Today I was invited by the University of Newcastle in the UK to give a guest lecture on “Education Policy and Entrepreneurship for Development” for their Masters course in International Development and Education.
As an “Education Entrepreneur” I was asked to run through how (i.e. songs, games & projects) & why (because too many schools are failing the kids) I started Genki English and a quick demo of a lesson before moving onto the differences between problems with public schools ( Mr Sleepy Head got another mention) and private schools for the poor.
I thought I went through things really quickly, but the students were asking all the right questions at the end, e.g. how do you do this without any staff? How do you support the teachers afterwards? etc. etc.
It was also amazing that they were all from different countries with different experiences in the field. Actually I wouldn’t have minded taking the course myself!
I also tried out a touch of Power Teaching in the demo doing clap, clap, clap “Pairs” and getting them to reply clap, clap, clap “OK!” before doing the Warm Up game in turns in pairs.
We’d been doing a review of an academic paper before hand, and there was another presentation before mine, so it was good to see them all joining in, and getting genki, before going onto the main part of my presentation.
Hopefully a few of the students will be reading the blog, so please get in touch if there’s anything I can help with!
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7:05 pm on November 12th, 2008
Very interesting, I’m studying International Development at the University of Vienna. While education is certainly covered, we don’t have a specific degre just for that. Would have been interesting to sit in on your class.
7:08 pm on November 12th, 2008
This sounds like an interesting course. International Development and Education?? Is there any kind of link to see what the students are actually studying?
Does it feel any different speaking at these kind of lectures or is it just the same as any other?
What kind of feedback did you get about GE from the students?
12:24 am on November 13th, 2008
@Gamblingbear: I noticed that on your forum post the other day. I’m doing more and more work on development, both directly with Genki English and also introducing the Genki ideas to teach other development specific lessons. It will be interesting to hear what you are studying!
@Flossy: The lecturers are linked with the EG West center: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/egwest/ and Sugata Mitra also does lectures on the course. It’s all linked in with the India and China projects. The students were great, as I say asking all the right questions. The main difference was that I didn’t have to spend half the time on motivation techniques as everyone was already very motivated!
12:26 am on November 13th, 2008
Found the link to the course:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ecls/postgrad/taught/internationaldevelopment_ma.html
It looks good doesn’t it!
1:54 am on November 13th, 2008
Just checked it out, thanks for the link. What a fantastic choice to make after studying at degree level.
I am so pleased the students were well motivated. I am sure it must feel great to be talking to people who want to take this kind of path for their future careers. Well done Richard for being so involved in yet another fantastic project.
“Education Entrepreneur” – How true.
3:56 am on November 13th, 2008
From looking at the Newcastle site, I can see why they would want you to talk!! Sounds interesting, but the student has to fund the trip… a little costly. But Richard you are forging ahead in new areas… educational entrepreneurship! (what a mouthful… )
Bravo!
4:08 pm on November 14th, 2008
I love the fact that you’re doing it wearing your T-shirt. How down to earth is that. Good on you Richard for staying so grounded.