Monday, January 30, 2012

NEEDS ASSESSMENT

The great teachers: listen to what you say!
Goethe

Many years ago traditional teaching developed the curriculum without any consideration about learners’ wants and personal needs, teachers just carried out an inflexible program without taking into account their students’ requirements and characteristics. Nowadays, teachers plan their courses based on Needs Assessment which is a very useful tool to inform their instructional decision-making. Through this instrument instructors can obtain relevant information about learners, such as personal information (their interests, likes, background, beliefs, expectations, perceptions towards language leaning, etc), language level (their needs, difficulties (but if focuses and builds on learners' accomplishments and abilities rather than on deficits), learning styles, language skills, etc), teaching methods (preferred learning formats, academic training), etc, in order to choose and improve lesson planning, materials, resources, curriculum design, atmosphere, teaching approaches, etc. to meet the real learners’ goals.

This Needs assessment can be applied at any moment, but I would say, it is mandatory at the beginning of the teaching-learning process in order to start the instruction with a clear purpose and particular ways to help students, then it is necessary to keep implementing this type of assessment throughout the course to check progress and students’ satisfaction. Keeping in mind there are many forms to collect data, teachers should design and apply different ways to confirm if everything matches according to their criteria, their students’ characteristics and their corresponding priorities; this exploration could be oral (talking/sharing circles, language use games, peer interviews and presentations) or written (biographies, questionnaires) or by groups according to abilities or learning style, etc.

Teachers should be aware of the three types of learners who come to class, some students begin a course having clear their objectives to learn a language, they know what they really want and need, others have some idea, and others simply go to class to discover it. Each learner comes to class with personal expectations, so the clue is to design an effective form (a format, a task, etc) which provides as much information as possible to respond to learners needs and wants appropriately. Although it is a fact that the more we know our learners the better we understand their language learning process and that enables us to contribute with their development the Needs assessment without an immediate response does not make sense. It is relevant to integrate the findings with the daily tasks and reality of the classroom.

NEEDS ASSESSMENT

The great teachers: listen to what you say!
Goethe

Many years ago traditional teaching developed the curriculum without any consideration about learners’ wants and personal needs, teachers just carried out an inflexible program without taking into account their students’ requirements and characteristics. Nowadays, teachers plan their courses based on Needs Assessment which is a very useful tool to inform their instructional decision-making. Through this instrument instructors can obtain relevant information about learners, such as personal information (their interests, likes, background, beliefs, expectations, perceptions towards language leaning, etc), language level (their needs, difficulties (but if focuses and builds on learners' accomplishments and abilities rather than on deficits), learning styles, language skills, etc), teaching methods (preferred learning formats, academic training), etc, in order to choose and improve lesson planning, materials, resources, curriculum design, atmosphere, teaching approaches, etc. to meet the real learners’ goals.

This Needs assessment can be applied at any moment, but I would say, it is mandatory at the beginning of the teaching-learning process in order to start the instruction with a clear purpose and particular ways to help students, then it is necessary to keep implementing this type of assessment throughout the course to check progress and students’ satisfaction. Keeping in mind there are many forms to collect data, teachers should design and apply different ways to confirm if everything matches according to their criteria, their students’ characteristics and their corresponding priorities; this exploration could be oral (talking/sharing circles, language use games, peer interviews and presentations) or written (biographies, questionnaires) or by groups according to abilities or learning style, etc.

Teachers should be aware of the three types of learners who come to class, some students begin a course having clear their objectives to learn a language, they know what they really want and need, others have some idea, and others simply go to class to discover it. Each learner comes to class with personal expectations, so the clue is to design an effective form (a format, a task, etc) which provides as much information as possible to respond to learners needs and wants appropriately. Although it is a fact that the more we know our learners the better we understand their language learning process and that enables us to contribute with their development the Needs assessment without an immediate response does not make sense. It is relevant to integrate the findings with the daily tasks and reality of the classroom.