Tutorías para acelerar el aprendizaje: recuperar el conocimiento local y crear comunidades de práctica

• In Event: Highlighted Session: El rol de las redes de aprendizaje para garantizar educación inclusiva y de calidad en la región de América Latina y el Caribe

Proposal

Poyecto Mesoamérica and the Interamerican Development Bank established the Technical Table on Education in 2019. Since then, country representatives get together once every other month to discuss topics relating to educational policy and share their experiences in developing programs and policies to improve educational outcomes in the region. The collaboration between countries has already led to a number of joint publications which gather highlights from country experiences and the emerging consensus. These efforts are not only leading to the implementation of new pilots in the region, for example of remote tutoring experiences for learning acceleration, but also to a common language to discuss some of the common key challenges such as developing Systems to Protect Educational Trajectories, Early Warning Systems, or non formal flexible education programs.

The purpose of this paper is to present an educational initiative that focuses on remote tutoring for accelerated education. The closure of schools and the context of health and economic crisis increased the risk of dropout, educational exclusion, "learning loss" (Almeyda et al., 2021; Fore, 2021; GEM-UNESCO, 2020; United Nations, 2020; World Bank, 2020) and "learning poverty" in addition to negative effects on students' motivation and attitude towards learning.

Learning loss can be defined as "any specific or general loss of knowledge and skills or setbacks in academic progress, most commonly due to prolonged gaps or discontinuities in a student's education". In addition, it is observed that it is the most vulnerable populations who were most affected, accentuating the unequal conditions of access to infrastructure and other resources that affect vast sectors of the population. Acceleration education programs are presented as an alternative to remedial programs considering that teaching strategies need to be revised so that students can continue learning in accordance with the learning objectives foreseen for each grade/year.

Tutoring is an educational intervention strategy that enables the accompaniment of students, based on a direct, regular and sustained interaction over time, between them and a tutor that enables the consolidation of knowledge in a reflexive way It is a fundamentally institutional initiative, aimed at promoting better conditions for students' schooling, as well as anticipating and detecting situations that may lead to conflicts or difficulties.

Based on lessons learned and best practices gathered from other partners, it has been proven that tutorship strategies take on different characteristics not only between levels of education and in relation to the format in which they are carried out, but also in many other aspects that make it possible to deploy different models. Variations can be found in the content addressed, tutor profiles, the extent and modality of tutoring, the degree of family participation and the articulation with the school, to mention a few.

Through this presentation, we want to explain the relevance of partnering with other experienced implementing partners so that we can adapt and contextualize an initiative which relevance and results contribute to the enhancement of learners’ education and acquisition of foundational skills.

Author

• Gonzalo Almeyda