CL4STEM: Higher education institutions based model of teacher professional development for STEM teachers in Bhutan, Nigeria and Tanzania

• In Event: Innovations on teacher professional development from the Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) initiative - Research learnings from country experiences

Proposal

The Connected Learning for STEM project (CL4STEM) aimed to develop the capacities of science and mathematics teachers towards Higher Order Thinking for Equity and Inclusion (HOTIE), by engaging teachers in a continuous professional development led by the higher education faculty members (teacher educators) in their countries. The CL4STEM consortium consists of four higher educational institutions: Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University- Lapai, Nigeria (Project Lead), Samtse College of Education, Bhutan, the Open University of Tanzania, and Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

The CL4STEM project piloted features from a TPD model (developed at scale in India) of using high quality Open Education Resources (OERs) and mobile based Communities of Practice (CoPs) to new geographies in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Bhutan. This project focused on leveraging higher education faculty members for teacher professional development. TISS, Mumbai engaged with 80 teacher educators from the three partnering universities to enhance their own capacities on pedagogical content knowledge, inclusive education and social learning through blended learning using OERs and smartphones-based CoPs. Then, they collaboratively developed and contextualized the OERs which were eventually used by teachers in their respective countries for their professional development. Finally, each country’s teacher educators were responsible for supporting teachers as they participated in the OERs based modules and CoPs to develop their pedagogical content knowledge for higher order thinking with equity and inclusion in their subject. The participating teachers were expected to implement these learnings in their classroom practice and share their reflections. These lesson plans and reflections were evaluated by the teacher educators.

This design was geared towards adoption and scaling in the education systems of the partner countries from the get-go. A situation analysis report for each country identified the issues that needed to be addressed, potential stakeholders, and alignment with the policy environment in each partner country. The OERs were localized to country contexts and were designed to be accessed even with limited and poor internet connectivity. The online CoPs emerged as places where the teachers and teacher educators engaged in sharing of practice, encouragement, and problem solving around access to OERs. The perceptions of participating teachers on the design were captured to address their concerns. Throughout the implementation, head teachers and education administrators and education policy makers were engaged to seek their support and to keep them informed of the impact. In each of the partner countries, the policy makers have committed to explore adopting and scaling of this TPD model within their education systems. The higher education institutions partnering in this project have also emerged as a site where the piloted TPD model can be institutionalized. This paper discusses the process dynamics and outcomes of this “design for scale” approach adapted by CL4STEM in each of these contexts.

Author

• Mythili Ramchand, Tata Institute of Social Sciences