Training Effective Afghan Teachers

During 2008 the Afghan Institute of Learning held 96 education workshops and seminars for a total of 1448 participants. About 80% of those attending these education training sessions were women.

At a recent pedagogy seminar, teachers in attendance were asked what they learned from attending the seminar. Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

“We plan to use what we have learned and practiced here in our classrooms. We learned that one lesson could be taught using many different methods. We learned how to plan a lesson, how to specify the duration and steps of a lesson. Also, we learned how to begin and end a lesson.” “We learned that a good quality teacher has responsibilities beyond just teaching; they also must establish a good relationship with their students.” “During our psychology lesson, we learned that we must understand our students and their problems. From this understanding, we have to find a way to solve their problems. “ “While discussing exams, we learned what they are, what their purpose is and the differences between exams and evaluations. We also learned how to make a question sheet, and answer key. “ “We learned how to prepare materials for the lessons we want to teach, and we came to understand that students must be the center of everything we do as teachers.”

The Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) continues to make training teachers a priority. AIL has now trained over 14,000 teachers. Thus far in 2008, AIL has trained 263 teachers in AIL’s intensive, one-month, foundational pedagogy seminar and has trained 356 teachers in various workshops.

Feedback from participants in pedagogy seminars in Herat included the following comments:

Wazir, one of the participants says, “Before I came to this seminar I would write the whole lesson on the blackboard, and then explain it to the students. The class was always centered on the teacher. From this seminar I learned that students must be center of the activities.”

One of the participants that used the seminar’s methods in her classroom says, “As I used the methods in my class room I saw that the atmosphere of the class was completely changed. The students paid attention to the lesson and they took part in the activities and I really enjoyed teaching them. Her students asked her why she has not used these methods before she told them that she learnt it from AIL seminar and from now she will teach them in the same way.”

At the graduation ceremony for the seminar, Sima Shir Mohammadi head of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs spoke. She compared AIL with other organizations and said that AIL had the best educational and health programs for women and they really help the women to increase their knowledge and capacity through the trainings. She added “I know some organizations get a great deal of funding from donors for women’s projects but do nothing and waste the money. AIL runs big projects with less funds I must thank AIL. The women have been trained by AIL do good work in their jobs.”