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Kompetanseheving for engelsklærere
Start date: Jun 1, 2015, End date: May 31, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

In this project, we want to focus on the common core subject English, and on improving our English teachers’ competence. Our school’s group for internationalisation has prioritised this way to integrate the internationalisation into our school’s pedagogical plan - where “reading as a basic skill in all subjects” is an important focus area. Byåsen upper secondary school is a large school, and our English teachers, because of this, teach both in the Education Programme for Specialisation in General Studies and in one or more of our Vocational Education Programmes. Their improved competence will benefit more than half of our school’s around 1100 students directly. The school needs to provide the English teachers with the opportunity for quality development through updating on knowledge of linguistic, literary, cultural and societal conditions in a target language country – with a particular focus on a wider knowledge of contemporary English literature and teaching in literature and reading. Simultaneously, the teachers need to acquire more motivating teaching methods. They want to work purposefully towards the goal of motivating the students for the common core subject in the Vocational Education Programs, but also in General Studies where we find that many students choose to not continue with English past the first year’s compulsory course. The Section for English expects that such updated knowledge about both the subject and the use of motivational teaching methods will affect all students positively and will have a measurable effect in General Studies, where we expect to see rising numbers of students who wish to continue with English for the second and third years. English teachers at Byåsen upper secondary school want to participate in relevant courses in continuing education offered through such course providers as for example “International Study Programmes”, which provides continuing education courses in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Among the courses offered are: "Focus on literature", "Creative activities and motivating materials for the secondary classroom", "Teaching English in vocational schools" and "Using technology for teaching English". Byåsen upper secondary school has 16 English teachers, however, we expect that 11 among these will be actively taking part in this project. Overall, these participants make up a group of two parts. One part consists of teachers whose education is no longer recent, and whose competence may fall short of meeting the scholastic needs of today. The other part consists of teachers with 4-10 years of teaching experience. All participants are in need of motivation and the continued professional follow-up and supplementary education in order to keep providing up-to-date teaching. Even though our teachers keep updated through self-study, active use of media, and professional input provided by the school and its owners, they still need to get further in touch with the relevant academic environments in a target language country. These teachers will be entered into a revolving plan over two years to distribute the mobilities over the course of four terms (2 -3 per term). The school co-ordinates this plan in relation to other projects and activities at the school. The participants will through their participation in the different courses learn various new approaches to the English subjects, be it within methodology, literature, motivation or technology. The main focus will still be on acquiring new methods to increase the students’ motivation for learning and reading, as well as updated knowledge on the social and cultural conditions in the target language countries. The project is seen as a part in the process of fulfilling the school’s strategies on basic skills, increased motivation among the student body regardless of educational programmes, and the goal for the Section for English of increasing the application to the second year (“International English”) and third year (“Social Studies English”) classes. Mobilities spent on relevant courses for our school’s English teachers is necessary; on one hand, in order to update and improve upon their academic competence for working in the intersecting point between literature and language teaching, and on the other hand, in order to gain more motivational methods and learning tools. We also want to increase our teachers’ intercultural competence through networking with other participants in these courses, so that more people are involved with the school’s internationalisation work. Furthermore, we aim for in the long run to be able to bring our newly acquired competence not only back to our own Section of English, our school, and the relevant scholarly networks, but also into future international collaborations. The continuing education and supplementary training through Erasmus + is related to the school’s strategy for education beyond qualification.

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