Ghanaian kindergarten teacher Abigail is now experienced and confident and is seeing real change in her classroom thanks to Dubai Cares.
With support from Dubai Cares, 72 kindergarten teachers and 15 head teachers have received two years of training to enable them to enact the new Ghana Education Service teaching methodology which centers around learning through activity and play. The training incorporated a mixture of intensive training workshops with in class coaching and mentoring, best practice forums and peer learning, making it a very hands on and supportive course.
Abigail Owusua is one of the teachers who has benefitted from Dubai Cares support. Abigail teaches at Naval Base Basic School in the Western Region of Ghana and has been on the Fast-track Transformational Teacher Training project for two years. Her classroom has now reached Model Practice Classroom standard, modelling best practice in early years education in Ghana and improving learning outcomes for hundreds of four and five year old children. Model Practice Classrooms will also host student teachers during their practical placement year, where Abigail will use her training in coaching and mentoring to support the students.
Abigail has big plans for her training “My aim is to reach every Ghanaian child with the training that has been given to me”.
Kindergarten classrooms in Ghana are woefully underfunded and teaching and learning materials are in very short supply with only one workbook between three pupils. With support from Dubai Cares, a suite of innovative training manuals were published and issued to every teacher on the project. The manuals include a toolkit which shows teachers how to make their own teaching and learning materials from everyday recycled items such as bottle tops and old cardboard. Abigail has been using this toolkit to support her teaching, she said: “I have a lot of experience and I now have in-depth knowledge in how to prepare Teaching and Learning Materials myself to meet various aspects of teaching and learning.”
The training provided with support from Dubai Cares has enabled teachers to use positive behavior management techniques, rather than managing the classroom through fear and the cane, something Abigail is now very confident to implement herself. “I am confident enough to handle the children using rules, rewards and consequences”
The most important change Abigail has experienced through this training has been the change she has seen in the children she teaches, “My children are now very confident when they are interacting with you because of the questioning method we employ during class activities.”