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Extending learning beyond the classroom: ideas and practices for Blended Learning

  With the new academic year being in full swing and just before the dawn of a new calendar year is there a chance that you feel you need to rethink or enrich some of the techniques and tasks that you use? If so, then experimenting with blended learning principles is an alternative that you could try. Blended learning is not a new term or practice of...

Simple ways to find out more about your learners’ progress

Monitoring learner progress throughout the course can be a useful source of information for the teacher. Even though we tend to rely heavily on tests (summative assessment) to grade learners, summative assessment can give us an opportunity to have a clear picture of the impact of our teaching so that we can adapt it or shift focus on areas our learners...

How the Pandemic Helped Me Become a Better Teacher

Covid-19 was no doubt a stressful time for teachers. I myself suffered my first ever migraine; a result, I believe, of so-called Zoom-fatigue. However, it was also the trigger for much ‘forced experimentation’: the idea that an unwelcome imposition can push us to change our habits and, in the process, develop new skills. In fact, I’d go as far as to say...

 Teacher research: Giving students roles to help develop their identities

Throughout my long career I have been committed to two fundamental goals: the professional development of my teachers and using the learning environment as a space to develop identities. In this article I would like to show how these goals can be addressed within the context of teachers striving to give meaningful roles to their students. These roles relate...

Why should I care about my students? Why should I care about my colleagues? It’s just a job!

 “Empathy is a choice, and a vulnerable choice because in order to connect with you, I have to connect with something in myself that knows that feeling”. During a management course in July, I came across a video (‘Brene Brown on Empathy’ you can watch it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw ) which illustrated the differences between empathy...

Getting to know Computer Adaptive Testing and the LanguageCert Test of English (LTE) Listening & Reading

Introduction Over the last 30 years or so, computers have had quite an impact on language testing. As regards Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) in particular, it is currently on the leading edge of assessment technology.                  Defining and exploring CAT                 CAT is a sophisticated method of test delivery that tailors test question...

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