Cambridge International Certificate in Teaching and Learning (CICTL Modular)

Active learning is often associated with ‘learning by doing’, but simply repeatedly doing something doesn’t mean much learning will happen. In the module, participants will:

• Engage with the concept of constructivism – that learners must review and reflect on their experiences, i.e. to think hard, thus, to ‘construct’ their own unique personal meanings or understandings of their experiences based on their prior knowledge
• Learn how teaching methods and learning activities based on the Active Learning approach help to effectively ‘engage’ and motivate’ (both ‘extrinsically’ and ‘intrinsically’) students to learn,
• Learn how to select, design and use appropriate learning resources that impact how effectively students are engaged and motivated to learn
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Active learning strategies and differentiated learning are the two critical factors that contribute to effectively managed lessons. In this module, the participants will focus on:

• Understanding the concept of differentiation in teaching – having the awareness that learners not only had different abilities but had differences in the ways they learn, their levels of motivation to learn, their previous learning experiences, the levels of support needed to learn, etc
• Reviewing and reflecting on the teaching and learning strategies they primarily use in their classroom practice and analysing them in terms of how well they lend themselves to being differentiated
• Engaging with the concept of Metacognition – providing more opportunities for students to actively participate in learning by making them think not just about the subject content being taught, but also about how they think (reflect) and learn
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Assessment does not only happen after teaching has taken place, but it is an integral part of the learning process. This module provides the opportunity for participants to:

• Understand the purposes of assessment through making clear distinctions between two types of assessment, ‘formative’ and ‘summative’, and the purposes of each type

• Extend their understanding of assessment by identifying the ‘formative’ and ‘summative’ assessment methods they primarily use in their classroom practice and discuss how and what they use them for

• review, and reflect on the formative assessment methods commonly used in classrooms. From their thoughts and reflections, participants can identify the advantages and limitations of using each method and make adjustments in their future practice

• Engage deeper in using questioning as a formative assessment method, identifying strategies that can be used to make the use of student questioning more effective

Assessment for Learning (AfL) has the explicit purpose of supporting, as well as monitoring, student learning. This module allows the participants to focus on:

• Understanding the concept of AfL, and how it is applied in their practice

• How to use formative assessment methods effectively in their classroom practice to support and monitor students’ learning

• The ‘Four Key Elements’ of classroom practice that help students to learn more effectively: focus on learning, effective questioning, formative feedback, and scaffolding reflection

• Understanding of the importance of giving learners Formative Feedback, which has a significant impact on students’ learning, no matter what their ability or attainment level

Lesson planning is an essential part of a teacher’s role, and this module emphasises to the participants that effective lesson planning is the basis of effective teaching. Participants will:

• Clarify, differentiate and determine why a lesson plan should have clear aims and objectives, and a coherent structure, which consists of a clear beginning, a middle section, and a clear conclusion

• Plan and teach a lesson that its content – teaching methods, learner activities, formative assessments and resources –  must have well-defined links to the learning objectives

• Plan individual lessons that are part of a sequence of lessons or ‘blocks of learning’; the design of their lesson plans must not only be coherent but also evidence well-defined links to the participants’ previous learning, according to the constructivist approach

Each participant must submit an e-Portfolio that consists of evidence of practice, learning and reflection for throughout the CICTL program via the Cambridge PDQ Connect platform. The participants are to consolidate all the completed assignments from the previous five modules, namely ATL1, ATL2, ASL1, ASL2 and LSP, to prepare the final e-portfolio according to the requirements stated in the Cambridge PDQ Connect. Participants will be guided throughout the process through synchronous sessions and consultations by the trainers.