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How to Recover from Burnout
engoo
#English#English#How to Recover from Burnout#variuos ages#Vocabulary Development
Description
Improve your English. Anytime, Anywhere.
Latest written Review
Review by Bielefeld_Inclusion_across_borders
Philosophy
,
The material´s set-up is not transparent. Neither in the lesson itself nor on the website are structure
and or design choices being explained or justified. It also does not mention inclusion at all and does
not seem to appeal to an audience with special needs as it does not provide any variety in for example
language complexity levels of the article. Also, none of the tutors introduced seem to have specialised
in special needs teaching.
Nonetheless, the material is structured logically; beginning with a warm-up consisting out of two
questions concerning stress and burn-out, continueing with information on vocabularies that might
be needed to generally be able to talk about burn-out. After that the article with further information
follows and the lessons ends with discussion questions. Each exercise is labelled from 1-4 making it
appear very structured. Still it lacks a wrap-up or reflection on learning process.14
The information provided in the article appears to be common knowledge, however the author of the
article this lesson is based on, H.J. Meech ,is briefly mentioned, though the name and date of the
referenced article are missing.
As this is thought to be used for private English learners with a diverse, international background it is
hard to relate lesson to any curriculum, research results are not explicitly mentioned.
Learners' needs
,
The lesson provided by Engoo is on the topic of how to recover from burn out and is supposed to help
students learn how to discuss a topic with the help an English tutor who has to be paid for.
The website provides various topics of discussion organized by topic. However, the lesson at hand is
focused exclusively on curing burn-out allowing for little variation. The lesson and the entire subgroup
of discussions is only offered for intermediate English learners. Adjustments for higher or lower
proficiency would ned to made by the tutor.
Concerning the accessibility of the materials; the free webversion of Engoo does not allow for
downloads meaning that students are reliant on an internet connection. Additionally, the way Engoo
works you are supposed to learn with a tutor you pay for. This is another monetary threshold for
students. Nonetheless, if this (free) lesseon were to be implented in a classroom or in homeschooling
it would provide students with Audio transcriptions and definitions of important vocabulary on the
topic as well as little pictures to indicate what is meant without a teacher being required to be present
(for example for private revisions).
The document does not offer example discussions nor does it provide helpful sentences to improve
ones knowledge of proverbs or idiomatic phrases. This would have to be provided by the tutor. It is
not explained what a discussion really is or how to argue in the first place. The material only provides
questions on the topic which then could be discussed .
Learners’ environment(s)
,
The material can best be used in groups or partner work, as it is supposed to teach discussions.
However, one could try themselves at creating arguments based off of the questions provided on the
topic. If working individually though , one has no source of feedback and the student would also lack
an explanation and a definition of what a discussion is. This would also apply for students who´s
teacher/tutor is not present. Otherwise, the material would work just as well in a digitally equipped
classroom as in a long- distance learning scenario.
Allthough Engoo provides materials for private lessons with tutors one could use the presentation as
a base for classroom lesson. The teacher would then have to add additional phrases or function word
(eg. Linking verbs) to accommodate the student´s needs. As the material is designed to be used in a
digital setting it could be used easily in eg. homeschooling during online-classes.
The slides are not available in any other formats than as a part of their website. The free version does
not allow for downloads making students dependant on their internet connection and understanding
of the English language as the website does not offer L1 to L2 (first language to second language)
tutoring. If a student is not proficient enough in Englsih to navigate the website they will not receive
help from the free website.
Learning Feedback for Learners
,
The lesson at hand does not provide any feedback on its own. There is no way for students to asses
their progress if they do the lesson on their own. Any feedback will have to be provided by the
teacher/ tutor or possible group members. However, said group members would have to rely on
their intuition as the material does not provide any reference frame in the form of eg. short talks
which then the students could compare themselves to.
One could argue that the warm-up of the lesson (two questions on the world´s most stressfull jobs
and recommendations one would make to a burnt-out friend) could indirectly make students reflect
on their ability to freely answer questions and justify them as justifications are also demanded in the
last part, the discussion part, of the lesson. However, this would be up their subjective interpretation
as they would not have a tutor correcting them. The materal also does not provide information on
Introduction to „learning feedback for learners”:
The material should imply elements of qualitive as well as quantitative
feedback. It should enable self-assessment formats as well as peer-feedback.
Feedback can be designed as immediate learning feedback or as a more broad
reflection on the learners’ progress. The provided feedback elements should
support the learners in reflecting on their learning process in a valuing and
affirmative way. Additionally, feedback options may appoint to next steps in a
learning journey.9
common mistakes in a discussion and also does not provide an example discussion as for example in
the form of a short video. In other words, if the teacher/tutor does not provide the student with
additional information the students will have neither references nor information on how to assess
their discussion skills.
Learners’ Reflections on Learning
,
The material lacks any sort of learning strategy justification. The term, concept of and approaches to
discussion are not mentioned or explained. Possible adjustments could be made by teachers/tutors,
Introduction to „learner‘s reflections on learning”:
The material should actively support the learner’s knowledge about different
learning strategies. The learner should be encouraged by the material to try out
different learning strategies and to integrate them into their learning process.
Also, the learner should generally be supported on how to reflect on their
learning process as a whole, regarding their progress, main strengths as well as
weaknesses.10
yet they would have to be created completely from scratch. A Tutor could take a question from the
last part of the material eg.: “You can't do a good job if your job is all you do. - Katie Thurmes. Do you
agree? Why? Why not?“ . The Why/ Why not part indirectly indicates that the students is supposed
to argue pro and cons for their answer. Teachers could supply students with methods of argument
structure and arrangement to create convincing arguments in a discussion.
As mentioned before the material itself does not provide the student with any reference for a
“proper” discussion. If the material is used alone and on in its own without any supervision the
student would not only lack the opportunity to identify their current proficiency state, they would
also lack the opportunity to reflect on their discussion skills development. Nonetheless, the student
is provided with potentially new vocabulary and an article on burn-out which in turn might teach the
student interesting information, which they could compare to their knowledge pre-lecture.
Learners’ Agency
,
I gave this criterion a 4 star rating, because eventhough the student is not able to choose a different
topic within the lesson the questions provided concern their private lifes and hobbys, enabling them
to express their interests.
Questions as for example ” What do you find to be the best way to reduce stress? Why?” can be
answered differently and personally by each student. The students are encouraged to reflect on their
own stress coping mechanisms and to think of other solution for decreasing stress. They therfore are
able to decide what exactly they would like to talk about. (Side Note: here, functional vocabulary
concerning hobbies could be useful eg.: vocab-box)
In a one on one session the material might help the tutor/teacher to stick to a rough outline of the
session while they could monitor their student`s progress. The material itself does enable the
student to autonomically handle their learning progress. Because of the codependancy on the
tutor/teacher the student would struggle to identify any progress at all if they were to use the
material on its own.
The students are indirectly encouraged to reflect on the material, or to be more precise to reflect on
the article provided in the lesson beacuse of the discussion questions. Information from the text
concerning a healthy life style and eg. Saying ”no” to certain people and events could be reflected
upon. When answering questions like ” Do you often cook for yourself? If so, what do you like to
make? If not, why not?” the student could answer with ”Sometimes. However, cooking makes me
feel more stressed than before. So, contrary to text cooking healthy meals might increase my
stresslevel and therefore my chance of burn-out”.
The material does not adress diversity in any way. It even assumes that all students who use the
lesson are in fact working. However, given the target group of adult learners, this makes sense.
Moreover, the focus from job-induced burn-out could easily be adapted to burn-out from school
related stress. The lesson does not include any mentions of ethinicity, disability or different socio-
economic backgrounds and only focuses on burn-out caused by jobs. Emotional burn-out is not
mentioned either.
