Teachers improve their skills

Shereen and Mohammed are just two of many Jordanian teachers who are presently experiencing a new approach to Teacher Professional Development in Jordan. Responding to a World Bank recommendation to transition from supply to demand-side training, the ERfKE Support Project (ESP) funded by USAID, worked with the Jordan Ministry of Education to create the Professional Development Program. Professional Development is more than just training; it provides a more comprehensive structured educational program that enhances teacher development and responds to the specific needs of teachers in Jordan.

For many years, the Ministry of Education held training programs for all teachers. This large scale training was often highly theoretical and did not always address specific problems which individual teachers or groups of teachers were facing in a particular area. The new Professional Development Program directly targets the needs of teachers which they themselves identify, tailoring training to educational gaps.

To support this initiative, ESP conducted a needs assessment study with teachers, which identified the areas and concepts that teachers themselves thought were difficult to understand or were unclear in the Management Information Stream (MIS) curriculum.

The results of the assessment identified 80 concepts in the 6 subject areas where teachers said they found difficulty and which were not clear to them. As a result of the assessment, the Ministry of Education and ESP formed Instructional Design Teams whose members constituted of teachers and supervisors working in schools. After four months of work, the instructional design teams produced a teacher’s manual with more than 80 concepts systematically clarified for the six subjects of MIS.

As a result of this initiative, MIS teachers in Jordanian schools now have a selection of possible courses to choose from, based directly on the needs they themselves identified. This new demand driven training began in September 2006. The impact of this change can be seen in the number of teachers who have signed up for the new courses. To date, 90% of teachers in Jordan have signed up for one course or another even though the courses are not compulsory. This reflects their interest in their professional development and their teaching skills. These skills will undoubtedly improve the quality of education given to their students.

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