A thought experiment: would you rather have great training or great curriculum?
From a teacher standpoint, that means walking into a classroom with excellent training, or with lesson plans and materials perfectly crafted for that course.
From an administration standpoint, that means hiring people that can teach well in any circumstances, or hiring curriculum developers that can produce a foolproof product, and then making that curriculum available.
I can’t stop thinking about this hypothetical question, and I have been dragging Kathryn into it. Last weekend, as we were hiking, we agreed that teacher training is essential for responding to our students needs and creating new activities; on the other hand, when we are teaching daily and under time constraints, we would love to reach for good ready-made materials.
One end of the spectrum
While this choice is just a thought experiment for me, it is playing out as reality in many teaching contexts. Someone just relayed their observations of an elementary classroom in Zambia, where, in an effort to meet the United Nations’ Millenium Development Goal of achieving universal primary education, untrained teachers were given iPods with prerecorded lessons. No teacher training was necessary–not even the ability to read a lesson plan. The disembodied voice walked everyone through the activities. This is the curriculum design end of the spectrum.
I guess this is on my mind because I am thinking about where I can have the most impact in the future: training teachers, facilitators, or self-directed learners; or creating materials that anyone can pick up and use. Feel free to share your thoughts below.
Image: “Teacher” by Robert Verzo is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Can I have both please 🙂 … But if I had to choose I’d go for the solid curriculum and materials. Our school is striving for this negotiated curriculum that aims to meet the linguistic needs, interests, and goals of our students. I love it but the reality is that not all teachers are able to succeed at this huge task. Setting up the teachers with amazing pre-made lesson plans and materials reduces their preparation time and also reduces the quality gap between classes where Ts have the sufficient training vs others who do not. Instead of teachers using their time to make worksheets and activities, just let them hang out and have coffee with students outside of class. Students appreciate the extra language exposure and most teachers enjoy coffee more than writing up lesson plans and cutting out activity cards….. or maybe I’m just talking about myself. – Thanks for the nice article.
Hey Nicholas, thank you for your thoughtful comment. I can really relate to the conclusion you’ve come to. I remember being really happy and relaxed at an ESL school where I didn’t have to open a textbook or touch a photocopier, because everything curriculum-wise was ready to roll. The students surely appreciated having a relaxed and energetic instructor, as opposed to a harried and resentful one (which we have all turned into, when forced to prep too much). On the other hand, I constantly draw on my teacher training, and even the bigger picture theory of teaching stuff from my M.Ed. Ah, the debate in my mind plays on. Thanks again for writing.