Accompaniement, not inspection: the Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial (SAT)

• In Event: Quality support for quality outcomes: building the evidence-base for teacher and coach professional development models

Proposal

In this presentation we will explore the coaching model of the The Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial (Tutorial Learning System or SAT). SAT is a program for lower and upper secondary schools in rural areas in Latin America (countries include Colombia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Honduras). In Honduras, SAT is implemented through a partnership between the Bayan Association and the Honduran government. SAT has widespread international recognition for improving the quality of education and potential for scale-up. SAT was one of 12 global programs selected for the Brookings Institution Millions Learning: Scaling up Quality Education in Developing Countries project. In this panel, we will describe how SAT’s innovative pre-service and in-service professional development is based on trust, horizontal relationships, and friendship. In this sense, SAT’s coaching model focuses on accompaniment instead of supervision, contrasting with traditional teacher professional development focused on inspection and evaluation. Based on SAT’s experience navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, we will also discuss how this coaching model has provided the flexibility, resilience, and adaptability necessary to ensure the continuation of the school year and support of teachers in rural, remote, areas of Honduras.

Additionally, we will described how we have coupled the SAT program with the Teacher Instructional Practices and Processes System (TIPPS). TIPPS (Seidman et al. 2018) is a systematic classroom behavioral observation system with established reliability and validity. The TIPPS is tailored to tap instructional practices and classroom processes in low-and middle-income countries. Uniquely sensitive to cultural and academic contexts, the TIPPS has been adapted for both research and practice purposes in Africa, Asia and South America, at secondary, primary and pre-primary levels. We will describe how in our interventions we have used the TIPPS to: 1) conduct systematic classroom observation in SAT classrooms in order to identify what pedagogical practices support positive learning outcomes in SAT; 2) examine how teacher accompaniment supports ongoing teacher development in SAT; and 3) use the TIPPS to provide structured feedback to SAT teachers to help support their ongoing professional development (accompaniment). We will conclude with insights about how SAT’s coaching model and characteristics can inform other programs across different cultural contexts to support efficient and effective teacher development programs.

Authors

• Diana Patricia Pacheco Montoya, University of California, Berkeley

• Sharon Kim, New York University / Global TIES

• Erin Murphy-Graham, University of California, Berkeley

• Mahjabeen Raza, New York University

• Bita Correa, University of Toronto