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TOEFL® Young Students Series as a matter of debate during the second Teacher Training
Teacher Training conducted live in Diepenheim.
As a part of the iBUILD IT project, a second Teacher Training week recently took place in Diepenheim, a small town in the eastern part of The Netherlands. ETS and ETS research teams have been involved with this project in a collective effort to implement the TOEFL Primary® tests and the TOEFL Junior® tests as an academic foundation to innovate the way English is being taught in primary and secondary schools across The Netherlands, Finland, and Denmark.
During the event, enthusiastic headteachers and teachers from the participating countries, together with the ETS Research team, ETS Global, and Goal Testing BV, met live for the first time, fostering incredible team spirit and eagerness for collaborative work, “It’s been good to meet other teachers and participants in real life. We have gotten a better understanding and idea of how to use group learning in our teaching and how the TOEFL® Assessments can support our work.” said Maria Rosing Moller, the teacher in Vester Nebel Skole. Mart Pepers from Obs Stedeke further added to this sentiment stating, ” The TOEFL® tests make it possible to differentiate in our English lessons.”.
The teacher training also featured a special workshop conducted on the potential uses of the TOEFL Young Student Series assessments for schools as a way of supporting students’ learning abilities and the effective use of assessment data in order to better evaluate students’ progress during the English learning process. A special guest from National Geographic Learning, Alex Warren, Senior ELT Academic Consultant at National Geographic Learning ELT, prepared two inspiring and practical workshops on the importance of curiosity and the novel approach to reading skill training in class.
Furthermore, The ETS Research Team, including Dr. Veronika Timple-Laughlin, Yeonsuk Cho, and Shinhye Lee, held a live workshop session. They administered a survey to all teachers during the Teacher training week to investigate how the transition of students from primary to secondary English education can be improved using the TOEFL Young Student Series assessments.
An interesting revelation that came from this: The goal of English language teaching shared by teachers in all three countries is to build and develop their students’ confidence in English communication.
For more information on the iBUILD-IT project, please visit the project website or refer to one of the previous updates listed below.