Page 13 - ELG2001 Jan Issue 468

El•Gazette 468.qxp_El•Gazette 468 08/01/2020 15:57 Page 13

NEWS

Talking Turkish ELT

Teacher’s Pet
By Matt Salusubury mentors and the 142 teachers will
then work within their schools to
Twenty-two Turkish teachers organise and facilitate Teachers You’ve heard about the ‘flipped
recently completed a course at Activity Groups (TAGs) within classroom’ but how about a
Edinburgh College as part of their the Ankara region. ’flipped CELTA’? That’s the
training to become master According to Gray and Guven, future of training, according
mentors for the ELT component ”Teacher Activity Groups focus to International House (IH)
of Turkey’s Education Vision 2023 on regular, face-to-face meetings, London.
initiative. This initiative is, usually monthly, following a As those of us who
‘’arguably the largest and most flexible and adaptable programme nearly flipped out on our
important national education and based on resources from the ‘classic’ Celta or Delta
reform initiative in recent years,” British Council.” course know, much of the
according to the British Council’s If the Ankara pilot is successful, time on training courses has
ELT advisor Ben Gray. the programme will be rolled out traditionally been devoted to
The Council is partnering with country-wide, with a total of input sessions, and much
the Turkish Ministry of Education 2,400 teachers eventually homework is traditionally generated.
to deliver the Vision 2023 plan to participating in professional In IH London’s ‘flipped’ courses, the input is all put online.
reform Turkey’s entire ELT sector, activities led by trainers and the At the recent Future of Training conference at IH London, Michael
including the mentors’ master mentors. Turner, a member of the Flipping Training Panel, explained online core
programme. The Gazette talked to According to Gray, “You can’t content is, “bite-sized … not too long”. Instructions for a specific
Aysen Guven, director for train teachers to use innovative teaching task were described as “a screenful,” that trainees can “read in
education for the British Council approaches to ELT if state English a couple of minutes.”
in Turkey, and Ben Gray, who’s exams for university entry are still We don’t mean to be flippant, but what impressed the Gazette about
been supporting Guven and her based around translation and rote the new flipped training courses was that trainees reported THEY
team. learning.” SLEPT BETTER. Flipping marvellous!
The first cohort of master He added, “The great thing
mentors trained as part of this about what is happening in
programme, “are all teachers of Turkey is that the reform of ELT
English from the Ankara region,” is part of a sector-wide general
Naughty Corner
they told us. “They are education reform programme,
overwhelmingly female, but there which the government from the
were several men – 3 out of the president downwards is
22. This reflects the demographic committed to.” In a “precipitous fall from grace," to quote his lawyer, former principal
of teachers of English in state The Minister’s Director of of Dulwich College Shanghai, Dominic Charnock has been sentenced
schools in Turkey,” they added. Teacher Training and to 11 months in a Singapore jail for possession of the drug
Graduates from the Edinburgh Development, Dr Adnan Boyaci, methamphetamine, or crystal meth, as it is known to fans of Breaking
course will now work with 10 is involved alongside Aysen Bad.
international trainers to deliver a Guven in the daily running and When arrested, Charnock was working as a curriculum developer for
mentoring course to 142 teachers strategic planning of the Dulwich College Management International Limited. The company is
in November. The 22 master mentorship programme. registered in the Cayman islands, according to Dato Capital Cayman
Islands (www.datocapital.ky). It currently runs Dulwich schools in Asia,
EDINBURGH COLLEGE Dulwich College Overseas Enterprises, a trading company wholly-owned
licensing the name and intellectual property of Dulwich College from
by Dulwich College London, according to the 2018 Financial Statement
on the website of the 400 year-old London public school.
So that’s crystal clear – as is the fact that the Singapore police didn’t
say when they raided Charnock’s home.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The first group of master mentors Dulwich College, Shanghai
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