Page 45 - The SpeakTeach method - Esther de Vrind
P. 45

seems that in complex situations people usually endeavour to improve the existing situation by recombining and adapting the existing building blocks.
Conditions that a reform needs to meet in order to be seen as practical by teachers can be deduced from this research into decision-making (practicality theory, Doyle & Ponder, 1977; Janssen et al., 2013). First, teachers need to know how they can translate criteria for desirable teaching into concrete teacher behaviour and student activities (instrumentality). Second, the new approach has to be achievable within a set period of time and with the resources available (low cost). Third, the approach should not conflict with other aims that teachers are also required to fulfil in their lessons. This means that the aims of the curriculum reform have to fit in with current teaching practices and other goals that need to be met in class (coherence).
The Bridging Model was developed based on these insights to make education reforms practical without losing sight of the essence of the reform (Janssen et al., 2013). It is a modular approach in which a reform is described as far as possible in terms of existing segments, or building blocks, of regular practice. Teachers can make gradual changes in the direction of the curriculum reform by means of small recombinations, series of recombinations and/or adaptations of existing building blocks taken from their existing teaching. The practicality of the education reform is increased by recombining and adapting existing lesson segments. This ensures that teachers know how they can fit this approach into their own teaching practice (instrumentality), in a way that does not demand a lot of extra time and resources (low cost) and which fits in with their current teaching practices (coherence).
3.2.2 Design principles for a practical adaptive method for speaking skills in modern foreign languages
This section describes how we make the adaptive method for teaching speaking skills in modern foreign languages practical for teachers in regular secondary schools. First, the regular teaching practice is broken down into building blocks (Janssen et al., 2013; 2015).
Regular teaching in building blocks
Effective foreign language acquisition contains the following components (Driessen, Westhoff, Haenen & Brekelmans, 2008): input; learning activities aimed at content-oriented processing and learning activities aimed at form-oriented processing; output (writing and speaking
42
43
 3

























































































   43   44   45   46   47