Newsflash! Having the answer key to a (past paper’s) reading task doesn’t in itself make you a (good…) IELTS teacher.

You also need to be always able to ‘ARGUE FOR’ the correct answer on demand. 😀 😉

(…which isn’t good IELTS ‘teaching’ either just yet, as it’s still ‘AFTER-THE-FACT’, which makes it TESTING, but it’s definitely a start…).

So let’s try this.

“Read the following introductory paragraph of an essay about the future of education and answer the three questions that follow. Do the following statements agree with the information given in the paragraph below? Write

TRUE/YES if the statement agrees with the information/claims of the writer

FALSE/NO if the statement contradicts the information/claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN if there is no information/it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this.”

AND THEN EXPLAIN WHY, as if you were talking to a student.

“It is quite common to hypothesize about what the future of education will look like in educationalist circles today. Debates revolve around what the defining feature of education in 2030, ’40 or ’50 will be and many vote for such factors as the importance of diverse place and time for learning, more personalized choices in curricula, increasingly project based and hands-on delivery, a focus on teaching critical thinking to facilitate interpreting big data, and a shifting attention from assessment to mentoring. While this is probably all happening, and quite soon too, the main transition in the classroom will be from a heavy emphasis on EQ education as opposed to only IQ”.

1) Educationalists rightly believe that flexible delivery will be the defining aspect of education in the future.

2) Some educators worry that there will be no students to teach anymore in the future.

3) It is quite probable that the practicalities of teaching will undergo tremendous change.”

When you’re ready, check your answers below. Did you get the answer right? And DID YOU ARGUE SIMILARLY AS WELL?

(Answer key:

1) FALSE/NO: Although the text mentions this (‘While this is probably all happening and quite soon too’), the author emphasizes that this is NOT THE BIGGEST CHANGE (‘the main transition in the classroom will be from a heavy emphasis on EQ education as opposed to only IQ’).

2) NOT GIVEN: The text does not say this. While it is indeed talking about the future of education, its ANGLE is DIFFERENT. It enlists the tangible changes experts in the field are talking about, then states that a focus on EQ will be the most significant shift. It does not mention that teachers are worried or that education as such will cease to exist.

3) TRUE/YES: This is true, because the text says ‘While this [i.e. ‘diverse place and time for learning, more personalized choices in curricula, increasingly project based and hands-on delivery, a focus on teaching critical thinking to facilitate interpreting big data, and a shifting attention from assessment to mentoring’] is probably all happening (…)’ before it goes on to make the point that although all this is to be expected, these will not constitute the most significant change [i.e. that ‘the main transition in the classroom will be from a heavy emphasis on EQ education as opposed to only IQ’]. This does not negate the main statement though, so the answer is TRUE).

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Hi. I’m Fatime. I’m an IELTS Teacher Trainer, helping CELTA-qualified English language teachers become better at teaching SKILLS, as opposed to just testing them. 

Check out my courses here:

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