I did the same for 4 semesters. However my feelings about the outcome were different for each case.

Seeing better results from my students from term to term in Korea was rewarding. This meant I didn't have to spend as much time explaining certain vocabulary and concepts as I did in previous terms. The students' English levels weren't necessarily higher, but it seemed that their understanding of the content (TESOL methodology) was. The objectives of the methodology courses were always met at the end, but during the last few terms it seemed that students didn't have to struggle as hard to develop sample lesson plans and get good scores on exams. However nobody ever told me that the courses were too easy.

Seeing better results from my students from semester to semester in La Crosse was frustrating. Every semester it seemed that students would reach my course objectives earlier by a month. For the semester that just finished, I believed that 90% of the students reached the objectives by the mid-term. I was told that students' abilities waver from semester to semester, but for this course it didn't seem true. They just got better and better. Nobody told me that my course was too easy, but a few student's attitudes and body language indicated so.

I had to think back to the first semester of teaching the same class. I used the same book and I taught in nearly the same way. The biggest difference was the conferencing (peer editing) stage of the writing process. Outside conferencing, I noticed that the majority of students had a difficult time understanding how to construct a 5-paragraph essay until the very end of class. This was not so in subsequent classes. Every semester, students would understand how to construct a 5-paragraph essay sooner and sooner.

I have talked with instructors who teach at around the same level as my essay writing class, and most of them have also noticed marked improvement in the majority of students during the last 3-4 semesters. Perhaps it is the students who are improving. If this is truly so, then the next semester should be made to be more challenging.

But then I think back to my experience in Seoul. The content I taught was more challenging, and I taught the subject with greater ease from term to term. I was also able to answer questions with less ambiguity and more confidence. In this case, I believe it was me who was improving, but I can't rule out the students.

I believe this kind of exercise is useful in the development of an instructor. If you feel that the course objectives are being met quicker, don't be too quick to take credit for improved instructor and also don't be too quick to believe that you had a wonderful batch of students that semester. Take time to think it over, so the right adjustments (if any) can be made for the next time you teach the course.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Wikipedia Too Difficult to Read?

Image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Afghan_man_reading_Wikipedia_article_in_Kandahar.jpg The short answer via statistical analysis is yes .  For more information, read  Lucassen, T., Dijkstra, R., & Schraagen, J. M. (2012). Readability of Wikipedia.  First Monday at   http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3916/3297 .  Wikipedians are aware that the open online encyclopedia may be too difficult, and there is a discussion of its reading level at  https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reading_level . Much of this discussion took place over a decade ago, but the gist is that many contributors write at or for the college level. What appeals to me most is at the end of the page, where Wikipedians are discussing accessibility and what it means to be open to all. Here's my screenshot (in case it gets edited later). What does this mean for English language teachers? I was interested in seeing how selected Wikipedi...
1 comment
Read more

The Horror! A Listening Curriculum for English Language Learning

I've been inspired by Clare Maas' blog post , which was inspired by Dr. John Field's TEASIG/CRELLA talks, to share my shock at the listening curriculum of an intensive English program where I previously worked. To be fair, this listening curriculum was designed twenty years prior and my job was to lead faculty efforts to revise it. Unfortunately, the program went through financial difficulties and leadership changes, resulting in the "non-renewal" of most of the curriculum committee members. Upper-Level (EAP) Listening (B2-C1) Listening was relatively equally integrated with speaking and reading skills in one course set apart from another course that focused much more on writing. This was the case for the two highest levels for students who intended to matriculate into the university as undergraduates. The highest level was not dependent on any one coursebook, so all of the listening material had to be collected by the instructors. When I was the curriculum ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Adrian Holliday

In January 2015, the University of Warwick (UK) hosted a lecture by Dr. Adrian Holliday, whose work has greatly influenced my dissertation.  The lecture was recorded and can be viewed at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/groups/llta/activities/events/holliday .  If you are interested in watching the video, I advise that you wear headphones as Dr. Holliday was not wearing a microphone.   For this blog, I briefly summarize the video, highlighting what I found most provocative.  Following that, I explain how Holliday's work has influenced my research and teaching philosophy for the past 5-10 years. Summary of "Revisiting appropriate methodology, BANA, TESEP and 'contexts'" The main purpose of this lecture was for Holliday to reflect upon his book Appropriate Methodology and Social Context , published 20 years ago by Cambridge University Press.  In this lecture, he integrated criticism from another professor whose research I admire, Dr. Suresh Ca...
Post a Comment
Read more