Is JEB any good?

MontgomeryClift

I was turned down for the lowliest IT teaching and adult education jobs, so I took on the JEB in a desperate attempt to get a bit of work. I'm still getting blanks everywhere I try, with the usual "We might be hiring in six months" lies. If anyone did it or knows anyone who did it and got work, or failed to get work, please let me know your experiences.

TheDriver

What is a "JEB"?

Tom Dunne

Personally, I don't think it is worth anything.

However, for a lot of VEC/FAS type jobs you apparently need it.

maytechu

Hello,

I've done the JEB and I have got some teaching experience thanks to it.
I would like to ask Tom Dunne, if he thinks he's a good teacher and if he knows what the students think about his teaching? Tom I'm sure you are very good. Although, it seems that you haven't learn the principles behind the teaching and learning methods/approaches. Perhaps you have taught yourself.

I just want to leave very clear that I do not know Tom or which Institute of Technology he's teaching on(he published this information in another thread in 2006), so this is not personal at all. It is just a good example for me to complain about so many teachers that have got the job, have their own methods of teaching, therefore, they are reinventing the wheel again with all its consequences.

From my own experience I 've been learning from tutors (in a Institute of Technology, Level 7) whom just got jobs because of their academic qualifications but they have not a clue on how to deal in a 'professional(teacher)' manner with students/learners. An this is not about spoon feed the sutdent, it is about respect, ground rules, presenting material, preparing lessons, testing, feedback, etc.

If you want to teach level 7,8,9,10 of the National Framework then get your academic qualifications and teaching experience . If you are happy teaching beginners(of any kind and social backgrounds) or people that are heading to Level 7 then the JEB and a Degree in some Discipline should help you to convince your future employers that you have knowledge of what is expected from you.

So in order to get a little bit of background in how does a student/ learner feel and how to do your best to promote learning you should do the JEB/EDI.

Don't do it if what you want is to advance in ICT knowledge. The real benefit of JEB is to know some principles of teaching and training and how to apply them to the classroom. I think it is a very good asset in your general knowledge.

Have a nice day!

rainbowtrout

maytechu wrote: »

If you are happy teaching beginners(of any kind and social backgrounds) or people that are heading to Level 7 then the JEB and a Degree in some Discipline should help you to convince your future employers that you have knowledge of what is expected from you.

Don't do it if what you want is to advance in ICT knowledge. The real benefit of JEB is to know some principles of teaching and training and how to apply them to the classroom. I think it is a very good asset in your general knowledge.

I don't agree with you, JEB from my experience of dealing with people involved in it seems to be mainly theoretical, too much theory not enough practice. And it's even more important for a teacher at any level to have proper practical teaching experience in order to be able to deal with beginners or otherwise.



Personally, I'd agree with Tom. I'm a teacher, I teach IT as part one of my subjects. From what I can understand the JEB is needed for teaching in FAS.

I had a JEB student come to my school only a month ago for his teaching practice. He had contacted the school previous to this and when I met him I thought he was going to be in on a weekly basis for a couple of months like a HDip student. I was amazed to learn that he only had to do 2 hours teaching practice to complete his qualification! Not only that but I was the one who had to fill out his appraisal and and the course tutor didn't come next or near the school.


So from that point of view I don't rate it very highly. Anyone could sign off on that appraisal without the practice being completed.

I also asked said student at the time if he would like to teach spreadsheets or databases, it would have suited me at the time if he had done a bit of both and he told me he would prefer to teach spreadsheets because he wasn't too familiar with database and was rusty on it. If he is going to be teaching IT I would expect going out on teaching practice - all 2 hours of it - that he would at least be able to teach any of the basic IT subjects.

So, while he's probably not representative of all JEB students, he wasn't willing or confident enough to teach a basic IT subject, he has only done 2 hours of teaching and nobody from his course seems to follow up on it.

maytechu

Hello rainbowtrout,

The teaching practice depends on the college you are getting your JEB diploma. I personally got 6 hours with real students. However teaching is a vocation or it should be.
JEB is like any other course, you do it and then you get the job. The course gives you the guidelines in order to manage a classroom, deal with learners (whether old adults or young adults etc), prepare lesson plans, preparation etc. As I said, some colleges offer more teaching practice than others. if you have never thought and you didn't do the JEB how did you get your teaching exxperience in the first place?

What I was trying to say, is that JEB does not teach you technical skills as such, you suppose to have certain technical background. It does teach you how to prepare exercises, technical exercises from a technical point of view, but if you don't know the material yourself, how are you going to do this?

So my advice is, if you have good knowledge of any IT discipline and want to get a qualification that allows you to tech it, then get the JEB and try to get as much prctise as you can, even volunteering.

If you think JEB is going to teach you the technical skills you need, forget about it.

In other words, JEB teaches you how to teach technical material and how to deal with a class professionaly. JEB does not teach you 'the technical skills' you suppose to have to teach others.

There are also other courses like 'Train the trainer', some of them are intensive and as far as I remember do not offer teaching practice.

Practice/work experience is the most difficult thing to gain after finishing the theory part, sometimes is facilitated and sometimes you have to go the extra mile to get it by yourself. It's all the same.

Have a nice evening!

rainbowtrout

maytechu wrote: »

Hello rainbowtrout,

if you have never thought and you didn't do the JEB how did you get your teaching exxperience in the first place?

I did say i was a teacher, I have a degree that included teacher training. Plenty of teaching practice over the four years.

maytechu wrote: »

Practice/work experience is the most difficult thing to gain after finishing the theory part, sometimes is facilitated and sometimes you have to go the extra mile to get it by yourself. It's all the same.

And i would just put forward the argument that you can spend all the time in the world on theory, but it's a different ballgame going into any type of classroom and putting that theory into practice. 2 - 6 hours is very little time to work on a person's teaching skills. I would also question the fact that I have to assess a person's teaching skills on one lesson when this is the only contact I've ever had with them.

maytechu

Hi!
Apologies for my typing mistakes (well everybody does, but I meant 'taught' and not 'thought', and I didn't mean 'you' as yourself but, 'one' as someone). I think we are discussing something completely different.

I agree with you. There should be more hours of teaching practice.
Now, what about all the people that just go into teaching because they have plenty of expertise in a particular job(lets' think of IT or something technical) and just want to change their careers? What course do they take to get to know the principles of teaching and training? What alllows them to be teacher in the first place?

I have friends that are teachers and they have never got any training to do so, but they have sound subject knowledge. Is this ok? I suppose so becuae it is the way it works in many colleges and Institutes of technology.

But sometimes (I'm not talking about my friends now) you heard of someone who has just crossed the line becaue used obsolete methods. Methods that were used in his/her education, such us to ridicule a student/s in front of the class, or yelling at them because they would not understand. To me this is totally unacceptable, no matter what. And it happens.

I've got most of my experience (apart from the 6 hours of supervised teaching)in very informal ways and most of it before I did the JEB.

But the JEB has helped me to answer some of my questions and put them into context knowing that every situtation that I'm going to experience or have experienced has been studied by experts. Then it is up to me to get better at my job.

I've done the JEB. It is not easy. They do not give it to you for doing nothing. It involves a lot of hard and meticulous work. Hours and hours of your own time besides the lectures. You have your hours of teaching practice where you have to prepare your lessons according to what you are told to teach (normally computer applications). Then you have to do one or two shcemes of work(depending on the course part/full time)Then you have a very dificult theory exam, that you must pass with a minimum of 60% and wait 3 months for the result!!!! These 3 monts waiting are very annoying, I must admit.

I've seen people in the course that thought they were going to be taught IT, so they could go and teach it after. This seems to me a very common misconception. The minimum requirements, as regard of IT knowledge, is to have the ECDL!!! So yes, you can go and teach in VECs, FAS and other community organisations. But you also need to know your subject very well although you may not have a degree on it. But I guess that colleges need to fill out their numbers so they get the registration fee and then it is up to the student to realise what is what they are going to learn and drop or continue. Although some of them refund the money even after 3 months.

Other people hold a degree(normally would be IT related) or a profession (photographer, graphic designer, teachers of other disciplines, they later would be exempt of the theory exam)and just want to hold a teaching qualification in IT that allows them to teach in colleges of further education or in their community, very low levels. Well, someone have to educate the ones tht are left behind or the ones that are just learning the basics. it is not all about University and colleges. Lots of people need to catch up with IT as INformation Technology or just 'computers and Internet'.

It is true that is very difficult to get experience, but several people of my class got it last year after the summer. Others are not confident enough with their IT skills that of course they are afraid of teaching it, but they did the wrong course!

Other people want to start their own business by teaching the community(friends, friend of friends etc,perhaps small busiensses). They let them know that they hold a teaching qualification in IT so they know what they are doing.Who knows!

Of course if you have a masters or even a hounours degree, you can go and teach straight away. I don't understand how this works well for the learner, but it is accepted.

It could seem that I'm promoting the JEB because I have stakes on it or something. The true is that I found it very helpful in general. Particularly for technical writing and user interaction. But that is just me.

Have a nice day!