Leveraging digital tools to enhance teacher professional development in accelerated basic education programs in conflict and crisis

• In Event: Improving access to quality, safe and inclusive education in EiE contexts through datahubs and digital tools

Proposal

The ongoing conflict in Northeast Nigeria has precipitated a severe education crisis, displacing children and youth and leaving a significant number out of school. In response, the donor-funded Opportunities to Learn (OTL) Activity is providing accelerated basic education services for them to acquire foundational skills in literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional learning to enable them progress to higher education, vocational training, or the workforce.
This presentation explores how the OTL Activity has effectively harnessed low-cost digital tools to empower Learning Facilitators (LFs) in delivering high-quality inclusive accelerated instruction.
OTL Activity created dynamic digital support that enabled LFs to deliver quality classroom instructional practices. These include:
1. Classroom observation tool uploaded on the KoboCollect platform which lends itself to analysis for robust coaching and mentoring with quarterly review for addressing specific gaps.
2. Learning facilitators’ WhatsApp platform for content delivery (scope and sequence, learners’ formative continuous assessment)
3. Voice notes and video clips for reinforcing methodologies and demonstrating best practices.
4. Annual LFs’ professional assessment.

These digital approaches provided daily on-the-job training for 1461, LFs across 266 communities in three states of Northeast Nigeria, on specific, actionable feedback, fostering continuous professional improvement. The technical team gains real-time insights into classroom activities through daily photo updates shared by mentor teachers. The percentage of LFs delivering quality classroom instruction using a 15-item questionnaire progressively increased from 70% to 84% in within an academic year of implementation. Since adopting this method, significant improvements have been observed in LFs’ ability to effectively deliver the Accelerated Basic Education Program (ABEP) curriculum. The use of data to inform training content has enabled the creation of focused sessions that address the specific needs of LFs. These data-driven approaches offer quick insights into learning gaps and informs the development of tailored training plans.

These findings align with existing literature, which highlights the growing use of technology in education systems to enhance TPD sessions and improved classroom practices. The use of digital platforms has opened new avenues for supporting TPD, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (Anis, 2024; Hennessy et al., 2022; Hrastinski, 2021; Weeldenburg et al., 2024). The strategic use of short videos to demonstrate participatory lesson delivery has been particularly impactful, for effective implementation of ABEP curriculum using pedagogical strategies that meet the needs of diverse learners. The experiences from the OTL Activity over the past three years underscore the critical role of digital platforms in driving improvements in learners' reading and numeracy skills, ensuring adequate curriculum coverage and time on tasks. OTL has observed marked improvements across the five subjects offered under the ABEP curriculum, with 89% of learners progressing to higher levels of ABEPs with appropriate learning skills. Recent EGRA/EGMA assessments showed significant gains from a baseline of 11.1% to 37.9% at the endline of a cohort. The OTL Activity has established government partners’ sustainability units for passing over these approaches before the ends in two years.

Authors

• Ayo Oladini, International Rescue Committee IRC

• Elizabeth Raymond, American University of Nigeria