Research - Case Studies
Ethiopia Teacher Professional Development:
Children's Home Society and Family Services
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Hossana, Ethiopia  
24-28 August 2009; 17-23 January 2010

Definitions and Descriptions:  Professional Development Foundations, Pedagogy, Strategies and Thinking Methods

Foundations—

1. Peer Feedback
   The Peer Feedback (Collegial Coaching) model focuses on teachers regularly observing each other to learn, understand, and improve their pedagogy (teaching methods). The observed lessons are approximately 15-30 minutes providing a focus on particular teaching methods and pedagogy. The model includes a briefing, lesson observation, and debriefing.
2. Demonstration Lessons
   Facilitator led lessons with students for participating educators to watch the methods used in practice, and observe methods and pedagogy used during the professional development.
3. Whole School Collaboration
   Successful professional development ultimately includes the whole school (learning community).
4. Common Language
   Developing a foundation of ‘common language’ (shared vocabulary/definitions) with methods and strategies used within and between grade level, disciplines and administration.
5. Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Visual Arts, Music, Physical Education
   All disciplines are involved with the strategies, methods and pedagogy part of the professional development to support the whole learning community.

Pedagogy—

1. Reflective Writing and Sketching
   The participants will actively reflect on the methods and strategies they are doing through participatory learning throughout the professional development. The methods used with the participating educators can be scaffolded for use with students in the classroom.
   
2. Community Exercises
   Community building exercises are an important part of the professional development for developing participant community and for use in the participant’s classrooms.
   
3. Cooperative Learning
   Cooperative learning methods are part of the participatory training with the participants, as well as learning cooperative learning methods for the classroom. This includes pairing methods, group cooperative learning methods, and implementation of cooperative learning environments within a classroom and throughout a school.
   
4. Classroom Environment
   The physical structure to support an effective learning environment including room size, desk arrangement, positioning of the teacher in the room, location of chalkboard, lighting, etc.
   

Strategies and Thinking Methods—

1. Cognitive Visual Language
   Participants will learn used Thinking Maps, a visual cognitive language for learning within and across disciplines and age levels (pre-K through adult). The publisher - owner of the intellectual rights - has agreed to the training of Thinking Maps®, use of Thinking Maps® and Thinking Maps materials with Ethiopian educators and schools.. The research based cognitive visual maps are an effective Pre-K-12, college, and leadership tool. Information may be found at www.thinkingmaps.com. Additionally, extensive quantitative and qualitative research is online at www.thinkingfoundation.org. As a certified trainer of Thinking Maps, I have worked with their creator (David Hyerle) and publisher (Thinking Maps Inc.) to authorize CHSFS to use Thinking Maps in their teacher training througout Ethiopia.
   
   
2. Questioning Methods
   Questioning methods (inquiry) are an important part of professional development. This includes deeper learning of understanding and developing interpretive questioning, strategies of questioning (e.g. Powerful Questions), and methods of using inquiry for the staff and with the students.
3. Perspectives - Frame of Reference
   An important element of understanding one another in building a thinking community includes understanding and respecting each other’s perspective (frame of reference). This is accomplished through inquiry, community building, and Thinking Maps which focuses on  cognition, language and culture that embrace understanding each other’s perspective (frame of reference).
4. Vocabulary
   A variety of recognized effective vocabulary building methods that have been implemented in the education field will be incorporated into the professional development strategies.
5. Writing
   A variety of writing strategies and methods that expand from the thinking model that begins with organizing thinking including using visual cognitive maps (Thinking Maps). Writing strategies include patterns, writing from visual cognitive maps, thinking aloud, and other writing strategies.
6. Making Connections with Prior Knowledge
   Making Connections with prior knowledge (Schema) explains how our previous experiences, knowledge, emotions, and understandings affect what and how we learn. By teaching students how to make connections (prior knowledge) to text they are able to better understand what they are reading and writing. Students comprehend better when they make different kinds of connections: Text-to-Self; Text-to-Text; Text-to-World.

Specific Strategies, Techniques and Methods—

Community Building started each session with 20-30 minutes of community building exercises that were for the participants development as a community, and for the educators to use and develop the community in their classrooms and schools. After collaborating with the whole group to introduce a community exercise(s) and methods to build a collaborative team, we then practiced the methods in three smaller groups. A testament to their level of interest, focus on intentionality, understanding and collaboration was evident with their enthusiasm, and their interest in sharing personal community methods they had previously used. And how the participants embraced community and collaborative methods integrated throughout the sessions.
Demonstration Lessons with Students was conducted on Tue, Wed, and Thur. This provided participating teachers an opportunity to observe students using the same methods and techniques they had been learning. Additionally, this provided a platform to introduce the Collegial Coaching Model. A goal in the future is to have even more students representing a class (instead of twenty, forty students) to represent the countryside schools and state schools. This would encourage a deeper understanding of methods of collaborative learning to involve large classes. With school out of session, we were unable to find approximately forty students on short notice though Fekadu’s staff diligently tried. We will definitely have next time larger groups of students which is representative of ‘countryside’ and state schools.


Environment and Food provided the participants with an thoughtful learning atmosphere throughout the week which supports a successful professional development.


Frame of Reference to understand each others perspective(s). We did a variety of strategies and methods focusing on sharing and understanding each other’s perspectives. This includes creating a frame of reference for each person to learn about ourselves and each other, as well as how each visual Thinking Map can have a frame to understand different perspectives.
Inquiry (Socratic method) was a key element of the training – using methods to support an inquisitive classroom and encourage contributions from all students. The participants were introduced to and practiced Powerful Questions.
Intentionality – making choices as a teacher was important throughout the whole training. One example of this includes a segment on classroom environment. All participants were gathered in a circle. We had approximately 24 chairs in the middle to represent student seating/desks. Some of the participants sat in the chairs to represent the students. The desks were positioned in one manner (e.g. rows) and the participants were provided a guiding question(s) of their observations on the structure using both statements and questions to consider the classroom structure before them. We then positioned the desks in another manner (e.g. half circle) and followed the same protocol. This was done in several more arrangements. The goal was having the teachers consider the structure and then make decisions based on their goals of the class – with intentionality.
Reflective Observations and Sharing by the participants were throughout each session as well as at the end of every workshop day. Facilitated reflective sessions provide peer to peer transfer of ideas between the participants and a deeper understanding of the participants for me the facilitator. This included a variety of methods and techniques that could also be used with students for deeper understanding and assessment of students.
Student’s Prior Knowledge is important for understanding students, student contributions, and student involvement with the learning process. Thinking Maps, Frame of Reference, reflective practices, collaborative learning techniques and Inquiry are all important methods and techniques that embrace student’s prior knowledge in the classroom.
Thinking Maps^® (visual tools) were introduced and used throughout the week developing a deep understanding of using visual tools (Thinking Maps). The visual tools are visual cognitive maps which provide tools to put form to regular cognitive processes we all use as thinking people (e.g. cause and effect; compare and contrast; analogies; sequencing; classifying; whole part relationships; attributes; defining in context/brainstorming). As the principal Fekadu noted, ‘I can use these maps to organize my life.’ After the maps were practiced, it was modeled how organizing one’s thinking with visual tools provides an excellent tool to produce more succinct and quality writing.