In this section you can find useful professional development resources – including articles, webinars, podcast episodes, research and teaching tips and tools – all to help you develop your skills and knowledge of Understanding my context.
What does 'Understanding my context' involve?
All teaching takes place in a certain place, at a certain time, and is therefore influenced by many factors. This professional practice describes the knowledge, skills, behaviours and attributes teachers need to be able to understand their context so that teaching is relevant and appropriate. It involves:
understanding and describing your context at the level of:
- your classroom
- your school or institution
- your community, my region
- your education system
- your country, the wider world
understanding and evaluating the appropriacy of educational policies, practices and resources and how they impact on your teaching
developing an understanding of why people are learning English, and learning through English, and how this affects how and what I teach
developing an understanding of attitudes to English and to the role that English plays in relation to other subjects
understanding the implications of using English as a language of teaching and learning in comparison with learning English as a subject
identifying and describing the possibilities and limitations for teaching and learning in your context (e.g. being creative and innovative with the available resources; identifying possibilities to exercise your own agency and decision making; identifying opportunities to work with other subject teachers and/or English language teachers)
reflecting on your approach to understanding your context and the impact that has on teaching and learning.
