7.5 The teacher’s roles in task-based learning sequences

Task-based learning comes close to adult life – we all must cope without a teacher or coach at our side. The teacher should take care not to spoil this big learning opportunity by intervening too soon or too much. The teacher acts as a coach or trainer rather than in the traditional role of a lecturer and examiner.

• The teacher watches how the students cope with the problems they encounter, and should not give in quickly to any calls to deliver the solutions. The teacher’s role is rather to give hints and make the task somewhat easier, if necessary. But to a certain degree, the students should “suffer” – as they will in real life.
• The teacher observes the students at work, with two different perspectives of assessment in mind – the process of learning and the achievements at work.²²
  Students at work deliver first-hand raw material for the assessment of the students’ learning needs. While the students are working, the teacher takes the first steps in planning future EDC/HRE lesson sequences.
• The teacher can also offer to be “used” as a source of information on demand, briefing a group on a question that needs to be answered quickly. The roles are reversed – the students decide when and on what topic they want to hear an input from their teacher.

22. See Part 2, Unit 5, Work file 3: Perspectives and forms of assessment, in this volume.