Reconnecting beyond screens: Fostering active classroom participation

This online interactive workshop is hosted by the English Australia Direct Entry Programs SIG

Since the return to face-to-face ELICOS teaching post-pandemic, and with course content largely accessible via an LMS, Direct Entry Programs teachers have noticed a tendency for students to hide behind their screens (laptops, phones etc.), leading to a lack of engagement in lessons. This is exacerbated by easy access to translation and other AI tools. This interactive online workshop, “Reconnecting Beyond Screens: Fostering Active Classroom Participation,” aims to explore this challenge and offer practical solutions.

During this online workshop, guest presenter Vanessa Stafford will initially focus on how international students need to ‘learn how to learn’ in an Australian classroom and how educators can help students adapt to a social constructivist classroom. She will do this by referring to Gilly Salmon’s Five Stage Model for Online Learning, which she has been extrapolating to on-campus contexts to help us focus on community creation before content teaching. After this, we will hear from several Direct Entry Programs teachers working in English Australia member colleges about the strategies and practical techniques they are using to reinvigorate classroom dynamics by encouraging students to step out from behind their laptops and phones. Finally, workshop participants will have an opportunity to discuss this issue with their Direct Entry Programs peers and share insights on the topic.

With special guest presenter Vanessa Stafford

Vanessa Stafford is the Director of Academic Learning at Kaplan Business School, Australia. Beginning her education career in workplace telecommunications training, she then moved into English as a Second Language teaching in Vietnam and Sydney, honing her craft and feeding her passion for teaching. After sixteen years of classroom teaching, Vanessa used her talents to set up Kaplan Business School’s first Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program. Seven years later, she now manages a thriving community of practice. She is passionate about effective teacher training for those teaching to international students, and has begun her PhD in the field of teacher identity, communities of practice, and pedagogical skills attainment that supports international students’ learning needs.