Learning to teach Reading and Mathematics in Africa:
Exploring the nexus of training and practice
TPA /FICEA project funded by Hewlett Foundation
Context
• Rising numbers in schools - need for more teachers.
• Importance of early grades to avoid drop out and ‘silent
exclusion’
• Reading and mathematics as basis for whole curriculum
• Are our children learning: PASEC, SACMEQ, UWEZO, EGRA?
No - not many
• Is teacher education making a difference?
Design and methodology
ITE Curriculum and Primary
Curriculum
Documentary analysis
Ghana
Kenya
Mali
Senegal
Tanzania
Uganda
ITE in action
Questionnaire (n=4699)
Observations followed by
Trainee focus groups and
tutor interviews
Newly qualified teachers
Questionnaire (n=1079)
Observations followed by
Interviews with teachers
3
Initial Teacher Education counts
Reading
Mathematics
Has the strongest impact on NQTs’ practice
Curriculum delivery raises questions about efficiency and costs
Teaching undertaken in relatively large groups
(eg. TTR Senegal = 92 / Mali = 60)
Not enough time and opportunity given to learning to teach reading and
maths in contexts which allows for practical hands-on learning
Kenya
Senegal
Mali
Tanzania
Uganda
Ghana
Number
topics
7
6
8
5
16
14
of
language
Number of
topics
1
0.5
1
0.5 + 0.5 =1
3
3
reading
Training induces misplaced confidence
I am now able to go to class and teach properly …
now I know the procedure (Kenya Trainee)
• Teaching by formula – universal answer unresponsive to
context and children.
• Criterion for the good lesson – performing the magic formula
– is carried over from training to school
Teaching practice does not deliver the
practical skills needed
Ghana
Grades
covered
1-9
Kenya
1-8
Mali (college)
1-6
Mali (short)
Senegal
1-6
1-6
Tanzania
1-7 or 11
Uganda
1-7
College course Practicum
length
2 years
1 year following college course – no compulsory requirement for all
trainees to experience teaching grades 1-3.
2 years
3 weeks with grade 1-3, 3 weeks with grade 4-5, 3 weeks with grade
6-8
1 or 3 years
3 months at the end of college course then 1 whole year – no
requirement to teach grades 1-3
45 days
45 days
6 months
3 weeks with grade 1-2, 3 weeks with grade 3-4, 3 weeks with grade
5-6
2 years
2 blocks 1-2 months and some single lesson practices – no
requirement to teach grades 1-3
2 years
3 blocks of 3-4 weeks – no requirement to teach grades 1-3
We have the ability to teach
mathematics grade 1 and 2: the
problem is that during teaching
practice we are not accepted to
teach in these grades
(Tanzania Trainee Focus group)
School curricula in advance of ITE curricula
• New competence or outcome-based curricula
• Learner-centered and material-rich approaches
• Expectations for pupil progress: ‘pupils should be able to read
a text silently within a specified time, with correct
pronunciation, stress and intonation and answer simple
questions’ (Ghana, grade 3)
• Not studied in ITE
• Tutors are not up to date with new requirements
• Trainees & NQTs unprepared for new approaches and
expectations
Foreign Languages?
Tanzania
Mali
Senegal
Ghana
Kenya
Uganda
College
Medium
Kiswahili
French
French
English
English
English
Most able to
teach reading
Kiswahili
100% Kiswahili
Local languages or French
98% French
French
92% French
English
79% English
Kiswahili or local languages or English 74% English
Local languages or English
68% English
School Medium
• Not confident in own language
• Having to teach in an unknown language
• Recognition of English / French as foreign language
Learning to teach maths missing essential elements
• Concrete materials in teaching strongly valued
• But, connection between concrete materials and maths
concepts not strongly made in teaching - quick movement
to abstract work
Concrete materials not working!
Teachers do not learn to teach reading for meaning
•
•
•
Children progress to higher primary grades unable to read lower grade texts
fluently and with meaning (UWEZO and EGRA)
NQTs focused on syllables, words and sentences not linked to fluency or reading
for meaning
NQTs and trainees found text level work the most difficult to teach:
Early readers need to be trained in
systematic reading; they can start with
letters, words, pictures, then later for upper
classes stories could be introduced
(Uganda tutor)
Examples of good practice?
• Awareness of difficulties in L1 to L2 transfer
• Wider range of approaches to word level,
eg. synthetic and analytic
• Wider repertoire of participatory methods with good
classroom management
• Faster cognitive pace and sense of progression
• Use of teaching aides integral to concept taught
• Pupils differentiated, diagnostic assessment
• Team teaching in Tanzania
Who does this?
Some experienced teachers in East Africa, exceptional
NQTs in Senegal and Ghana.
Recommendations:
Practice based ITE curriculum
• Design coherent, intensive programmes
• Retrain tutors to use these programs, and give them access to
primary schools
• Work with trainees in smaller groups
• Study the primary school curriculum
• Highlight language demands on children
• Reschedule the practicum