teacher training
We improve the quality of instruction, student engagement and achievement through multi-year, in-school and in-class capacity building support for teachers and leaders.
Our Education experts hold regular teacher training workshops at all schools, in collaboration with the International Community School (ICS), the Regional Education Department, and public universities including Bahir Dar, Debre Markos, Debre Tabor, Injibara, Debre Birhan, Debre Birhan Teacher Training College, and Wollo. The workshops are based on a student-centred, experiential approach to learning, and introduce novel instructional resources, as well as holistic methods of evaluation, to all teachers, principals, and supervisors. Outdoor classrooms, play areas, and educational gardens in all schools provide excellent bases for such methods. Our experts continue weekly follow up, and mentor each teacher for three to five years. Selected teachers from each school also travel periodically to Addis Ababa to shadow classes of ICS teachers, learning new approaches, student engagement and assessment strategies. After these visits, they in turn mentor their fellow teachers. Special Needs teachers receive specific training from Special Needs teachers at ICS.
The teacher training program is in place in all schools, and now incorporates principals, supervisors and education department officials. We hope that this will ensure that our model endures beyond the time that we are no longer involved with the schools. Our partner, ICS, continues to provide excellent support in terms of providing books, learning materials, and desks, apart from sharing their experiences on best practices and many other issues to target school teachers. The Bahir Dar Department of Education officials and principals have also visited some of our schools and exchanged experiences.
Teachers are now relating their teaching and learning to the real world and developing their skills through media and out-of-class teaching. Thanks to our training and ongoing support, we are observing visible changes in a growing number of teachers, especially those teaching in Prek-4 applying learner-centered approaches, planning and delivering objective-based lessons and assessing students’ progress to mastery of the learning target. Children no more sit for hours and watch their teachers. They freely move and are often on task. Our methods are also beginning to have a multiplier effect as one local district/woreda has instructed all of their schools to use the room-wide chalk paint blackboards that we have introduced. This is integral to the concept of learner-centered experiential learning that we advocate rather than the old “chalk and talk” method. Most of our schools have risen significantly in terms of regional evaluations, with two being awarded as top school in their district in terms of achievement as well as learning methods.
