Welcome to ADECS

ADECS is proud to present ‘You, I & EPI: an evening with Dr Conti’: an online, professional learning event for teachers in the process of implementing Gianfranco Conti’s Extensive Processing Instruction (EPI) approach.

This 2-hour event is for teachers to seek clarification from Gianfranco on any aspect of their EPI journey to date. 

More about practice, and less about theory, the evening will take the form of an informal, Q&A session attended by EPI teachers from around the world. Participants can pre-register questions, contribute them on the night or just tune in for the general discussion. There really will be ‘no such thing as a silly question’ at this event - the more specific, the better!

The event is part of a larger endeavour to gauge demand for ongoing professional development for EPI teachers. I've written a blog post here providing some background on the project, or for those interested in a more detailed explanation, I've created a brief YouTube presentation here. 

Clearly, the more feedback we can gather, the greater the likelihood of the project going ahead! Please register your interest by clicking the Contact Us button below, or commenting on the pinned post on the ADECS Facebook page.

Hope to see everyone on Saturday April 5! 

Excited to announce...🥁🥁🥁

Em*powered by AI: smart curriculum design in Languages 

A new, in-person course combining curriculum design (specifically, Dr Gianfranco Conti's Extensive Processing Instruction (EPI) approach) and the use of analytic and generative AI. 

Addressing AITSL standard 2.2, this full-day course demonstrates how to build a unit of work in Languages from scratch: framed by the MARSEARS sequence, and supported by AI. The inspiration for the course can be found in a detailed blog post here. 

The course will run on two dates this year, at the beautiful King's School in North Parramatta, NSW (click through for details below). 

For those unable to make it in person, let the course come to you, at your school! Enquiries for onsite or online delivery can be made here.

From new courses to new collaborations, 2025 is shaping to be really exciting! There are two new courses being run for the first time: one on school-based assessment for HSC Languages (scroll down for details), the other, for AI-assisted curriculum programming in Languages. The hugely successful Leveraging AI course from last year returns in two streams: the latest iteration of the course for Beginners, and a new workshop for those a little further into their AI journey. 

 The full suite of 2025 events can be viewed here, however for the most up to date information, follow the ADECS business pages on Facebook Instagram Linkedin or Bluesky. Follow them all! Your support is very much appreciated. 

Looking forward to connecting with old friends and new. Have a terrific start to term, and a great 2025. 😊

Teachers of all Stages will find something of immediate use on the ADECS Teachers Pay Teachers site. Stage 6 teachers of German Continuers and Extension will find assessment tasks, teaching support materials and HSC past paper vocabulary analyses. Teachers of all Stage 4 Languages will find a 2025 Scope and Sequence and there are syllabus-aligned unit of work and assessment task templates for all Stages. New materials are being added all the time,  and it is possible to follow the store if you'd like to be notified when something new goes up. Click here to have a look. 

***NEW COURSE OFFERING IN 2025***

School-based assessment in the HSC Continuers Language courses

At the 2023 annual Chinese Language Teachers Association conference, I presented an assessment model for the Continuers languages courses, which in its design, addresses two issues that frequently come up in the Stage 6 Continuers courses:

1. how to ensure a level playing field between native and non-native speakers, and
2. how to teach, develop and assess higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in Languages  

From this presentation came the 4-hour NESA-accredited course, in which participants will gain:

• a stronger understanding of the HSC syllabuses and assessment processes
• ideas for tasks that target the development of skills assessed in the HSC examination (while not replicating its components)
• advice on how to construct task-specific marking criteria and rubrics (not just copy/pastes from NESA past papers)
• skills for developing bespoke assessment materials using AI.

This course is for anyone who might be:

• new to Stage 6
• feeling a bit rudderless in their current approach, or 
• just interested in some new ideas. 

The schedule for this course will be posted shortly on the ADECS social media pages, however if you'd like to receive a notification, email me on (alison.dean@adecs.com.au) and I'll contact you directly. 

As with all of the offerings, I am available to present this in your school - just get in touch and I'll come to you.

Face-to-face course: Leveraging AI for resource creation in Languages

This course continues to grow in both scope and popularity! Participants can expect a day of creativity and collegial learning as they learn how to:

1. Create stimulus reading texts, listening texts, audio/visual texts and Chatbots

2. Differentiate texts for different proficiency levels

3. Generate comprehension questions, games and exercises

4. Create assessment tasks, marking criteria, rubrics and sample responses

5. Generate course descriptions, report comments, risks assessments and newsletter articles

6. Get teaching advice or another perspective on a text/issue, and much more…

We look at the craft of prompt writing and I take participants through a framework I've developed to step teachers through the process.

Exploring what AI can do is a passion project of mine and I continue to be amazed by its potential as a tool. Click through for details of the course below.

In 2022, I was approached by the Sydney Institute for Community Languages Education (SICLE) at the University of Sydney to write a course in languages methodology for NSW Primary and Secondary teachers of other subject disciplines. The Institute had secured a grant from the NSW Department of Education to address the decline in the number of language teachers by offering practising teachers (proficient in other languages) the opportunity to add approval to teach languages to their Departmental accreditation. The rationale behind the project seemed like such a no-brainer to me: in every school I’ve worked in, I’ve known many of my Business Studies, English, Maths and Geography colleagues to be highly proficient, or indeed bilingual, in other languages. Upon learning that I was a language teacher, many of them would express a deep interest in how languages were taught, always with the rider that they would “love to be able to teach it, they just wouldn’t know how.”

So when this opportunity came along, I jumped at the chance. 

Mapped to the AITSL standards, the course comprises of 14 weeks of online modules, a language proficiency test and a 5-week prac component. 

I ran the first offering of the course in July 2023, attended by 30 enthusiastic teachers from a diverse range of cultural, teaching and linguistic backgrounds. Every Tuesday they zoomed in for an hour to discuss the readings and tutorial questions from the week, sharing their experiences and learning from each other. As of December 2024, over 50 teachers have now met the requirements of the course and have received their accreditation to teach in Department schools. Stronger supply, stronger collegiate. Winning!

For more information, read my blog post here, or click through to the SICLE course website below. 

I was recently engaged by a NSW Catholic Education Diocese to conduct a languages curriculum review of one of its schools. The staff's passion and commitment to language learning came through in spades, and I'm really looking forward to our follow-up 'refine and align' sessions. 

If your school is up for NESA registration, or you'd like an objective eye cast over your curriculum documentation, don't hesitate to get in touch. 

I am continually inspired by the educators I meet and work hard to deliver relevant, evidence-based professional learning. Click through for testimonials of my recent work.