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Project

"Traject taal +": a professional development program for sustainable language programs in all primary schools

How can schools develop effective language programs for pupils who have insufficient command of the language of instruction and/or who experience problems with reading skills? The project 'De schijnwerper op taal. Taalondersteuning voor leerlingen die daar extra nood aan hebben' commissioned by the Department of Onderwijs en Vorming g offers an answer to this (Trioen et al., 2021). It maps out effective building blocks of effective language pathways that provide sustainable, intentional and intensive language learning opportunities in the language of instruction to students in need of language support. The project translated these insights into the educational field via a practice guide in the form of six building blocks (Geudens et al., 2021). Since the project 'Taaltrajecten' was only published in September 2021, not all school teams are yet familiar with the six building blocks and how to design an effective language program accordingly. Moreover, the building blocks do indicate a clear direction, but the unique context of each school and the initial situation of each target group mean that the development of a language program will differ from school to school. All primary school teams in Flanders recognize the need for professional development in designing effective language programs. In addition, all teachers and school leaders should be given the opportunity to professionalise in the use of effective didactics in their teaching in order to prevent or reduce language-related delays and achieve greater learning effectiveness among students. We therefore aspire to develop a learning platform that enables all interested schools to go through a professionalization trajectory about language trajectories. To this end, we first coach 18 schools during a model trajectory that consists of two modules. Subsequently, these 18 schools each supervise 3 schools ('uitdijscholen') via collegiate visitation. Their experiences serve as the basis for the content of the learning platform. In the final phase of the project, a selection of schools ('nabloeischolen') can get started with this learning platform. After the project, this platform will be opened to all interested schools. The 'starterscholen' go through the following seven-step plan, in which the last 4 steps are always repeated cyclically: 1) compose a core team for language policy, 2) make an initial situation analysis (BSA), 3) develop a vision on language policy together, 4) the screens results and observations analyze and explain with the whole team, 5) deploy well-thought-out actions and measures for language development (=language trajectories), 6) evaluate the actions and measures of the past year, 7) start a new cycle. These last four steps illustrate the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. When these 'starterscholen' have completed the model program of two modules, they each take care of 3 'uitdijscholen' for a teacher peer observation. There are therefore 54 'uitdijscholen' in total. In addition, in project year 2, we will launch a learning platform within Teams & SharePoint for at least 100 'nabloeischolen'. This is an online platform with mapped out learning paths including knowledge clips, practical examples, learning activities, self-assessment moments, etc., where teachers communicate with each other in a creative and direct way and share experiences. We feed this platform with the material from the Teams environment of the 'starterscholen'.
Date:15 Dec 2022 →  14 Dec 2023
Keywords:PROFESSIONALIZATION, LANGUAGE TEACHING
Disciplines:Language didactics, Vocational education, professional training, lifelong learning