Chapter 1 Table of Contents | Next Section
Teacher training and support is viewed as a major element in I-CANS. In preparing for training, we realized that it was necessary to first identify what competencies an instructor needed to be able to implement our systems approach to instruction. We are assuming that teachers are competent teachers of adults and that the new or different skills required by I-CANS will be the training outcomes. While our competency list does not include remaining current with on-going developments and research in the field, it is an expectation. Also, please note that these competencies are intended outcomes for the year of intensive implementation or two years of regular implementation.
THE NEW WORKPLACE
- Describe the changes in the workplace that lead to the New Basics to colleagues and students
- Identify new basic skills and explain them to students
- Establish linkages with local employers and unions as resources for planning and teaching
THE I-CANS SYSTEM
- Explain the reasons for the project
- Identify the components of the system and how they fit together
- Use the toolbook
effectively
- Describe three
broad dimensions of adult learning: motivation, cognition, and socio-cultural
context.
- Analyze the effects
of these on adult learning.
- Describe teaching
approaches that address these dimensions.
- Plan lessons that apply these approaches.
TEAM ORIENTED INSTRUCTION
- Identify the reasons
for using ream strategies to colleagues and students.
- Describe several approaches for ream instruction including cooperative learning.
- Choose appropriate
team strategies to fir specific learning goals.
- Plan and implement appropriate team learning activities according to stated criteria.
- Monitor learning groups to assure student involvement and task completion.
- Analyze group learning activities according to selected criteria
- Evaluate the results
of group learning activities.
- Identify and use
the five basic elements of cooperative learning
- Offer direct instruction to students on working effectively in groups including identifying and demonstrating appropriate individual roles in learning groups.
ASSESSMENT
- Identify the reasons
and appropriate times to assess student needs and progress.
- Identify the effects
of assessment for students.
- Compare and contrast
a variety of assessment approaches including standardized testing and
integrated assessment.
- Develop own criteria
for effective assessment.
- Select, create, and use assessment tools according to those criteria.
- Integrate assessment into lesson planning
CONTEXT BASED INSTRUCTION
- Explain the relationship between learning in context, the dimensions of the adult learner and the transferability of skills.
- Identify several approaches for integrating context into instruction
- Link skills to instruction involving specific real-world materials, tasks, and situations
- Understand that instruction needs to move from the concrete (context: balancing the cash drawer) to the abstract (skill: adding whole numbers)
- Carry out the steps of the theme process effectively.