What can I do for YOU?
...'revisions' that totally confused parents, students, teachers...even God herself!This is not how Ziya Hoca does busyness and his appointment has, on the whole, been met with a lot of praise and given a lot of educators 'hope' (whatever you may think about Erdoğan, stupid he is not...not at all)! 8 So, why am I writing this post? Well...on a lot of the Leadership and Middle Management Training programmes I run, we talk about what 'new leaders' have to do in their first 90 days in office (regardless of experience, qualifications and 'personal vision')... Top of the list:
SHUT UP!
ASK QUESTIONS!
LISTEN!Hence, the title of this post... 8 I've been chatting to a lot of friends on the phone since the appointment (mostly because I can't leave the house...after a 'fight' with a 6cm step left me with 4 fractures in my foot, a ripped calf on the other leg, bruised ribs...and a shiriously red-faced ego! Size really doesn't matter!!!) and talking about what Ziya Hoca could do to improve the quality of language learning, teaching and assessment across canım Türkiyem. A few ideas are:
Work closely with the Council for Higher Education (YÖK) and Universities with ELT Departments to ensure teachers-in-training are given more opportunities to actually graduate with higher levels of fluency and accuracy (at least a minimum of CEFR - B2+/C1 or GSE 70-78) - via language support across all 4 years of their courses, 6-month exchange programmes with schools in the UK, US or Canada, etc.
Ensure every school has access to a Professional Learning Budget for its language departments and has the authority to use this budget to meet the 'bottom-up' needs of teachers.
Create training opportunities that tackle the serious issues of 'content-driven' or 'activity-based' teaching that are the product of schools' obsessions with 'covering the textbook' and develop teacher ability to meet commonly-agreed learning outcomes by creating motivating and engaging learning opportunities - not simply turning pages like a burger-flipper at Macdonalds.
Remove the current conventional wisdom that language tests have to be dominated by 'objective' multiple-choice questions and prepare the groundwork for a fundamental shift towards 'formative assessment' in our language classrooms and the use of valid and reliable 'communicative tests' which prioritise the importance of speaking.
NEVER, ever...ever...repeat the 'cock-up' that was the Fatih Project! There are many, many more... 8
If Ziya Hoca asked YOU, what would you tell HIM?8