Terry Phillips blog

I have just read another article from the anti-coursebook lobby, about getting teachers to be syllabus designers, researchers course writers, test writers… I will never understand this approach, which manages to overwork and undervalue teachers at the same time. Teachers teach - that’s what they do. Good teachers bring material to life in the classroom, motivate students, work out the interlanguage of each student and supply the necessary information to move them on to the next level. This is a vital job and syllabus designers, course writers etc would be nowhere without them. Sometimes they move on to be syllabus designers, course writers, test writers. But these are different professions. It’s like saying to an actor - you know about acting so why don’t you write the play, do the stage management and write the critical review as well. End of rant.

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