Active-Learning Pedagogies as a Reform Initiative ... - EQUIP123.net

Active-Learning Pedagogies as a Reform Initiative• I didn’t like having many training programs for Arabic, science andmath, and forgetting [to provide training for supervisors of] English andFrench. (Qena School Administrator)• I suggest holding a monthly meeting with supervisors for updating themon the new methodologies. (Alexandria School Administrator)• More visit-exchanges are needed. (Fayoum School Administrator)CONCLUSIONOur review of government, international organization, and project documents reveals increasingattention to improving quality of education, often framed as changing teaching and learningprocesses from teacher-centered/transmission and memorization to student-centered and activelearningapproaches (sometimes explicitly referencing behavioral and/or cognitive dimensions).Although student-centered, active-learning pedagogies were promoted by some Islamicphilosophers/educators in the eighth and ninth centuries (Günther, 2006) and a few Egyptianeducators criticized the predominance of memorization-oriented, rote learning in schools evenbefore the 1952 Revolution (e.g., Radwan, 1951), such discourse did not appear in Egyptiangovernment documents until the 1970s (MOE, 1979). This was also the time when USAID/Egyptdocuments (e.g., 1978 and 1981) documents began to mention these issues. While the Egyptiangovernment and USAID/Egypt devoted some attention to improving educational quality throughreforming pedagogy during the 1980s, the real shift from a focus on quantitative to qualitativeimprovements in education occurred in the early 1990s. This shift in emphasis is signaled in theWorld Declaration on Education for All (Interagency Commission, 1990) as well as Egyptiangovernment publications (Mubarak, 1991; MOE, 1992), and reflected in the reform initiativesundertaken by the Egyptian government, including important examples supported by UNICEF,the World Bank, and USAID/Egypt. Rhetoric and action promoting active-learning pedagogieswas even stronger in the new millennium (e.g., Mubarak, 2000, MOE, 2003). Among the reformefforts undertaken in subsequent years was the USAID/Egypt-supported Education ReformProgram (2004-2009).In terms of strategies for promoting active-learning pedagogies, ERP initially followed a cascademodel of professional development, in which experts organize a trainer-of-trainers (TOT)workshop, designed to develop the knowledge and skills of a group of trainers, each of whomafterwards has the responsibility for training one or more groups of teachers. Subsequently, ERPemployed a refined cascade model, in which project staff organized workshops with expertconsultants to train staff of school-based training and evaluation units (SBTEUs), who would thendeliver such training to their colleagues in their own schools or in a cluster of schools. By July2006 ERP further refined its approach to professional development (TOT with supervisedpractice), adding a step in which ERP staff/consultants supervised the initial practice of theschool-based professional developers as they planned and implemented workshops for teachers intheir schools or school clusters and sought to insure that all training provided for teachers wasalso provided for school administrators and supervisors. At times ERP also used a direct trainingmodel, in which staff and consultants conducted workshops directly for the teachers, buteventually ERP pursued another approach to teacher professional development – collaborationwith multiple levels of the training system. In this latter approach ERP staff and consultantscollaborated with MOE personnel to design a cascade TOT program, redesign workshop andclassroom instructional materials, and implement professional development activities.EQUIP1 26