Content Writer, Course Creation team, Instructional Design

Content Writer, Course Creation team, Instructional Design

Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Job Description

Who We Are

NewGlobe supports visionary governments in transforming public education systems, the cornerstone of a prosperous, equitable, and peaceful society.  In doing so, NewGlobe ensures that all children have access to an education that will develop their full potential and create a foundation for growth and prosperity. 

NewGlobe leverages more than a decade of educational experience and proven impact in integrated school management, teacher professional development, instructional design innovation, technological system support, child-centered classroom practice, and parent engagement -- all grounded in learning science -- to ensure each teacher is empowered to engage children in transformational learning, and all children have the opportunity to develop to their full potential. NewGlobe works within state and national curricula and syllabi, ensuring all children can learn their own history, and master local content, while being globally competitive in mathematics and languages. 

NewGlobe’s work is all encompassing and will challenge you to use your full mind and heart each day. We need bright minds who want to be part of building a new globe -- a more equitable globe -- to join us. NewGlobe is honored to serve and to help rebuild trust in public systems.

Academics Group

The objective of the Academics group is to drive student achievement. To do so, we must know what is happening – minute-by-minute – for the typical child. The student’s daily experience, and thus the path to achievement, emerges from their relationship with the teachers and the content that is delivered in the classroom. 

Our Regional Academics department collaborates with local education ministries to understand each programme’s syllabus and educational context. Our Instructional Design department then develops rigorous content, pitched at the right level and tailored to programme needs. Field officers visit classrooms and provide detailed feedback on lesson effectiveness, which triggers lesson revisions and improvements. 

Underpinning all of this is the work of the independent Research, Measurement, and Evaluation group, which provides Academics with an empirical orientation toward improving that daily experience and, in turn, driving achievement. 

Instructional Design Department

The Instructional Design department produces the learning materials that are used in schools across the communities where we work. This department has team members based in multiple NewGlobe support offices, organized into teams that each work on a portfolio of projects. Driving student achievement through the development of rigorous content is the number one priority. One core tenet of the approach is less lecture (traditional among many schools in our markets) and more student practice and teacher feedback. Consistent, rigorous opportunities to refine knowledge and skills are crucial to a child’s learning progression. The Instructional Design department structures all lessons, textbooks, and other materials to ensure this.

About the Role

The Course Creation team’s purpose is to create excellent “modules” (i.e., units and lesson plans) for commonly taught subjects like: geography, history, politics, religion, science, health, physical education and art. These learning materials are designed for use within multiple programmes across NewGlobe, so they need to be designed with built-in flexibility. Our team works closely with other teams in Instructional Design to adapt these materials to different programs across the world.

In order to do this work, members of our team need to:

• Analyze syllabi and textbooks from NewGlobe programmes to find common areas of study. For example, hygiene is a very common topic across many programmes and grades in health and social studies classes.
• Design units and script lesson plans to teach these common topics in effective, age-appropriate, and culturally appropriate ways. For example, a Content Writer might create a unit of lessons about hygiene for grades 1-3 and another for grades 4-6. The Writer must identify the best way to teach concepts that unify the content of the unit and sequence skills and topics in the best order for effective retention. In this case, the writer may start the unit with basic knowledge-building about the germ theory of disease and use that idea to explain why pupils need to wash hands with soap and water (to kill germs), especially before meals (when germs are on our hands and get into our mouths, they can make us sick).
• Train other teams. We will collaborate with them to adapt the curriculum we write to different programmes and contexts. 

We are a small team, and our work is complex and changes frequently. Team members must be flexible and willing to do tasks outside this official scope in order to successfully complete given projects.

What You Should Have

• Background:
• Three or more years of teaching experience in an elementary, middle, or high school 
• Strong academic background and general knowledge in areas like: geography, history, politics, religion, science, health, physical education, and/or art – you do not need to be an expert in every area, but you do need to be able to do effective research in every area, which requires some initial knowledge
• Experience in writing unit and lesson plans
• Experience in training or leading other adults 
• Bachelor’s degree
• Skills:
• Ability to explain new concepts simply, clearly, and concisely in writing
• Excellent organizational skills, time management, and attention to detail
• Ability to learn new content, systems, and processes quickly and independently
• Strong command of English grammar and writing conventions
• Ability to communicate clearly and positively, both verbally and in writing
• Mindsets:
• Commitment to pragmatism and flexibility – finding and doing what works for pupils and teachers in the contexts we work in – rather than ideological commitment to specific ideas about teaching and learning
• Curiosity and deep interest in learning new things in all aspects of our work (e.g. understanding big ideas in agricultural science, how to script the perfect turn and talk, how to draw simple pictures in Microsoft Powerpoint – it’s all important!)
• Enthusiasm for collaborating closely with a small team
• Commitment to excellence in your work
• Comfort with the idea of writing scripts for teachers to teach from
• Flexibility with change

Why Work Here

• Opportunity for impact: The Instructional Design department as a whole directly impacts the experiences of approximately two million children. Any one lesson you write may be used to teach hundreds of thousands of them. There are not many opportunities in education with the potential to positively impact so many.
• Global collaboration: Instructional Design has offices in Cambridge, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kigali, and Lagos. We collaborate on projects frequently across offices and learn from each other.
• Like-minded team: Across the globe, all of us are here for one reason: to help children get the quality education they deserve. Working with others who share this goal is a fulfilling part of our work.
• Creative problem-solving: We often encounter novel problems and must act quickly to solve them in creative ways. You are not just applying a known template – you are actively involved in creating tools, products, and processes that have never existed before.

What to Expect from the Interview Process

We have a rigorous, merit-based hiring process. The process is designed to simulate the essential parts of the job and introduce you to your role in the business should you join our team. Apply via our website.

• A screening interview with a member of the TA team
• A brief online assessment and personality inventory
• A case study
• A functional interview with the reporting manager
• A values interview with a member of the hiring team 
• A reference check 

We are committed to a fair process free of discrimination based on gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, religion, citizenship, veteran or disability status. 

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