The COVID-19 pandemic has demanded that ELICOS colleges look for non-traditional opportunities and revenue streams amidst the greatest threat that the sector has ever faced. To face this challenge, ACU English Language Centre turned to an opportunity to support primary school teachers and staff in literacy, grammar and language conventions.
Find out more about what this entailed in an interview between Donna Cook, National Manager, ACU English Language Centre and Sassy Lewin, Widening Participation Officer | Equity Pathways, Global and Education Pathways, Australian Catholic University, the architects of the program..
Donna: Why did you feel that there was a need that the English Language Centre may be able to help with?
Sassy: ACU’s Equity Pathways Team was looking to expand its professional development offerings for Widening Participation schools on a national scale. Schools had identified their need for more support for primary school teachers and staff in the areas of literacy, grammar and language conventions. This led to a collaboration between the Equity Pathways team and the English Language Centre, where the skills and expertise of the teachers at the English Language Centre were utilised to develop and facilitate the professional development program for Widening Participation partner schools.
Donna: Who are our equity partner schools and why did you expect that these webinars would be useful for their teachers?
Sassy: Widening Participation schools are either located in a low socio-economic area or are in a regional/rural/remote location. These schools often don’t have the resources or budget for extensive professional development programs for their teachers and staff. As such, free webinars that strengthen staff knowledge and promote new skills that can be easily translated into the classroom are very useful. Before designing the webinars, Equity Pathways staff consulted with schools in their networks to identify professional development needs. Increased support for primary school staff to understand and teach grammar was identified.
Donna: How did you promote the webinars? How did you describe them for schools and teachers?
Sassy: The webinars were promoted through the Equity Pathways team’s school networks via email and in person meetings, with flyers distributed throughout school communities. The webinars were described as a professional development series to help primary school staff build on their existing knowledge and understanding of grammar. There were 5 pre-recorded webinars, each with a different focus and designed as levels to be watched in order. They were described as:
- Webinar 1 – Word and Phrasal Level: Nouns, Adjectives, Noun Groups, Pronouns, Prepositions and Phrases
- Webinar 2 – Word and Phrasal Level: Verbs, Adverbs, Verb Groups, Nominalisation
- Webinar 3 – Sentence and Clause Level: Verb Tenses and Voice
- Webinar 4 – Sentence and Clause Level: Sentence Types and Clause Types
- Webinar 5: Textual Cohesion: Paragraph Structure, Connectives and Reference Words
Donna: What has been the uptake?
Sassy: There was significant interest and uptake by primary school teachers and staff members across Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales for the webinars. All webinars were pre-recorded (not live) so participants could view them in their own time and at their own pace.
Donna: What feedback if any do you have from participants?
Sassy: Feedback was positive. Many participants attended each of the 5 webinars indicating that the material engaged participants to progress with the whole series, and that the content and resources were useful. In survey responses one participant shared that the presenters “explained nominalisation very well” and that the events kept them interested and engaged, and that their capabilities were increased in the subject area.
Donna: What feedback does the Equity Pathways team have on the value of our collaboration?
Sassy: Overall, the Equity Pathways team had a positive experience collaborating with the English Language Centre. The collaboration gave the Equity Pathways team the opportunity to create and pilot an entirely new program for our partner schools and expand our online services during a time when face to face programs and initiatives were prohibited.
One of the challenges we faced during our collaboration was staff movements within the English Language Centre. One of the key staff members from the English Language Centre who partnered with the Equity Pathways team to develop and facilitate the webinars resigned mid-way through the project. Additionally, we were unable to commit to facilitating live webinars as staff members were unsure of future commitments due to their employment on a casual/part time basis. It’s possible that we would have had more engagement from participants if the events were live, however there was merit in participants being able to progress with the webinars at their own pace.
The resources created by staff at the English Language Centre (webinar recordings, workbook and activities) are a great tool for primary school staff to have and keep for the future and share with their colleagues. Given the static nature of the materials and relevance, the impact of the collaboration can continue even after the project has ended.
