East Asia/Pacific - Former Fellow Highlights

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EL Fellow Benjamin Clarke Conducts Outreach Workshop at Zhejiang Dongfang Vocational and Technical College
Benjamin Clarke
EL Fellow in Wenzhou, China
Wenzhou University
Cycle AY 2009-2010
On April 20, 2010 EL Fellow Benjamin Clarke was brought to Zhejiang Dongfang Vocational and Technical College to conduct a workshop relating to Western culture and its implications for business relationships.  He was warmly welcomed by both students and faculty of the college at the well-attended event.
Clarke gave some background information relating to popular Western ideas about customer service and then engaged the workshop participants in interactive learning tasks.  These hands-on tasks were designed to illustrate the main points of the lecture while offering students a chance to practice their oral English skills.
Professor “Daniel” Wu was Clarke’s host and main organizer of the event.  He teaches in the English for Business department at the Zhejiang Dongfang Vocational and Technical College. He invited Clarke based on recommendations from students at Wenzhou Universitywhere Clarke serves as a faculty member

MICRO TEACHING

Microteaching is a training technique whereby the teacher reviews a videotape of the lesson after each session, in order to conduct a "post-mortem". Teachers find out what has worked, which aspects have fallen short, and what needs to be done to enhance their teaching technique. Invented in the mid-1960s at Stanford University by Dr. Dwight Allen, micro-teaching has been used with success for several decades now, as a way to help teachers acquire new skills.  In the original process, a teacher was asked to prepare a short lesson (usually 20 minutes) for a small group of learners who may not have been her own students. This was videotaped, using VHS. After the lesson, the teacher, teaching colleagues, a master teacher and the students together viewed the videotape and commented on what they saw happening, referencing the teacher's learning objectives. Seeing the video and getting comments from colleagues and students provided teachers with an often intense "under the microscope" view of their teaching.  Micro lessons are great opportunities to present sample "snapshots" of what/how you teach and to get some feedback from colleagues about how it was received. It's a chance to try teaching strategies that the teacher may not use regularly. It's a good, safe time to experiment with something new and get feedback on technique.

Microteaching is a training technique whereby the teacher reviews a videotape of the lesson after each session, in order to conduct a "post-mortem". Teachers find out what has worked, which aspects have fallen short, and what needs to be done to enhance their teaching technique. Invented in the mid-1960s at Stanford University by Dr. Dwight Allen, micro-teaching has been used with success for several decades now, as a way to help teachers acquire new skills.  In the original process, a teacher was asked to prepare a short lesson (usually 20 minutes) for a small group of learners who may not have been her own students. This was videotaped, using VHS. After the lesson, the teacher, teaching colleagues, a master teacher and the students together viewed the videotape and commented on what they saw happening, referencing the teacher's learning objectives. Seeing the video and getting comments from colleagues and students provided teachers with an often intense "under the microscope" view of their teaching.  Micro lessons are great opportunities to present sample "snapshots" of what/how you teach and to get some feedback from colleagues about how it was received. It's a chance to try teaching strategies that the teacher may not use regularly. It's a good, safe time to experiment with something new and get feedback on technique.