No fewer than 100 teachers selected from public and primary schools in Oyo state have began a 12 months professional capacity building workshop facilitated by the U.S. Consulate General, Lagos.
The capacity development training which is in series and tagged “Ibadandun”, according to the organisers seek to introduce the participating teachers to fun, creative and interactive teaching methods that enhance educational outcomes such as improved numeracy, literacy and school attendance.
Five Cowries Arts Education Initiative, 1 Million Teachers Incorporated and the American Corner Ibadan are collaborating to implement “Ibadandun” with generous support from alumni of U.S. government exchange programs.
The series of workshops will integrate a variety of hands-on activities that provide the teachers a deeper understanding of new approaches of using arts to improve classroom instruction and students’ learning.
Delivering remarks on Friday during a workshop for a cohort of the teachers in Ibadan, Acting U.S. Consul General Stephen Ibelli, explained that integrating a variety of hands-on activities, including arts, in classroom instruction will engender critical thinking, creativity and collaborative learning.
He said “The U.S. Mission is fully committed to supporting a more educated population by increasing and strengthening the capacity of Nigerian teachers.
“Teachers who use innovative pedagogy and interactive assessment techniques enliven the teaching-learning process for their students.
“Students who have effective and engaged teachers tend to perform far better than their peers.”
Acting Consul General Ibelli lauded the efforts of alumni of U.S. government exchange programs for supporting the project by serving as mentors and trainers during the 12 month-long project.
“U.S. Government exchange alumni are at the forefront of promoting access to qualitative education, good governance and civic engagement throughout Nigeria.
“They have strong ties to their communities and with the support of the U.S. Mission, create and execute projects to address specific needs, including basic education,” he added.
Through teacher training workshops and exchange programs like the Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program and the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program, the U.S. Mission provides teachers the opportunity to develop expertise in their subject areas and enhance their teaching skills.
Speaking on the initiative, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) 1Million Teachers, Akeem Subair said the effort is to equip the teachers to do better on their job and make learning fun for the students.
He said “We are collaborating with the Five Cowries Initiative to implement the US consulate programme for teachers development.
“This programme is particularly exciting and interesting in the sense that we are not only providing a lifetime access to the development of the teacher but we are helping them to help their students to develop critical skills for them to thrive in the 21st century.
“Now, we are talking about collaboration, communication skills, creativity and critical thinking. This programme is going to run for 12months in addition to the orientation that has been ongoing for the past few weeks and has us inviting teachers from across Oyo state, working in collaboration with the state SUBEB and Ministry of Education.
“After the orientation, they will continue to get ongoing professional support which we call Peer facilitated learning, where the teachers themselves are sharing knowledge and collaborating with themselves. Ultimately, we feel teachers are key and if we can help them up their game in some ways, we know that will make a lot of difference and game changing for education.
Also speaking, the representative of Five Cowries Art Education Initiative, Tolulope Amy-Williams said the idea is to teach teachers cultivate innovative and creative ways to teach and impact on the students in line with the trends of the current generation.
She said “We are into this, not because the teachers are not effective. Clearly they work for a certain generation and as time goes by, children developed resistance and thick skin towards several measures of punishment and that create a gap between the teacher/parents and the students/children.
“More so if you are a teacher and you are in classroom , the impact you would be having will be minimal because you have placed yourself on a pedestal and the student don’t feel they can relate or connect to you. The fear that you will be quick to bring out the cain is there and you Discipline them with hard measures.
“We don’t promote that because of the gap you have created, you are not bringing yourself and making yourself available to connect to you and relate with you and it will be difficult to connect with you.
“Sometimes some of the use of corporal punishment don’t work anymore because of the peculiarity of this generation. But we can look for other creative things to train them and that’s what the training is all about.
“If they are use to correcting them with hard measures, we don’t promote that because of the gap it creates. By that you are not making yourself availability and it will be difficult to influence them positively.
“You can make them memorise some educational contents, make them repeat some creative things, or some positive confession about themselves, make them do something creative, they will probably feel they are being punished but at the end of the day they are having fun and they are learning.
“There are better ways to correct a child, there are better ways to inform them, the same thing with educational system, everything is about theory and talks but you can bring some creative tips to the table and make them talk and let them bring out an ability out of the whole situation.
“The whole idea if to introduce how to make learning fun and beautiful experience that they can relate with at the present time.”
