On 3rd December 2015, EIA organised a technical forum series titled “Teachers’ Professional Development for Effective Teaching and Learning Practices” in Dhaka.
The aim of this forum was to collectively establish practical, evidence-based principles for effective and affordable teacher development programmes, in order to inform the design of the new national teacher education programme for primary (post PEDP III).
Evidence from developing countries has long shown that teachers are critical to the quality of teaching and learning, and that teachers are the critical agents of change. We now have access to a new and growing body of international evidence about what works in motivating and supporting teachers to bring changes to their classrooms, which improve student learning.
The forum critically looked at this evidence, and practical illustrations, to explore the elements of effective teacher development capable of working at large scale, in order to inform the post PEDP III discussions.
Participants from DPE, Brac, Unicef, World Bank, European Union, Asian Development Bank, Save the Children, Campe, UCEP, British Council and Jica contributed to this forum with their experience of working in Bangladesh education sector.
Discussants agreed that there is a need for new classroom activities, supported by instantly accessible teacher development and classroom resources, to be tried and discussed by teachers, on a regular basis over a period of years, both informally in school and more formally in out-of-school networks, with those supporting and monitoring teachers changing their own attitudes and using the good practices themselves.
The discussions revolved around the evidence from EIA and other programmes in Bangladesh, as well as the wider international evidence base provided by DFID systematic reviews.
Ms. Sue Williamson, Team Leader, English in Action, Mr. Md. Alamgir, Director General, Directorate of Primary Education (DPE), Dr. Md. Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal, ndc, Additional Director General, DPE, Dr. Carolyn Sunners, Team Leader, Human Development Team, DFID, Mr. Md. Siddiqur Rahman, Project Director, EIA, Project Management Unit, DPE and Tom Power from the Open University, UK a lead author of one of the DFID systematic reviews, were present amongst others in the technical forum.
The next forum of this on-going series will take place in February 2016.
