Teacher Professional Development

This brochure describes the CIFF-funded Kenya Tayari program, which aimed to improve the quality of pre-primary education in four counties in Kenya.

This brochure describes the CIFF-funded Kenya Tayari program, which aimed to improve the quality of pre-primary education in four counties in Kenya.

Cultivating Dynamic Educators: Case Studies in Teacher Behavior Change in Africa and Asia responds to growing recognition by international education professionals, policy makers, and funding partners of the need for qualified teachers and interest in the subject of teacher professional development (also referred to as “teacher behavior change”). The book responds to important questions that are fundamental to improving teaching quality by influencing teaching practice. These questions include: How do we provide high-quality training at scale? How do we ensure that training transfers to change in practice? What methods are most cost-effective? How do we know what works? The book includes case studies from seven countries--Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Malawi, Nigeria, Philippines and Zambia--describing different approaches to teacher behavior change and illustrates how specific implementation choices were made for each context. Individual chapters document lessons learned as well as methodologies used for discerning lessons. The key conclusion is that no single effort is enough on its own; teacher behavior change requires a system-wide view and concerted, coordinated inputs from a range of stakeholders.

The United States Agency for International Development, the Department for International Development and the government of Malawi, through the MoEST, are collaborating to implement a National Reading Programme (NRP). This reading programme aims to improve early grade learners' literacy skills. Central to achieving this goal is building teachers' capacity to teach foundational reading skills that are key for successful reading and comprehension abilities needed for learning content across the curriculum. The NRP introduces teachers to effective reading instruction through the five essential components of Phonological Awareness, alphabetic principle, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The NRP also includes oral language development and writing as part of reading instruction. The NRP aims to provide teachers and head teachers with training in how to better teach children in the early primary grades to read and write in Chichewa and English. The NRP focuses on strengthening teachers' skills and knowledge of how to teach literacy by providing them with opportunities for training and ongoing professional development through coaching.

Chapter 7 of Edited Volume: Pouezevara, S. R. (Ed.) (2018). Cultivating dynamic educators: Case studies in teacher behavior change in Africa and Asia. (RTI Press Publication No. BK-0022-1809). Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI Press. DOI: 10.3768/rtipress.2018.bk.0022.1809 This case study explores the methods and implementation considerations of peer-learning approaches to changing teaching practice in the Indonesian context, where cluster-based training is deeply embedded in the education system. These clusters were leveraged by USAID/PRIORITAS to disseminate professional development through a structured lesson-study approach. To understand more about how teachers were learning to improve their practice through peer mentoring, data were collected through interviews and school visits in August 2016. The main purpose of the case study was to understand the scope and implementation considerations of school-based and peer-to-peer approaches to teacher behavior change, with particular focus on improving reading instruction. We particularly have tried to uncover the implementation factors that influenced the possibility of success of peer mentoring in Indonesia under USAID/PRIORITAS, including issues of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, readiness for self-directed learning, and the relative importance of the foundation laid by the preexisting school- cluster structure described in the Methodology section.

There is a large body of evidence substantiating the importance of mathematical literacy and the key role of foundational mathematics in early years of education on later academic outcomes (Duncan et al., 2007; Duncan & Magnuson, 2011; Hanushek & Woessmann, 2008; Siegler et al., 2012). Despite this, we have little evidence from low- and middle-income countries on how to better ensure that students are learning the foundational skills in pre-primary through lower primary grades. Given that quality of instruction is key, we examined the evidence for the types of instructional strategies used in low- and middleincome contexts. We cannot link the effective instructional strategies to learning outcomes, given the limited information provided in reports we reviewed. However, understanding which strategies are used, and how they manifest in different contexts, is an important first step to understanding which strategies are effective for learning. This brief summarizes our review paper (Sitabkhan & Platas, 2018).

This paper examines common instructional strategies in early grade mathematics interventions through a review of studies in classrooms in low- and middle-income countries. Twenty-four studies met the criteria for inclusion, and analyses reveal four sets of instructional strategies for which there is evidence from multiple contexts. Of the 24 studies, 16 involved the use of multiple representations, 10 involved the use of developmental progressions, 6 included supporting student use of explanation and justification, and 5 included integration of informal mathematics. Based on the review, we provide conclusions and recommendations for future research and policy.

This report presents the results of RTI International Education’s study on teachers' guides across 13 countries and 19 projects. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, we examine how teachers’ guides across the projects differ and find substantial variation in the design and structure of the documents. We develop a scripting index so that the scripting levels of the guides can be compared across projects. The impact results of the programs that use teachers’ guides show significant impacts on learning outcomes, associated with approximately an additional half year of learning, showing that structured teachers’ guides contribute to improved learning outcomes. During observations, we find that teachers make a variety of changes in their classroom instruction from how the guides are written, showing that the utilization of structured teachers’ guides do not create robotic teachers unable to use their own professional skills to teach children. Unfortunately, many changes that teachers make reduce the amount of group work and interactivity that was described in the guides, suggesting that programs should encourage teachers to more heavily utilize the instructional routines designed in the guide. The report includes a set of research-based guidelines that material developers can use to develop teachers’ guides that will support effective instructional practices and help improve learning outcomes. The key takeaway from the report is that structured teachers' guides improve learning outcomes, but that overly scripted teachers' guides are somewhat less effective than simplified teachers' guides that give specific guidance to the teacher but are not written word for word for each lesson in the guide.

CIES 2018 Presentation, given by Scholastica Tiguryera. While in-service training is an essential component of early grade reading (EGR) projects, it only addresses the current force of teachers and is usually a one-time, resource intensive undertaking. In these efforts, pre-service teacher education is often not addressed overlooking the next generation of teachers who will also need to know how to teach the new reading curriculum. This presentation will discuss how the Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) has worked with two USAID-funded EGR projects (School Health and Reading Program [SHRP] and Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity [LARA]), a government-run EGR project funded by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), Kyambogo University, and other local partners to develop an addendum to the Primary Teacher Education Curriculum to ensure the early grade reading initiatives introduced by the projects are incorporated into the pre-service teacher training program.

The United States Agency for International Development, the Department for International Development and the government of Malawi, through the MoEST, are collaborating to implement a National Reading Programme (NRP). This reading programme aims to improve early grade learners' literacy skills. Central to achieving this goal is building teachers' capacity to teach foundational reading skills that are key for successful reading and comprehension abilities needed for learning content across the curriculum. The NRP introduces teachers to effective reading instruction through the five essential components of Phonological Awareness, alphabetic principle, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The NRP also includes oral language development and writing as part of reading instruction. The NRP aims to provide teachers and head teachers with training in how to better teach children in the early primary grades to read and write in Chichewa and English. The NRP focuses on strengthening teachers' skills and knowledge of how to teach literacy by providing them with opportunities for training and ongoing professional development through coaching.