Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant: EL Teacher Training

About the project

The Regional English Training Centre Project (also referred to by the Thai Ministry of Education (MoE) as “Boot Camp”), was set up following an approach by the Thai MoE to the British Council requesting support to help bring about a step change in English Language Teaching (ELT) at Thai state primary and secondary schools, specifically to support the development of a more communicative approach to ELT.

The project involves 24 expatriate English language teachers and teacher trainers being posted to eight centres around Thailand. The trainers deliver three week courses which see Thai English teachers travelling to training hubs to receive 90 hour intensive training courses in groups of either primary or secondary teachers

The course uses British Council ‘Teaching for Success’ materials as input, while the Thai teachers practise micro-teaching on each other during each of the three weeks (baseline, mid and end project).

In addition to micro-teaching observation data, the project also collects questionnaire data demonstrating teachers’ self-assessed confidence levels and trainer ratings of teachers’ classroom language at baseline and end of project.

In order to address the limitations of off-site, intensive training, the project is developing on-line follow-on support for teachers following the course using social media and online platforms, and teachers return to the centre for a two-day review around a month after the initial training.

About the role

Data collection, collation and analysis

The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) consultant is expected to use the following sources of data:

• field-work data, e.g. visits to training centres, focus groups, observations of training sessions, interviews with key stakeholders etc. as appropriate
• existing M&E data: baseline and end project assessments of micro-teaching competence, English proficiency (in use of classroom language) and self-rated confidence.

Key aims

• assess the progress towards the project outputs and outcomes and verify whether key performance indicators agreed with the Thai MoE have been met
• analyse the strength of the approach to achieving the desired change in educational practice, and to recommend changes and improvements
• inform the work of similar projects and/or continued work with Thailand’s teachers
• evaluate the sustainability of the approach
• report on lessons learnt.

Report writing

The consultant will be expected to produce two reports:

• an internal management report
• an external evaluation report for the Thai Ministry of Education.

The consultancy is expected to require five working days fieldwork and up to five working days desk-work.

Qualifications and experience required

• previous experience in designing and undertaking M&E of education projects 
• evidence of work in developing countries
• organising, managing and analysing quantitative and qualitative data collection and associated analysis
• able to build relationships and communicate effectively and with empathy with a range of stakeholders including project beneficiaries
• understanding of both teaching and learning English as a second language in a state school context
• understanding of primary and secondary ELT curricula and institutional change to state school education systems in developing world contexts
• ability to work effectively in difficult circumstances where the reliability of services, service providers, co-workers and systems are not always guaranteed
• excellent communication skills with people of varying linguistic, educational, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

Consultants should supply:

• full CV in English tailored to the above requirements
• brief proposal (2 pages maximum) outlining how would go about this commission and providing your daily consultancy rate

and send to Ian.Clifford@britishcouncil.or.th with subject line “RETC M&E application”.

British Council Thailand will evaluate submissions against the following equally weighted criteria:

• track record in relevant research and publications
• track record of consultancies in related projects
• approach to this evaluation
• qualifications and experience of consultant
• value for money.

Please note, we can only respond to successful applicants and only within five days of the application deadline.