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Illysook
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
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 Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:33 am Post subject: |
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Instead of getting rid of the NT's why don't they give some better training to the ones that they have. I'm finishing up my second year and I feel like I'm finally making some progress as a teacher and that my knowlege could be more useful to my Korean co-workers if they were willing to ask more of me and to show me how I can more effectively manage these classes
Teachers should be free to vary their teaching methods and try new things to help students learn and I feel rather lucky that I've had the chance to do this. In the summer, I plan to get my CELTA and attempt to figure out why some things work when other things do not. I hope to become a better teacher every year. If I can't work in Korea, I will work elsewhere. I'd even like to go back to the U.S. one day, but right now the employment outlook there is far worse than it is here. |
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NohopeSeriously
Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Location: The Christian Right-Wing Educational Republic of Korea
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| Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 4:49 am Post subject: |
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| Illysook wrote: |
Instead of getting rid of the NT's why don't they give some better training to the ones that they have. I'm finishing up my second year and I feel like I'm finally making some progress as a teacher and that my knowlege could be more useful to my Korean co-workers if they were willing to ask more of me and to show me how I can more effectively manage these classes
Teachers should be free to vary their teaching methods and try new things to help students learn and I feel rather lucky that I've had the chance to do this. In the summer, I plan to get my CELTA and attempt to figure out why some things work when other things do not. I hope to become a better teacher every year. If I can't work in Korea, I will work elsewhere. I'd even like to go back to the U.S. one day, but right now the employment outlook there is far worse than it is here. |
When I was in a small public school in Gyeonggi-do, the teachers are more obsessed with teachers' training than teaching the kids. The teachers' training for them is only for the certified Korean teachers. The problem? They take themselves so seriously like self-absorbing freaks.
They don't seem to generally appreciate NETs and their TESOL/CELTA trainings. |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:20 am Post subject: |
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One point you missed;
If Korea does decide to hire qualified teachers from abroad (and they have done in the past), they have to allow them to conduct their own classes and not be constantly sabotaged and blindsided by co-teachers or other Korean staff.
I have worked with many people in Korea who had teaching certificates back home and who were often overqualified to be working as "teaching assistants" in Korean schools, but they were treated no differently from me with a BFA and a TESOLcert. In the end they left feeling as unhappy and frustrated as I did.
Korea will not change.
The reasons for this are too many to go into right now, but in a nutshell the KTU will never allow foreign teachers to take jobs from Koreans. (no matter how qualified they may be) |
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NohopeSeriously
Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Location: The Christian Right-Wing Educational Republic of Korea
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| Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:33 am Post subject: |
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| some waygug-in wrote: |
| If Korea does decide to hire qualified teachers from abroad (and they have done in the past), they have to allow them to conduct their own classes and not be constantly sabotaged and blindsided by co-teachers or other Korean staff. |
There are few reasons to speculate why the Korean public education system wouldn't hire qualified NETs. First, the average age of Korean PS teachers are increasing; a growing gerontocracy. Second, the system doesn't allow for improvements other than making fresh younger teachers overqualified with bastations of qualities. Third, private educations like hagweon are improving at a steady pace than the public one.
This is perhaps worse than you imagine.
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| The reasons for this are too many to go into right now, but in a nutshell the KTU will never allow foreign teachers to take jobs from Koreans. (no matter how qualified they may be) |
You mean the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations (KFTA). KTU is borderline illegal. |
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ZIFA
Joined: 23 Feb 2011
Location: Dici che il fiume..Trova la via al mare
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| Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:45 am Post subject: |
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| Otherside wrote: |
| 2. Hire better NTs, and offer salaries consummate with their qualifications/experience (look at the NET program in HK as an example). |
Korea could easily have a lot more better teachers, without even raising wages. Qualified teachers are in surplus at the moment.
But korean selectors don't want such quality. They want youthful good looks.
| some waygug-in wrote: |
| in a nutshell the KTU will never allow foreign teachers to take jobs from Koreans. (no matter how qualified they may be) |
Exactly. FT's in public schools will soon be a thing of the past due to the obstinacy and obstructiveness of the KTU. |
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silkhighway
Joined: 24 Oct 2010
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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The decision to hire NETs was a political decision so the future of NETs will have little to do with the skill of Korean English teachers and a lot more to do political and economic factors.
My feeling is I expect a slow but steady decline of the prominence of NETs in the system to the point where they are irrelevant ,and Korea will fall in line with more "normal" countries where native language speakers exist in public schools, but are not the norm. This would be accelerated if Korea experiences a recession. |
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:28 pm Post subject: |
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Korea could easily have a lot more better teachers, without even raising wages. Qualified teachers are in surplus at the moment.
But korean selectors don't want such quality. They want youthful good looks.
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There is an element of truth about this. I overheard on group of PS teachers talking about how pleased they were that the newly arrived co-teacher was young and when I asked why they said 'it's nice to have young faces about the place'. Later that same week one PS teacher was complaining that her co-teacher didn't know how to plan lessons properly and she had to hold his hand all the time. I guess their ideal candidate would be a 22 year old with 10 years teaching experience. |
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winterfall
Joined: 21 May 2009
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| Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:36 pm Post subject: |
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| silkhighway wrote: |
The decision to hire NETs was a political decision so the future of NETs will have little to do with the skill of Korean English teachers and a lot more to do political and economic factors.
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True, the current president pushed it hard as his campaign platform. But the EPIK program has been around in some form or another for more than a decade. EPIK is funded mostly through federal money and some district money. |
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murmanjake
Joined: 21 Oct 2008
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