Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crazylemongirl]

I sometimes think that my education degree is a bit of a headache. A lot of the ideas on teaching and assessment that I learned in university are often irrelevant or in direct opposition to some of the practices here in the public. In my experience, some of the people who have the worst time adjusting to the korean system are sometimes those who have education degrees, especially those fresh out of varsity.

So I often wonder if the reason that a lot of places hire fresh non-education grads is that they tend to bend more to the system than others.

However I think there are some benefits.

1. Classroom management. Learning about classroom management before hand, means that it was a lot easier for me to set the tone of my classes rather than try reining them in later.

2. Better planning. I'm really aware of how a lesson and cirrculum should be planned and making sure that the lessons and objectives follow some cohesive structure.

In the end I don't think that having an education degree makes me a better teacher, or a worse teacher. I think it gives me a leg up, but I've met some awesome teachers here who have taken it upon themselves to learn about teaching and teaching methods and they've challenged me to improve my teaching. So in the end like anything, it's a matter of making my education work for me.

[Demophobe]

[crazylemongirl]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I think most hogwans would be crazy to hire someone with a teaching certificate; the incoming teacher would just see them in that much more of an unprofessional light.

[SuperHero]

yes

[tomato]

I started a thread with a similar question:

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?p=746611#746611

[Dan The Chainsawman]

I don't think TEFL training is as important as experience with children. Book learning just is not a substitute for being able to work with kids. Classroom management is something I never learned out of a book, but had 4 or so years of experience working with kids to fall back on. Now the actual mechanics of teaching English might be useful, but I see plenty of posts on Dave's saying that their fancy smancy ESL cert is about as useful as a jizz rag in a hogwon, public school, and/or english speaking zoo.

[flotsam]

[ilovebdt]

[Hotpants]

I think teaching successfully here comprises of about 50% of knowledge of teaching theory, and 50% of having a entertaining personality.

I think it should be compulsory for anyone wanting to teach ESL to have a teaching cert, even if it's just the 4 week course cert. You need a starting point on which to base your approach in the classroom. If you reject the ideas you were taught about teaching, that's fine. You just need to have a reason based on knowledge of proven teaching methodology as to why you go about teaching like you do. How many people are even aware why and when phonics came in as an approach for teaching kids? Who knows why we have texts like Interchange? etc You need to understand the theories of teaching before you can understand your own methods in relation to others.

[indytrucks]

[MixtecaMike]

[crazylemongirl]

[Hotpants]

There's also the issue that many Koreans just think any native speaker can automatically teach. Many Korean institutes don't actually recognize value in English teachers who are actually qualified teachers and have studied teaching. The ESL hogwan is a commercial enterprise, often to the extent that anything is acceptable provided it keeps b-ums on seats. A diploma holder in education could in many cases be expected to perform the same side show as a diploma holder in biology. In my case, I find the more I 'teach', the more students drop my classes, and I get warned to step up the comedy and candy-giving act.

Then, there's the whole new field of introducing the English village concept. There's very little research or documented methological approach as to how a teacher should conduct themselves most effectively against this type of backdrop. It's a whole new ball game.

I think any training IS useful to the whole picture if you are at least half serious about teaching even though it might not be recognised by the locals that hire you. I'm glad I've been keeping up-to-date on current teaching methodology, even if I rarely have a need to implement any of it in Korea. I know it will come in use somewhere!

[indytrucks]