The Classroom and the World (FutureLearn)

Offered by British Council,
The Classroom and the World (FutureLearn)

Take control of your CPD and learn how to integrate 21st century skills and ICT into your English classroom. This teachers’ CPD course is dedicated to exploring tech and soft skills for the 21st century and how to incorporate them into your English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. Focusing on professional practices outlined in the British Council’s teacher development framework, it will build your knowledge and confidence in: Integrating ICT into the classroom Promoting 21st century skills Using multilingual approaches Understanding educational policies and practice.

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Promote tech and soft skills in your English classroom
Building the right skills to succeed in the 21st century is one of the biggest challenges facing educators. While ICT skills are important, so are critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. This course covers all of these skills and looks at how you can help your students build them while improving their English language.

Integrate new technology into your teaching practice
How can we use mobile phones to aid learning? And what is the best way to analyse teaching technology that will help your students develop English skills outside the classroom? This course covers a range of technology options and gives you the tools you need to find your own favourites.

Learn from experienced English teachers and grow your teaching resources
Your learning will be supported by video interviews with experienced teachers and downloadable teaching resources at every stage. You will also see classroom videos demonstrating how other teachers have put these techniques into action.
What topics will you cover?
Promoting 21st century skills

  • Understanding 21st century skills
  • Critical thinking
  • Collaboration and communication
  • Fostering creativity

Integrating technology

  • How does technology affect the way we teach
  • Evaluating technology
  • Technology, autonomy and collaboration

Understanding educational policies and practice

  • How educational policy affects teachers
  • Child protection
  • Internet safety
  • Applying policy

Using multilingual approaches

  • Your classroom linguistic context
  • The impact of other languages on learning
  • Multilingual teaching approaches
  • World Englishes and the future of English

Learning on this course
You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

  • Compare teaching approaches and experience with others from around the world.
  • Assess the relevance of 21st century skills for English language learners.
  • Discuss the impact that technology has had on what and how we teach.
  • Evaluate a range of learning technologies and their usefulness.
  • Explore the impact that national policies have on classroom practice.
  • Reflect on the importance of child protection and consider whose role its implementation should be.
  • Assess the importance and influence of learners' L1 in their language learning.

Who is the course for?
This course is aimed at English language teachers at all levels. You will need an intermediate level English (around B1 on the CEFR) in order to engage with the course materials.

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