Archives: Courses

Maintaining Access to a Large-Scale Test of Academic Language Proficiency During the Pandemic: Perspectives on Remote Proctoring

Conference 21.5

Presented by

Heidi Reid

Times Education Group

Dr Aleksandr Voninski

ETS TOEFL

In this session, we will present our perspectives and experiences relating to administering high stakes English language testing for both Schools and University admissions. Due to the prolonged closure of many test centres around the world during the current health crises, English language testing has had to quickly evolve and find viable testing solutions. The overall improvement in internet bandwidth on and offshore has opened opportunities for secure and reliable remote proctoring options to test candidates’ English language ability from the safety of their own home. This has enabled admissions teams across Schools, TAFEs and Universities to continue to assess prospective applicants, objectively determine their language and communication skills, as well as safeguard their entry standards by viewing or listening to test taker speaking and listening test components.

In this session, we will present ETS research conducted across 2020 and released in early 2021 on remote proctoring for higher education entry, as well as iDAT perspectives on remote proctored English tests for Schools applicants. We will discuss mode comparability for test-centre and at-home versions of English language tests, security considerations for test providers, implications for test validation, addressing fairness and equity, as well addressing privacy concerns of test takers. We will raise the question of how technology can positively impact both the test taker and the admissions process. We will invite participants to consider how we can continue to innovate the English test experience whilst maintaining test quality, access, equity, and secure and reliable outcomes. We will also invite participants to consider how remote proctor technology may be applied in English language teaching and continual assessment.

Presenter Bios

Educated in Canada and Australia, Heidi has worked in international education for more than 20 years in Canada, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. She has worked as an Academic Manager, PEO and Academic Director for private ELICOS for the past 12 years. She currently sits on the Advisory Council for NEAS (Quality Assurance for English Language Schools) and was previously on their Board of Directors. Ms Reid is active in the International Education Association of Australia and is an advocate and spokesperson for English, Pathways and international education. Heidi Reid has a Masters of TESOL, Grad Dip Ed (Primary), MBA (Human Resource Management).

Alek has provided leadership, engaging strategy, sound management skills and expert consulting to the international education sector over the last 20 years. He has held senior positions within International, External Relations, Strategy and Marketing functions of a large research-intensive university for more than a decade as well as experience in the private education sector, both on and offshore.

CPD points: 1

Simple Yet Powerful Techniques to Maintain Your Wellbeing During Times of Intense Stress

Conference 21.4

Presented by

Dr Georgi Toma

Founder, Heart and Brain Works

While it draws on scientific research, this session’s main objective is to give you concrete tools that you can implement in your life now. Dr Georgi Toma will present effective formulas to minimise stress and overwork and will examine:

1. What’s really causing your stress to soar
2. A simple, yet powerful technique to reduce stress instantly
3. How to prevent and reverse burnout

She will also discuss ways to cultivate balance and harmony in our daily personal and professional lives.

Presenter Bio

Georgi is the creator of the Wellbeing Protocol, a mental health protocol designed to reduce stress, burnout and anxiety. She is the founder of Heart and Brain Works, an organization dedicated to helping people worldwide transform burnout into balance easily and sustainably.

Georgi is also a wellbeing researcher. She is currently conducting research at the University of Auckland on the impact of the Wellbeing Protocol on New Zealand teachers during COVID19.

CPD points: 1

Everyday Experience and Little Changes: A Different Perspective on Big Ideas and Transformative Education

Conference 21.3

Presented by

Associate Professor Kelly Freebody

The University of Sydney

In this plenary discussion, Associate Professor Freebody will critically consider how the small teaching moments available to us as teachers, students, parents, and community members can be drawn together to build transformative education. Using Hughes’ (2017) framework for reducing prejudice in and through education, along with recent research in transformative pedagogy, she will explore the role of teachers and educational institutions in an increasingly turbulent global environment. While focussing on ‘big ideas’ Freebody argues, like Dirkx (2000), that such ideas are experienced in the everyday and that as teachers, it is our interactions with students that facilitate the kinds of learning needed to make social or personal change. The centrality of intercultural experiences, critical reflection, metacognition and empathy will be discussed, exploring their position and potential for creating little changes to how students understand and act on and with the world.

Dirkx, J. (2000). After the burning bush: Transformative learning as imaginative engagement with everyday experience. Paper presented at the Challenges of practice: Transformative learning in action, New York.
Hughes, C. (2017). Understanding Prejudice and Education: The challenge for future generations. London: Routledge.

Presenter Bio

Kelly’s research interests draw on methodological innovation and theory development in the area of applied drama for social justice – focusing on intersections between English Language Teaching, drama, social justice, education, and qualitative research methods.

Kelly is a qualified secondary drama and English teacher, with experience teaching in Australia, the UK, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Kelly coordinates core pedagogy units in The Combined Degrees in education, with a focus on creative and critical pedagogy, school-community relationships, and pedagogies of hope.

CPD points: 1

Learning English and More: Multilingual Experiences and Identity Transformation of English Language Students in Australia

Conference 21.2

Presented by

Dr Phil Chappell

Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and TESOL, Macquarie University

Yulia Kharchenko

English Language Teacher, Macquarie University English Language Centre

In this session, Phil and Yulia present our ongoing research into what kind of transformative experiences international English language students have during their study in Australia. For many, the realities of living, working and socialising in multilingual environments do not reflect their pre-arrival expectations of studying in an English-speaking country. While we know a lot about what our learners experience in their classrooms and colleges, we are only beginning to understand how their out-of-class environments help shape both linguistic and non-linguistic aspects of study abroad.

Phil and Yulia present findings from case studies of four English language students’ out-of-class experiences in multilingual Sydney. They will demonstrate that the path to second language learning is intertwined with personal and identity development as students navigate through their new international environments. We invite participants to consider the implications of our study for teaching approaches and their relevance for both on-campus and online students.

Presenter Bios

Phil Chappell is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and TESOL at Macquarie University, Deputy Head of the Department of Linguistics and a member of the Faculty Multilingualism Research Centre. He conducts research in a variety of areas of ELT, teaches on the Graduate Certificate of TESOL and Master of Applied Linguistics and TESOL programs, and supervises TESOL research students. Phil has taught and managed overseas and in Australia in a range of English language programs.

Yulia Kharchenko is an English language teacher and a higher degree researcher. She has taught in Russia, Ireland and Australia in a variety of tertiary, adult and migrant education settings. She currently teaches on the Graduate Certificate of TESOL at Macquarie University. Her research interests include multilingual pedagogy, language policies in education and language learner identity.

CPD points: 1

Why Crisis, Confusion, Collaboration, and Creativity Matter

Conference 21.1

Presented by

Professor Anne Burns

Professor of TESOL, School of Education, UNSW

Transformation is not an event but a journey, often triggered by change that is broad and deep in its impact. In the age of Covid 19, we’ve been living through a highly significant and disruptive political, social, economic and educational change that has profoundly affected the way many of us see our work both institutionally and personally. Where has this cataclysmic period of time left us and how can we use it for opportunity and change?

In this talk I will aim to bring some kind of understanding of how transformative journeys engage us in the 4Cs of crisis, confusion, collaboration, and creativity. I will argue that all these processes are, nevertheless, fundamental to authentic educational change. Along the way, I will illustrate my presentation with examples of some transformative journeys in education, and to conclude will aim to draw out some messages for educational institutions and managers.

Presenter Bio

Professor Anne Burns began her career as a teacher of English and worked in Australia in the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) and later in the National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research (NCELTR) and Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University for over 20 years. She has also held academic positions at UNSW, Sydney and at Aston University UK, where she is an Emeritus Professor. She is an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney and The Education University Hong Kong, and is currently a Visiting Professor at Kanda University of International Studies, Japan.

Since 2010 she has worked with English Australia as a key reference person for the national Action Research in ELICOS Program and has published extensively on this topic.

CPD points: 1