Seminars & Workshops

The Thinking Approach Project team regularly runs seminars and workshops for teachers. These can be events starting from one-two hours to a week long courses. We are always happy to share our experience on the topic of thinking skills in language education. You can see possible topics for such seminars below, however we are always ready to develop a course to meet specific needs for your context. You can also download a list of seminars as a leaflet.

1. The Thinking Approach to Language Teaching - an Introductory Course (36 hours)

One of the tendencies of the modern education is a closer attention to the development of thinking skills of students. Language teaching is not an exception. Numerous materials  can be mentioned in connection with  thinking. For practical teachers however, it is often not clear how thinking skills of their own learners can be developed. Moreover, the definition of thinking skills often remains blurred.
The proposed seminar presents teachers with the Thinking Approach to language teaching - a possible framework for a systematic development of students' thinking skills. Each module of the approach is presented with many classroom examples. Participants will receive over 100 pages of handouts, most of which they can freely use in their own classrooms.

 

2. The Thinking Approach to Language Teaching - Advanced Course (36 hours) - participants must have successfully completed the Introductory Course.

This seminar is aimed at teachers who intend to integrate elements of the Thinking Approach (TA) in their own teaching. Participants are offered more specific training on each module of the TA. Various approaches to designing a TA based syllabus are presented. The seminar includes a number of practical sessions dealing with TA materials design and their adaptation to specific classrooms.   

 

3. Developing an Autonomous Learner (36 hours) 

Learner autonomy is a buzz word of the modern world of education. However, it often remains unclear what could be done on a practical level.
This seminar will present a set of specific tools designed within the Thinking Approach to develop learner autonomy and integrate this process in the language teaching syllabus. Participants will be offered a large pack of practical materials and will be expected to try them out in their classrooms.

 

4. What Makes Grammar Creative? (36 hours)

Creative grammar has recently become quite a popular notion. Everyone agrees that creativity must be present in the language classroom. At the same time, the transmitted image of creative grammar on the market appears to be rather restricted. Creativity is usually defined as doing something artistic, and ‘creative’ grammar materials hardly ever bring serious changes to the syllabus.
The given seminar will offer an alternative approach to creativity in grammar. It will focus on practical aspects of teaching. Participants will be offered a large pack of practical materials and will be expected to try them out in their classrooms.

 

5. 101 Things to Do with Texts - towards the Quantity Quality Equilibrium (36 hours)

We tend to believe that language teaching always develops students' thinking skills. Unfortunately, it does not appear to be the case. A full scaled development of thinking skills demands for a specially prepared programme. The given seminar will present a part of such a programme, namely the one dealing with the use of texts in the language classroom. Participants will be offered a large pack of practical materials and will be expected to try them out in their classrooms.

6. The English Language Puzzland - the Thinking Approach Tasks for Primary School (36 hours)

Many teachers recognise an importance to develop students' thinking skills, however it is often associated with older students. Primary learners are as if too young to deal with challenging tasks.
This seminar presents various ways of bringing the Thinking Approach to primary school. It deals with text based trainings, creative grammar exercises and games which allow for a simulteneous development of language and thinking skills.

 

7. TAing your Coursebook - Coaching Sessions (from 8 hours)

Many teachers wishing to introduce the TA into their teaching find it difficult to integrate the TA materials with the coursebook they are using. The aim of this seminar is to help you introduce the principles of the TA into your classroom with minimal changes to the currently used materials. As a result of the seminar, teachers are expected to have an idea about the major principles of the TA and have several units of their coursebooks revisited from the TA viewpoint. 

 

8. Going online - Use of ICT for the Development of Learners' Language and Thinking Skills (36 hours)

Only lazy ones are not speaking about the use of technology in the learning process. At the same time, most teachers face a number of problems when trying to integrate ICT in the learning process: lack of skills, limited access to computers and internet, few hours, etc. This seminar will offer a number of practical solution.

 

At each of our seminars, participants receive a large set of handouts which they can use with their own students.

If you would like to have more detailed information about any of the above seminars, please do not hesitate to contact us.