Assuming a language teacher should opt for SCT, there are some preparatory steps to be taken before letting the students take over the power in the classroom. The way I remember SCT is a teacher of mine simply distributing sets of pages to various students in my group and having us present those pages to our peers in class. Of course, this is not the right way to do it. Given the fact that the form of SCT suggested here is meant to be realised in a computer-assisted classroom, there is far more to it than just letting the student talk to their peers about a certain topic.
In any SCT scenario, the teacher who is considering temporary transfer of power to the students should make sure the students understand that they have to prepare properly. In an earlier post, a nice and easy way to plan a lesson based on the ABCD model was presented. Although proper lesson planning includes far more elements than the ABCD model does, for the purpose of having a student teach a small segment to their peers, the ABCD model is more than appropriate. Therefore, the potential student-teachers should be instructed to explore the ABCD model first.
The next step would be to have the student-teachers think about three aspects to be realised in their SCT: communication, organisation and learning material. This post will be an attempt to suggest how to realise SCT based on these three aspects in a computer-assisted classroom.
Communication
Any teaching environment has to rely on a medium that will be used as efficiently as possible to transfer the content of teaching to the recipients. However, the aspect of communication has to be put into a broader context - that of communicating beyond the teaching environment. In other words, the facilitator of learning, i.e. the teacher or the student-teacher, should choose a medium that may be used both in and out of the classroom. In a computer-assisted teaching context, the perfect medium would obviously be the computer. However, it is not just the computer.
In the context of SCT, the computer would have to be implemented in the sense of a common platform both for the purpose of teaching and some subsequent communicative exchange.This means that the student-teacher should prepare or choose a wiki or a workspace to publish learning material and to communicate with their peers if questions and dilemmas arise about the content being taught. Furthermore, the activities that will be realised in class will have to be made available for further reference, which makes a common wiki or workspace rather useful.
Organisation
Regarding this aspect, the student-teacher should be instructed on how to plan the lesson or part of the lesson to be taught to their peers. That is when the ABCD model might come in handy. Only if the student-teacher understands each of the elements in the ABCD model, may the student-taught class be expected to be successful. The most difficult part to define in the model are the C (conditions) and the D (degree). That is where the teacher should provide some assistance to the student-teacher. However, if the student-teacher has had some formal instruction in the area of English language teaching methodology, a SCT class would be the perfect opportunity to test some of the methods, techniques or strategies that might have been covered by then. If the SCT class is to be conducted in an ESP context, the organisation of the particular teaching segment can be based on the ABCD model.
Learning material
Organisation
Regarding this aspect, the student-teacher should be instructed on how to plan the lesson or part of the lesson to be taught to their peers. That is when the ABCD model might come in handy. Only if the student-teacher understands each of the elements in the ABCD model, may the student-taught class be expected to be successful. The most difficult part to define in the model are the C (conditions) and the D (degree). That is where the teacher should provide some assistance to the student-teacher. However, if the student-teacher has had some formal instruction in the area of English language teaching methodology, a SCT class would be the perfect opportunity to test some of the methods, techniques or strategies that might have been covered by then. If the SCT class is to be conducted in an ESP context, the organisation of the particular teaching segment can be based on the ABCD model.
Learning material
Another rather difficult step to be undertaken by the student-teacher is the proper choice of material. It goes without saying that the particular segment the student-teacher will be teaching will be chosen and determined in mutual agreement with the teacher. Nevertheless, the student-teacher should be given some formal instruction regarding the scope and content of the particular segment. For instance, if the segment to be taught is about vocabulary, the teacher should probably provide a list of items to be covered, or if the segment is related to some grammar point, the teacher should provide some framework for the student-teacher to know how much to elaborate on the certain point. Student-teachers cannot be expected to make autonomous choices about some segment or point based on what they have learnt so far. The outcome of such imposed autonomy might be unwanted as the student-teacher will probably take a grammar book and copy everything they can find regarding a certain point.
In addition, the student-teacher should be warned against opting for any resource they might find on the Internet. The teacher should direct the student-teacher to some reliable resources even if the teacher's knowledge might be limited. It is much better to restrict the student-teacher to a particular scope of resources than have them fail in class when presenting their segment.
To conclude, a SCT class is supposed to help the student-teacher develop self-confidence, autonomous decisions, higher order thinking skills as well as learning and teaching strategies they might otherwise not have an opportunity to use or express. The point of a SCT class is not to escape a few hours of teaching or show the students how incapable they are! Students know they are no teachers! However, students would like to learn how to be good teachers! And isn't that what our job is all about?
