Adult English Education Curriculum and Materials Design Specialist - Volunteer Position - Onsite in Costa Rica

Duration

10 months

Project description

The Costa Rican Ministry of Public Education has requested the support of a Peace Corps Response Volunteer (PCRV) to serve as an Adult English Education Curriculum and Materials Design Specialist. The Volunteer will be supporting the implementation of the current English curriculum reform through material design and curriculum development for public secondary schools. The new English curriculum was launched because Costa Rican students needed an updated learning model that reflected the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to succeed as a citizen in the 21st Century. Students were not reaching the expected English proficiency level after eleven or twelve years of instruction. As a result, MEP (alongside PCVs/PCRVs) developed an updated English curriculum that focused on using an action-oriented approach/communicative approach to language learning. In 2016, a cohort of Response Volunteers spearheaded this initiative by collaborating with MEP officials. The assigned MEP counterparts have multiple years of experience working with Peace Corps Volunteers.

The Volunteer will collaborate closely with two counterparts from the Secondary Education Department, National Advisors from the Youth and Adult Department, and occasionally with the small groups of PCVs and Cost Rican English teachers to assist in the creation of supplementary materials and develop resources including audio, videos, teacher tool kits, student resource kits and dialogue scripts. Secondly, the Volunteers will support a variety of curriculum development initiatives through document revision and provide additional support to the national English advisors as they create a science curriculum for bilingual elementary schools. The goal of this assignment is to continue to strengthen and further the implementation of the curriculum throughout Costa Rican secondary public schools.

Candidates selected for this position will be arriving in Costa Rica together as a group, so while the departure dates for the whole group could change, dates cannot be changed for individual candidates.

Required Skills

• Master’s Degree in Education- preferably related to EFL curriculum and instruction.
• 5 -10 years of public school teaching experience.
• Experience working with secondary school curriculum design.
• Intermediate Spanish. Most professional interactions will occur in English but Spanish is needed to communicate with other staff who are not English professionals as well as for daily life interactions (getting to work, buying groceries, developing local relationships, etc.).
• Proactive, solution-oriented approach to professionalism. Be able to work well with tight timelines and very little supervision. Team work, flexibility and collaboration are key soft skills for this position
• Willingness to approach the position through the Peace Corps’ philosophy on development.
  
  

Living conditions

Learn more about the Volunteer experience in Costa Rica: Get detailed information on culture, communications, housing, and health/crime statistics in order to make a well-informed decision about serving.

Medical considerations

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