EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS

Topic : EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS

Time  : 9am- 10.30am

Day   : 13 October 2014

Tutor : Katie

Report

Today Katie taught us about employability skills. She stressed on the importance of presentation skills. She started the lesson by providing pictures depicting various kinds of gestures as a set induction.

In groups, we identified the meaning of the pictures with gestures. Some of these gestures would have negative meanings in different cultures. Gestures are very important in presentation skills.

Useful language phrases were provided to be used during oral presentations. Our task was to prepare the opening phase of a presentation .She handed out KISS (Keep It Short and Simple) menu cards to students. Learners choose a KISS menu card. Learners applied the KISS principle to each topic in the menu card while practicing for opening phase of their presentations.

We thoroughly enjoyed the activities that were presented by Katie.  We could easily adapt these activities in our classroom especially while teaching presentation skills.

Reflection

Before we start with our reflection, we want to define what employability skills are.  Employability skills are those skills necessary for getting, keeping and being successful in a job.  They are the skills and attitudes that enable employees to get along with their colleagues, make critical decisions, solve problems, develop respect and ultimately become valuable employee for the organisation.  Employability/ soft skills/ transferable skills are the foundation of one’s career.  These are the skills that employers feel as lacking in school-leavers, graduates and those already in an employment.  Thus organisations spend a lot of time and money training staff, not in job specific areas or technical skills but in general and basic skills.

Employers often outline a set of employability skills that they want from an employee.  According to University of Kent Careers and Employability Service, the top ten skills that were most often deemed important are:

1)    Verbal communication -  Able to express your ideas clearly and confidently in speech

2)    Teamwork - Work confidently within a group

3)    Commercial Awareness - Understand the commercial realities affecting the organisation.

4)    Analysing & Investigating - Gather information systematically to establish facts.

5)    Initiative / Self Motivation - Able to act on initiative, identify opportunities & proactive in putting forward ideas & solutions

6)    Drive - Determination to get things done. Make things happen & constantly looking for better ways of doing things.

7)    Written communication - Able to express yourself clearly in writing

8)    Planning & Organising - Able to plan activities & carry them through effectively

9)    Flexibility - Adapt successfully to changing situations & environments

10) Time management

Besides the data taken from University of Kent Careers and Employability Service website, other websites that talked about on employability skills also state that communication and interpersonal skills are one of the important skills to learn. Thus we felt that it was appropriate to give more information on giving presentation in the English language class. 

Presentation skills are very important for students to master.  They might have to give an individual or group presentation.  Most employers need their employee to give presentation on important matters.

Our tutor, Ms. Katie talked about what kind of language to use when opening a presentation and asking and responding to questions.  In addition, she touched on the tips on giving presentation and signposting.

In our opinion, it is an excellent idea for teachers to give tips on how to prepare and give effective presentation.  Through discussions, students and teachers could come up with language forms, language functions and signposting that could be used during presentation.  Sometimes students might forget about the tips for giving effective presentation, thus we felt it is a good idea to keep reminding students in the subsequent lessons.  Handouts and practices also help. Students need handouts on language forms, language functions and signposting.  In addition, we think that some practices during classroom time will definitely help students. Teacher and peer feedback are also useful to help students to spot their mistakes.  On the other hand, no matter how much input has been given by teachers, it will be useless if students do not help themselves by doing more practices.

Find more at:

http://www.skillsyouneed.com/general/employability-skills.html#ixzz3GMbzpac6

http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/top-ten-skills.htm

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/ambassadors/HESTEM/resources/General/STEMNET%20Employability%20skills%20guide.pdf

  

Recommendation:

1)        Videos on YouTube could be shown in order to enhance students understanding.  We could show videos on bad and good presentation and have a discussion on it.

2)        We should also teach other employability skills such as negotiation skills.

TYPES OF ASSESSMENT & HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS IN ASSESSMENT

Topic  :  TYPES OF ASSESSMENT & HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS

   IN ASSESSMENT

Date    :  17 October 2014

Time   :  11.00 am – 12.30 PM

Tutor   :  Katie

Report

Katie started the session by asking us to list down words/terms related to the word “assessment”.  After a brief discussion, Katie introduced us two types of assessment, formative and summative. 

Then, we had a class discussion on both assessments.  The next activity was to draw a cat. Then, the drawings were graded based on the Continuous Assessment Progress Chart.  Katie then collected all the drawings which were graded with ‘green’ mark.  The whole class discussed on the reliability of the ‘green label’ awarded.  

Next, she suggested us to use the progress chart to monitor the students’ mastery level by using the smiley emoticons or colour coding.  Upon completing the session, we were given a worksheet to test our understanding on different types of assessment.  In this activity, we were asked to match the types of assessments to the list given.

Reflections

We felt that the Continuous Assessment Progress Chart is very beneficial and practical to be used in our classrooms.  The session with Katie refreshed our schemata on different types of assessment.  We realized that formative assessment does not come solely from the teachers and peer, but self-assessment can also be part of the assessment.

Recommendations

We recommend educators to use the Assessment Progress Chart extensively to monitor students’ progress.

RESOURCES-INCLUDING MULTI MEDIA AND VISUAL ORGANISERS

Topic  :  RESOURCES-INCLUDING MULTI MEDIA AND VISUAL ORGANISERS

              (MULTIMODALITY)

Date    :  14 OCTOBER 2014

Time   :  2.00 pm – 3.30 pm

Tutor   :  PETER

Report

Listing all the senses that a human has and how it is related to the learning styles had been the self- induction for this session.  The participants have been very active contributing to the discussion.  

The session continued with “What kind of learner am I?” activity. This activity helped us to identify the types of learner based on a set of questions given. There are three types of learners which are Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic (VAK).

Later, we were asked to brainstorm on how to include multimodality of resources or activities in the classroom setting.  Most educators agreed that multimodality is able to stimulate students’ different senses, learning styles and intelligences.

Focusing on the visual learner, Peter distributed a worksheet on visual resources including multimedia and visual organizers’. We were asked to identify the types of visual organizer’s and match it with its purposes.

Reflection

The lesson started off and ended very well. Everyone seemed to enjoy the lesson. The explanation was crystal clear with excellent use of visual aids. The worksheet introduced us to several visual organizers’ which were “alien” to us.

Recommendations

We are going to apply what have been shared by the trainer and other participants to include a mixture of textual, audio and visual modes in combination with materials in order to create more meaningful language classroom setting.

Language Across the Curriculum

TOPIC            : LANGUAGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

DATE             : 9 OCTOBER 2014

TIME              :  11.00 AM – 12.30 PM

TUTOR          :  CHRIS

REPORT

The instructor started the session by introducing BINGO game. The purpose of playing BINGO game was to identify the parts of speech. 

He then prompted the participants (Group A) to say out loud the different language structures whereby the other groups needed to cross out the correct sentences. The participants played the role actively for this activity.

As for the second activity, we had to work in pairs to fill in the gaps by asking our partner for the missing information (we were not allowed to look at our partner’s worksheet).

Then, we were given a set of Language Areas to test our confidence. We were required to draw smiley emoticon to show that we were confident enough in that particular language area. If we were not sure, we were needed to write a question mark to show uncertainty and wrote our action plan on it. 

REFLECTION

The games were very engaging and interesting to play.They were definitely one of a kind and hardly played.  However, if the instructions were given more clearly, we would definitely enjoy it better.

For activity 2, the majority of us in our group were not content-competent.  Hence, we were having difficulties in completing the task.

RECOMMENDATION

The instructor’s extensive experience has brought new ideas to enlighten the language classroom. His professional thoughts and practice in language teaching gave us a lot of ideas to apply when we go back to our respective institutions.

Scaffolding Content and Language Learning

Topic: Scaffolding Content and Language Learning

Date: 15.10.2014

Time: 11.00 a.m. – 12.30 p.m.

Trainer: Mr Chris

Report

Within the context of language teaching, the lecturer/teacher is faced with students of various proficiency levels and learning experiences. For students with strong language background, they have little problems with adjusting themselves in the language classroom. However, for students with mixed abilities, they may face difficulties in completing language tasks that are more challenging. This is where the scaffolding approach can come in to help students especially the weaker ones in the learning of the targeted language. Scaffolding is the steps teachers can take to support learners so that they can understand the lesson being taught especially in learning new content and developing new skills.

In today’s lesson, Mr Chris introduced us to several techniques on how we can scaffold tasks for receptive and productive skills. For example, learners can be supported by the lecturer/teacher or their peers through collaborative tasks based around questions, link to previous knowledge, constructive feedback and self-reflection. Our trainer also asked us the scaffolding techniques that we have used in our own teaching. The answers were varied as many of us came from different teaching background namely polytechnics, community colleges and vocational colleges. Hence, it was truly amazing for us to share and listen to our colleagues on their teaching experiences especially on scaffolding the contents of the lesson at hand.

Professor Jan Herrington did some research on how scaffolding can be beneficial to students in the learning process. She stated that the teacher’s role in an authentic learning environment is to be supportive and not didactic. In other words, the teacher is there to facilitate the learning process of the students and not be giving instructions on what to do all the time. For instance, the teacher can help learners to connect current learning with previous learning. The teacher can also suggest word list or glossary for students to expand their vocabulary in a communicative activity.

Through the video posted by Professor Jan on Youtube, we were amazed to find out that Twitter can be used as a scaffolding tool to help students in the learning process outside the classroom. Twitter is a micro-blogging site where users can update their status by posting the latest information. In terms of learning, students can post their questions online and the teacher can respond to those questions at anytime. The teacher can also post a topic to be discussed online and let the students give their opinions or debate on the matter. This will create an interactive discussion among the group, while the teacher acts as a facilitator to ensure that the discussion is on track.

In summary, scaffolding is useful in helping students especially the weaker ones in learning new content and developing new skills. As lecturers/teachers, we should be aware that students of various proficiency levels learn differently and therefore we should employ suitable scaffolding techniques to help them to improve their learning abilities in the language classroom.

Reflections

As lecturers/teachers, the quest to find effective ways to improve our students’ academic performance is a never ending job. The active discussions and various activities in our session with Mr Chris on “Scaffolding and Language Learning” made us realised that students benefit greatly from scaffolding techniques. We agree that using suitable and effective scaffolding techniques in the classroom will enable students to be more independent and responsible in their learning process. However, for scaffolding to take place and be productive, the main issue that we need to tackle is that, are we teachers/lecturers ready to move away from a teacher-centred classroom to one that is more learner-centred?

Generally, we think that as lecturers, we need to control the direction of the teaching and learning process for fear that the learners are not ready to take the responsibility of managing their own learning process. However, after our hands-on experience of interesting and challenging tasks, we realised that these tasks can be implemented in our classroom because they are specifically designed to promote interest and collaboration among the learners.

Recommendations

As interesting and challenging the tasks were, we also agree that many of them were not suitable for the level of the learners in the context of polytechnics, community colleges and vocational schools. By adapting similar tasks to suit the needs and different level of proficiency of the learners, we believe that lecturers/teachers can significantly assist learners to grasp and master the language skills outlined in each lesson.

 In addition, scaffolding requires us to break down tasks into smaller parts, and this means that we need to spend time generating activities suitable for learners; taking into consideration the relevance of the activities to their courses and proficiency level, that means more burden for lecturers/teachers to come up with sufficient activities. It will be very beneficial in the long run if lecturers/teachers, teaching the same course, can work together to develop high quality teaching and learning resources that can be shared with polytechnics, community colleges and technical schools all over Malaysia.

Finally, we believe that the teaching and learning culture in Malaysia need to change for scaffolding techniques to be really effective. Many of us are worried that learners are not ready for scaffolding because they are weak in the target language (English) and consequently, many are still using teacher-centred approach in their lessons. We believe as a lecturer/teacher, we need to be positive and do our best to adopt scaffolding techniques in our students. It can be introduced in the lessons in stages, and gradually over the time, we can see the advantages of incorporating these techniques in the class.

In conclusion, we are positive on the idea of incorporating scaffolding techniques in our lessons, and we also consider the various techniques to be fundamental to good, solid teaching for all students.

Learning Strategies and Independent Learning Throuh Technoloygg

Session         : Learning Strategies and Independent Learning ThroughTechnology

Group            : 1

Time               : 11.00-12.30

Date               : 16 October 2014

Tutor              : Andrew Steele

REPORT:

The lesson started by the tutor asking each and every one of us to think about something we had learnt recently. The answers given varied from “How I learnt to use CLIL in my classroom” and “How I learnt to ride a horse”.

We were then asked on how we learnt what we did. Amongst the response to that question was:

a.    in a class

b.    online learning

c.    taught by a friend

d.    via a book

e.    through demonstration

f.     by practical experience

What was concluded here, is that learning styles differ from learning strategies. It also differs from one individual to another. Learning strategies are how student learn a new content. These strategies change at different times of learning. The strategy you use before, during and after a lesson may change as the contents you learn change. A worksheet was given where a table was to be completed with strategies used at different stages of learning.

Next we were exposed to the word meta-cognition which is thinking about thinking. It can be broken into five parts being:

a.    preparing and planning for learning

b.    selecting and using strategies

c.    monitoring learning

d.    integrating strategies

e.    evaluating learning

We were then told to work in pairs and complete a table on strategies to use for each of the five parts of meta-cognition.

The next stage of the lesson was using new media to encourage autonomous students. We discussed in groups how to use various types of media to promote independent learning. Among the media types discussed were blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, twitter, and facebook.

A general discussion was held on how teachers use different types of media in their teaching and learning process. Ideas were given and shared amongst the participants which were very beneficial and new to many of us.

REFLECTION

This lesson was not new to the participants. Many new of the existence of these media. But ways of manipulating these media for teaching was something new to some. The convenience in spreading information, assignment, getting in touch with teachers and peers, getting feedback were among the possible ways of using these media types.

As we listened to the way some lecturers used it in their lessons, some of us realised that it is a good way for those who are normally reluctant to speak up or see their lecturer to voice out their views.

Besides that, it also reduced the amount of paperwork and quantity of paper used for lecturers as well as assignments. Lecturers need to carry stacks of assignments and storage problem was also solved.

Another point in the use of these media types is the less confident and shy students are able to make themselves heard. It also helped in building ties amongst the students as they got to know more people via these social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

This type of learning strategy is suitable to enable students to be independent learners. They can respond, check and get feedback conveniently anywhere and at any time.

The only drawback in the use of this technique is the lack of technology or facilities. This will make it difficult for everyone to participate in activities or information put on the media.

RECOMMENDATION

A survey should be carried out to make sure students are equipped with proper gadgets to ensure everyone is able to participate in the teaching and learning process. 

Lesson such as these should be monitored by a moderator to ensure its validity and relevance to the members of the site. The moderator should also ensure that no sensitive or irrelevant posts are put up to be viewed or read. “A lesson well taught and learnt will leave a mark for forever”.

Focus of Assessment and Effective Correction

Session         : Focus of Assessment and Effective Correction

Group            : 1

Time               : 09.00-10.30

Date               : 15 October 2014

Tutor              : Chris Gleeson

REPORT:

The designing of assessments are parts and parcel in the process of teaching and learning. Assessment in the context of CLIL demands teachers to have clear and thorough understanding of what they are assessing. Teacher have to be precise whether the assessments were designed to check students’ language knowledge, content of the subject matter or both the language and the content of the subject matter. The process of preparing assessments for a CLIL-based classroom should be focusing on students’ cognitive, practical and communication skills. 

Today’s session was conducted by Chris where we started off the session with plenary discussion on types of assessments that we have carried out in the classroom. Next he distributed the worksheet on this topic. In Task One, we were asked to identify some samples of assessment questions according to each focus. In groups of three or four, we have to take turns to throw the dice to select which question we have to answer. The assigned task was aimed to check our understanding of the focus of assessment, whether it is content based, language-based or content and language-based assessments. This exercise indirectly helped us to better understand the process of designing clear and precise instructions for the students.

The session then continued with the discussion of Task Two, where the objective of this task was to understand the Key Concepts of CLIL and in the CLIL classroom. For this particular task, we had the chance to explore and understand on how to design instructions for the classroom that focus on the three important skills in CLIL assessment – communication, cognition and practical skills. We were introduced about the importance of teaching the students to select information (cognitive skills), how to demonstrate (practical) and to communicate (communication skills) for their learning.

The final task, Task Three which is “Effective Error Correction” where we have to read the statements and decide whether we agreed or disagreed with the statements. The statements were on how teacher should asses and make correction to his or her students.

To sum up the lesson, Chris explained that there are three Key Concepts of the CLIL classroom; communicative, cognitive and practical skills. He also suggested that there were practical methods to deal with mistakes done by the students in class; teacher correction, peer correction and self-correction. We cannot simply blame the students when there are mistakes in their assessment. We have to make them view the mistakes in a positive way. We should also use indicators like gestures to indicate the mistakes or get other learners to correct the mistakes. This will help boost students’ confidence level.

REFLECTION

Overall, the class was very interesting and we learned to assess students in various ways. During the plenary session, we discussed on types of assessments that we have carried out in our classroom. This lesson exposed us to the focus on assessment which tell us what aspects to look at when delivering assessment to our students. From the discussion, we knew that the preparation of the assessment for our students should be asses in term of whether it is content based, language-based or content and language-based assessments. The exercise that we had done during the lesson helped us to understand the process of designing clear and precise instructions for the students.

As for the three important skills in CLIL assessment – communication, cognitive and practical skills, students should be introduced to understand on how they will be tested by providing them with clear and precise instructions.

 “Effective Error Correction” is where we learn from our mistakes through experiencing it and how did we manage to overcome it during learning process. The correction techniques for students’ mistakes in English Language Classroom change depending on whether the activity is for fluency or accuracy. The teacher should choose the best way to correct the students’ mistakes.

RECOMMENDATION

As teacher, we need to be clear of which assessment that suitable for our students. The class could be more interesting if we could make the students to mingle around and collaborate with other students. 

On the other hand, we think that we could use peer-correction and self-correction activity with our students to promote autonomous learning. We feel that students will be less depending on their teachers if we could get them started this techniques at an early stage.

From our point of view, educators should inculcate more cognitive and practical skills for our students by providing them with differentiation in assessment and tasks.