Page 255 - BLENDED LEARNING

Alexander Sokol, PhD, is principal developer of the Thinking Approach (TA) to
language teaching and learning, a teacher educator and a course designer.
Alexander taught English at a secondary level for 13 years, including teaching
blended courses. His co-writers for this paper are Edgar Lasevich, Renata Jonina
and Marija Dobrovolska-Stoian. All of the authors of this paper are collaborating on
developing learning tools, materials and curricula for an integrated development of
language and thinking skills of learners. The approach is being used in more than ten
European countries and the materials are available in various languages. The team is
also involved in developing teacher education programmes on teaching thinking and
bringing the culture of thinking in work of various organisations. Detailed information
on all these projects can be found at www.ta-group.eu

Brian Tomlinson is a Visiting Professor at Leeds Metropolitan University and a
TESOL Professor at Anaheim University. He has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer,
curriculum developer, football coach and university academic in Indonesia, Japan,
Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, UK, Vanuatu and Zambia and has given presentations
in over 60 countries. In 1993 he founded MATSDA (the international Materials
Development Association) and he is now President of the association. His many
publications include Discover English (with Rod Bolitho); Openings; Materials
Development in Language Teaching; Developing Materials for Language Teaching;
Research for Materials Development in Language Learning (with Hitomi Masuhara)
and Applied Linguistics and Materials Development.

Ron White is former Director of the Centre for Applied Language Studies, the
University of Reading, UK, Ron White has 30 years’ experience of teaching and
managing in Britain, the Pacific and Japan. He has worked as a consultant for
Cambridge ESOL, and was involved in the initial development of the TKT (Teaching
Knowledge Test) and in the revision of the DELTA. He is co-author of From Teacher
to Manager, and has been a trainer on the International Diploma in Language
Teaching Management since its inception.
Claire Whittaker is the Head of Learning and Teaching at Bell and is based in
Cambridge. For a number of years she worked overseas with the British Council
as a teacher, teacher trainer and project manager in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Poland, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. She has also consulted on ELT projects in
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia and Nigeria. She is a member of the British Council’s
English Language Advisory Group and holds a Doctor of Education (EdD) in Teaching
English to Speakers of Other Languages from the University of Exeter.

252 | Contributors