Introducing TELA: The Pearson Teacher Education & Learning Academy
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The start of a new school year is a great time to sharpen your professional teaching skills with the latest offering from Pearson. The Teacher Education & Leadership Academy (TELA) builds on Pearson’s professional learning programs for K–12 and English as a Foreign Language teachers. The programmes offer training that can be used for self-study, taken with a virtual instructor, or delivered as a blended programme with face-to-face sessions.
Why choose a TELA programme?
Our TELA Professional learning programmes offer a breadth of content – from foundational evidence-based practices, to cutting-edge topics that teachers face today. There is a choice of formats to choose from, including short bite-sized modules, as well as more in-depth training. This offers a variety of ways to learn and upskill, with courses that fit into their schedules and suit their preferred ways of learning.
World-class subject matter experts, content developers, efficacy professionals and instructional designers have contributed to each programme. In addition, each is learner-centered, connected to practice, and promotes teacher ownership. You can be confident that our courses are robust, relevant and real-world ready.
Our TELA programmes are guided by our in-house experts. This means you can be confident that you are investing your time into training that is practical, effective and full of good ideas to take into this new school year.
Containing practical, downloadable tools and resources to have on hand when you finish, each course helps you put your learning into action.
The content for each programme is designed to address the different delivery needs of our customers. Programmes are available as self study courses through our TELA digital learning platform or facilitated through local Pearson teams.
So what can you expect to learn from each programme? Let’s take a look at the details:
1. TELA On the Go
On the Go (OTG) is a series of online professional development micro-units. It’s designed to provide busy teachers with quick and easy access to classroom strategy training. With a mix of short activities and presentations that take an hour or two to complete, it’s easy to fit On the Go into your weekly schedule. As a participant, you’ll quickly learn core concepts and approaches to teaching, and acquire the practical strategies and skills to apply in the classroom.
Each On the Go unit offers engaging video material, instructive text, interactive activities, ready-to-use teaching tools, templates and strategies, and automatically scored unit quizzes to check understanding. Step-by-step support, such as Try It Out! activities encourage teachers to put knowledge and skills into practice straightaway, as well as reflect on individual successes and challenges. Teachers also get digital badges, micro-credentials and Pearson certificates upon completion of tasks.
Teachers can choose from a series of six On the Go programmes each designed to provide you with the relevant skills, strategies and pedagogy to be successful in the global classroom.
Find out more about TELA On the Go
2. TELA Teaching for Impact
With the rise of digital and online learning, there’s never been a better time to develop your online teaching skills. The Teaching for Impact Programme is all about growing your confidence in the virtual classroom, helping you to connect with your students and choose the right resources for a digital learning experience. It goes beyond the usual ‘how-to’ guides to online teaching. Instead, you’ll develop skills and learning strategies that have been put to the test in real online teaching environments over the last twenty years. You’ll also have the opportunity to observe authentic recorded online teaching sessions with teachers using the strategies in practice.
The Teaching for Impact Programme supports teachers to translate their passion for connecting with their learners to this new, virtual environment. It focuses on learner engagement and empowerment to build agency, perseverance, and a growth mindset.
It is divided into three short courses:
- Getting Started with Online Teaching
- Implementing Quality Online Teaching
- Advancing your Online Teaching Practices
Read more about our Teaching for Impact Programme
Purchase Teaching for Impact today
3. TELA Deep Dive
Deep Dive is a collection of courses on topics that were chosen to reflect the most common challenges our community of teachers report. These self-study programmes each explore a specific topic with multiple subtopics in considerable depth. Each one contains 4–6 modules, taking 8–15 hours to complete in total.
These courses are perfect for teachers and institutions wanting to engage more deeply with pedagogical concepts, theories and teaching strategies on a variety of key classroom and subject-related issues. A ‘deep dive’ exploration of both international research and best practices provides sustained professional learning on a topic.
Currently you have the opportunity to choose from three Deep Dive courses:
- Digital Citizenship
- Teaching with Technology
- Assessment for Learning
Learn more about all our Deep Dive courses
4. TELA Master Trainer
The Master Trainer programme is a great choice for teacher trainers looking for rigorous, practical professional development. With a focus on learner engagement, team building, conflict resolution and effective communication, the courses are designed for transfer. That means you can transfer the skills you have learned to your teaching peers, who will in turn pass those skills on to their students. The Master Trainer program has been delivered to over 300 Master Trainers, reached over 6,000 teacher leaders, and impacted over 120,000 learners.
There are currently three levels of our Master Trainer programme which explore areas such as:
- Engaging and motivating adult learners (Level 1)
- Advanced team building (Level 2)
- Online facilitator skills (Level 3)
Discover more about our Master Trainer programme
Coming soon … in early 2021
We’re adding to our portfolio of courses, check out these two new programmes for 2021.
TELA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in the Global Classroom
As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting the professional learning & development process of our educators, the Teacher Education and Leadership Academy (TELA) is proud to present a NEW addition to its Deep Dive series of Professional learning programmes. It is designed to equip teachers with the skills and strategies needed to explicitly address diversity, equity & inclusion in their classroom.
TELA Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL): Strategies for the K-12 teacher
As teaching methodology, technology and key learner skills have been evolving, so have the demands on teachers, both new and experienced. We’re working hard on developing a new teacher development course to upskill experienced teachers in the latest teaching methodologies, while also giving new teachers a solid foundation in core teaching skills.
It will be modular and delivered online, with short practical lessons and ideas you can easily use in your teaching.
Modules will cover topics such as methodology, teaching with technology, developing employability skills, using assessment, teaching young learners and more.
Book a TELA Programme today
Soon you’ll be able to purchase all of our courses online. However, for the time being please contact your local Pearson office.
For more details on any of the TELA courses, check out the full catalogue of courses available.
Seshni Naiker
Seshni Naicker is the Director of Global Professional Learning and Development for Pearson English & Global Schools. As part of this role Seshni is also the Director of Pearson’s Teacher Education & Leadership Academy (TELA)- the umbrella body of all Pearson professional learning and development across the globe. Seshni’s career in Education, which began as a K-12 teacher, spans over 23 years. Seshni is described as a pragmatic individual who is passionate about education. She joined Pearson in 2011 and sees her role as providing her with the perfect opportunity to combine her educational expertise with an understanding of the teaching fraternity to empower and support teachers to make a positive impact on the lives of their learners. Seshni lives up to Pearson’s motto of 'Always learning' and her academic career has spanned both undergraduate and honours degrees in Education as well as post graduate Executive Education diplomas in Leadership, Business Administration and most recently Product Management through University of California, Berkeley – Haas School of Business.