My ELT Services
Monitoring and Evaluation
Many large-scale education projects are funded by governments, NGOs or other donors and the monitoring and evaluation function explores how effective projects are in terms of meeting their predetermined outcomes, and how future iteration could be adapted. My approaches usually include an analysis of baseline data, stakeholder interviews, participant surveys, focus groups and where possible, classroom observations.
Recent monitoring and evaluation projects include:
January 2024 – May 2024 British Council, Ukraine. ELT Advisor to the M&E contract holder on the SWITLO project, advising on the Theory of Change, outcomes and their measurement, question formats etc.
February – April 2023, British Council, Palestine and Iraq. Monitoring and Evaluation of the ‘English for Freelancers’ (L4R) course including desk research, interviews, focus groups and an online survey, leading to a report with recommendations for revisions and future iterations.
CPD
Teacher development is at the centre of many of my projects, with delivery ranging from seminars to ten-day full-time courses. The use of the word ‘development’ and not ‘training’ is deliberate. The majority of teachers I work with are highly experienced primary and secondary English language teachers working in their home countries. Typically, my role is to help them sharpen their existing classroom tools and add some extra ones to support them in the creation of the best possible learning environment. All my teacher development work revolves around the principle that the teachers I work with know their context far better than I ever will and that a set of eyes and ears from outside can be an excellent way of ensuring the students get the best possible support from these teachers.
I also work extensively on train-the-trainer programmes, with teachers who are becoming supervisors or teacher educators or inspectors needing support with the coaching element of their job. These programmes are often structured around a master training course that will then be cascaded across the country, especially in fragile or hostile environments.
Recent CPD projects include:
the design and delivery of Train-the-Trainer programmes for Moroccan ministry of education school inspectors, for the British Council;
the design and delivery of Train-the-Trainer programmes for new teacher educators in the Iraqi ministry of education as part of their preparation to lead Teacher Activity Groups (Communities of Practice), for the British Council;
EPFC, Brussels, via Erasmus funding. The design and delivery of a two-day workshop around the integration of sustainability topics into modern foreign language classrooms for a further education college.
“Many thanks for this and making so much progress where we could this week. Much appreciated. At a first glance at the new content, it looks very strong indeed. Thank you.”
Authoring
My main area of writing is in the field of teacher CPD and can be divided into three categories.
Books
I author and contribute to books designed to support teachers with their CPD both formal as part of a structured teacher development course, or more informal and self-directed. Recent books and chapters have focused on:
21st century skills;
embedding climate change into ELT classes;
becoming a teacher educator – training-the-trainer;
classroom management;
sustainability in initial teacher training.
Bespoke CPD courses
I have written a significant number of CPD courses to be delivered to defined communities of teachers in their (often complex) settings around the world. The course content and approaches to delivery are based upon needs analysis including surveys, interviews with key stakeholders and focus groups.
Research Projects
I have also led and taken part in a number of research projects around ELT themes, leading to authoring a report with conclusions and recommendations for action.
Recent authoring projects include:
For the British Council, Jordan, the design of CPD workshops for teachers working in Syrian refugee camps as part of the Language for Resilience project, and the provision of orientation training for Jordanian teacher educators. These eight two-hour workshops build on teachers’ core skills and integrate approaches to the challenges of working with refugee students. Through the sessions, the teachers were encouraged to focus on context-specific approaches to DEI, multilingual approaches, and challenging behaviours across, and as part of, their teaching at all times;
for the British Council, working as a lead researcher (partnering with local researchers) on a project designed to evaluate and report on the scale, scope, content, and efficacy of online ELT CPD provision across six ASEAN countries. The provision of ELT CPD to isolated, marginalised, and IDP communities was a core part of the project;
British Council Climate Action in Language Education project. Researcher and author of a major report into the ELT sector and climate change. Involving desk research, online surveys, and interviews with key stakeholders.
Speaking and Advocacy
I regularly deliver keynote and plenary talks at ELT conferences on a variety of themes, working both online and where required face-to-face. I also engage in advocacy work in areas such as rights and opportunities for so-called non-native (a term I hate) teachers, gender equity in ELT (particularly amongst conference speakers) and around the interface between ELT and Sustainability.
Advocacy work is both inbuilt into my CPD work, delivered through my involvement with Green Action ELT and EVE-Equal Voices in ELT and through direct issue-based initiatives such as talks, forums, writing and podcasts.