English for Academic Teaching Purposes
Due May 22, 2008
The purpose of this assignment is to actively practice observing and to become acquainted with other classrooms and academic environments either at the University of Tartu or elsewhere.
Lecture Observation
The assignment involves observing one class period of your choosing (either in Estonian or in English). There are many ways you can go about finding a course to observe:
- Watch an on-line lecture. You can find a wide variety of lectures by visiting individual university websites (such as UCLA, Stanford, Harvard). Often you can find lectures being shared online for free if you look around a bit. You can also find educational video lectures on iTunes or YouTube, but sometimes you have to hunt around a bit. A list of some of my finds is on my listening resource page.
- Ask a colleague in your department to visit his/her class.
- Visit the classroom of one of your English course classmates.
- Look through the information database at the University of Tartu to find lectures being offered in English. Contact the instructor to see if you might drop in (explain that it is a course assignment for a class you are taking).
- Attend a public lecture either here in Tartu or elsewhere.
The intention is to observe academic culture outside of the sheltered environment of our class and preferably related to your area of expertise. While you are observing the class, please take note of
- what type of class you are observing
- how often students speak
- what kinds of questions the professor asks
- what kinds of questions students ask
- whether students work in pairs, groups, or individually
- what differences you see in classroom interaction in this class and the kinds of classes you have experienced in your home country
- any language or learning difficulties you might have if you were to be a student in that class
Please take notes before you observe as to who and what the environment involves and where it takes place. Take notes during and after the observation so that you can remember what happened, as you will be required speak for about five minutes about your findings with the class on May 8.
No recording is required for this assignment, but you may record for your own benefit if you wish. Please respect those you are observing by asking if they would mind being recorded, as in some cases this may be inappropriate or invasive.
