TEACHER TRAINING AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

TEACHER TRAINING

DIL’s Teacher Training program provides high quality professional development opportunities for teachers working in the underserved areas of Pakistan. DIL believes in continuous and ongoing teacher development, where concepts are reinforced and content is continuously upgraded to meet the changing environment and needs of the population.

Key focus areas:

Rural and urban slum teachers’ specific training needs are in the following areas:

Content Knowledge: Existing teachers have graduated from local schools, which lack resources and face a shortage of qualified professionals. Hence, in many cases, the teacher’s own knowledge about various subjects is weak which necessitates content knowledge training in different core subjects.

Pedagogical Skills: As students, teachers were taught using traditional teacher-centered methods that emphasize rote learning instead of comprehension of new knowledge. Training is needed in student-centered approaches that encourage student participation and critical thinking.

Curriculum Enhancement: Another significant intervention by DIL is effective implementation of Pakistan’s National Curriculum 2006. Very little awareness is seen in the education sector regarding this important document. DIL has taken up the opportunity to supplement the national standards requirement by providing guides and resources to teach to the student learning outcomes(SLO) stated in the curriculum.

Training & capacity building for non-DIL teachers:

Over the last four years, DIL has been actively working with government, not for profit and low cost private school networks to offer teacher training and capacity building courseware to non DIL teachers and principals as well. Following our long standing educational values of theory and practice, DIL offers a wide range of high impact, specialized courses that are driven by latest research and international best practices.

Our subject expert teams have developed Foundation Level courses to help develop teachers’ competency in concept clarity and pedagogy. Foundation courses are offered in the following subjects for primary and middle school teachers and principals:

• English
• Mathematics
• Science
• Urdu
• Social Studies
• General Pedagogy
• Early Childhood Education
• School Enterprise course
• Academic Leadership and Management

Training sessions are delivered using various modes like face to face, blended and online sessions. DIL has designed a resource bank of more than 200 video lessons covering the complete English and Math content of primary grades as delineated in the national standards. Teaching and learning materials in the way of manipulatives, worksheets, videos of real time lessons, reading material and handouts are also prepared for each module to give a holistic learning opportunity to our trainees.

We follow a stringent process of gauging progress made by the participants. It helps understand the needs of our trainees and allows DIL to evaluate our training modules. Courses are built on three to five modules of up to five days each. These can be phased according to receiver’s preference.
Successful candidates receive a certificate upon completion. Our training cycle involves a strong follow up process which creates increased impact in student learning.

For questions about our fee schedule or to learn more about our funded training programs, please schedule a call with our training team by contacting Sadia Hashir, Manager TEaM College at sadia@dil.org.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

DIL’s enhanced curriculum provides a comprehensive package of localized materials to equip students with the skills needed to succeed in today’s interconnected world as responsible life-long learners. Information is presented and explained in ways to support students’ ability to think critically, creatively and collaboratively.

Based on the 2006-7 national standards, DIL’s curriculum package sequences the subject topics throughout the year including both content (what to teach) and pedagogy (how to teach), relieving the teachers of the time consuming and often technical task of lesson planning.

Curriculum enhancement support for non-DIL schools:

DIL is proud to be able to share our well-researched and field-tested curriculum enhancement materials with low cost education service providers. Our teams are able to provide support through:

Teachers guides for core subjects of primary and middle classes that provide support to teachers on effective implementation of National Curriculum standards.

Workbooks designed to match the student learning outcomes and provide opportunities to students to practice what they have learned.

CDs and readers to provide breadth to the curriculum and enrich the learning experiences of young learners.

Teaching and Learning Material (TLM) kits that have been thoughtfully compiled to provide opportunities of hands on experiences to students on the concepts they learn and facilitate teachers in conducting student centered lessons.

List of available Resource material.

We currently have curriculum packages available for the primary grades in all of the core subject areas as well as a complete ECE program for Nursery and Kindergarten. Middle school curriculum materials are under way. Orientation sessions are designed to help teachers understand the purpose, layout and usage of the guides.

For sample pages and a fee card, please contact Sadia Hashir, Manager TEaM College at sadia@dil.org.