Demand High A DELTA Experimental Practice?

How did it go, Simon? Good they showed they had understood the language point through giving correct answers at the feedback stage after the controlled practice? Well X did, but what about Y? And Z? They just listened to another student give the correct answer.

Experimental Practice
The best thing about the DELTA is its focus on professional development. Module 2 Developing Professional Practice is not just about becoming a good enough teacher to negotiate four nerve-wracking observations. Rather, its about reflecting on yourself as a teacher, highlighting areas of weakness and acting upon them both within the DELTA and in your professional future. A large part of this is explored in the professional development section of the module involving a series of unassessed diagnostic lessons, which are followed by group discussions, reflective writing and action plans. Three quarters of the way through this, you undertake an Experimental Practice, in which you are encouraged to try something new. As simple as that. Not radical necessarily, not different for the sake of difference, just new. So, I did my diagnostics and got my feedback. In general, the feedback was good. Good rapport, understanding of EFL best practices and so on and so forth. My biggest problem was being able to justify each stage of a class (something which seemed to be a uniform issue across my peer group), but a more personal developmental area was the mechanics of feedback stages in my lessons. Are all the students engaged? Are you sure they all understand? What are they learning in this stage?

Demand High
Demand High is concerned with upgrading student language at the moment when they need it. Scrivener writes that demand that comes precisely at the point where the learner is capable of taking the next steps forward and helping the learner meet that

demand, rather than ignore it. This is a doable demand. (Scrivener & Underhill, 2012) This means assessing the teachers management of the classroom and allowing students more time to negotiate answers with each other, discuss reasons and hypotheses, and argue or agree. Gattegnos principle of The Subordination of Teaching to Learning explores replacing the teachers role as a presenter of fact with that of someone who sets challenges for students to conquer. During this process, rather than surrendering the answer when the student meets difficulty, the teacher probes, questions and demands. Demand High concerns itself with techniques (known as tweaks) that can be used in the classroom to deliver and help students to overcome these challenges. In summary: Demand High is not a method, rather a series of tweaks Demand High is not necessarily new as far as its principles go, but the tweaks are new to me. The second point made me sure that the tweaks were viable as a basis for my Experimental Practice.

Joining the Two

The Experimental practice is a single lesson, accompanied by a 2,500 word essay. Clearly, it isnt possible to address all the tweaks that Demand High presents. I saw the process as an opportunity to start a dialogue between my academic and professional selves something that I could use to inform future choices and experimentation with Demand High. I chose two tweaks: 1. Not rubberstamping / Not seeing the teacher as a hub Put simply, not accepting the first correct answer from a student at the feedback stage. Instead, inviting others to give their ideas, to agree / disagree and to interact with each other, while the teacher observes. (See http://demandhighelt.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/demand-high-observation-task-2tracking-the-question-pathway-au-js-pub.pdf and the Comprehensible Output Hypothesis in Second Language Acquisition Rod Ellis)

2. Working one on one within the group Not being afraid to work with a single student at the moment when they need teacher input the most, and not assuming that other students will be left out during this process (See Underhill on http://demandhighelt.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/one-toone-teaching-within-a-group/)

Outcomes
Working One on One Peripheral students were mouthing phrases to themselves learning along and ten out of twelve of the students fed back positively, saying that they felt like they were really learning Two out of twelve students felt singled out and embarrassed by the one-on-one process and couldnt keep a straight face when asked to repeat faster / tweak pronunciation or recycle a sentence with a different verb Not rubberstamping Students were reluctant to orally disagree with others; even if it seemed clear they had different answers. However, the feedback suggested that the majority would not be averse to being corrected by peers.

Conclusions
1. Experimenting with the techniques was useful to me - in that it opened me up to a wider range of possibilities for deeper interaction patterns. It also helped me to feel more comfortable with the idea of really teaching 2. Demand High may not be for all students not all responses were positive, but was this due to a lack of exposure / comfort with these techniques, or was it more related to Krashens comprehensible input hypothesis? Perhaps

pushing interaction patterns with questioning would encourage students to question each other more? 3. Student response to Demand High may vary depending on level It is wholly possible that a feeling of comfort / autonomy present with higher level learners may reduce pressures felt by a higher level of demand in the classroom 4. I want to experiment further the Experimental Practice can only be a starting point. What this means is that my action plan the final part of the essay was easy to write. I have so many questions that are yet to be answered, many of them about the success of these tweaks in different environments and classrooms.

Demand High A DELTA Experimental Practice?

Most importantly, I suppose, my essay and lesson passed the assignment. So, in that respect, Cambridge are happy with Demand High as an experimental practice. However, I find it more crucial that I completed my assignment with the following: A sense of personal development A larger set of unanswered questions than I started out with

I have come to the conclusion that the latter is essential to personal development: the day I stop asking questions about teaching and learning is the day I stop being a teacher.