Proud to be tvmbo - Kortlopend Onderwijsonderzoek

Feesten en vieringen - Suriname, Curaçao, Nederland - Nederlands
Ondernemend leren - Suriname, Curaçao, Nederland - Nederlands
Colours and sounds of our country - Suriname, Curaçao, Nederland - Engels
Why do teachers consider Learning Circles to work for tvmbo? Students are interested
in the topic, and are motivated and excited to communicate with other students from
other countries. The project involves real communication and helps to improve their
English. Furthermore, students are proud to participate in a multicultural project and
notice the level of other students in other countries (often worse than their own!). At
the end of the project, they are proud of what they achieve. Another reason that learning
circles work is that they are student-centred: students think of the questions and
work on what they want to learn.
Authentic materials are also considered motivating. Teachers mentioned music, recordings
from YouTube, stories, newspapers, leaflets, films, poetry, short stories and
pictures. Learning about national festivals in English-speaking countries was also
something that teachers felt that helped their students to learn: for example, a lesson on
Halloween
Structure and strong personality
Several teachers mentioned that tvmbo students need special, personal attention and
contact. Also mentioned were the personality and classroom skills of the teachers. It
was considered that a strong personality and a good voice are helpful. Students need to
feel safe to speak English - some are afraid and need encouragement to experiment.
The teacher also needs to be clear that students should not laugh at each other’s attempts
at English.
Lots of structure is also considered important. Some ways of creating structure were
mentioned, for example posters of standard sentences hung in all the classrooms as a
learning aid (Can you repeat that? Please may I go to the toilet? How do you say
_______ in English?). If group work is done, teachers advise their colleagues to group
boys and girls together, not to group friends together, and to work in different groups
each time. And activities in groups should involve tasks where every student has a different
task and/or role, so that they are equally and simultaneously active.
Other classroom strategies which were mentioned were crystal clear instructions and
telling exactly what you expect from your students. Vitally important, too, is to check
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