Since 2000, I've been a freelance education consultant. JF New Paradigm
Education is the one-person company I set up to do this. The company's main activities are teaching courses and workshops, writing books, and
consulting on projects. This page describes some of the company's activities.
Reading Aloud to Children
Most of the courses/workshops I do are for teachers and others involved in schools. This workshop is for the general public. I've included Reading Aloud in courses for teachers since 1994, but in 2000, I started offering one-hour, 90-minute, and three-hour workshops for the general public. Since then, along with Dr Chitra Shegar, I've done such workshops at clubs, libraries, offices, people's homes, and schools.
These workshops are participatory with demonstrations of reading aloud techniques and with the participants reading aloud to each other. Topics covered in the workshop can include:
- The benefits of reading
- Why read aloud
- How to read aloud
- Finding materials to read aloud
- Why children are never too young and never too old for reading aloud
- Reading aloud and non-fiction
- Including books about Asia in our read aloud repertoire
Language Teaching Methodology
Courses and workshops on Language Teaching Methodology can be as short as 3 hours or as long as 30 hours with follow-up classroom observation, co-teaching, lesson planning, sharing sessions, action research, etc.
I have been doing courses/workshops on Language Teaching Methodology since 1993 and have edited several books on the topic as well as writing many articles and book chapters. Please see the
Language Teaching Methodology page of this website for more information on some of these.
Among the courses/workshops I can offer are:
Extensive Reading
Courses and workshops on Extensive Reading (ER) can be as short as 3 hours or as long as 30 hours with follow-up classroom observation, co-teaching, lesson planning, sharing sessions, action research, etc.
I have been doing courses/workshops on ER since 1994 and have edited a book on the topic, as well as writing book chapters and articles. Please see the
ER page of this website for more information on some of these.
You can design your own course/workshop. Possible topics include:
- Benefits of Extensive Reading
- Setting up an Extensive Reading programme
- Finding materials for reading
- Tasks to accompany reading
- Keeping tracks of students' reading
- The teacher's role
- Reading aloud to encourage pupils to read on their own
- Cooperative Learning and Extensive Reading
- Teachers as writers of reading materials for students
- Extensive Reading across the curriculum
Environmental Education
Courses and workshops on Environmental Education (EE) can be as short as 3 hours or as long as 30 hours with follow-up classroom observation, co-teaching, lesson planning, sharing sessions, action research, etc.
I have been doing workshops on EE since 1993 and have written several books, book chapters, and articles on the topic. Please see the
EE page of this website for more information on some of these.
You can design your own course/workshop. Possible topics include:
- The 6 United Nations EE objectives
- Parallel changes in views of the environment and views of education
- Designing EE materials
- Involving students in participation in activities that actually benefit the environment
- EE and project work
- EE as a means of curriculum integration
- How views of the environment are reflected in the English language
- Environmentally-friendly classroom/schoolwide practices, such as
reducing paper consumption
Cooperative Learning
Courses and workshops on Cooperative Learning (CL) can be as short as 3 hours or as long as 30 hours with additional follow-up classroom observation, co-teaching, lesson planning, sharing sessions, action research, etc. I'm particularly keen on the observation.
I have been doing courses/workshops on CL since 1989 and have written two books on the topic as well as many articles and other publications. This is the topic I am most qualified to share about. Please see the
CL page of this website for more information on some of these.
You can design your own course/workshop. Possible topics include:
- Principles of Cooperative Learning
- Benefits of group activities - research on Cooperative Learning
- Definition of Cooperative Learning
- Brief history of Cooperative Learning
- Problems with group activities - How to address them
- Forming Cooperative Learning groups - Size, composition, duration
- Teambuilding and classbuilding
- Cooperative Learning and computers
- Cooperative Learning and Multiple Intelligences
- Assessment when Cooperative Learning is used
- Cooperative games
- Cooperation as a value
- Teaching collaborative skills
- Cooperative Learning and thinking skills
- Cooperative controversy
- Cooperative Learning and project work
- Cooperation among students outside of class
- Cooperative Learning and extensive reading
- Links between groups at school and groups at work
- Collaboration among teachers
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