LATEST UPDATE
OF THE PROJECT PROGRESS-UGANDA CHAPTER
July 10, 2012
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The Higher Education - School Partnership Project has made an impact on our understanding of the role of mentorship in Initial Teacher Education in the professional development of teachers. The Kampala workshop (October 23-28, 2011) was just the beginning of a process that needs to be streamlined into the whole teacher education process. The most significant impact of the Project appears to be the following:
(i) Raising awareness among teachers in pilot schools, teacher educators and the Ministry of Education officials about the need to strengthen student-teacher mentorship.
(ii) Increasing north-south and south-south collaboration between university colleagues from various institutions i.e. University of Ulster, Makerere University, Eduardo Mondlane University and Chancellor College-University of Malawi.
(iii) It has also strengthened our relations with other teacher education institutions, namely Kyambogo University, Shimoni PTC, and Kibuli PTC and; teachers in both primary and secondary schools.
(iv) We are also collaborating in producing papers for journals including the one to be published in Eduardo Mondlane University and the one under preparation on student-teacher perceptions. The Uganda Chapter has sent two papers to international journals on: (a) Primary and secondary school teacher trainee perceptions of the quality of support provided during mentoring in selected schools in Kampala-Uganda, and (b) Teacher pedagogical and non-pedagogical needs for strengthening mentorship in primary and secondary schools in Kampala-Uganda. We are also in the process of preparing a paper on: Tutor perceptions of the mentorship programme. The exact title will be agreed upon after further data analysis.
(v) The teachers particularly appreciated their involvement in mentorship training and suggested that it should be made compulsory. They look forward to a more formal training leading to the award of a certificate when the module has been accepted by Teacher education institutions.
(vi) Student teachers that are directly being supported by mentor teachers are appreciative of the support provided to them and could impact on their practices and professional growth in future.
Justine and I organized two follow-up workshops in May and June 2012. The first follow-up workshop was meant to make teachers further reflect on effective mentoring skills and strategies for teaching and learning. This was requested by teachers following the Kampala workshop of October 2011. The second workshop focused on achieving tow key objectives, namely; (i) Getting the co-operation of the head teachers in the mentorship drive in the pilot schools, and (ii) Preparing the selected mentor teachers to participate in the forthcoming workshops in June-August (Secondary schools) and September-October (Primary schools). Right now the Team is involved in monitoring the programme during the on-going school practice season. During monitoring, data is being collected from teachers about their uptake of mentoring skills and related issues. The monitoring will follow an action design model so that interventions can be suggested and implemented as we move along the way.
Thank you,
Joseph Oonyu
Makerere University
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