Implementing Teacher Professional Development online for AE

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday II)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Accelerated education working group: principles in action!

Proposal

Mona Younes of the Carey Institute will describe an online introductory training based on the 10 AEWG Principles. The presentation will review the process of offering the training online to global audiences and suggest implications for future trainings using ICT.


From Hatay, Turkey to Kigoma region, Tanzania to Florida, U.S. to Damascus, Syria to Laos—learners from around the world registered for the ‘Accelerated Education in Crisis Context Introductory Course’ in the Fall of 2018. The online course was offered for free, with facilitation, for just four weeks by the Center for Learning in Practice at the Carey Institute for Global Good. A diverse audience enrolled with these purposes in mind: to increase knowledge in AE, connect with others engaged in that field, access resources to support educators’ work, develop skills and gather materials that could be used immediately, reflect on current work and improve outcomes.

Being an introductory course, it focused only on the basics, drawing from the Accelerated Education Working Group’s (2017) 10 Principles for Effective Practice. There is a need to expand the content and provide the online course in different languages and on a wider scale. Challenges include funding and providing access for learners with low (and no) connectivity.

Two lessons learnt from offering this online course in the field include: the vitality to design professional development in a fashion that caters for both contextualization and reflection. Contextualization is realized when learners are provided with ample opportunities to apply new concepts, knowledge, and skills in their own context; understanding what works, what will be challenging, and how to find solutions. Reflection develops critical thinking skills and improves future performance by analysing learners’ experience, moving the learning process from surface understanding of concepts to a much deeper level of learning and, ultimately, to transformation of practice.

There is a definite need for professional development in that niche. Using ICT and online tools in particular to build courses and communities of practice is still an underdeveloped solution that needs to be looked at in a very needs-oriented manner.

References:
Accelerated Education Working Group. (2017). Guide to the Accelerated Education Principles.

Author

• Mona Younes, INEE Technology and Education in Crises Task Team