By: Ben Hill, Senior Education Adviser and Philip Kateeba, Uganda Education Consortium Operations Manager, Save the Children
The headteacher of Kasonga Primary School in Kyangwali refugee settlement in Uganda is an inspiring school leader. Their vision and values are exactly what makes a great school environment. They talk of the school’s responsibility to nurture and develop their students. Over the last 18 months, the Education Cannot Wait (ECW)-funded Uganda Education Consortium (UEC) has introduced a new model to support teachers with their wellbeing, professional development, and school environment. Kasonga Primary is one of the schools benefitting from this game-changing work. Their headteacher is acutely aware of why this is needed and enthusiastically explained the impact of the new approach: “Previously, we would receive the same trainings each year. And they would cover every topic. Each year, we were back to square zero and had forgotten everything. This new approach allows us to improve.“
As a humanitarian education community, we must drastically improve the way we support teachers to deliver quality teaching, which is the biggest in-school factor when it comes to influencing children’s learning. It is also extremely cost-effective in comparison to other interventions. Given the funding landscape, how we support teachers is key if we want to be more impactful for children’s learning in emergencies.
A new approach to teacher training
In Uganda, the UEC coordinates a significant number of partners in Uganda’s refugee education response, including a unique mix of international and Ugandan organisations delivering essential support to schools and learning spaces.
Traditionally, humanitarian teacher training covers a vast syllabus at high speed, and our measures of success struggle to track real progress. In a bid to address these challenges in September 2023 the UEC introduced a new evidence-based model to improve how teachers are supported and the quality of teaching delivered in classrooms. Using Save the Children’s Enabling Teachers approach, the UEC piloted a range of new tools and resources. By the end of the pilot, teachers reported that they had vastly improved in each of the teacher competencies they were supported with.
Improving teaching through a teacher competency framework
Like many humanitarian actors, the UEC previously used pre- and post-tests to measure the impact of teacher training. This involves teachers taking a self-assessment related to the training session content just before and just after the training. The results are then compared to understand how much the teacher’s knowledge has improved and to evaluate the impact of the training.
But there is a fundamental flaw with this methodology: the teacher has not been in a classroom to utilise and refine all the new teaching techniques they have been taught. So it is hard to prove that the teacher has really improved their practice.
During the pilot, the UEC used an adapted version of the Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports, Teacher Competency Framework (TCF), which condensed the number of competencies (see below the progression framework for inclusive education competency).
Using the TCF the UEC worked with teachers to deepen their understanding of the teaching competencies they are expected to develop and to conduct a self-assessment against each competency. This enabled the UEC to understand in which areas teachers were less confident, and to provide targeted and blended professional development in these areas. After receiving longer-term professional development in these areas, teachers self-assess again so that the UEC can understand the changes.
Compared to the pre- and post-test model, a TCF has several benefits. It means teacher training can focus on competencies that have been identified by teachers as areas where the most support is needed; teachers get a clear definition of what progression looks like for each competency; and it helps standardise how we measure effective training across the sector.
Focusing on evidence-informed teaching competencies
The UEC used data from the TCF, combined with evidence from classroom observations and discussions with head teachers to pinpoint the competency areas that teachers need the most support with. Based on this, seven competencies that focused on two key areas of i) Inclusion and ii) Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) & Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) were prioritised.
Evidence suggests that focusing on specific teacher competencies means teachers have the time to more effectively improve, by introducing and refining pedagogy that demonstrates their ability in those competency areas. The UEC focused on the two above-mentioned competency areas across a 1.5 to 2 month ‘cycle’ through expert-led workshops. Teachers were then organised into Teacher Learning Circles (TLCs) where they discussed their teaching practice on the target competency areas and learned from others.
What did the results show?
At the end of the cycle, the UEC asked teachers to self-assess against the TCF again. Results were really promising, with teachers reporting that they improved with an average of 89% for each of the target competencies.
Further to this, teachers gave overwhelmingly positive verbal feedback. Focus groups with teachers showed they really enjoyed the longer form of professional development with blended learning through workshops and TLCs. One headteacher even attributed improved Primary Leavers Exam results to this new form of training.
Going forward, the UEC will scale this approach to all refugee schools in Uganda funded by ECW so that more children can benefit from this improved quality of teaching.
Lessons learned for other humanitarian education responses
While we continue to see progress in the support teachers in humanitarian crises receive, there is still a long way to go. Based on our learning in Uganda, we recommend donors, ECW and all partners take the following actions to boost quality teaching in other humanitarian contexts:
- Improving teaching takes time. Multi-year funding is essential to see significant improvements in teaching. The consortium approach allows a coordinated effort to supporting teachers, has a greater impact due to its reach and allows consortium partners to learn from each other’s technical expertise.
- Use a Teacher Competency Framework to measure teaching quality: A TCF should be included in project design from the beginning, ensuring humanitarian actors embrace it. This will drastically improve the way we measure the impact of interventions.
- Focus on longer-term professional development interventions: High-intensity, short-lived training that covers every teaching competency in one go has been shown to cognitively overload teachers. Teachers need time to improve their teaching practices.
- Use blended learning. We cannot rely only on training sessions. They need to be combined with other mechanisms such as Teacher Learning Circles, coaching conversations, classroom observations, self-directed learning, and others.
With these transformations, we will truly support teachers in their life-long learning as educators. As educationalist Dylan Wiliam concludes:
“If we create a culture where every teacher believes they need to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better, there is no limit to what we can achieve.”
