Ethiopia Teacher Professional Development:
Children's Home Society and Family Services
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Hossana, Ethiopia
24-28 August 2009; 17-23 January 2010
Project Overview - Thinking Schools Model
The student centered Thinking Schools appoach is a foundational way of thinking across all disciplines and grades. It provides a common language to explore, discover and learn in a collaborative environment that supports and sustains the creativity of the educational community.
The Thinking Schools professional development model is structured on three areas of learning: Community, Reflective Practice, and Systems Thinking. The ultimate goal is to create a sustainable Thinking School and cohesive collaborative school community.
The Thinking Schools approach includes:
- visual tools (Thinking Maps)
- collaborative learning
- inquiry
- community building
- collegial coaching
- school & classroom environment
- ongoing assessment and documentation
- reggio inspired
- action research grants
A goal of the initial professional development training from 24-28 August 2009 was to provide hands-on sessions with visual tools (cognitive visual maps), inquiry, community building, systems thinking with the whole education community, the physical classroom environment, and making decisions with intentionality.
The second professional develpoment training from 17-23 January 2010 included three sessions collaborating with over 150 educators, school leaders, and NGO leaders:
- teacher and education leaders professional development in Hossana, Ethiopia (rural - countryside)
- leadership training in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- teacher and education leaders professional development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Based on feedback during and after the initial five day professional development held in Addis Ababa during August 2009, the learning outcomes were achieved and surpassed. The video clip of Awol Endris, Ph.D. of UNESCO who participated in the five day workshop shares some of his observations of the outcomes and potential of the professional development. The reflections by participants throughout the week, and at the end of the five day training, revealed ‘belief systems change’ shifts in teachers and leaders encompassing:
- teaching (pedagogy)
- teaching with intentionality (systems thinking)
- collaboration amongst teachers
- understanding the impact of room environment
- participatory professional development
- strategies that embrace and enhance student prior knowledge
- tools and methods to involve large class sizes in the learning process
- participatory classrooms
The participants gained a deeper knowledge of learning strategies, tools, and methods to support an effective thinking and learning environment. From this experience there was high evidence of teachers moving from a top down understanding of the teacher to student relationship to a more effective and engaging method of learning in which the learning relationship is more level: the teacher as a facilitator of learning.
Click here to watch the Video Clip of Participant Reflections.
The Children's Home Society and Family Services (CHSFS) Ethiopia schools and staff, physical facilities and professional video crew are well positioned to create a thriving high quality model laboratory school. This model would initially include the CHSFS schools, and ultimately expand to other participating schools and regions including the state (public) schools. The latter, incorporating state schools, was noted as very feasible by the UNESCO Institute of Capacity Building (www.unesco-iicba.org) director Awol Endis who participated in the week long Thinking Schools professional development in August 2009.
The learning areas are:
Community Building
- Cooperative Learning models for the students and teachers
- Community exercises to build community for the educators and for classroom use
- Common ‘vocabulary’ of methods and strategies throughout the classrooms and schools
- Visual tools (visual cognitive language) to use for organizing thinking, assessing understanding, and communicating
- Research based strategies and methods
Reflective Practice
Collegial Coaching: teachers coaching each other (coaching the coaches model)
- Regular Reflection: written, visual cognitive maps, sketches
- Use of video (‘post-game’ analysis)
- Low-tech media for self-reflection (e.g. writing, drawing)
- Socratic Method: active and focused use of the inquiry process (use of questioning)
- Intentionality – teachers establishing the habit of informed reflection on their teaching
Systems Thinking
- Processes that support the whole community (students, teachers, leadership, and parents)
- Implementation of methods that are consistent with students and classrooms
- Professional development on-site (as a exponent of a Thinking School)
- Collaborative technologies for communication and off-site professional development
For specific descriptive definitions of the professional development see the following webpages part of the Ethiopia Case Study:
Thinking Schools Model - Life Skills
The Thinking School model uses methods, strategies, and techniques that incorporate the latest research to develop a learning environment that focus on participatory student and teacher learning. The model develops
life skills for teachers and students supporting their growth as thinkers and learners. An important aspect of the presented tools is they can be used with minimal materials, and minimal materials that are easily accessible in all schools (countryside and city). An example is Thinking Maps (visual tools) which can be used as effectively with sand and sticks, stone and limestone, and/or paper and pencil. This is consistent with the use of questioning, community exercises, room, and collegial coaching. All methods, tools, and techniques introduced equally apply to the lives of the educators as learners, in addition to improving the student success as learners. See Appendix B for descriptions and descriptions of the specific foundations, pedagogy, and strategies and thinking methods used in the teacher learning and training.
The following is from the Thinking Foundation in respect to Thinking Schools:
The criteria for the evaluation and accreditation of Thinking Schools have been derived from a number of sources. They begin from a social-interactionist perspective which itself
is grounded within socio-cultural theory (see Williams and Burden (1977) Psychology for Language Teachers, Cambridge University Press). This perspective proposes that all learning occurs as a result of the dynamic interaction between expert mediators, novice learners, learning tasks/activities and the contexts within which these processes take place. Within the sphere of education this generally translates into teachers, pupils/students, aspects of the curriculum, classrooms within schools and the whole school environment.
Thus, to understand whether a school is functioning as a “thinking school”, it is necessary to identify the level of commitment and expertise that teachers within the school are displaying in facilitating the thinking skills and strategies of the broad range of students by means of a wide range of thinking program and techniques. It is important to note the reactions of the students to this input in terms of their pleasure in learning, their sense of autonomy as independent learners and their reflective, caring behavior, as well as their improved academic learning outcomes. It is important also to record the whole school ethos and overall commitment to cognitive education as a central means of achieving these outcomes. As in many schools this may represent an aspect of innovative practice, further reference in drawing up these criteria has been made also to the vast literature on school improvement and systems change.