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Concourse 2

Managing learners and learning

teaching

You may not think of yourself as a manager but management is a key teaching skill.  It comes with practice and experience but here are some guidelines concerning what you should be thinking about when it comes to your classroom behaviour.

Take your time with this section because you will be asked to follow three other initial training guides in the relevant areas.

Relationships, rapport and control

friend guard

A friend or a prison guard?

Neither.

The mistake lots of novice teachers make, especially when they are teaching children or young adults, is to veer too much to one end or the other of the cline from chum to dictator.  There are three issues:

  1. You need to keep some professional distance but still engender a trusting and open relationship.
  2. The atmosphere should be serious but not earnest.
  3. The classroom should be a place where learners are comfortable taking risks.
think write Task 1: How can you try to ensure that these three things happen?
Think for a little while, make a few notes in each area and then click here.

Classroom layout

How the classroom is set out is probably more important than you imagine.  There are lots of variables and levels of flexibility.

think write Task 2: Here are three layouts for you to consider.  Think about the advantages and disadvantages and then follow the initial guide to classroom organisation.  The guide opens in a new window so shut it when you have finished to come back to this page.
horseshoe islands rows
Horseshoe Islands Rows


Grouping learners

How you are able to group your learners will often depend on the way the classroom is laid out.  There are lots of alternatives.

think write Task 2: Here are some sorts of grouping to consider.  Think about what the learners might be doing in these cases and then follow the initial guide to grouping.  The guide opens in a new window so shut it when you have finished to come back to this page.
1 4 8 3 10


student

Student-centred lessons

The more a lesson is focused on the learners, the more they will contribute and the less work you will have to do.  A good deal of this is to do with how you give and how you get feedback.

There are two sorts of tasks:

  1. A task which is focused on the language or skill to make sure that it has been learned.
  2. A task which is focused on getting students to express their ideas and think about a topic.
think write Task 3: For which of these task types is clear feedback to and from the learners absolutely necessary?  Think about that for a moment and then follow the initial guide managing feedback.  The guide opens in a new window so shut it when you have finished to come back to this page.

Once you have understood the essentials of how to give and get feedback, you can go on to learn about handling error.