Think Creative - Issue 7

The whole child and beyond

Training educators, like this one in Pakistan, how to teach effective reading is critical to student success.

Educator development for stronger teachers and classrooms A fragile context like Afghanistan creates a challenging environment for education to thrive. Teachers have limited opportunities to formally develop their skills and both they and students suffer as a result. USAID’s Afghan Children Read project has incorporated teacher professional develop- ment as a core part of its work to improve the quality of literacy and learning instruction in the country. “Any time you provide a teacher with tools to be successful, the success begets success. It’s a wonderful cycle,” says Susan Hirsch-Ayari, Project Director for Afghan Children Read and Director of Creative’s Middle East and Asia Education Portfolio. Teachers receive training through the project and continue to grow through ongoing coach- ing, mentoring and teacher learning circles. This type of in-school teacher support system is new to Afghanistan. Agatha J. van Ginkel, Ph.D., Senior Education Advisor for the project in Kabul, explains that this approach has changed the relationship among teachers, supervisors and students. “Before the current system, academic super- visors would travel around to schools and pro- vide support to teachers. But they very much functioned as supervisors and the schools would feel it was an examination and a perfor- mance review rather than receiving support,” says van Ginkel. Now, principals and head teachers are trained on what to look for and apply that knowledge to regular classroom observations. They then provide individual feedback to teachers and facilitate teacher learning circles where the educators can share their experiences, tips, frustrations and support. Afghan Children Read created a continuous as- sessment book that guides teachers on how to evaluate their students on major competencies like reading, writing, listening and speaking. Teachers record their evaluations in the books and discuss them during teacher learning cir- cles to identify successes and challenges. “Coaching is something very new,” says Ahmad Wali Faizi, the project’s Teacher Training Man-

school system— like between Felix Francisco and his son, Atanásio. “A lot of kids hear mostly negative talk when they’re in their younger years. It’s mostly commands or prohibitions and there’s not a lot of positive interactions,” says Blankenbeckler. “Nutritious talk, which we also call rich talk or dialogic conversation, turns that on its head.” Joanie Cohen, Ed.D., Project Director of Vamos Ler !/Let’s Read! explains that inMozambique, and in much of where Creative works, parents or caregivers often do not have the luxury of having enriching discussions with their children. “These cultures have these rich folktales, but when life is difficult and you’re really worry- ing about what you’re going to eat and where you’ll sleep, it’s hard to incorporate meaningful language into your everyday interactions with children,” says Cohen. The Let’s Talk! materials use pictures and icons to represent various recognizable aspects of local life to initiate rich conversations between parents and children regardless of literacy levels. The project team provides training and materials used to guide and structure the sessions, which are run twice a week by trained volunteer facilitators selected from the communities. The sessions are conducted in the local lan- guage, which enables parents and children to participate confidently. This type of exchange between parents and children stimulates the child’s cognitive development. Children learn to value communication and reading and are motivated to learn and ask questions.

“We used to be in the dark, maintaining an authoritarian environment with our children,” says Felix Francisco. “Now, I talk to my child in a friendly way. He enjoys playing with me and it makes him so happy. I believe this will contrib- ute significantly to his school performance.” Initial feedback on the Let’s Talk! sessions from parents and children has been overwhelmingly positive. Community leaders, such as heads of the school councils, say they enjoy attending the sessions even when they don’t have children of their own participating. In communities without preschools or out-of-school enrichment activities for young learners, the Let’s Talk! ses- sions have become known as “kindergarten.”

Catering to the whole child involves engaging the stakeholders in a child’s life that can make a difference.

Photo by Pakistan Reading Project (top); JimHuylebroek (bottom)

18 | Think Creative | Spring 2020