There’s a new generation of Nigerian teachers and they’re changing how children learn
Equipped with very different teaching skills, student teachers starting out in Northern Nigeria are part of a new teaching generation who can transform learning for millions of children.
In Northern Nigeria, colleges of education in five states are on a mission to transform teaching methods by changing the way their student teachers perform in class.
The colleges are part of the Teacher Development Programme (TDP) working over six years in Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Zamfara to improve teacher education and learning outcomes for 2.3 million children.
Each college works directly with ten associate schools providing an opportunity for student teachers to get teaching practice in real classrooms in return for mentoring and materials from the colleges themselves. It’s a valuable relationship from which both institutions gain.
But it doesn’t start there. Before going into to these schools to teach pupils for the first time, student teachers take teaching practice training. And it’s designed to fundamentally influence how they teach for the rest of their career.
Riyanasai Yusuf, 21, a second-year student teacher at Kaduna State College of Education, Gidan Waya, is this morning starting the first of five days teaching practice training at the college. “I’m excited,” she says “as well as a little apprehensive. I hope this training will give me the confidence to face a classroom of children and give them something of value.”
The leaders of the course are lecturers at the college, all of whom have themselves undergone special training on how to deliver the classes modelling the new techniques. Luka Angulu Wakili, Dean of the School of Secondary Education Science Programmes, with his 23 years at Kaduna State College of Education, says that enormous changes in how the college supports its student teachers have come in just the last two years.
“Our delivery in class, to our students, is very different now.” he says. “We aim to model learner-centred teaching methods. This means using different teaching styles such as group work, role play and practical activities so that no one is left behind. This, they then take into schools.”
Leading the session on science observation skills, Luka is describing how to use measurement as a means of scientific observation. Moving around the class of 110 student teachers, he is constantly engaging different parts of the large room, asking questions, leaving gaps in his sentences for responses and praising students’ answers. It is a lively teaching style and all of the student teachers are following his every word. Then using real instruments, he gets students measuring each other’s height and testing their temperature. It’s clearly fun and everyone is involved.
“Another important development,” explains Luka “is the way we can now bring activity-based learning into the whole syllabus. Our focus on preparing lesson plans, which we never did before, means that before the class we are thinking of interesting ways to bring the course content to life.”
As the teaching practice training continues, student teachers cover reading simple words and subtraction of three-digit numbers. But, whilst the content of the training is clearly important, it is the style and methods used to teach that the course organisers want to see the participants taking from the course. And they do.
Jemimah Bamadon, 22, is a second-year student at the college of education and explains that, already, the training has been a revelation. “I’ve never had any kind of seminar quite like this.” she says. “I can see now that the key to effective teaching is to encourage students, ask them questions, and treat them as colleagues who, with the teacher’s guidance, can lead their own learning.”
Sanaka Gamaliel Zubairu, 22, already teaches in his spare time at a private school, and says that the course is showing him the importance of good classroom management. “If you can’t capture the whole class, students won’t learn. In college lectures we sometimes have over 300 hundred in one class.” He says. “That’s why group work, getting pupils to work together is so important. We are likely going to face big classroom populations in schools, so we need creative strategies to organise students to learn well.” he adds.
Lunch for the student teachers on this teaching practice training is very late, but it doesn’t seem to matter. As three o’clock arrives, groups of around 10 students have been asked to discuss the context of passages of text and insert their choice of words in the blank spaces. It produces energetic but friendly debate on a range of matters from whether animals should be given the personal pronoun “he” to whether it should be assumed women do not go out to work. As the course ends for the day, student teachers are continuing their discussions as they leave the lecture hall.
Back in his office, the Provost, Professor E.J. Chom says that the teaching practice course is one part of a much wider culture change taking place at Kaduna State College of Education. “I want this college to compete with the best.” He says. “And for that to happen, we have to adopt and pioneer the best teaching methods.”
As the leader of the college, his enthusiasm for learner-centred teaching is clear and bodes well for the future. “If we can get our students here motivated and excited to learn,” he says, “imagine what they will be able to do for many more children across the State.”
This article is adapted from a case study developed for the Teacher Development Programme (TDP) in February 2018. TDP is a six-year programme supported by the UK’s Department for International Development and delivered by Cambridge Education/Mott Macdonald. Daniel is communication adviser to the programme. More information is available at: www.tdpnigeria.org
