WEBINAR: Foundation Programmes Post-COVID. Some Challenges and Solutions.
This session will have two stages. In the first stage, Christopher Graham will look at some of the challenges that are encountered in the delivery of foundation year or preparatory year programmes, especially as we enter the post-Covid phase. In particular, he will look at how the rapid transition to remote and hybrid learning may have impacted learner motivation and well-being; the possible advantages in terms of learner autonomy resulting from the move online and the likely challenges foundation course providers will face from the ‘lost’ months of high school study.
Christopher will also explore issues around the wide ranges of levels and diversity in study cultures in learners joining the programmes; the skills that learners need beyond the English language and the sometimes-complex transition from school to the tertiary education environment.
One of the most important aspects of all foundation year programmes is the course books and supporting materials. In the second part of the session, Christopher will be joined by Rachel Finnie for a conversation about the ways in which course materials can respond to some of the challenges mentioned above and provide the learners with a motivating educational experience that allows them to feel ready for their studies in their faculty of choice, and for their working environment after their studies.
About Christopher Graham:
Christopher Graham holds a degree in Politics from Warwick university, a Cambridge DELTA and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is a freelance English language teaching consultant, teacher educator and author based in the UK. He has worked in the field since 1981 in over 30 countries for the British Council, ministries of education and international publishers with a particular focus on the Middle East and North Africa.
His recent projects have included working with a ministry of education in a fragile location on approaches to the digital provision of ELT during Covid-19, supporting a series of UK universities with the move to emergency remote teaching for their pre-sessional programmes, and delivering a large-scale professional development programme online for the British Council in North Africa for which he also developed monitoring and evaluation tools.
He was one of the founders of ELT Footprint, a 2020 ELTons award winner, and is currently working on research, materials writing and media activities around ELT and climate change for the British Council as part of the Climate Action in Language Education project.
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