Building Learning Power

This course was produced as a result of discussions in Paris between partners preparing a Comenius Multilateral Project bid.

Course content is underpinned by “Key Competences” (Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 – 2006/962/EC- on key competences for lifelong learning).

This course, aimed at non-native speakers of English, is designed for teachers of children in primary or secondary education aged from 10 upwards. Our primary aim is to enable teachers to help young people to become more effective learners. This practical course will improve confidence in lesson delivery and expand the participant’s range of methodological approaches to enhance classroom practice with students’ independent learning firmly in mind.

Entry Level: CEF B2 to C1+

Daily Teaching Sessions

Morning: 4 x 45 minutes (3 hours)

Methodology in Practice

Afternoon: 3 x 45 minutes (2 hours 15 minutes)

Building Learning Power

Total Number of course contact hours 48 hours over two weeks

Course Start Dates 2013: 23rd September, 21st October, 18th November

Course Start Dates 2014: 17th February, 14th April

Preparation

All applicants receive full course information together with an Application Form. Richard Language College then issues a Letter of Pre-Inscription for Comenius application purposes. All successful applicants are invited to join a pre-course on-line forum. This enables them to prepare for their course with other European colleagues following courses at Richard Language College on the same dates, sharing their professional experience and expectations of their training.

Methodology in Practice

Morning sessions will be devoted to refreshing the experience of being a student again. Teachers all too often become stale and lose sensitivity to the real situation of the student experience. These classes will facilitate the acquisition of general classroom language in English.

The course tutors will place each teacher in a live English as a Foreign Language class to make them more acutely aware of learning difficulties from a student’s point of view. An added benefit is an increase in personal fluency in English as a foreign language. The Building Learning Power tutor will receive and discuss feedback in an afternoon session.

Building Learning Power Strategies

The afternoon sessions cover some essential classroom techniques. The course emphasis is practical, focusing on strategies, skills and activities to use in the classroom. The theoretical rationale supporting these techniques is introduced where appropriate, including the eight Key Competences

Outcomes

The course aims to provide the participants with the strategies, skills and activities to help young people to become more effective learners. There will be DVD sessions analysing classroom practitioners of Building Learning Power

Follow up

Advice on how to access, from the teacher’s own country, changes and developments in teaching in England. A list of useful websites will be provided.

A post-attachment feedback session to encourage continuing professional development and evaluation of the impact of the course on their own day-to-day teaching.

All leaving participants are invited to join a post-course on-line forum. This enables them to share their experience with other European colleagues and to assess the impact of their training on their own classroom practice once back in their own country.

Sample Programme

This is an example of a schedule which can be adapted to suit the needs of the participants.

9.15 to 12.35 Active particiaption in a live class.

14.00 - 16.15 Education for the 21st century, Developing the mind to learn, Changing the way teachers approach learning, Reforming school approaches to learning, Feedback & course evaluation, What is learning power? How to teach learning power,The four R's resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness & reciprocity, Teachers and the learning power palette, Feedback & course evaluation