Group Photo with Shimshal Community

A Report of Training Course on Primary Maths teachers

A Four Days Training Course for the primary schools mathematics teachers 

Bashir ahmed (training facilitator)

INTRODUCTION

Today schools are functioning in a rapid changing world. This changing scenario demands a continuous improvement of the schools in nurturing the students to pace with the global demands as well as to face local challenges. In the process of school improvement, the capacity building of teachers is viewed highly substantial in change process.

To address the emerging educational needs of teachers various content and innovative pedagogy courses are offered to transform their pedagogical skills. Primary Mathematics competency course is one of the approaches which is considered more relevant to the schools. It focuses the effective teaching strategies used in mathematics classroom by providing creative activities. Competency course is also the process by which teachers learn more effective and efficient ways of teaching and learning. It is also one of essential process of enhancing teachers’ capacity to meeting the need of new global community. This process ultimately improves the teaching and learning process and as a result students learning outcomes are improved.   

Keeping in view the changing roles and emerging needs of the school teachers, primary mathematics competency course was designed and developed for mathematics teachers with ultimate aim to improve the schools and students’ learning outcomes.

In this regard, MIED Islamabad and MH Pakistan has successfully developed and implemented a primary mathematics competency course in Muslim Hands Educational Complex Wazirabad. The training process was divided into three phases. In the first phase, the needs of the teachers were identified for the training course. In the second phase, training manuals were developed according to the identified needs. In the third phase, the course participants were involved in different activities to strengthen their pedagogical content knowledge and skills.  The duration of the course was four days. Face-to-face sessions were enacted from 9:00am to 4:00pm including breaks. In each face-to-face session, the CPs were engaged in learning certain concepts, notions, approaches and skills by using different teaching strategies.

The main characteristics of the course can be summarized as follows:

·         The courses focuses on effective teaching strategies used in mathematics classroom and develop teachers with certain skills of these strategies as they are expected to work as change agents.

·         The course focused on hand-on activities for teaching mathematics therefore, CPs were given opportunities to develop and present various activities related to their area of interest.

·         The CPs were encouraged to be reflective and critical thinkers to analyze their current practices and need of the students.

·         Collaboration and collegiality among the CPs was highly appreciated to learn from each other and take collective effort to respond their challenges.

This report discusses aims and objectives of the course. It also highlights the proposed themes, teaching strategies, implementation plan and monitoring and evaluation mechanism of the course. It follows outcomes of the course, challenges, recommendation and conclusion of the report are also part of this paper.

AIM OF THE COURSE

The overall aim of this course was to nurture the capacity of twenty five primary school mathematics teachers who play their active role in transforming their traditional teaching methods/strategies into effective and innovative teaching methods/strategies used in mathematics classroom.

Objectives of the Training Course

1. Orient course participants with key teaching strategies used in a mathematics classroom.
2. Engage participants in mathematical problems solving to get hands-on experience of these teaching strategies.
3. Enrich teachers’ existing knowledge and skills of teaching mathematics by retrofitting  interactive and fun-loving  teaching techniques;
4. To explore and reconstruct teachers’ beliefs and perceptions of teaching and learning mathematics;
5. To provide teachers with an opportunity to share their experiences of teaching mathematics in order to improve their competency in content knowledge and pedagogy;
6. To improve teachers’ mathematical discourses and concepts in the selected themes by using symbolic, pictorial and descriptive representations;
7. To enrich the concepts of mathematics by practical examples for in-depth understanding; and
8. To renovate teachers’ competency in developing brief and precise learning activities.

PLANNING FOR THE COURSE

The course was designed to meet the needs of the teachers of the selected Muslim Hands Schools. Various themes were decided according to the findings in the need analysis and reconnaissance reports. Contextual realities, needs, interests, and experiences of both students and teachers were kept in view.

Unlike traditional teacher training program, special emphasis was given on andragogical perspective of the CPs where course participants were given a chance to re-conceptualize the different notions (of education, teaching and learning) through enhanced socialization, by valuing their past experiences, need of the future, focusing on the challenges and viewing them as self directed learner.

Beside that, social, gender, and religious sensitivities were kept in mind during the implementation of the planning. 

COURSE THEMES

Different themes were covered during the course. The core themes of the course is given briefly as under

• Orientation to the concept of mathematics and teaching of mathematics;
• Reflection on aims of teaching mathematics with reference to our daily life;
• Revise and review the methods and techniques of teaching mathematics;
• Effective teaching strategies used in mathematics classroom; and
• Assessment forms used in mathematics

All the topics were covered through interesting teaching strategies, demonstration of micro teaching and assessment procedure. Different approaches and strategies were used to make a lesson more interactive, effective and provide CPs an opportunity to actively participate in various activities. It was the core feature of the course. Moreover, sharing of reflection was an essential part of the course.

Course Participants were also made aware of the importance of child, friendly classroom environment, modern teaching and learning strategies such as; child centered learning, hands on and minds on activities, interactive based strategies, experience based approaches, inquiry or discovery based strategies and effective use of resources for teaching and learning were the other main features of the course.

PROCEDURE:

Throughout the course, participants were given an opportunity to discuss, share and evaluate their previous experiences of teaching and learning mathematics. The facilitators facilitated the course participants through different cooperative learning techniques and encouraged their discussions, group works, and presentations of relevant activities from mathematics. Facilitator connected the understanding of CPs with the relevant literature and examples from daily life. Moreover, emphasis was placed on reflective practices of the teachers because teachers are considered as change agent in the classroom in creating a learning environment.

TEACHING STRATEGIES

To make the course interactive and effective different teaching strategies were opted such as discussion, power point presentations, role plays, short lectures, readings, brainstorming, pair work question and answer, individual work, demonstration, problem solving, dialogue and videos. However, to make the course more meaningful and to ensure the essence of participatory approach, variety of strategies were used such as

(a) Expose the participants to new teaching strategies,

(b) Enhance content pedagogical knowledge of the teachers,

(c) Transform teaching methods and strategies,

(d) Ascertain student centered teaching and learning,

(e) Develop the idea of using resources for classroom teaching and learning.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION

Effective evaluation is viewed very significant in the success of any course. Keeping in view the importance of monitoring and evaluation different strategies were employed to evaluate the learning of the course participants and effectiveness of the course. In regard, following strategies were used

·         Daily reflection of the CPs

·         Filling evaluation forms by CPs at the end of the course 

·         CPs’ task completion during face-to-face session

·         Active participation and involvement of CPs

·         Daily attendance of the CPs

·         Facilitators reflection

OUTCOMES OF THE COURSE

The training course provided unique opportunities for the course participants to learn the experiences of teaching mathematics with each other. Similarly, it also provided multiple opportunities to explore new teaching strategies used in mathematics classroom. The key outcomes of the course are as under

ENHANCED PEDAGOGICAL KNOWLEDGE

The course facilitator encouraged CPs to participate classroom discussions. The discussion strategy helped CPs to clarify their misconceptions regarding teaching mathematics. Various themes, topics and field experiences were discussed to understand the notions of teaching mathematics. This strategy helped CPs to find solutions of various field challenges. The training facilitator ensures the participation of all the CPs in group discussion. It was observed that the confidence level of CPs also enhanced during their participation in discussion. As a result the teachers’ knowledge is enhanced regarding teaching of mathematics. Some of the comments of CPs are as under

• The course participants highly appreciated the methods of teaching used during the course. One of the CPs shared that “before this course I was illiterate regarding teaching mathematics. This course helped me to know about some of the teaching methods and strategies used in mathematics classroom”.
• Another CP highlighted the learning environment created by the course facilitator. She shared that “Trainer was very friendly; he used effective activities during the training and told us the process of various teaching strategies used in mathematics classroom in a friendly manner”. “We like trainer’s positive and friendly attitude, he spoke in soft voices which encouraged us to share our ideas and issues openly with them. This strategy helped us to know something about teaching mathematics.”

The above reflections show that some of the CPs were not oriented with the teaching methods and techniques of mathematics before this course. The orientation and involvement of CPs in various activities helped them to enhance their pedagogical content knowledge.

DEVELOPED VARIOUS SKILLS

During the course the CPs were involved in different activities which helped them to develop various skills. The training course focused on to develop various pedagogy skills among the CPs therefore; activities were designed in such a way that skills would be developed. In the training session, the CPs were given maximum opportunities to develop activities related to their subject area. It was observed that CPs were able to develop some of the hand-on activities during the course. Similarly, during the course, CPs were exposed to a variety of teaching strategies and methods. By involving in co-operative learning process, the CPs demonstrated their pedagogical skills through working on various activities. Some of the reflections of CPs are as under

·         I was unaware about the importance of teaching strategies used in mathematics classroom. Now I came to know that the importance of teaching strategies and its effective usage in classroom. I can confidently say that I can use some the strategies in my mathematics classroom.

·         I never learned that mathematics is taught in different ways. In my academic experiences, I was taught with a single method, this is first time that I am introduced with different teaching strategies used in mathematics classroom. Now I can confidently say that I can teach better than from my previous experiences

·         One of the course participant shared that “I used chalk and board method for teaching mathematics but now I realized that it is traditional method. I learned how to develop activities for teaching mathematics I will use activities for teaching mathematics”.

The above reflections clearly describes that the CPs are developed with various pedagogical skills and they are eager to use their learned skills in their classrooms.

TRANSFORMATION OF DISPOSITIONS

It was observed that the CPs traditional dispositions and discourses are transformed into innovative and modern ways of teaching and learning. In an informal discussion with the CPs it was observed that CPs were critically reflected on their previous practices and experiences of teaching mathematics. The training course provided an opportunity to reflect on their previous practices and prepare themselves as champion of change. Some of the CPs shared their reflection as

• “Through playing games and teaching through various activities in teaching mathematics, I though it is wastage of time but I came to know that how important they are in teaching mathematics”.
• Before the training, it was common reflection of the CPs that they have a lot of task to do in the school. They do not have enough time to develop such activities for their classroom teaching. However, after the training course they realized that how important they are for effective teaching and learning. The CPs promised that they will do their best to use their learned skills and knowledge in teaching and learning of mathematics.

DEVELOPED CONFIDENCE

CPs got confidence to share their learning with their colleagues which shows that how learning of the course will be multiplied through course participate. One of the course participants shared that “During the training, I learnt different ways of creative activities which facilitate all the children in the class. I will share these strategies with my school teachers to adapt such ways of developing creative activities for their classroom.”

Participants were able to build their oral and presentation skill during the course, when they got opportunity to come forward and share their ideas. CPs shared her experience, “I learnt a lot in this course, it gave me confidence to share my point in front of other teachers.”

CHALLENGES:

• The space of the classroom was not appropriate; it was difficult to move in the classroom easily. The seating arrangements was not so good, the size of the chairs were very small and it was difficult to sit comfortably. Therefore, many CPs also have highlighted this point in their reflections.
• The timing of the course was too lengthy; it was difficult to capture the motivation of CPs after lunch. Majority of the CPs also highlighted their concern regarding timing of the course in their reflections.
• Some of the training materials were not available on time as a result the effectiveness of the course was not maintained.
• Different course facilitators were involved in different phases of the training course. Therefore, the course did not touch directly the needs of the course participants.
• All the course participants were not the teachers of primary schools therefore; it was difficult to grasp their attention at a certain level.  
• The understanding level of course participants were different as some CPs had good understanding of teaching mathematics while some CPs did not teach mathematics.

• Few of the CPs was observed dominating others while doing classroom discussion and other activities.

SUGGESTIONS:

• Classroom environment plays an important role in students learning. Therefore, it is important to arrange a classroom where CPs can easily perform their activities in a conducive environment. Similarly, the seating arrangement should be comfortable so that the CPs feel easy during their classroom interactions.
• The timing for the course should be schedule in such a way that CPs should be active all the time. However, external factors such as weather affect the motivation level of the CPs. Create such an environment where the influence of external factors should not affect the learning of the CPs.
• Resources play a vital role in effective teaching and learning. All the important and necessary material should be arranged before any training course so that the process of training programme took place in smooth way.
• Understanding and skills about the use of group work is required to be enhanced among teachers by conducting more sessions to strengthen this strategy, make school environment and support of their cooperative learning in schools.
• Follow up visits should be part of this training course. This will ensure the implementation of learnt skills by the teachers in the actual field of classroom. Feedback should be provided in case of any challenge faced during their field work.
• One day refresher course is important after three months or after six months to revise the concepts been taught and know about their achievements and challenges.
• As all the phases of a course are integrated with each other. Therefore, same course facilitators should be involved at all phases of training course. This could help course facilitators to carry on the training process in a better way.
• The CPs from same school level (Primary/Secondary) should be involved to foster the learning of CPs with equal pace. This will help them to share their field experiences with each other which ultimately enhance their learning by sharing their ideas.

CONCLUSION

The course was run smoothly and course facilitator was able to create an environment where teachers were able to re-conceptualize their previous practices of teaching mathematics. Course participants were able to construct new understanding about innovative and creative teaching methods and techniques of mathematics.

 The challenges faced will provide an opportunity of more experience for the next training course. First of all thanks Allah almighty who enables us to develop teachers professionally and thanks to the teachers who extended their valuable time for the training with their full zeal and zest. This has enabled us to celebrate a new milestone in the journey teachers professional development. Secondly, I would like to thank Assistant Manager Curriculum Development and Training of Muslim Hands and Principal Muslim Hands School of Excellence Islamabad for their support, encouragement and constructive timely feedback. Thirdly, I would like to extent my gratitude to all the administration and supporting staff of Muslim Hands Educational Complex Wazirabad for their care during our stay in Wazirabad. The arrangements made for this training course were highly appreciable which made our life easy. Thanks to every one that put his/her hand on it, without their support this could not be possible.

A Real Teacher

Workshop on Early Childhood Development

Children learn what they live

 If a child lives with criticism,

He learns to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility,

He learns to fight.

If a child lives with ridicule,

He learns to be shy.

If a child lives with shame,

He learns to feel guilty.

If a child lives with tolerance,

He learns to be patient.

If a child lives with encouragement,

He learns to be confident.

If a child lives with praise,

He learns to appreciate.

If a child lives with fairness,

He learns justice.

If a child lives with security,

He learns to have faith.

If a child lives with approval,

He learns to like himself/herself.

If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,

He learns to find love in the world.

A Training Report on Gender in Education

REPORT ON THE GENDER IN EDUCATION: GENDER AND LEADERSHIP

Bashir Ahmed

Introduction

Gender is considered as socially constructed phenomena which shape the roles, identities and positions for male and female in the society. Different factors such as family, friends, media and schools are responsible for the perpetuating gender norms in the society. Gender education starts with building gender awareness. This means recognizing the negative impacts of gender stereotypes and addressing the inequalities that arise from gender discriminations.By reducing gender stereotypes, gender education assists children in building a sincere civic equality where women and men live with mutual respect.No one is valued less or more just because one is a girl or a boy.The outcome of gender education for girls is greater self-confidence, assertiveness, independence and engagement in the public sphere.The outcome for boys is overcoming fear of failure, learning to be less aggressive, becoming more sociable and involved in personal relationships and engaging more in the private sphere.

An important function of gender education is to distinguish between facts and beliefs or opinions. Moreover it helps participantsto recognize that every individual is complex and unique with a wide range of characteristics. The stereotypes and rigid gender expectations can hinder development and the realizations of the full potential of both girls and boys.Teachers have a unique role in the lives of their students. Teachers can serve as role models and guide students to reach their hopes and dreams. They can play a major role in imparting gender education and ensuring that schools are engendered.

A step towards making schools gender responsive, Educational Development and Improvement Program (EDIP) had organized one week training course from June 11, 2012 to June 15, 2012 for the teachers of EDIP project schools. The purpose of this training course was to develop teachers’ understanding about their role in gender socialization in schools. The cohort consists 33 course participants, 13 were maleswhile 20 were females who attended the training course.

According to demand of the project and need of the training, pre-test and post-test(see annexure A) was conducted to gauge the worth of the training. Test materials were prepared according to the themes toshare during the training course. Almost all participants showed significant improvement in their understanding level in post-test.

This report includes objectives, themes, teaching and learning methods, analysis of quantitative and qualitative assessment. The report also consists of achievements, challenges, recommendations and conclusion of the training course.

Objectives of the Course

Objectives are the intended outcomes of any training course. We expected that after the training,courseparticipants will be able to:

·         Re-conceptualize the concept of gender

·         Differentiate between gender and sex

·         Develop understanding on gender equity and gender equality/gender division of labor

·         Describe how gender enacts itself in a school context

·         Explain some of the gender discriminations in schoolsand society

·         Discuss gender and leadership/experiences of women leadership

·         Verify how textbooks are gender biasness

·         Plan strategies fordeveloping gendered free textbooks

·         Relate how gender can be integrated in School Improvement framework

Themes Covered

Following topics/themes were covered during the sessions. Weekly plan is also attached with the report (See annexure B)

·         Notion of gender/Difference between gender and sex

·         Gender identity

·         Gender disparities in schools/society

·         Gender mainstreaming

·         Gender roles/needs

·         Gender division of labor

·         Gender equality and gender equity

·         Gender and leadership/Sharing experiences of women leadership

·         Approaches and methods in creating gender awareness and advocacy

·         Gender biasness textbook analysis

·         Role of leadership in development

·         Gender socialization/Child rights/social development of child

Teaching and Learning Methods

The course facilitators used effective training and learning methods to share the content of the training course. The bellow list shows some of the instructional strategies used during the training course.

·         Reflection on previous day’s learning

·         Brainstorming before starting new topic

·         Case-studies or stories

·         Think-pair-share

·         Games/Role plays

·         Multimedia presentations

·         Group discussion

·         Lectures/talks

·         Questions/answers

·         Guest speaker’s presentations and questions/answers

·         Individual and group presentations

Quantitative Analysis

We assessed course participants before and after training to gauge the worth of the training. The participants shared literature based, specific and relevant information and definitions in post-test whereas, in the pre-test mostly course participants left the questions without answers or their statements were too general and ambiguous. The following table shows the level of agreements and disagreements of the course participants from every session.

Descriptive Statistics
	Number of Participants	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Std. Deviation
What is gender	29	3	5	3.90	.557
Gender Discriminations	29	3	5	3.69	.604
Gender Equity	29	3	5	3.86	.743
Gender and Leadership	29	3	5	3.55	.572
Sharing experiences of women leadership	29	3	5	3.52	.634
Gender Socialization in schools	29	2	5	3.41	.733
Role of leadership in Development	29	2	5	3.31	.660
Child rights/social development of a child	29	2	5	3.66	.614
Cumulative mean				3.61

Key: 1= Poor; 2= Fair; 3= Good; 4= Excellent; and 5= Outstanding

The above table shows that majority of the course participants strongly agreed that the training course was very useful and fruitful.Overall, the cumulative mean (CM=3.61) reveals that majority of the course participants found that the training course was excellent. This shows that the training course has achieved its objectives at the end of the course.

Qualitative Assessment

We used reflections and evaluation as tools for qualitative assessment. A course participant’s reflection about the session is attached in the appendix.The following lines show the description of their comments on significant learning shared during their reflections and in evaluation forms.

In their reflections, majority of the course participants mentioned that the training course on gender in education was very effective and useful. More than half of the course participants shared that before this training they thought gender and sex are two terms with same meaning. They revealed that after the training course they understood the difference between gender and sex. In the reflection one of the CP cited that “gender is socially or culturally constructed phenomena which shapes roles and responsibilities for male and female while sex is the biological characteristics of male and female”.

Moreover, two of the course participants shared in their reflections that they did not consider any gender discriminations in schools and society. After attending the training course they realized that gender discrimination is common in our society. They showed their interests (promised) to play their role in minimizing the gender discriminations in their society. Some of the course participants shared real examples of gender issues from the society. This attitude shows that after the training the course participants are sensitized regarding gender issues in the society. They also promised that they will play their active role in giving awareness to the parents.

The course participants mentioned that the training on gender was very fruitful for his personal life. Before this training, he was thinking that a female cannot go outside for their studies or any productive work. He believed that the role of a female is only taking care of children and their role is limited to domestic works. This training course opened his mind that a female can go outside for productive work as well. Her role and responsibility is not limited only inside the home. Our trainers and Dr. Moula Dad Shafa, Head PDCN, also explained this concept with the reference of Islamic point of view. He agreed that female have equal rights in education and other related jobs with male.

During the reflections, one of the course participants shared that an educated female means an educated society. It is fact that an educated mother can better take care of her children. As a result, the society could be well educated. He also shared that the Islam also teaches us to educate every male and female. There is not any discrimination in Islam regarding education, roles and responsibilities. Male and female both can do productive and reproductive tasks in society. Therefore, as a teacher, it is their role to convey the important message to parents and civil society. 

Overall, the CPs found the training course highly productive and very useful but they felt the course duration and time factors for activities were not sufficient.

Achievements

·         All participants agreed the importance and mainstreaming of gender in education.

·         Majority of the course participants agreed and reflected gender discriminations and highlighted gender issues in the society. They promised to play their active role in giving awareness about gender disparities.

·         All of them came with consensus that gender equality and gender equity is the need of the time and as teachers they will perform their role in perpetuating the rights of male and female.

·         They learnt terms gender and sex and differentiated from literature and real life examples

·         They were able to analyze the gendered biasness textbooks and recommended for gendered free textbooks.

Challenges

The course facilitators faced some challenges during the training course. Some of the noteworthy challenges were:

·         The concept of gender was new for most of the course participants; therefore, it was difficult to clear the basic concepts of gender due to shortage of time. 

·         Variety in participants’ learning abilities and understanding level was a challenge to keep pace and level accordingly.

·         Some of the participants did not show up on first day of training.

·         Despite prior information the system did not allow the guest speaker to give sufficient time for questions and answers session.

·         Available materials were mostly in English and it was not possible to translate them all into Urdu within the short time available.

·         It was difficult to cover the whole concepts of gender in one week so, there were some misconceptions among course participants.

·         As there was space issue for the training session therefore, the venue for the sessions was changed every day.

·         The faculty members were busy with different training programs; therefore there was shortage of training team.

Recommendations

·         There should be a needs assessment in schools before conducting any session on gender in education.

·         Some clips could also be added on various gender stereotype and gender socialization which allow course participants to discuss and reflect on their own practices and think of implications of new learning.

·         We recommend successive two weeks face-to-face sessions for more clarity of different concepts and participants’ positive attitude towards gender roles and needs.

·         Such training session should be conducted for parents because parents are also key stakeholders of school improvement process.

·         A field visit would be useful to understand how gender enacts in schools.

Conclusion

The training course came to an end successfully and all the objectives were achieved. The course participants considerably changed their perceptions, perspectives of gender and commented that gender is an issue in the society and should be addressed on time. One of the participants commented that before this session he believed that there is not any gender issue in his society but after attending this training course he realized that there are many gender issueseven at his home as well as in the society. The course participants reflected that there are many gender discriminations in theirsociety; females are not given equal rights as men are given. They realized that gender mainstreaming is very important to provide equal opportunities, roles and responsibilities to all men and women. They also identified biasness in the textbooks and recommended to develop gendered free textbooks. Finally, the course participants realized that gender in education is very important concept therefore teachers should be aware with gender roles and gender needs of the students. However, there is always a room for improvement and hence I would like to see the duration of the training program to increase for future courses. The training can be made more effective by analyzing gender socialization process practically in a school context.