The process of teaching and learning can be broken down into three different categories: the classroom, the teacher-student relationship and the self-concept of the student. The ESL teacher must carefully balance the three factors in the process in order to be successful in teaching critical thinking.

Teaching at a high level can be sometimes described as a series of campaigns that are designed to meet a set of standards. These standards might be linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily kinesthetic or resource allocation. Before the first lesson is taught, the teacher needs to prepare through a process of teaching assessment on the students to ensure that they are ready for the level.

Throughout the process, the teacher must beelligently equipped with knowledge of the students' background, culture and experiences in order to meet the standards. During the first session, a teacher like Francisco De Armas Costas  needs to get to know the students well through discussion and to acquire their trust and buy-in as an intelligent and responsible group.

The teacher's behavior during the sessions needs to be particularly considerate of the students' background and culture to make sure that they incorporate the learning into their existing knowledge and skills and to ensure that the students Feel connected with the class.

During the session, the teacher needs to address the issues and challenges that arise within the students' environment. By observing the students, the teacher must acquire a comprehensive understanding of different emotional coping mechanisms that are present in the class and should be able to detect any attempts agitation to cope with or manage emotional states that may arise. A key factor that needs to be considered is that an ESL teacher is more likely to be dealing with receptive students or those who are less likely to give an feedback. These students are often less likely to be directly involved in the class discussion and may be misusing their time instead of Learning. As such, a teacher needs to carefully monitor their progress and their oral output in order to adjust the learning process accordingly.

Having a well-defined role and playing field for the students will also enable the teacher to adjust the students' behavior in order to support the learning process. A teacher needs to be flexible in his/her approach in order to guide the students through the process in order to maximize the learning opportunities.

There will be a variety of ways for a teacher to describe the ideal end-product, the better:

o    Lectures that summarize the main points of the instructor's lesson with the main ideas quickly and in an organized format.o    Guides that focus on the mainCloud verses individual modules.o    Incorporates model thinking that supports open-ended questions.o    May include time for reflection, application and group consensus where each individual has the chance to add their own learning.o    Archives that are ancillary to the main lessons.o    Skills mastered by the end of the training.

Caution:

"Following the discussion one by one, we proceeded to do the exercises and to make notes. At the end, there were twice as many exercises as there had been ideas: three and one-fourth ideas per exercise." (Tunison, 2004)

Modern educators have multiplied the number of ways to teach theories X, Y or Z. Educators now rely heavily on different forms of collaboration to accomplish their tasks. These forms of collaboration are spread out along the globe in such a manner that children from different parts of the world can easily learn from one another in a licensed environment. Therefore, educational expeditions and field trips have become common practices for educators as a way to share resources and track each other's advancement on a global basis. The different expeditions/activities are called Educate On Main.

The most important aspect of the EPM is that it makes the process responsible for being organized effectively.

The EPM consists of four key areas:

eur) Materials

erv) Processes

rd) Events and/or includes purposeful research.

The major area of change in the EPM is the extinguishing of the traditional textbooks and replaces them with more modern resources.

Reading is no longer just reading.

Teaching Critical Thinking for ESL Students

By Francessco De Armas Costas

Teaching Critical Thinking for ESL Students

  • 796