The Support for Teacher Education Project

(last updated July 2006)

Phase III:       1 January 2004 to 31 December 2007

Budget:         CFH 4’553’000

Partner:         Ministry of Education, Thimphu.

Contact:         Singye Namgyel, singye_namgyel@nieparo.edu.bt,

                      Tashi Pem, tashipem@helvetas.org.bt


Background/Introduction                

Achievements

Activities

On-going activities

Future Outlook

Key Project Documents 

 

 

Background/Introduction:

The third phase of the Support for Teacher Education Project (STEP) – a follow up on the first and second education project - is for a four-year period (January 2004 to December 2007) financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Royal Government of Bhutan and implemented by Helvetas (Swiss Association for International Cooperation).  The project goal is to contribute to the development of the National Institutes of Education (NIE) and provide quality teaching/learning services to teacher students and teachers making them proficient in imparting relevant skills, knowledge and attitudes (including new areas of Youth Guidance & Counseling and Information & Communication Technologies) to the youth which thus get better choice possibilities for shaping their lives.

Objectives: In the framework of the 9th Five Year Plan, the STEP project – consisting of five different but interrelated components - supports the further improvement of pre-service teacher education at the NIEs and more specifically:

  • Professional qualification of teacher educators and enhancing the quality and effectiveness of teacher students training;

  • Quality of primary and secondary teacher education and impacting significantly on the quality of schools wherever NIE-trained teachers will be deployed;

  • Introducing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a new area in teacher education and enhancing the ICT competences in learning and teaching at the NIEs;

  • Introducing Youth Guidance & Counselling (YGC) as a new teacher education component which is especially relevant for the transition from school to employment; and

  • Strengthening managerial structures and procedures enabling the NIEs to develop jointly into ‘Learning Organisations’.  

To achieve the objectives, concentrates on the following main group of activities:

  • Human Resource Development (HRD): short- and long-term courses/fellowships in-country and abroad, in-house professional development. Research capacity building, especially in action research for reflective practice. Procurement of up-dated and innovative materials, including hard ware for ICT. Development of new curriculum materials such as for YGC and mentorship training;

  • Review and re-structuring of curricula/modules in close cooperation with Royal University of Bhutan (RUB). Special focus on Professional Teaching Skills, Continuous Formative Assessment, English, Mathematics and YGC;

  • Undertake Baseline Survey to assess quality and effectiveness of different pre-service teacher education phases and follow up on survey results in all programme areas;

  • Development of improved monitoring and evaluation tools and procedures to monitor effectiveness and quality of teacher educators and of teacher students;

  • Development of new module on mentorship for in-service teacher training to improve professional support teacher students during practice in the schools and newly graduated teachers (induction);

  • Improve and further develop the ICT infrastructure in both NIEs; provide in-house training (technical as well as for use of ICT as pedagogical tool); further develop FIT and EIT programme; develop ICT knowledge pool;

  • Develop YGC teacher training course as elective subject at both NIEs – modules and standards, following RUB regulations, as well as distant education YGC diploma course and YGC module for head-teachers;

  • Undertake institutional analysis of institutional management capacity and structure and follow up with activities for improved management capacity building and organisational development, adhering to principles of learning organisations, and linking the NIEs with other higher learning institutes, in-country and abroad.

As the project is operational for over two years and an internal Mid Term Review has taken place, the following achievements can be seen.

Achievements:

  • Institutional analysis has been undertaken and (draft) conceptual frame-works developed by both NIEs.
  • HRD programme shows especially gains in personal and professional development of individual teacher educators, both by following degree programmes (Master level) and short re-fresher courses. NIEs develop and implement semester-wise in-house professional development plans and are piloting Professional Teaching Portfolios with teacher educators.
  • Both NIEs have highly benefited from STEP procurements and teacher educators are using more up-dated and innovative resource materials with their teacher students, including teaching/learning resources on video.
  • Baseline Survey has been undertaken and reported in “Researching Pre-Service Teacher Education: Moments of Truth” which has been widely shared and used for follow-up discussions and proposals for improvements.
  • As a result of “Moments of Truth”, teacher students doing Teaching Practice (TP) are more often visited, supervised and supported by the NIEs.
  • STEP has successfully linked with CERD in the research capacity building and implementation activities and with CAPSD in the curriculum review activities and internal CFA review.
  • STEP has successfully linked with other donor agency initiatives such as the Child Friendly School (CFS) and Inclusive Education (IE) activities of DANIDA and UNICEF. NIE have participated in the in-country CFS workshops and have incorporated inclusive CFS concept and tools into the mainstream pre-service teacher education curriculum.
  • A participatory internal Mid Term Review of the project has taken place, involving different stakeholders, in January 2006, resulting in some adjustments and a re-focus on component V.
  • Guest-lectures have been conducted in both NIEs on CFS, new teaching methods, quality of tertiary education, IE, and other topics.
  • STEP workshops have taken place on:
    • Research (basic research methods; action research)
    • Teaching-learning methodology (Constructivism; Human Pedagogy)
    • English teaching/learning as second language by using literature
    • Teaching/learning of primary mathematics, interactive and relevant to students’ lives
    • Audio-Visual techniques in teacher education
    • ICT programming (Kara; Java)
    • YGC (STEP-SIF)

  • YGC modules and standards developed.

  • STEP activities (including workshops) bring together NIEs and teachers from the field (as well as CAPSD and CERD).

  • Concept papers written (CFS; Formative assessment; classroom management, etc.) and published in Rabsel and other newsletters.

  • Possibilities for distance education and use of Moodle assessed.

  • Good functioning ICT&E groups.

  • Improved ICT infrastructure (VSat).

Based on the past achievement and the gained experiences the project has still many on-going activities and initiatives.

On-going activities:

  • Curriculum re-structuring; Mentorship module development; YGC module development distance education/Head-teachers; Review Teaching Skills Handbook;
  • Joint research on “Quality of Teachers and Teacher Education in Bhutan” – CERD, NIE research groups and consultant (Australian Centre for Educational Research);
  • STEP link to SDC project “CFS/good practice [video] documentation/donor cooperation;
  • Further procurement in different subject areas;
  • Follow-up on “Researching Pre-Service Teacher Education: Moments of Truth” and on MTR;
  • Finalizing HRD programme (candidates to be back by the end of the STEP project);
  • Development of professional teaching skills outcome/standards;
  • Try out newly developed mentorship module (in-service training Winter 2007);
  • Strengthening CFA conceptualizing and implementation/teaching of Continuous Formative Assessment (CFA).

Future Outlook:

With the present RGOB focus on improved quality in education, special attention and research regarding the role and responsibilities of pre-service teacher education as an integral part of STEP is expected, involving stakeholders at all levels.

As the STEP Baseline Survey “Researching Pre-Service Teacher Education: Moments of Truth” indicates teacher education reform may need to look into the different phases of training, support mechanisms, enhanced application skills of theories, and improved monitoring and evaluation processes.

To be able to compare with similar institutes abroad the teacher education focus may have to change from ‘teaching’ to ‘learning’ and from ‘inputs’ to ‘outputs’, while developing quality standards for professional teaching skills, keeping in mind that the NIE BEd degrees are professional degrees rather than academic degrees.

Continued donor coordination and cooperation in education is critical if programmes at school-, NIE- and policy level are to complement each other.