I hope you gain what you need from the book and I wish you success with your career.
Ann Gravells
Introduction
Introduction
Teaching and training is about helping someone to gain the skills and knowledge they need at a given point in time. The approaches and activities you can use to achieve this will be explained throughout the chapters of this book.
This chapter will explore how to use this book and what the further education and skills sector is. How to work towards a teaching qualification is covered, as is how to obtain a teaching position and evidence your practice.
You can work logically through the book starting with this chapter, or you can just look up appropriate topics in the index (at the back of the book) or the contents, to access aspects relevant to your current area of study or interest.
This chapter will cover the following topics:
• The structure of the book
• The further education and skills sector
• Qualifications and standards for teachers and trainers
• Study skills, academic writing and referencing
• Obtaining a teaching position and progressing further
• Evidence-based practice
The structure of the book
If you are aiming to be, or are a new or inexperienced teacher or trainer, this book is for you. It will guide you through the terminology, principles and practices of teaching and training, to enable you to understand what the role involves, and/or to work towards a relevant teaching qualification if necessary. Although the book has been written with new teachers in mind, it will also prove useful for anyone who teaches in any situation. For example, human resource staff, administrators, technicians, managers, or those in staff development and train the trainer roles. The book will also help experienced teachers and trainers refresh their knowledge of teaching and assessing learning.
Topics covered in the book include:
• the role of a teacher or trainer
• how to plan and prepare sessions for groups or individuals, in the workplace or in a teaching/training environment (on- or off-the-job respectively)
• how to deliver sessions using different teaching and learning approaches and activities
• how to communicate with learners and manage behaviour
• how to assess that learning has taken place
• how to evaluate your own practice to make improvements.
Due to the terminology used throughout the further education (FE) and skills sector, you will find lots of abbreviations and acronyms used within the book. A list of the most commonly used ones can be found in Appendix 1.
Activity
Take a look at Appendix 1 at the back of this book. This is a list of abbreviations and acronyms, some of which you might not have come across before. Choose five you are not familiar with, find out what they mean, and identify how relevant they are to you at this time.
The term learner is used throughout the book to denote anyone taking a qualification, a course or a programme of learning, who might not necessarily call themselves a learner. For example, apprentice, candidate, employee, participant, pupil, student or trainee. The terms course and programme will be used interchangeably throughout the book as they both reflect the way learning can take place. Different organisations use different terms.
This book will try to differentiate between teaching and training. However, someone who teaches might also train others: for example, teaching theory to a group, followed by training an individual to perform a task based on the theory just learnt. The term teacher might therefore be used more than trainer in the book. All teaching and training should enable learning to take place. The difference might be that a teacher works in an educational organisation, whereas a trainer works in a workshop or the workplace.
Your role as a teacher gives you the chance to help someone reach their full potential, and it can make a difference to their life and employment prospects. Working through this book will help you understand how to help your learners achieve this. Your job role might be called something other than a teacher or trainer. For example, coach, development officer, facilitator, instructor, lecturer, mentor, professor, supervisor, technician or tutor. Whatever you are called, your purpose will be to educate someone to ensure that learning takes place. Your learners should then be able to put this new learning into practice, demonstrating a change in their behaviour.
There are examples of real teaching situations within each chapter of the book to put the topics into context. There are also activities which you might like to carry out to help put theory into practice. At the end of each section within the chapters is an extension activity. This will stretch and challenge your learning further, for example, if you are working towards a teaching qualification. Completing these activities will help you develop your learning and contribute towards your continuing professional development (CPD). A self-assessment checklist at the end of every chapter will help you appreciate what you have learnt so far.
Depending upon where you are based, some of the legislation, regulations and organisations referred to in this book might only be applicable in England or the UK. If you are teaching internationally, you should check what is current and applicable in the country in which you work.
Example
In the UK, health and safety legislation is covered under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act (1974). In China, it’s known as Workplace Safety Law (2002 amended 2014), and in the USA, it’s the Occupational Safety and Health Act (1970).
Throughout the chapters there are examples of completed documents that could be used or adapted for teaching and training purposes. However, do check with the organisation you are working for, in case they have particular documents they require you to use. For the purpose of future-proofing the book, a year has not been added to any dates used within them. When completing any documents yourself, you should always add the year as well as the day and month, to create a full audit trail.
Appendix 2 at the back of the book contains a checklist for teachers and trainers. Although not all the points may apply to you, they might help you ensure that you are covering all aspects of the teaching process. Appendix 3 contains a few tips for new teachers and trainers.
If you are working towards a teaching qualification, you will find it useful to refer to other texts besides this one. A list of relevant books can be found at the end of each chapter. If your role also involves assessment and/or quality assurance, these topics are covered briefly in this book, although you might like to refer to more comprehensive texts.
Extension activity
Take a look at the list of books and websites at the end of this chapter. Make a list of those which you feel will be helpful to your role. Textbooks are usually available via the online store Amazon (www.amazon.com) which is accessible in most countries. You can often view a sample of a book online prior to making a purchase. If you have an internet connection, access www.anngravells.com/reading-lists/index and look at the reading lists and blogs which are listed. The reading lists contain books in pictures with links