How the blended approach to school and sub-district level teacher professional development is driving enduring change and positive learning outcomes

• In Event: Digital transformation: an opportunity for long-lasting improvement of quality of education service delivery in Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan

Proposal

USAID Tajikistan Read with Me (2016-2021) was a five-year early grade reading project which collaborated closely with the with the Ministry of Education and Science to improve the reading skills of primary grade students through in-service training, teaching and learning materials in Tajik and Russian languages and a range of innovations and interventions to create more opportunities for practicing reading. Historically, teacher professional development was delivered through face to face, lecture style training through a cascade model. Trainers had limited classroom teaching experience and teachers returned to school with little support or accountability for uptake of new methods for delivery of competency-based instruction, apart from occasional monitoring visits. Monitoring visits by school officials were often perceived by teachers and schools as inspections or evaluations, rather than coaching and support. Mid-project, Read with Me began adjusting in-service training design and delivery to be more practical, blended, inclusive and integrate technology to support coaching and mentoring. However, fully adopting a blended approach to school and sub-district level delivery of teacher support was a challenging paradigm shift for education institutions to embrace until COVID-19 made it essential.
COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to rethink a blended approach to teacher continuous professional development and operationalize full scale delivery for in-service support for the remaining cohort of 7,000 teachers. Applying digital development principles, Read with Me created a multi-user coaching and training platform, which provides content and accountability for self-regulated learning, coaching, peer learning and performance monitoring, including uploading assignments and assessments, aligned with the National Teacher Competency Framework. Trainee teachers work with mentors and coaches to engage in seven cycles of a training process that supports the trainee to see exemplars, practice and apply techniques and methods in the classroom and are tailored to trainees’ individual professional needs. Mentors review lesson plans, observe lessons and provide feedback through multiple modes—face to face, chatbot, tele coaching and written feedback on lesson plans and focused observation forms. Interactions that back up the progress of mentors and teachers are monitored by mentor supervisors and a central administrator on the platform, so that performance monitoring data can be accessed, visualized and interpreted in real time and creates opportunities for data driven decision making, such as just-in-time interventions, reallocating resources, and identifying instances of positive deviance, as well as sharing exemplar performance more widely. The Ministry of Education and Science has moved to institutionalize the blended approach to teacher professional development by re-assessing the in-service training structure and awarding certificates that meet local requirements for professional category elevation and salary increases and are encouraged by the cost effectiveness of this approach.
Read with Me in-service training efforts have demonstrated positive outcomes through narrowing gaps in rural and urban reading outcomes, as well as closing a gender gap by enabling boys to catch up in performance levels by grade 4. The EGRA end line results also clearly showed the benefit of effective teaching techniques correlating to oral reading fluency gains of more than thirteen correct words per minute.

Authors

• Fayziddin Niyozov, Chemonics International Inc

• Terence A Giles, Chemonics International

• Audrey Spencer, Chemonics International