Page 33 - ELG1909 Sep Issue 466

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RANKING 2019 Great teachers make UK Language Centres

Strategic and quality management Student administration Academic management great schools

If you score highly on ‘Teaching and Learning’, you’re likely to be in our rankings,

Percentile Score Institution Type Staff management Publicity Premises and facilities Learning resources Academic staff profile Course design Learner management Teaching Care of students Accommodation Leisure opportunities Care of under 18s fi nds Melanie Butler nearly 90 per cent of Centres of Excellence mark, while at British Study Centres, EF

eacher quality predicts instructional

6.32 Oxford House College, London NEW PLS:A quality and student achievement.” That achieving a strength in this area, compared to International and Kaplan, every school but
is the conclusion of a study involving
twenty percent in all other accredited centres.
one made the grade.
T205,515 students from 47 countries. Two schools in the top 2 per cent, Bell Right at the top of our rankings, Lake
6.32 Pembrokeshire College NEW PLS:A been found in the vast majority of studies in Cambridge and English in Chester, tick School of English and Discovery Summer
FE
This is no surprise. The same result has
both get a strength in every one of the five
every criterion in this area.
Regent Cambridge
6.32
mainstream education and there is no reason
TOP 30% (cont) 6.32 St. Brelade's College NEW PLS:A to believe it is any different in EFL. thing to look out Teaching
criteria under this heading.
The biggest
But does the quality of the teachers and
the teaching predict the overall quality of the
This area covers what inspectors see during
Uni
6.32
Swansea University NEW
school? To find out, we analysed the results of
classroom observation, perhaps the critical
University of Bradford
6.32
Uni
our Centres of Excellence across all five areas
inspected by the British Council under the for here is the number test of teaching quality.
Once again, the centres in our rankings
of teachers without
6.32 University of Greenwich Uni heading teaching and learning, and compared fare well. They are more than twice as likely
them to the average results for accredited degrees. to receive an area of strength in teaching than
6.32 University of Nottingham Uni language centres. The results are amazing. other accredited providers.
This is also an area of the report which is
Academic Staff Profile Learner management worth reading carefully, because it is made up
KEY Centre Types: Biz Business and professional training centre This covers the qualifications of teachers This deals largely with the progress the of eight individual criteria, and the inspectors
BS Boarding School and academic managers, which turns out to student makes, including level testing, forms also comment on the range in the quality
FE Further Education College be a good proxy for overall school quality: of assessment used and progress monitoring. of teaching given. This gives a clue to the
area of strength 80 per cent of all private language schools This area really sorts out the wheat from ‘collective efficacy of teachers’. Nile Norwich is
HT Home Tuition and summer operators who receive an area the chaff. Although more than 100 of the the only centre we have found which is marked
needs improvement PLS:A Private Language School primarily accepting adults 16+ of strength for this appear in our Centre of centres in our rankings have a strength in this as strong in every single criterion in the area
not applicable PLS:Y Private Language School primarily catering for young learners under 16 Excellence ranking. That includes all thirteen area, that falls to 15 per cent when we look at of teaching. It’s also one of only two schools in
NEW new Centre of Excellence SS Summer School centres ranked in the top 2 per cent in our unranked schools. our analysis where ‘the majority of teaching
Ï higher score since last report TT Teacher Training Specialist rankings. observed’ was reported to be ‘excellent’, the
Ð lower score since last report Uni University Language Centre Across all accredited centres, just Course design other being Discovery Summer.
over 17 per cent are awarded a strength in More than 80 per cent of Centres of Overall, the evidence supports our
The information in this table is based on the Summary Statements for each centre as of 1 August 2019. this area, but the results vary dramatically Excellence have an area of strength in course hypothesis: the better you are at teaching
The Summary Statement can be found on page 1 of the Full Report for every accredited centre. across the different sectors. Though over half design. The chain schools score well here, and learning, the more likely you are to be
of all university language sectors score an area
with all five Eurocentres schools hitting the
a Centre of Excellence.
These can be found at https://www.britishcouncil.org/education/accreditation/centres. of strength, that number falls to only
one in ten private language schools.
When reading through the reports, UNSPLASH
the biggest thing to look out for here
is the number of teachers without
degrees. According to the study
quoted above, the single biggest
predictor of teacher quality is level of
general education; teacher preparation
programmes have a much lower effect.
Yet levels of non-graduate teachers
are rising in UK EFL, with 46 per
cent of accredited centres and 30
per cent of Centres of Excellence
having one non-graduate teacher
or more, based on our research
from 2018.
Academic Management
Studies indicate that academic
leadership is crucial in the EFL
world, and has a particularly strong
effect in the UK.
Indeed, this turns out to be
another key indicator of a great
all-round language centre, with Studies show that the single biggest predictor of teacher quality is level of general education.
32 September 2019 editorial@elgazette.com 33