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The Cambridge Life Competencies Framework

Case Study: Giga International House

Integrating the framework in a language school: our experience at Giga International House, Catania

Contents

Why teach life competencies?

What is the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework?

Understanding the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework

An introduction to this case study

About the school

Why we chose to include life competencies in our English classes

Using the framework in lesson planning

Developing the role of the teacher

Approaches to integrating the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework into English classes

The syllabus-driven approach

The needs-driven approach

Raising students’ awareness of life competencies

Feedback from students and teachers

Conclusions and future work

Why teach Life Competencies? Our world is changing fast and we need to prepare our students with the skills and experiences that go beyond learning an additional language. We see the increasing need to work together with people from around the world, to think creatively and solve problems, to analyse sources more critically, to communicate our views effectively,

and to maintain a positive mindset in an increasingly complex world. The Cambridge Life Competencies Framework supports teachers in this challenging area – we understand that the engaging and collaborative nature of the language classroom is the perfect place to develop and embed these key qualities.

What is the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework? The Cambridge Life Competencies Framework helps teachers and educators who want to understand how life skills, or 21st century skills, can be integrated more effectively into English language programmes. The framework has six Competencies that describe how these essential skills develop and vary across different stages of education, as learners grow and change. CREATIVE THINKING

Learners actively participate in creative activities, generate new ideas and use them to solve problems.

CRITICAL THINKING

Learners identify patterns and relationships, evaluate ideas and use these skills to solve problems.

LEARNING TO LEARN

Learners develop practical skills to support and take control of their learning and reflect on their own progress.

COMMUNICATION

Learners choose the most appropriate language to use in different situations, manage conversations effectively and express themselves clearly and confidently.

COLLABORATION

Learners work well together in groups through actively taking part in group activities, listening to others, sharing tasks and finding solutions to problems.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Learners recognise and describe different roles and responsibilities in a variety of groups and understand cultural and global issues.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Learners describe and manage emotions and develop positive relationships with others.

The learning journey The Cambridge Life Competencies Framework supports learners at all stages of their learning journey, from very young pre-primary learners right through to adults in education and at work. The framework maps out how learner behaviours typically found within each competency can change and develop as learners encounter new situations and circumstances in their lives, both within and beyond the classroom.

Pre-Primary

Primary

Secondary

Higher Education

At Work

Understanding the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework The framework describes what each Competency really means by breaking it down into sub-skills. Each Competency is divided into Core Areas, and those are divided into Component skills. Can Do Statements describe the observable behaviours that could be suitable targets or objectives for learners at each stage of their learning. This booklet gives one example Can Do Statement for each Component. Example Language is also provided as suggestions for how learners might express the actions and behaviours in each Core Area. See this example for one Core Area within Creative Thinking at the Higher Education stage: COMPETENCY

CORE AREA

COMPONENTS

EXAMPLE CAN DO STATEMENTS

EXAMPLE LANGUAGE

CREATIVE THINKING

Preparing for creativity

Participating in a range of creative activities

Engages in complex creative activities such as putting on an event, show or play.

How about we…?

Exploring issues and concepts

Asks questions and seeks the answers to these in order to find out more about an issue.

Where did this idea come from?

Get involved

Chotiwat Student, Thailand

The Cambridge Life Competencies Framework is an ongoing project, evolving through stages of validation and teacher feedback. Go to cambridge.org/clcf to see how you can get involved.

Chattribodin Student, Thailand

An introduction to this case study The Cambridge Life Competencies Framework is a useful teaching tool that can be integrated into a language school’s classes in various ways. This document will show the process we have followed so far at Giga International House, Catania, and the impact it has had on our students and the academic team. The data we have gathered so far is based on our direct experience, interviews with teachers and students, and their oral and written feedback.

About the school We are a well-established language school based in the centre of Catania in Sicily. For many years, we have been part of AISLi (the Italian Association of Language Schools) and IH (International House). We are also a Cambridge Exams Centre and a CELTA Training Centre. In our context, most of the students are interested in exams for work or universityrelated reasons, or just because they want to certify their language knowledge. Most of our students are young learners and teens, though there are some adults. The majority of our students attend classes once or twice a week for a total of 60 or 120 hours in an academic year. We also offer individual and semi-individual lessons for students who prefer to study in a more personalised way. Our academic team comprises six CELTA/DELTA qualified teachers with varying levels of experience and representing a wide range of nationalities including Polish, Italian, Chinese and American.

Why we chose to include life competencies in our English classes We are living in a fast-changing world and we need to make sure we adapt our teaching and learning practices so that we are able to support our students effectively, for what seems to be an increasingly unpredictable future. We believe that a language classroom is an ideal place to introduce life competencies (also often called 21st century skills, life skills or soft skills) as it will help students not only gain language knowledge but also master competencies which will ultimately help them become the kind of people they would like to be. A well-qualified teacher who possesses an internationally recognised teaching qualification like the Cambridge CELTA should already be aware of the importance of life competencies such as collaboration, critical thinking or communication and is therefore likely to implement elements of these competencies while lesson planning. This is mainly thanks to the influence of the Communicative Approach on language teaching and the prevalence of group work in many English classrooms. The benefits of the introduction of life competencies such as these have been known for years in the field of education and this is another reason why it is useful to consider using the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework to improve the teaching of these skills and develop our teachers’ understanding in this area.

Using the framework in lesson planning We first drew our teachers’ attention to the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework in a very explicit way which included familiarisation with the content of the framework, and later in a more blended way while responding to the teachers’ actual needs in the classroom. In doing this, we realised that the teachers were gradually better able to make regular references to the framework and find links between the theory and practice. The example below illustrates how, by integrating the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework in a systematic way, teachers with an initial teacher training qualification like the CELTA can develop their understanding of how to help students reach their full potential and therefore become better prepared to face all sorts of real-life challenges. One of our teachers with two years of post-CELTA experience used the content of the framework to come up with two speaking activities to support a student struggling with anxiety during exam preparation classes. The activities looked like the actual exam tasks (Cambridge C1 Advanced Speaking Parts 3 and 4) and the content was decided by the teacher himself after analysing the Can Do Statements of the Emotional Development part of the framework.

1. Come up with one way that everyone could use to deal with stress. 2. Do you think stress is a problem in current society? How does it affect our lives? What are different ways people can avoid or relieve stress? Talk about the different methods people can use. (At least 5)

3. Is everybody affected by stress (even children, teenagers, etc.)? Give examples. 4. Do you get stressed during exam preparation? What feelings do you have and how do you overcome these feelings? 5. How do you relax? Give some examples.

It was clear for the teacher in charge of this class that the student with anxiety issues looked more confident and less stressed towards the end of the lesson. Eventually, with some more support during the course, the student learnt how to handle her stress levels and performed successfully in the C1 Advanced exam.

Developing the role of the teacher Once our teachers became familiar with the idea behind the framework, during our weekly Continuing Professional Development (CPD) sessions, most of them completed an online course which aims to equip language teachers with basic coaching techniques that will help them support their students’ development of life competencies. The “Your Students Today… Leaders Tomorrow through Coaching Techniques” course was conducted and designed by Palmina La Rosa who is a professional coach and the founder of Coaching, Training and Development (CTD) at Giga International House. The course is moderated by International House World’s Assessment Unit, and it is now open to teachers aspiring to develop in this area. In each of the seven modules, the teachers had the opportunity to analyse, reflect on and share their knowledge and insights in one or some of the following competencies from the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework, in various learning contexts:

COLLABORATION SKILLS

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

CREATIVE THINKING

CRITICAL THINKING

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

LEARNING TO LEARN

The course also included some self-study, weekly reflection tasks, and an end-of-course task. Having thoroughly analysed the framework during the CPD sessions and after completing the course, we decided to develop and redefine the role of the teacher in our school. This is because it became clear for the academic team that our responsibility was equipping our students with skills to help them succeed in the real world. By involving our teachers in the process of decision-making, regarding their changing role in the classroom, they took greater responsibility for the process of integration and had a certain level of freedom to negotiate this role, express their concerns, ask questions and share ideas.

During our brainstorming sessions, we agreed that the academic team should be able to: •

add value to language learning

•

empower students

•

provide guidance

•

help students master life competencies and reach their full potential.

The above points helped us redefine the role of the teacher in the following way:

A teacher coach provides added value by empowering students, giving them the ability to make informed decisions and guiding them through language learning and life competencies. - Giga IH Team

Approaches to integrating the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework into English classes The teachers’ experience with the framework in the classroom, and their direct feedback, led us to differentiate the two main approaches that work for us:

The syllabus-driven approach

The needs-driven approach

Unde rs analy tanding a s argu ing ideas nd men and ts

Evaluating ideas and arguments

Critical Thinking

ms roble isions c ing p Solv aking de m d an

Cambridge Life Competencies Framework Core Areas

• a more general approach with less explicit focus in the lesson

• a more detailed approach with a specific, more explicit focus in the lessons

•

focus on Core Areas

• the teacher makes a decision about the Core Area they would like to develop in each lesson based on the existing syllabus (e.g., topic, lesson type or activities already planned) • does not necessarily require the teacher to study the content of the framework in detail • no need for the teacher to produce measurable results

Cambridge Life Competencies Framework Can Do Statements

focus on specific Can Do Statements

• the teacher makes a decision about the exact Can Do Statements which need attention based on the teacher’s observations of students’ needs • teaching is over a timeframe (for example over five lessons) • will require the teacher to study the framework in more detail • there is a need for the teacher to produce measurable results and show students’ progress

The syllabus-driven approach In our school, the Cambridge Life Competencies chart is placed on the wall in the staffroom so teachers can refer to the Core Areas while lesson planning and while applying the syllabus-driven approach on a daily basis. It serves both as a teaching tool and a reminder while lesson planning. The example below illustrates one of the lessons we delivered in our school and shows how the teacher used the syllabus-driven approach to develop her language lesson. The teacher, Marta, was following a B2 course and she was due to teach a reading lesson using the following article: “The Secrets of Happiness” (Complete First, p. 96; Cambridge English). While lesson planning, Marta decided on the life competency she wanted to develop with her B2 teens. Since she is a very busy teacher, she could only apply a more general approach and focus on the Core Areas of a specific Competency and develop her lesson plan accordingly. The table below illustrates the approach in terms of lesson planning, both during the lesson and after.

THE SYLLABUS-DRIVEN APPROACH 1. LESSON PLANNING Noticing opportunities in the course to develop life competencies

The teacher should consider one, some or all of the following factors while choosing a Competency for a specific lesson: •

lesson type

•

lesson topic

•

suggested activities in the coursebook

•

students’ level and their age.

In this case, the teacher made a decision to focus on Critical Thinking because the title of the article, “The Secrets of Happiness”, made her think that there would be room in the lesson to develop her students’ Critical Thinking skills.

Selecting a specific Core Area

While lesson planning in her usual way, the teacher decided she wanted to focus on and develop only one of the three Core Areas included in the framework for Critical Thinking: ‘Evaluating ideas and arguments’.

Under analys standing and argu ing ideas men and ts

Evaluating ideas and arguments

Critical Thinking

ms oble sions ci ing pr Solv aking de m and

Developing activities already suggested in the coursebook

In this lesson, the teacher decided to develop the post-reading stage and so she made sure there was more focus on ‘Evaluating ideas and arguments’ in this part of the lesson.

ORIGINAL TASK IN THE COURSEBOOK Task: Did anything surprise you about what the writer says makes people happy?

DEVELOPED TASK Unde rs analy tanding a s argu ing ideas nd men and ts

Evaluating ideas and arguments

ms roble isions c ing p Solv aking de m and

Task: Would most people in Italy have a similar idea about happiness? Say why or why not.

Critical Thinking

If everyone agreed with the main idea in the article, would it have a direct impact on our lives? Would it be a positive or a negative impact? Why?

2. DURING THE LESSON

Exploiting the chart in the classroom

There are many ways in which the chart could be exploited in the classroom and they are exemplified below (see: Raising students’ awareness of life competencies on page 18 of this booklet). In this lesson, the teacher completed the post-reading stage and then asked the students to refer to the chart (ideally, students should have a copy of the chart attached to the inside front cover of their coursebook). They were then given the following tasks:

Task 1: Have a closer look at Critical Thinking and its Core Areas and, in pairs, decide which Core Area you have just worked on developing. Feedback: ‘Evaluating ideas and arguments’

Task 2: How good were you all at ‘evaluating ideas and arguments’? How would you rate yourself from 1–10?

Unhappy

Happy

The teacher monitored and encouraged the students to share their group reflections and gave them feedback.

3. POST-LESSON Teacher evaluation of students’ progress and further lessons

Having reflected on the students’ performance, the teacher could now choose to focus on one of the following in future lessons: • the same Core Area (if there is a need to provide students with further practice in this area and if time allows). • a different Core Area within the same Competency (if the teacher finds focus on a different Core Area more suitable at a specific stage of the course). • a completely different Competency (this will depend on the course and the teacher’s decision regarding the area of focus for her students). In this specific case, the teacher was happy with her students’ performance and therefore she concentrated on another Competency, in a similar way, in the following lesson.

Benefits of a syllabus-driven approach Having completed a round of officially observed lessons, and drawing on our teachers’ overall direct experience with the framework on multiple occasions in the language classroom, we came to the following conclusions regarding the benefits of a syllabus-driven approach: • Focusing on the Core Areas while lesson planning on a daily basis helps teachers enrich their lesson plans in a regular way without taking away the focus from their usual languagerelated objectives. • The teachers’ freedom to decide on the most suitable Competency and Core Area in a specific lesson has a positive impact on their motivation and their level of success in the whole process of integration. • Focusing on the Core Areas while lesson planning is not time-consuming and teachers can be trained to notice opportunities and develop their lesson plans to raise students’ awareness of the importance of life competencies on their learning journey.

The needs-driven approach The example below illustrates how one of our teachers used the framework and applied a needs-driven approach to address specific issues with collaboration in one of her classes. Elaine was teaching a B1 exam preparation course for a group of teenagers. Having delivered a few lessons, Elaine quickly realised that her students were not collaborating well in the class and this was impeding their overall progress. She knew that some of the students in the class weren’t studying as much as the others and they did not always participate well in group or paired activities. In addition, one of the students became particularly anxious when asked to speak in front of others as she was less confident than everyone else in the class and she felt uncomfortable when other students dominated conversations. So far, Elaine had been applying a syllabus-driven approach to integrating life competencies into her classes and was planning to continue to do so on a daily basis. However, having completed a few lessons with this class, she decided that Collaboration would need more explicit attention as it appeared to be quite a major issue for the class. Once Elaine had identified the issue, she used the framework to design a task to help her students reflect on and gradually improve their Collaboration skills. The approach she took was more detailed than in the syllabus-driven approach and was directly linked to students’ performance in class. In this case, the teacher analysed the example Can Do Statements for Collaboration and used them as a starting point to help her contextualise the behavioural standards she would like to see in this class. She selected the statements which needed attention and personalised them in a way that was suitable for her students.

The table below illustrates the process she went through at the lesson planning stage, both during and after the lessons.

SECONDARY CORE AREAS

COMPONENTS

EXAMPLE CAN DO STATEMENTS

EXAMPLE LANGUAGE

Taking personal responsibility for own contribution to a group task

Actively contributing to a task

Makes relevant suggestions based on the current topic of conversation

I think we should...

Encouraging effective group interaction

Taking on different roles Volunteers to take on specific role

I’m happy to [do this role]

Listening and Respectively waits for their responding respectfully turn to speak

That’s a really good point. I’d also say...

Establishing ways of working together

Sets expectations of how long each group member should take on their task

We’ll share what we find in [10 minutes]

Engaging and supporting others

Helps other students put their ideas across (e.g. by rephrasing their ideas or giving examples)

So you’re saying...?

*The Cambridge Life Competencies Framework: Collaboration – Secondary (extract)

THE NEEDS-DRIVEN APPROACH 1. LESSON PLANNING (FOR A SERIES OF LESSONS)

Identifying the need in a specific class

The teacher decided to focus on developing her students’ Collaboration skills. This was based on her observations and tailored to the students’ needs in this specific class. According to the teacher, the students needed to make clear progress in this area to be a more successful group.

Selecting example Having identified the need (improving Collaboration skills), the teacher analysed Can Do Statements the content of the framework and selected the Can Do Statements in need of in relation to a chosen attention in her class. life competency 15

Personalisation

The teacher designed a task with personalised Can Do Statements.

Collaboration Today everyone got enough time to express their ideas (quieter and louder students). Today everyone contributed with ideas. Today everyone felt included. Today we helped each other to complete a task. Today we listened to each other with respect. Today everyone took responsibility for the task they were given. Teachers should be able to grade the language used in the statements to the students’ language level. For very low levels, visual support or even using students’ first language might be needed. 2. DURING THE LESSON

Self-assessment and measuring students’ progress

Students reflected on their progress by assessing their own performance in relation to the way they collaborated over five lessons.

1-weak, 6-very strong COLLABORATION in our class

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5

Today, everyone got enough time to express their ideas (quieter and louder students).

Today, everyone contributed with their ideas.

Today, everyone felt included.

Today, we helped each other complete the tasks.

Today, we listened to each other with respect.

The five lessons with the focus on developing students’ Collaboration skills were not consecutive lessons because there were not sufficient opportunities to focus on Collaboration skills in all the upcoming lessons. Therefore, the teacher had to make a decision about the appropriateness of this task in a specific lesson. At the end of each lesson, the teacher gave students feedback and brought their attention to certain behaviours they might have been unaware of.

3. POST-LESSON

Teacher evaluation of The data collected in the table on the previous page suggested that the students students’ progress and made good progress in the area of Collaboration. further lessons This was achieved by integrating a more detailed and explicit focus on a chosen Competency and personalising example Can Do Statements in relation to the students’ actual needs in a specific class. Consequently, it helped improve the overall conduct of the class and therefore made a positive impact on the students’ overall progress. Having completed the cycle of five lessons, with an explicit focus on addressing students’ needs, the teacher might choose to: • design another task with a focus on other statements in the area of Collaboration. • move on to a different Competency and work with the students in a similar way. The teacher’s decision will depend on the students’ actual needs. In this specific case, the teacher was happy with her students’ performance over these five lessons and she therefore concentrated on another life competency in a similar way in subsequent lessons.

Benefits of a needs-driven approach Teacher feedback indicates that a needs-driven approach helps in the following ways: • Focusing on the specific Can Do Statements within a chosen Competency helps teachers design personalised tasks tailored to students’ needs and therefore has a direct positive impact on the class conduct. • The teacher can make a decision regarding the Competency and the specific Can Do Statements and personalise them according to the students’ needs. This makes the whole process more relevant and meaningful for both the students and the teacher. • This approach is more detailed and needs careful analysis of the framework and therefore it is realistic that teachers will be able to apply it when there is a clear need for this, based on their own experience with a specific class. In all other cases a syllabus-driven approach is a valid alternative.

Raising students’ awareness of life competencies In order to make sure the implementation of life competencies does not go unnoticed by our students and potential clients, we have taken the following steps: The Cambridge Life Competencies chart has been placed on the wall in each of the classrooms so that both teachers and students make use of it on a regular basis. We suggest that the exact ways it is used are carefully negotiated and agreed on with the teachers so that this teaching tool remains meaningful, useful and relevant for them. The teachers need to know how the chart can be exploited in the classroom to make students more aware of the importance of life competencies on their learning journey. In our case, we have agreed on a few techniques with the teachers. ‘Their choice will depend on the class profile (e.g. students’ language level and their age) and the amount of time the teacher wants to spend on drawing attention to the competencies.’ This will also depend on the lesson type and its objectives. Please note that these techniques are likely to work well with a more general, syllabus-driven approach. The techniques can be as simple as the teacher giving students a brief prompt during the lesson to draw their attention to the life competencies they are developing. Some examples of these prompts are given on the next page.

Having clarified the language lesson objectives, the teacher adds (pointing to the chart on the wall):

Technique 1

T: “Today, we will also focus on developing your Critical Thinking skills. Towards the end of the lesson, I will ask you to tell me when it took place in the lesson.”

Technique 2

T: “Towards the end of the lesson, I would like you to tell me in which area of Life Competencies you have developed your skills today.”

Technique 3

T: “In today’s lesson, we will focus on developing your Communication skills. Let’s see whether towards the end of the lesson you will be able to define one of the Core Areas of this Competency.” (Students refer to the chart in their notebooks.)

Technique 4

T: “In today’s lesson, we focused on developing your Creative Thinking skills. How good were you all at ‘generating ideas’?” (Pointing to the chart on the wall and making a reference to this specific Core Area).

From 1 - 10. How would you rate yourself?

Unhappy

Happy

Feedback from students and teachers In order to collect feedback on the integration of the framework, we suggest involving students and asking them for feedback in relation to their direct experience in class. This could be done by sending them a questionnaire like the one below:

1) Which of the following competencies have been integrated in your lessons in the last few weeks?

2) What impact has this had on your learning? No impact

I don’t know

Good impact

Great impact

Excellent impact

3) Say why. Give an example.

This technique also serves as a reminder for the teachers to integrate the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework in the classroom using both approaches. In addition, it can also provide useful information for the director of studies and the academic team, and define the kind of support the teachers might need in the process of integration.

Hi Marta! Thank you for your lesson yesterday. It was very inspiring. One of my teachers once told me: "higher beings always help those who are supposed to lead others". Hugs and have a good day. - Agata (B2 adult student) – spontaneous feedback after a lesson with a focus on Creative Thinking skills.

Leonie (senior teacher at Giga IH Catania) Post-lesson reflections after an official observation.

Question 1: Did the framework help you plan a more effective lesson? Why? What's the evidence of this? Give a specific example: "It certainly did. I used some of the examples from the framework and adapted the prompts, which helped the students get started. Following the principle expressed in the framework (time constraint and limits/prompts are necessary for creative production, as otherwise the task is too vague and free, and students struggle to come up with anything) worked well." Question 2: Did it benefit students? How? (Consider whatever you find relevant: interactions, students' participation, interests, engagement, language the students' produced etc.) Give a specific example. "They were much more engaged and actually, after the language/speaking-related tasks, they ended up using those skills and language naturally and automatically while doing the creative tasks. Also, they produced good stories while being creative and having fun."

Conclusions and future work Our teachers’ direct experience in the classroom has led us to believe that the key to success is their ability to focus on life competencies more regularly than they used to and with much more awareness, both from the teachers’ and the students’ perspective. Our academic team sees the framework as a useful teaching tool that gives us a unique opportunity to enhance students’ learning and prepare them better for real-life situations outside the classroom. In our experience, the framework’s uniqueness stands in its level of detail in terms of example Can Do Statements at various stages of the learning journey and the focus on Core Areas of each of the Competencies. Also, the clearly differentiated and defined learning stages (pre-primary, primary, secondary, higher education, and at work stages) can help teachers structure successful language lessons according to the course programme and students’ needs. In the upcoming academic year, we will continue to collect measurable data to show how our suggested approaches work with our students during their language lessons and this will be done with different age groups and at different levels. We are also aiming to gather more data regarding the effect it has on our students’ overall experience in class and their progress in language learning.

About the author: Marta Brzoska Director of Studies at Giga IH Catania, CELTA tutor Born and raised in Poland, I relocated to Sicily in 2008 where I have spent most of my career teaching English and running teacher training courses such as the CELTA. Since 2017, I have been working as Director of Studies at Giga IH Catania. I hold an English Language Teacher Training College Diploma, BA in English Philology and a DELTA. I am particularly interested in teaching English in exam preparation contexts and collaborating with teachers who want to be better able to deliver inspiring and successful lessons. I love exploring ways of adapting coursebook material so that lessons are always enjoyable and students can show genuine engagement in the lesson content.

You can find information about the competencies in the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework at cambridge.org/clcf

✓ Creative Thinking ✓ Critical Thinking ✓ Learning to Learn ✓ Communication ✓ Collaboration ✓ Social Responsibilities ✓ Emotional Development