What Makes Education Partnerships Effective?
This manual helps practitioners evaluate education partnerships.
E-Learning for life long lerning... and a better future for our youth.
Programme and Partnership Objective
The recommendations that follow begin with targeted approaches to improving students’ skills, progressing to more holistic approaches to the IT curriculum.
- Increase support of summer IT “intensives” for students
- Revise the hands-on portion of the IT curriculum to include more useful skills
- Provide additional re-service professional development to IT teachers
- Revise the IT curriculum and the role of IT teachers
Partners
- Ministry of Education of the Government of Lebanon
- Hariri Foundation for Sustainable Development
- UNRWA Lebanon
- Welfare Association
- World Links Arab Region
Partnership Background and Justification
Lebanon has recognized the critical need for ICT skills in order to merge with global economies that are increasingly dependent on knowledge economies. In Lebanon only 114 people out of every 1000 are connected to the Internet and only 20% of the schools have Internet connections. Most youth are lacking the needed skills to engage and compete in the new age of technology.
In 2007 a partnership involving World Links Arab Region (WLAR),AL Hariri Foundation for Sustainable Development and the Ministry of Education (MOE) launched a Pilot Phase professional-development project designed to engage 600 teachers in 100 schools in the use of computers and internet to support collaborative learning and active learning pedagogies.
The program aimed to actively foster new teaching skills and learning strategies. Students’ collaborative learning and project based activities are being implemented as well as a variety of learning strategies and aim at enhancing higher-order thinking skills, creative and critical thinking. Teachers are empowered to develop their knowledge and skills actively and experientially.
WLAR has recognized the importance and need to bridge the digital divide between the academia and work market requirements as well as the power of knowledge economies in fighting unemployment and poverty. Supporting ICT literacy and e-learning is believed to narrow gaps between educational and vocational outcomes, as well as the working market, which is important for a region with such a high illiteracy and unemployment rate. If Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) is instilled as a part of education in line with the existing local Arab Systems along with supporting fundamental skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and employing research, the Arab regimes will be indirectly enhancing the e-readiness of future generations, which will lead to knowledge economies and help sustain life-long learning.
Implementation Steps
In line with policy advice, training, mentoring, coordination and several forms of educational support, the WLAR Teacher’s Professional Development (TPD) program goes through different work plans scenarios and working steps, composed of the following:
- Memorandum of Understanding (MoU): WLAR sings an MoU with its implementing and funding partners, to launch and implement the program in a country
- Needs Assessment: All parties cooperate to assess basic needs in relevance to project implementation and meeting aspired and mutual goals.
- Project Concept Document: to finalize a document that outlines the program details and implementation methodologies, after which, a detailed budget and work plan are produced.
- Budget and Work Plan: a detailed budget shows and links the time frame with resources and all sequential program activities, based on which, a work plans produced to carry on the entire 2 years implementation of the project.
- Program Application: The program application differentiates between the logistics operations on one hand and the content, training, mentoring and quality control on the other. Logistics are responsible to avail ICT training centres and equipment availed by the implementing partners, such as Ministries of Education. In some cases, donors provide or equip few labs. They are also responsible for attendance, reports, feedback, etc.... while the content team are responsible for quality of training, content details and mentoring.
- Program Guide and Training Manual: containing detailed steps of program application and all relevant reference documents, such as terms of reference and scopes of work.
- Policy Advice: often countries seek policy or strategy advice before, during or after the project has been concluded. WLAR provides policy advice.
- Content: Customization and localization give consideration to local languages and cultures
- Training: capacity is build in countries by training in-country Core Trainers, by World Links Regional Trainers, who train Master Trainers. The Master Trainers train the teachers.
- Mentoring: a special scheme is set for ongoing support and mentoring during training and classroom application.
- Assessment Survey and Evaluation: Use qualitative and quantitative metrics to measure project impact. We are designing a new survey to measure educational training outcome relative to market needs.
- Testing & Teachers’ Portfolios: all teachers have to submit their 2 years achievements portfolios done by them and their students, and to pass the final test, after completing the four modules.
- Activities & Certification: Projects Awards Competitions nominations and awards. Certification and final ceremony.
- Documentation: of all project outputs. In some countries, a documentary video is recorded.
- Networking and outreach, via an elaborate e-portal and outreach strategy.
Programme Outcomes
The program has trained 700 teachers in 151 schools, thus reaching about 75,000 students.
The program has had a profound impact in Lebanon schools. Key areas of impact in relation to students’ learning-related attitudes, behaviours and competencies likely include: increased enthusiasm for school, increased ability to learn collaboratively and independently, increased ability to organize and apply knowledge gained in school to real-world and academic problems, improved conceptual understanding of information and skills related to school subjects.
The World Links Arab Region (WLAR) Lebanon Project was very effectively implemented and has made a strong contribution to the transformation of teaching and learning in Lebanon Schools. In general:
- Training: The training was effective. Students cooperated with each other and with teachers throughout the program.
- Content: The material used through the training helped in building new methodologies that became a teaching tactic and the Internet activities helped the teachers effectively.
- Skills: Enhanced educational behaviour. Effective Communication.
- Educational System: TPD program supported the schools. Wider use of information technologies. The assessment insured the role of teacher professional development program in creating a healthy and active educational environment in Lebanon. And that will positively affected the use of internet at schools.
Lessons Learnt and Recommendations
The World Links Arab Region (WLAR) Lebanon Project was very effectively implemented and has made a strong contribution to the transformation of teaching and learning in Lebanese Schools. The program has created a dynamic healthy situation in Lebanese education. Moreover, it will have a high potential to increase schools’ use of the Internet.
Tools and Methodology
- For the World Links Lebanon Project, initially a local coordinator is selected who is responsible for coordinating the project with the project manager at the World Links headquarters. Schools, teachers, master trainers and core trainers were selected in Lebanon for the implementation of the TPD program.
- A Regional trainer from the World Links Arab Region headquarters trained 5 en Core trainers, who subsequently trained 120 Master trainers. These Masters trainers went on to training approximately 1,400 teachers on 4 training modules.
- The 4 Modules of the TPD program include: educational and training materials, including print, CD-ROMs, web sites and multimedia distance learning methodologies; face-to-face training of trainers’ workshops; on-going local technical and pedagogical support; and on-line support.
- Specifically, the WLAR Lebanon TPD program consists of over 160 hours of training in four Modules designed to enable teachers to develop technology skills in combination with new approaches to teaching and learning. The four Modules are as follows:
- Module 1: Introduction to the Internet for Teaching & Learning
Introduce fundamental concepts, technologies, and skills necessary for introducing networked technology and the Internet to teaching and learning; initiate discussion of new possibilities, generate basic email projects.
- Module 2: Tele-collaborative Learning Project
Introduction to educational tele-collaboration: from activity structures to the creation, design, implementation and dissemination of original projects.
- Module 3: Curriculum & Technology Integration
Develop skills and understanding of how to create, incorporate and facilitate innovative classroom practices that integrate networked technology and curricula.
- Module 4: Innovations: Pedagogy, Technology & Professional Development
Develop skills and understanding of how to evaluate and diffuse innovative classroom practices that integrate networked technology and curricula while addressing social and ethical concerns.
Replicability and Sustainability
While implementing its TPD program, WLAR always ensures that all trainers are from the local country where the program is being applied, as in Lebanon all 700 Teachers, 27 Core Trainers and 101 Master Trainers are Lebanese. This step is to guarantee the program’s applicability and sustainability for as long as possible in the country.
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