Well, in my opinion - definitely not.
The title for this post was chosen, however, because out of the hundreds of in-house teacher's guides I've written, this was the one that earned me the most compliments and thanks from a variety of people involved in a private institute TEFL program in South Korea. That included teachers (both native and non-native) and school owners/management. Several "foreign" (read native speaker) teachers actually approached me to say it was the "best teacher's guide ever." Indirectly there were also compliments from students and their parents, who forked out vast amounts of money and rushed to get themselves on a special waiting list to attend the program to which this teacher's guide applied.
The source of this positive feedback was a tome of a teacher's guide I developed for a private institute's notorious "winter intensive session", that time during the private institute (or "hagwon") year where for four weeks teachers slave to horrendous schedules (up to 10-11 classes a day), learners attend the school for 2-3 hours every weekday, and the school owners rub their hands with glee at the massive profits rolling in (with 600-odd students paying in excess of US$400, do the math and the money involved is staggering for a mere four-week program).
You can read the entire teacher's guide at the link below:
Download Winter Session Teacher's Guide 2007
Looking back over that book, I have mixed and wistful feelings about it all. It was first designed in 2005, in the 3 days preparation time I had at the end of a busy fall session to get something ready for a large school and teaching team of about 30 - half of whom were generally pretty new to teaching (some completely new), and some of whom were even local English-studying university students comprising ring-ins for the school to cater to the number of students and classes. It sought (at the time) to fix a number of problems:
1. A horrendous existing intensive program, with four different teachers per class using completely different books - usually selected and reported at the very last minute - that represented no unified course content whatsoever (nor for that matter collaboration across the different teachers);
2. A huge lack of consistency across teachers and classes, to the point that levels became almost irrelevant and for students it was like a lottery to see what sort of overall language instruction you received;
3. A completely fragmented assessment and reporting system on student progress and achievement;
4. Very low morale from teachers, who had to cope with ridiculous teaching schedules and were still expected to create a syllabus, prepare for the different levels and coursebooks, mark and grade work, give feedback, and prepare and apply their own tests;
5. The expectation from parents (and students) that this intensive course would be equal to an entire regular term of coursework, would feature reams of homework, and would hence be worth the asked for price and daily class commitment in hours. But above all, parents and students wanted consistency - the feeling that they would get the same learning opportunities (read here: service) and fair assessment criteria that would allow them to make comparisons with neighbours and earn certain bragging rights (okay, not all parents were like that - only about 80% or so...), no matter which teachers were allocated and no matter how experienced or peculiar they were.
Essentially, what I did was remove all of the coursebooks except a core reading series ("Think Alongs" - edited by Roger Farr and produced by Steck-Vaughn). I then developed all of the supplementary workbooks myself, covering vocabulary, listening, writing and speaking - making them all extensions from the content and themes in each level's core reading coursebook. And to explain it all, I wrote the teacher's guide you can download above.
I could attempt here to say that teachers liked this program and teacher's guide because it created an integrated approach and organised all of the levels, schedules and tasks in a way that made for more effective and motivating learning. I guess for some of the teachers those things were factors. To be completely honest, however, teachers confessed to liking it because it did all of their preparation and organisation for them. All they had to do was attend a quick teacher's meeting before the session to collect their TGs, teaching schedules and coursebooks, ask a few questions, then roll up for the next four weeks with minimal preparation or take-home work.
Did I like the TG? Yes. As academic coordinator, it got hundreds of different people off my back and created a more organised and positive atmosphere in the school at almost every level for four very busy weeks. It gave the learners an integrated approach to the content and coursework. It created happy workers and happy customers. It also minimised the preparation I needed to do before each new intensive session: this approach was used for the remaining two years I was there, and for all I know in the years afterwards as well (most probably with my name removed from the books and all the credit going to the school or some new manager who added a couple of extra things to it). I was actually able to take those three vacation days between sessions and do something with my family for a change.
But as I mentioned above, I remain wistful (or should I say bemused?). Is that what good EFL programs and teacher's guides are all about? Pulling together teachers who can't/won't do that sort of thing on their own? Doing all the preparation for teachers who are handed ridiculous and unreasonable teaching schedules? Creating a factory-like program of such precision that it ensures almost every student works their butt off for four weeks over their winter vacation period and gets almost exactly the same level and style of teaching?
In some teaching contexts - South Korea and intensive sessions an obvious prime candidate - I guess the answer would be "yes, that is what good programs and teacher's guide are all about."
Interesting old world, TEFL - and more interesting in hindsight when you can stand back and cast your eye over it all without the shaded glasses on...
:-D
