Last month we launched a new teacher education initiative, Teaching for Success for Palestinian English teachers in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE), UNRWA Gaza and UNRWA West Bank.
The British Council’s Teaching for Success aims to ensure that all teachers in the world have high-quality continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities that improve their own practice and their learners’ success. Based on insight, evidence and research into effective continuing professional development, relevant to school teachers of all subjects, we have found that:
- improving the quality of teaching has the most impact on improving the outcomes of learners
- CPD is the most effective way to improve the quality of teaching.
As part of the initiative around 210 teachers in 14 groups will receive specialist online teaching training from British Council trainers between October 2018 and March 2019. An experienced Palestinian English supervisor (see photograph above) will lead each of these groups. In addition to completing online training, every month these English teachers in Gaza and the West Bank will implement new exercises and activities in the classroom. They will also meet once a month to present examples of best practice, discuss issues raised during the training course, and develop a personal action plan.
This programme follows the setting up of the Palestine Teacher Activity Groups (PALTAG - 44 groups reaching approximately 850 English teachers in the West Bank), which was co-ordinated by the British Council, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE) and UNRWA Gaza. The pilot phase culminated in a successful British Council PALTAG Symposium Gaza, Bethlehem and Ramallah in March, attended by over 1,000 Palestinian English Teachers. Teaching for Success integrates and builds on the achievements of the PALTAG.
Our ambition is that in the future all Palestinian English teachers will be able to receive Teaching for Success online training and will be able to attend regular PALTAG meetings face-to-face and online. These initiatives build and strengthen communities of practice among English teaching, and help transform the quality of teaching in primary and secondary schools.