Connecting teachers across classrooms in South Asia - Ideas Without Borders

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday II)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: International contexts of teacher development

Proposal

Ideas without Borders (IWB) is an initiative started by education and development sector professionals from the University of Pennsylvania, implemented in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Uganda (More about the program at www.iwb-international.org). The initiative connects teachers and students through Google tools where they collaborate on projects and provide constructive feedback to each other. IWB aims to support the development of 21st-century skills like problem-solving, critical thinking and collaboration among students in South Asia. It provides teachers a platform to share best practices and be a part of a global community of educators.

IWB launched its first pilot over October 2018 - January 2019. This pilot aimed to address the following gaps in secondary education in developing countries:

Development of problem-solving and critical thinking in schools
Opportunities for global exposure and cultural exchange for students who might not have access to such opportunities
Continuous teacher professional development for use of technology and learner-centered methods in classrooms
A platform for collaboration for students in South Asian countries where physical and in-person platforms are missing
Incentives for teachers to incorporate technology and innovative methods of teaching in their classrooms

Impact in the pilot will be assessed by interviews with teachers before and after the pilot, change in student work as posted online and teacher updates as shared on Whatsapp and Facebook groups. The pilot is designed to gain learnings about how teachers engaged with IWB in their classrooms - how they adapted to use of technology, inputs on 21st-century skills and collaborative group work. Another goal was to understand how student built connections with their counterparts in another country, and if they gained from the interactions. Our initial findings suggest that teachers’ existing context, their experience with ICT and project-based learning and school environment are all important determinants for the outcome variables. How the project is presented and supported is also critical for its success.

We would like to share our findings of the impact of IWB on student participation and learning outcomes, as well as on teachers’ pedagogic approaches and use of technology in the classroom.
We would like to seek advice on what the best mechanism is to scale IWB which includes identifying incentives for teachers to be committed to the initiative and remain engaged on a long-term basis. Furthermore, we would like to seek advice on how to evaluate learning outcomes for students to understand to what extend students are learning problem solving, critical thinking and are displaying cultural awareness.

Authors

• Radhika Kapoor, University of Pennsylvania

• Sarah Ali, Ideas Without Borders