Humanising Language Teaching
Year 2; Issue 2; January 2000
"Ten ways to innovate and change learning in the classroom"
by Tom Maguire
Page 1 of 1
1. Regard any comments from the students with interest.
2. Authorise students to do certain things on their own initiative.
3. Ask students to find positive points in each other's work.
4. Be positive freely and let your students know they capable.
5. See doubts as an integral step of the learning process.
6. Delegate control and count on limited occasions.
7. Make decisions, such as methodology changes, examination dates or assessment openly with others. Keep them informed.
8. Repeat everything - even if they had been listening they may not have understood it the first time.
9. Try delegating, even for giving out hand-outs.
10. Believe that teachers are ongoing learners. That's why they are interested in teaching.
This list is actually the result of a collaborative writing process which was in itself inspiring. I am a subscriber to a mailing list on NLP and education (in case any of you is interested, the name of the list is nlp-education and its address is: http://www.eGroups.com) One of the subscribers to the list, John Turner, sent a list with the 10 commandments for stifling change and innovation in any organisation. I transformed John's list into the '10 Commandments to stifle change and learning in the classroom', and then Tom did the definite update and transformed the list into positive commandments to foster learning and change in any classroom. I hope you find the result of our join effort uplifting.
