tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post6042975378769805393..comments2024-03-08T13:06:37.359-08:00Comments on The Joy of ESL Blog: Getting into the Swing of ThingsKellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08182881635816655061noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post-82901470539010061652017-10-09T17:14:08.950-07:002017-10-09T17:14:08.950-07:00Sleepless,
I hear you. --KSleepless,<br />I hear you. --KKellyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08182881635816655061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post-1460233262524707572017-10-06T04:25:09.353-07:002017-10-06T04:25:09.353-07:00https://hartlelearning.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/th...https://hartlelearning.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/the-price-of-freedom-a-few-thoughts-on-learner-autonomy/<br /><br />Read "emma mentioned a project in Belgium where learners had been given the freedom to design and negotiate their own course, but which had actually had very negative results and which would tend to underline the fact that learners, just like all the rest of us, find it difficult to cope with complete freedom and seek guidance. After all, the thinking goes, “I am paying to do a course so I expect some expertise for my money!”<br /><br />"Jemma, in fact, explained that much of here course is not ‘up for negotiation’ but one part that can be is the portfolio which counts for 25% of the final exam. scaffolding learner autonomythe level of task negotiation or topic choice etc. is much more realistic and ultimately rewarding both for the learners and the teachers. Learners, who are provided with clear guidelines, within an existing framework, are, in fact, often very happy to ‘take responsibility’ for certain aspects of their learning, and teachers are able to help them taking on increasingly the role of facilitators of learning rather than providers. "<br /><br />PBLA is a huge bungle of misguided ideas. Maybe Norm Friesen can be hired to work it out or help it be scrapped.<br /><br />http://blogs.ubc.ca/nfriesen/2017/08/01/good-teaching-is-about-tact-not-interaction-or-scaffolding/<br /><br />Sleepless but HopefulAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post-6985582274079899862017-10-02T18:50:45.026-07:002017-10-02T18:50:45.026-07:00Hullo,Sleepless,
Unprofessional. That's how on...Hullo,Sleepless,<br />Unprofessional. That's how one teacher described what we look like to students as we twist and turn to do our best to comply with the (insane) requirements of the PortfolioBasedLearningAssessment unique-to-Canada experiment. We know it is bogus. We know it makes no sense, is illogical, not intelligent. The "Lead Trainers" know it. They know it is being made up as we go along. Everyone is doing something different. Everything about it is amateur. The premise ("standardization") is absurd. The academic underlinning are unsound; the research supporting this was low quality (see the video of Prof Norm Friesen's presentation to TEAM https://vimeo.com/218740537<br />The "in house" research conducted on the first group in Manitoba was unscientific (understatement) and the CIC commissioned research (90 teachers in Ottawa region) was,to the best of my knowledge not anonymous!!! The implementation is draconian and heavy handed, plodding and destructive. <br />But governments often don't wait for proven results from research......<br />What astounds me is the wilful disregard of feedback from many many sources for the past nearly three years. You would think that the policy analysts, education managers, information officers, integration civil servants etc would want to be on the right side of history!!!Teachers have been blamed for the shortcomings: "anxious teachers", "struggling teachers", "bad teachers". But it is the process that is fatally flawed - not us teachers who have given years of intelligent, thoughtful, caring, professional service and are still using our knowledge, experience, critical faculties to say "Stop this insanity."<br /> As another commenter on this blog wrote"PBLA"PortfolioBasedLearningAssessment experiment) "hurts everyone." Admin, Leads, Instructors - and (I am adding) most reprehensibly the learners, newcomers to Canada, caught up in this weird exleriment in Training at Scale (a whole country<br />Where does that leave us guinea pigs? (BTW -the Lead who says "It will take two more years to get used to" is just as much a guinea pig as you and I.) I think if we have the perspective that this that this IS the biggest government error in the history of the ESL industry there is some comfort in knowing that truth will out. And I have become convinced that as this is a political issue, not an educational one, the only remedy, as others have said, is political...(unless you want to wait two years to "get used to it" :-)<br />Talk to your MPs and MPPs. <br />And tell your unions to ask their executives for advice as to how union members can take political action. Thst is what I intend to do.<br /><br /><br />claudiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00203496693621797550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post-46732923235364421612017-09-29T03:22:14.742-07:002017-09-29T03:22:14.742-07:00Sleepless,
I'm glad that this blog has helped....Sleepless,<br />I'm glad that this blog has helped. I know that there are those who like PBLA. And I know that the pushers won't stop saying things like, "It's not perfect, but..." and telling us that it's up to us to make it better with our feedback. But right now there is a crisis taking place before our very eyes that we can see if we care enough to stop and look around. Good teachers are leaving or going to the supply list to avoid the very stressful responsibility of PBLA with 50 students. I have a spy at a nearby provincially funded school whose reports tell me that some teachers are ready to snap or have already made that trip round the bend. <br />Let's agree to take good care of ourselves as this all plays out. --KKellyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08182881635816655061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7828415387916366867.post-86551935822987001312017-09-26T17:18:56.941-07:002017-09-26T17:18:56.941-07:00Hi Kelly,
Your blog has helped me survive the cha...Hi Kelly,<br /><br />Your blog has helped me survive the chaos of PBLA. TDSB union meeting to sort out the problems that PBLA is causing. This is nothing short of a nightmare. Who thought up this disaster? <br /><br />SleeplessAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com