In October 2015, U.S. Pearson ELT conducted an idea-packed Professional Development Webinar series, consisting of 13 one-hour sessions. The goal of the webinar series was to provide thousands of instructors and administrators around the world with multiple opportunities to learn from English-language teaching experts. Topics included:
- “Exploring the Potential of the Flipped Classroom” by Robyn Brinks Lockwood
- “Teaching with Technology and 21st Century Skills” by Sara Davila
- “Using Our Brains: Brain-based Approaches to Teaching” by Sarah Lynn
- “Critical Thinking in English for Academic Purposes” by Ken Beatty
- “Four Skills Teaching” by Sara Davila
- “Critical Reading Skills for College and University Students” by Tania Pattison
- “Academic Writing Assignments: Teaching Discourse Synthesis” by Carol Numrich
- “Creating Authenticity in the English Classroom” by Ken Beatty
- “Addressing Learner Needs Around Spoken Academic English” by Ken Beatty
- “Extend and Engage: Digital Learning” by Christina Cavage
An overwhelming number of teachers who attended commented that they were able to get ideas from the webinars that they could start using right away. One teacher commented: “Thank you for these past two weeks of webinars. I appreciate having plenty of new ideas to use in my classroom.” The recorded webinars are available in the US website (registration is required to view the recordings).
A total of 4,359 people registered for the webinars, and 2,120 people attended the sessions. Another teacher commented: “Really enjoyed this webinar; very useful content and explanations of how to utilize this information in the classroom.” A third teacher responded about the content of the webinars: “As usual, my ‘teacher’s imagination’ has been stimulated by ideas presented in this webinar. I especially appreciate the insights, too.”
Teachers from 25 countries attended the webinar series.
Countries Represented (ranked by number of attendees)
United States represented almost half the attendees. Other countries represented: Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and Vietnam. Each of these countries represents less than 2% of the total attendees.
One participant summed it up perfectly: “Webinars are a wonderful substitute for live seminars, which cost time and money, and I commend you for organizing these amazing sessions! Already looking forward to the next ones!”
The U.S. ELT marketing team is already hard at work developing topics and scheduling for the next webinar series, possibly in spring 2016. Click here to receive updates on the next series of webinars.
