Kenya 2010

Laikipia East & Central Districts
Being our second year in the region, we provided a week of teacher facilitator training for 13 teacher leaders from various disciplines (primary & secondary) who took part in our workshops last year. The facilitator trainees collaborated on the design and resource packages for the methodologies sessions that were going to be delivered the following week. We then provided workshops for approximately 50 teachers.  Besides educational best practices sessions in math, science and English using various methodologies we helped the participants create a professional learning community by region. They planned a way forward to meet and work together to reinforce the strategies they learned, adapt and apply them in their classrooms and share what they learned with their colleagues.

Naivasha District
This was our third year in Naivasha and Utumishi Academy in Gilgil was the host site. This partnership was developed through the teachers that worked there who attended our session in 2008. The hope is that we can develop the school into a teacher resource/training centre that can be used by the teachers in the district outside of school time.

This year we had 15 teachers from the previous year return to co-facilitate with us and attend a week of facilitator training. They told us how they were able to incorporate the strategies they learned and the success they were excited to share with their peers.

Many Kenyan teachers identified the shortcomings of their teacher-centred approach and were quick to adopt the rationale for our workshops which are designed to promote active learning and learner-centred educational practices that will lead to authentic learning experiences and result in a higher level of literacy, understanding and achievement. The lack of teacher motivation is a big issue and the 180 degree change we saw in these teachers was infectious. This could only be contributed to their realization of the opportunities for improved learning that these workshops presented and the shared community that was created with their colleagues both local and international. This year saw 15 local teachers trained as facilitators, 121 teachers from 71 schools take part in the sessions.

When all was said and done, in Kenya in August 2010, 28 Kenyan teachers with 16 Canadian teachers facilitated workshops for 171 primary/secondary participants. With new knowledge and skills, these 198 participants will be able to positively impact the learning of approximately 10,000 students and who will now start empowering their colleagues through the delivery of sessions based on the knowledge they gained.

A huge THANK YOU to our teams who volunteered for the 2010 projects: