Teacher Resource Guidebook - Working with Teachers

Working with TeachersA Handbook for Teacher Educators

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TESSA WORKING WITH TEACHERSA HANDBOOK FOR TEACHER EDUCATORS

‘The education and training of teachers represent one of thegreatest challenges for education systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.TESSA is an imaginative and creative response to that. Most importantly, it stresses the value of raising standards through international co-operation,’ Professor Jophus Amamuah-Mensah

TESSA Executive Chair

Why TESSA?

TESSA provides collaboratively developed open educational resources (OERs) for teachers to use intheir own classroom to support active learning methods and reflective practice.

This handbook is for teacher educators and others involved in planning and delivery of teacher development whether formal or less formal, and in a range of settings. It provides guidance andstarting points on using TESSA materials to improve teachers’ classroom practices and raise pupil levels of achievement. This handbook draws on examples of TESSA use from across Sub SaharanAfrica and in particular from TESSA consortium institutions. The guidance here complements TESSA:Working with Pupils (A Guide for Teachers).

TESSA: Working with teachers

‘The best thing about the TESSA materials is the fact that the strategies selected form a verypractical part of it. Because each strategy you have is clear, and it is clear why that strategy is important and how to use it… In TESSA the strategies are explained so the teacher learns them...’

Professor Sineda,Open University of Sudan

‘The focus is on active learning and that is why I think I find myself comfortable with them [theactivities]. This is the emphasis of TESSA, its strength.’ Professor Fred Keraro,

Egerton University Kenya

‘This is to say that I really enjoy going through TESSA modules. They are challenges that thenew Emerging Africa teachers must avail themselves of. TESSA has made it clear to classroomteachers that the era of chalk and talk, excessive talk and boring lecture is gone. Our classroompractices should be activity learning based right from the beginning of the class to the end.Children want to do, act and enjoy lessons. The best way to know that your class is a failure iswhen the bell goes; if your pupils jump up and say hurray and run out of your class, they are indirectly saying thank God for the freedom from the bondage of a dull and weary lesson. Yourclass lessons should attract pupils to your class, not drive them away. The bell should makethem say ouh ouh, not hurray we are free.’ Professor I.A. Olaofe,

Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria

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A HANDBOOK FOR TEACHER EDUCATORS

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TESSA WORKING WITH TEACHERS

Working with the TESSA materials

Working with

teachers

Getting to know the TESSA

materials

Assessment

Community of practice

Reflective practice

Curriculum mapping

Course design

Teaching and

learning

Materials adaption

How are the TESSA materials structured?

How can youdeepen your engagementwith the TESSA community?

How can you evaluate and improveyour use of the TESSA materials?

How can you encourageReflective Practice by the kinds of assessment you use?

How can you use the selected TESSA materials

with your teachers?

How will you adaptthe TESSA materials for your context?

How will youplan to usethe selected

TESSA materials in

your context?

Which TESSA materials are suitable for your teachers?

STARTHERE

Figure 1

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Working with teachers

About this guide

This guide aims to support teachers to use TESSA materials and activities in their classrooms.

TESSA materials enhance and improve teaching and focus on developing teachers’ classroom practicein the key curriculum areas of literacy, life skills.

Please use available space within this book to scribble notes.

Contents

1. How are the TESSA materials structured? [Getting to know the TESSA materials] 5

2. Which TESSA materials are suitable for your teachers? [Curriculum mapping] 8

3. How will you plan to use the selected TESSA materials in your context?[Course design] 12

4. How can you access and adapt the TESSA materials for your context without losing their essence? [Materials adaptation] 15

5. How will you use the selected TESSA materials with your teachers?[Teaching and learning] 17

6. How can you encourage reflective practice on TESSA activities through the kinds of assessment you use? [Assessment] 19

7. How can you evaluate and improve your use of the TESSA materials?[Reflective practice] 21

8. How can you deepen your engagement with the TESSA community and others involved in working with teachers in an OER environment?[Community of practice] 23

9. List of appendices [Appendices available from the TESSA website under each country area of under ‘Teacher Educator Resources’] 25

http://www.tessafrica.net© March 2010 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 LIcense.

TESSA is a consortium of 18 institutions engaged in teacher education and was established in 2005 by The Open University, UK.

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All the TESSA materials are open educational resources; theyare free to be used by anyone either online or downloadedand printed. They can be adapted, modified, or integratedwith other materials in any form.

TESSA materials have been written by teacher educators from differentcountries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The TESSA materials are organised into five module areas (see Table 1):

Literacy, Numeracy, Science, Social Studies and the Arts and Life Skills.

Each module area contains three modules, each of which has five sections(there are seventy-five sections in total). The focus in all sections is ondeveloping teachers’ understanding of teaching and learning and improving their classroom practice. There is a progression of ideas bothwithin the five sections of each module and within each section.

Table 1: The five TESSA module areas

1 How are the TESSA materials structured?[Getting to know the TESSA materials]

Module Area

Literacy

Numeracy

Science

Social Studiesand the Arts

Life Skills

Module 1

Reading and writing fora range of purposes

Investigating numberand pattern

Looking at life

Developing an understanding of place

Personal development

Module 2

Using communityvoices in the classroom

Exploring shape andspace

Investigating materials

Investigating history

Exploring social development

Module 3

Promoting communication in an additional language

Investigating measurementand data handling

Energy and movement

Looking at the arts

Community issues and citizenship

Further details of the seventy-five sections are in the ‘Summary Curriculum Framework’. (Appendix 1a).

The materials have been adapted to best match local needs, cultureand surroundings in a range of national contexts across Sub-SaharanAfrica and are available in four different languages (Arabic, English,French and Kiswahili). Sets of materials in English and French drawnfrom across these country versions have been collected and broughttogether to form two pan-African versions.

Use this column to make your ownnotes as you use this handbook

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Key Resources: Supporting all the TESSA sections is a series of ‘KeyResources’; these are referred to across all the module areas and coverissues such as ‘Using group work in your classroom’. The Key Resourcescan be found under under your country icon on the TESSA website. Alist describing them is found in Appendix 1b.

Audio Resources: Enriching the TESSA text materials is a collectionof audio resources. These can be found under your country homepageunder the audio resources button in the left-hand navigation bar.There are several strands of audio resources including:

� ‘Story Story’ short dramas: A series of dramas showing scenesin and around a local school involving teachers, pupils, parents and other members of the community. For each drama there are questions for the teacher to consider and discuss

� Teachers in Africa: A number of short clips in which teachers, pupils and educators talk about their experiences and ideas. These are intended to stimulate debate on the state of primary education and the teaching profession in Sub-Saharan Africa.

A TESSA section

All TESSA sections follow the same pattern (see Table 2). Each sectionis designed to progressively develop the teachers’ practice throughengagement with activities in their classroom. Each activity is expectedto take one or two lessons at the most (unless they specify longer).

We suggest you print one TESSA section to look at whilst reading thisexplanation.



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Key Focus Question

Learning Outcomes

Introduction

Narrative

Case Studies

Activities

Resources

This is addressed to the teacher and summarises the area to be studied in the section.

Each section has a maximum of three learning outcomes for the teacher. Thesecentre on the development of classroom skills in the context of the curriculumof that module area.

The introduction sets the scene for the section. It outlines classroom skills to bedeveloped by the teacher and the curriculum content area across the section.

The narrative across three web pages of each section provides a rationale for the case studies and activities and highlights the purpose of each. It may briefly describe a relevant theoretical perspective, additional subject knowledge forthe topic or the location of additional supporting resources.

Every section has three case studies, each linked to a particular activity. Thecase studies illustrate ideas and concepts by describing how one teacher has approached the linked activity or a similar activity in their classroom. They mayoften focus on one particular aspect of the activity or on a particular classroomsituation – for example working with a multi-grade class, with very large numbers of pupils or in particularly challenging circumstances.

The three activities are at the heart of each section. They offer activities for theteacher to undertake in their classroom, with pupils or in the wider school andcommunity. The activities build towards the final activity, known as the key activity. The activities are all learner centred and highly engaging for pupils.Some activities are very short – perhaps a twenty minute task – whilst others areprojects stretching over several weeks. The majority should occupy one lesson.

Each section has up to six supporting resources. These can take a variety offorms including web links, articles, images, stories, posters, examples of pupils’work, detailed lesson plans, poems and worksheets and template documents.They are chosen to enrich the teachers’ learning and support their delivery ofthe activities. The resources support the development of different dimensionsof a teacher’s knowledge base, including:

� content knowledge � pedagogical knowledge and � pedagogical content knowledge.

A few of the resources are intended for use with pupils. Icons are used to showthe core purpose of a resource. These are:

� pupil use� background information / subject knowledge for teachers � teacher resource for planning or adapting to use with pupils � examples of pupils’ work.

Table 2: Content of the TESSA sections

A TESSA Section


TESSA materials are appropriate for pre-service, in-serviceand upgrading programmes at a variety of levels and forteachers with a huge range of existing skills. Teacher educators working in different contexts (universities, colleges,regions and districts) are able to use them in a variety of situations and programmes.

It is important to remember that TESSA is not an entire curriculum for aformal teacher education programme. The purpose of TESSA materialsis to enhance most areas of teacher education curricula and less formalteacher development activities.

Mapping into a programme

For existing formal programmes the starting point is to look at both – your own teacher education curriculum – the TESSA curriculum framework (Appendix 1a)

to decide where it will be most appropriate to use the TESSA materials.

The diagram shows the four main areas of most teacher education curricula and the parts that TESSA supports:

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2 Which TESSA materials are suitable for your teachers? [Curriculum mapping]


Figure 2Overlap between TESSA materials and components of a teacher education curriculum

TESSA materials

Educationstudies

Professionalstudies

Subjectcontent

Subjectmethodology

Teaching Practice


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At the University of Education, Winneba (Ghana) the TESSA materialsare integrated into Teaching Methodology Courses in English, Maths,Basic Science and Environmental Studies in the B Ed Primary.

At the Open University of Tanzania, the new Diploma in PrimaryTeacher Education was planned with the TESSA principles in mind.It has an active learning / activity based approach, linking theoryand practice and draws heavily on the TESSA materials. TESSA materials are integrated into methodology courses, teaching practice, classroom management modules and general teachingmethods and strategies.

The National Teachers’ Institute in Nigeria is leading on deliveringCPD workshops for all primary school teachers across the country(120,000 teachers in 2009 through 246 centres). These six-dayworkshops cover the four core subjects of the primary school curriculum with a focus on innovative techniques of teaching. For each subject a self-study manual has been written, based on principles of active learning and targeting pupil needs and interests.In 2008, revised subject manuals were produced; these integratedrelevant TESSA activities and case studies thus enriching the NTImanuals. These books are distributed to teachers at workshops.

A companion Resource Person’s Guide has also been developedand is used to help orient the centre coordinators and facilitatorswho run the CPD workshops. You can read one of the booklets inAppendix 11.

In the in-service upgrading programme – Advanced Certificate ofEducation – at University of Fort Hare (South Africa), the TESSA materials have been integrated into the courses which support theimprovement of teaching skills in maths, science and technology.

TESSA Snapshots: TESSA use in diploma and degree programmes

In many institutions there are no existing materials to support teachingpractice or school experience modules, and TESSA materials are then frequently used to support this part of the curriculum. Using the materials in this way is a good starting point as it familiarises teachers(and their supervisors/tutors) with the TESSA materials and there isoften less resistance to their use than to integration in more formaltaught parts of the curriculum.

TESSA Snapshots: TESSA use in diploma and degree programmes

The examples showhow different institutions have integrated the TESSAmaterials into theirprogrammes –at B Ed, Diploma and Certificate level.

Using TESSA to support in-serviceCPD




Mapping into a course

Having identified the most appropriate parts of your curriculum for enhancement with TESSA, you may then want to do more detailed curriculum mapping to identify particular TESSA sections or activities tointegrate into formal and less formal courses or in response to individualteacher needs. This mapping exercise is best undertaken in a workshopwith colleagues. Table 3 shows how using a table can be useful to support this exercise.

Ms Pauline Amos is a district supervisor for science working withteachers in primary schools across Nakuru district in Kenya. Sheuses the TESSA materials with teachers in schools in her area in lessformal professional development exchanges.

B Ed Course(primary)

Introduction

to linguistics

(sound

production)

Introduction

to literacy

(literary

appreciation)

Creative

writing

(writing)

Theme topic

Articulation

(pronunciation)

Story telling

Writing a

narrative

Suggested TESSA literacymodule/section

M1 S1

Supporting and

assessing reading

and writing

M2 S1

Investigation

stories

M2 S1

Investigating

stories

M2S4

Using story and

poetry

Suggested TESSA activities/case studies

Activity 1: Using songs

and rhymes to teach

reading of words

Activity 2: Using

groceries for reading

Activity 2

Discussing why

specific stories were

told

Activity 1

Investigating story

telling

Key activity: Creating

an original story

Activity 1

Drafting name/

praise poems or

songs

Teacher outcomes

Used songs and

rhymes to teach

pronunciation

Used grocery

packaging to teach

pronunciation

Investigate pupils’

understanding of

stories

Explored ways of

writing original

stories/poems

Table 3: How TESSA materials map against a curriculum from Egerton University (Kenya)

Using TESSA to support in-serviceCPD

Identified course in the B Ed programmeat Egerton University

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When using the TESSA materials to support teachers with their teachingpractice, you might select specific TESSA materials for them. Alternatively, you might ask teachers to select the most appropriatesections or study units for their own needs (from the TESSA website,CDs or printed books), and then devise their own learning pathwaythrough the material. In both cases you will need to ensure that theschool (pupil) curriculum is considered in making the selection.

It is worth bearing in mind that adequate time needs to be allocatedfor teachers to browse and select from the TESSA materials. Teacherswill find it helpful to have access to TESSA: Working with Pupils (Teachers’ Guide) available under ‘Teacher Educator Guidance’ on theTESSA website under under your country icon.

TESSA Snapshot: Providing access to the TESSA website

‘Essentially, as far as I am concerned it is the approach thatTESSA is using that is important, it is not so much the contentcovered. As far as anyway the TESSA materials do not cover theentire curriculum in our schools, they are giving us examples…They are giving methods we can use.’

Professor Fred Keraro, Egerton University, Kenya

At Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) teacher training college in CapeCoast Ghana (working with The University of Cape Coast), thestudent teacher’s timetable has been amended and all teachershave one session per week in the computer labs to browse andstudy the TESSA materials – choosing activities and resources touse in their assignments, on campus micro teaching and inteaching practice in local schools.

‘One striking revelation about the relevance of the TESSA resources is evident in the manner in which our third-year student teachers who are currently on their “out-programme”crave for the resources to prepare their lesson notes in their various schools assigned.’

OLA TESSA Report February 2009

TESSA Snapshot: TESSA in the B Ed course at Egerton University, Kenya




3 How will you plan to use the selected TESSA materials in your context? [Curriculum mapping]

Consideration of the complexities of your local circumstancesand needs is important in establishing appropriate conditionsto support the effective use of TESSA materials.

A first step is considering how to introduce the TESSA materials toyour colleagues and achieve their buy-in. Achieving buy-in from yourcolleagues to the use of TESSA materials needs extensive discussion onrepeated occasions. Colleagues need background information on theproject and TESSA principles and time to explore the materials. (A useful presentation and notes can be found in Appendix 2).

TESSA Snapshot:

The next step is to consider the format of use of the TESSA materials,how teachers’ use of the TESSA materials will be supported and how youmight assess this use. This will depend on a number of factors:

1. The purpose and intended learning outcomes of your programme or course.

2. The number of teachers on your programme and its format (on – campus, distance learning etc).

3. Access to technology; internet and computers.

4. Support: the number and frequency of contact sessions and the expertise of tutors/supervisors/mentors.

Across the TESSA consortium we have seen three different types of useof the TESSA materials – highly structured, loosely structured and guideduse (see Table 4). This list is not exhaustive but merely illustrative of theway in which the flexible nature of the materials enables effective use ina wide range of contexts and for different purposes.

At the Kigali Institute of Education in Rwanda, all lecturers haveaccess to a laptop but internet connectivity is not good. The RevJames Rutebuka, the Head of Primary Teacher Education and theTESSA coordinator, has organised CDs of all the TESSA materials(in both English and French) for all lecturers. He negotiated withthe Institute senior management to use some Wednesday afternoon professional development/research sessions to introduce TESSA. In the following sessions, colleagues collectively explored different TESSA modules from the CDs.

Well structured introduction for colleagues





Form of use of TESSA materials

Characteristics

Teacher access toTESSA materials

Example

Highly structured

Selection of a set ofTESSA activities for allstudent teachers tocarry out

New teacher bookswhich include severalTESSA sections

National Teachers’ Institute (NTI) (Nigeria);Open University ofSudan (OUS)

Loosely structured

Lecturers select appropriate TESSA activities for their owncourse

Website and printed TESSA sections

University of Education,Winneba (UEW) (Ghana);Egerton University(Kenya)

Guided use

Designated time forstudent teachers to select TESSA activities

Website or CDs

University of Pretoria(UoP) (South Africa)Our Lady of Apostles(OLA) College (Ghana)

Table 4: Different types of use of TESSA materials

The following TESSA Snapshots show in more detail the use of TESSAmaterials in different contexts:

Teachers on B Ed courses at the University of Pretoria (SouthAfrica) are required to select TESSA materials from the TESSAwebsite to use during their teaching practice. The teachers’ useof TESSA is mentioned in the letter from the University to theschool mentor encouraging schools to also look at the TESSAmaterials. Teachers on the programme are required to includematerials from their use of TESSA, including their registration onthe TESSA website, in their portfolios. They are also required todiscuss their experiences during group reflections and to give awritten, structured reflection at the end of the practicum.

‘At the Open University of Sudan, academics have undertaken acomprehensive mapping exercise with the TESSA materials againstboth the teacher training curriculum and the school pupil curriculumto pull together a book of TESSA activities in Arabic. Many of theirteachers are located in rural areas with little chance of access tothe internet or regular support from institution staff. However, distribution channels for hard copy materials are well established.This book will be used by all teachers in the third and final teachingpractice of their B Ed. In 2009, the cohort numbers 53,000. InSudan, as in many countries across the world, the pupil curriculumis highly controlled and fixed, but by careful linking of the TESSAactivities with the school curriculum, TESSA materials can be used‘without alienating headteachers’. Professor Sineda,

Open University of Sudan, 2009

TESSA materials combined with guidance into newcourse books to support teachers on a large scale programme across an entire country

TESSA materials integrated intocourse assessment



In Tanzania the 500 teachers on the new Diploma in PrimaryTeacher Education are given CDs containing all the TESSA materials in English and Kiswahili. However, not all teachers haveaccess to a computer outside the study centre. A small selectionof TESSA materials is printed to use during the face-to-face sessions. A small number of complete sets of TESSA materials issent to regional centres for reference. (Printing costs prohibitmore extensive use of printed materials.)

At the University of Fort Hare, TESSA materials are stored on theUniversity intranet. Teachers across the university campus canaccess the TESSA materials without going onto the internet.

Teachers studying for a diploma through distance mode withthe Kyambogo University in Uganda regularly visit their localTeachers’ College for support sessions. Few of these collegeshave internet access or many computers. These teachers haveprint copies of a small number of TESSA sections, chosen bytheir lecturers, to link to specific topics.

In Kenya, teachers in the third year of the B Ed (primary) programme at Egerton University are required to complete aproject in their schools. Teachers are using the TESSA materialsas a starting point for their projects. Each student teacher hasbeen given a CD of the TESSA materials. Materials developed byteachers include a weather station, a food display and weighingscales.

You might want to support your teachers in finding local resources bydeveloping a ‘resource room or area’ in your institution or study centres.Teachers could borrow materials for use in their classes and share materials that they develop. Teachers could be encouraged to put together a resource corner or cupboard in their school or classroom.

TESSA Snapshot:

Use of the UniversityIntranet or havingprint copies in the library increases theaccess at very lowcost for students whoregularly visit thecampus.

Increasing availabilityof PCs allows manyteachers on distantmode course to access the materialsfrom a CD.





4 How can you adapt the TESSA materials for your context without losing their essence? [Materials adaptation]

All the TESSA sections have specified learning outcomeswhich you should consider when adapting materials for yourcourses. In each section the activities are also organised ina particular sequence which scaffold the teacher towardsthe achievement of the learning outcomes in the final keyactivity. It is important to consider how the TESSA materialsshould be sequenced to best support the teachers’ learningand to enable teachers to make connections between ideas,strategies and subjects with space for their reflections ontheir experiences.

Using the first activity from a TESSA section will seldom – if ever – helpteachers to achieve the section outcomes fully.

However, it is possible to design learning pathways and meet learningoutcomes using extracts of TESSA sections in a sequence which providesa coherent learning journey for teachers. Similarly, teachers can designtheir own learning pathway including one or more TESSA activities orcase studies in a sequence to achieve defined learning outcomes.

TESSA Snapshots:

At the Open University of Tanzania, new study units have beenconstructed around sequences of TESSA activities with someadaptation. For example, the Mathematics Method Modulestudy guide includes a section called ‘teaching different concepts in arithmetic’. Two of these concepts are ‘fractions’and ‘time’. Each section has been developed around a numberof TESSA materials to deliver the learning objectives. The fractionsection comprises an introduction to teaching fractions, threeactivities from TESSA (without the case studies but with the relevant TESSA resources such as fraction strips, fraction discsand comparing fractions) to create a learning episode. In the‘time’ section, one activity and case study from TESSA are used.In each case the introduction locates the activities and examplesin the context of the Tanzanian primary school. Each of thesesections develops teachers’ skills in building on pupils’ priorknowledge and using local resources in a coherent learning sequence. You can view these sections in Appendix 3.

A great learningepisode highlightinghow TESSA materialscan be linked to provide a coherentlearning journey forteachers as well aspupils.




Miss Cindy Makoe in South Africa used the TESSA materials asthe basis for discussion work on ‘shared reading’ in her tutorialswith her pre-service student teachers; linking the discussions tolessons they were teaching in schools. She encouraged her student teachers to practise their shared reading before theirclass. Cindy requested help from the class teachers in evaluatingthe student teachers’ lessons on an evaluation form; these werelater discussed with the student teachers. You can read moredetail about this sequence of activities in Appendix 4.

Access to TESSA Materials

The TESSA website offers many different versions of the TESSA materialscontextualised for different environments. However, for many teachersand some teacher educators in Sub Saharan Africa, access to the internet is difficult.

Nonetheless, there are numerous alternative ways you can use to giveteachers access to the TESSA materials:

offline: � TESSA materials can be downloaded onto your college, university

or institution intranet and accessed by teachers on campus.

� Through the use of CDs. Increasingly teachers can find a pc, laptop or notebook with a CD-ROM drive. The TESSA website offers a tool to enable you to easily create CDs for distribution to teachers on your programmes or courses.

� Through use of ‘datasticks’ or ‘flashdrives’. Again, the TESSA materials can be downloaded to these for distribution to teachers.

in print: � TESSA materials can be printed (use the pdf version) from the

TESSA website. You can print either individual sections or whole modules for distribution to teachers.

� Alternatively the Word file versions of the TESSA materials can be used, perhaps mixing the TESSA OERs with materials from other sources to create a workbook or course book unique to teachers on your programme. (See appendices for examples from institutions in the TESSA consortium).

A short learningepisode using TESSAmaterials





5 How will you use the selected TESSA materials with your teachers? [Teaching and Learning]

In one TESSA project in Nigeria, teachers were introduced to theTESSA materials at a one-day workshop at a State Centre, prior tothe use of TESSA materials in their classrooms. A senior teachereducator at the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI) (or anotherNigerian teacher education institution) led this orientation workshop. The supervisors were first briefed on the TESSA materials and the expected outcomes of the orientation programme, after which the teachers were taken through theaims and concept of the TESSA materials, schedule of activitiesand the expected outcomes of the orientation programme. Keyelements were: sample lessons using the new classroom activities,extensive discussion time, choosing the TESSA sections to use, andagreeing when to use the activities. In the sample lessons, twodifferent activities, for example, ‘Mapping the Local Environment’and ‘Exploring Social Networks’, were used to demonstrate how

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For many teachers, learning through and from their classroompractice will be unfamiliar. The point of the TESSA materials is to help teachers actually do the TESSA activities in their classrooms/on teaching practice. So just giving teachers thecopies of TESSA materials is not going to be enough. You needto prepare the teachers for classroom use of the materials,and help them reflect on their experience of use.

Preparation for use

TESSA preparation should always involve teachers experiencing theTESSA activities in a practical way before trying them out in classroomswith pupils, and this should include:

� discussion� modelling/demonstration (video clips can be useful)� micro teaching

It is also essential that those working with teachers in their classrooms(tutors/supervisors and so on) are familiar with the TESSA approachand materials. An example of a tutor orientation pack used by theOpen University of Sudan is found in Appendix 8.

The TESSA audio materials are ideal for stimulating discussion at workshops if equipment (including speakers) is available.

TESSA Snapshot:




At the University of Education, Winneba, in Ghana, lecturersworking with Early Years teachers discuss the TESSA materials insmall group seminars, looking at how the materials can beadapted for use with this age group of pupils. Following the discussion, the group of teachers then observes the lecturerteaching one of the TESSA activities in a local school. The teachersthen comment on the lesson and use the ideas to adapt otherTESSA activities for their own context. If it’s not possible to observe in a real school setting, the teachers watch a video clipof the lesson during their seminar.

Use of the materials

To support teachers in using the materials in their schools it would behelpful to give your teachers the TESSA: Working with Pupils handbook.

Reflection on use in teachers’ own classrooms

Simply selecting the relevant TESSA sections, building them into alearning pathway into your curriculum/materials, and requiring teachersto try out the activities in their classrooms is not enough to bring aboutreal improvement. Teachers need further support to help them understand and reflect fully on their classroom experiences with differentsorts of activities. This could be through your teachers sharing their experiences:

� in tutorials/contact sessions� in discussions with mentor/supervisors/ head teachers/inspectors� through communication with a tutor by email, or � through group discussions through online conferencing, or a

teleconference.

Teachers can be helped to reflect constructively by sharing both goodand bad experiences in a non-threatening way. Describing is a goodstarting point for reflection, but teachers also need to be encouragedto think about why things happened the way they did, and what theywill take from this experience into their future practice.

to use the classroom activities in the TESSA materials. In KadunaState, the mathematics and science teachers were anxious toknow how to use stories and games in teaching. The audio dramapiece titled ‘the Maths Game’ from the TESSA materials wasused as an example to demonstrate how games can be used inteaching mathematics. An example of a booklet developed byNTI using TESSA materials can be seen in Appendix 10.





6 How can you encourage reflective practice with TESSA activities through the kinds of assessment you use? [Assessment]

The National Commission for Colleges of Education in Nigeriadeveloped a series of pre-service teacher manuals for studentteachers preparing for micro-teaching and teaching practice.The five manuals have a focus on activity-learning through theuse of diverse participatory, interactive, cooperative and collaborative strategies, and complement academic andmethodological components of NCE courses. Each booklet contains nine sample tasks linking TESSA activities with theNigerian nine-year basic education curriculum. The TESSA extracts include learning outcomes (the teaching skills teacherswill develop through undertaking the activity), the activity toundertake with pupils, a case study and supporting resources.

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It’s important to remember that things that are assessed areconsidered important by teachers, so it’s worth thinking aboutgood ways of giving credit for teachers’ efforts to use theTESSA materials with their pupils. But it’s key that the type ofassessment you choose supports the type of learning theTESSA materials encourage. Assessment doesn’t necessarilyhave to be graded, but a task that is required helps theteacher to pause and think about their experiences, learningand how they can improve. When your teachers have taught alesson using one or more TESSA activities, you could then usethis simple task:

Write a brief description of what you (the teacher) did and what the learners did during the activity.

� What were you pleased about?� What, if anything, disappointed you?� What surprised you?� What did the pupils learn? Were there differences in

what they learned?� What did you learn from the experience of using this

activity with your pupils?

Now that you have responded to these questions, how do you feel about the activity and the way in which you used it?

TESSA Snapshot:




At the University of Fort Hare (South Africa), lecturers in the B Ed(in-service) programme decided to encourage teachers to buildportfolios of their work. The system works like this: teachers doactivities throughout the semester. During their contact sessions,they share their work and assess themselves and each other.Some activities are also handed in to the tutors for assessmentbefore being included in their portfolios.

At the end of each semester, teachers come together for ‘affirmation’ sessions. They present their portfolios and justifytheir work to their colleagues, their tutors and often outsidemoderators as well. This oral justification, together with theportfolio itself, is the basis for a negotiated decision on whetherthe teacher progresses to the next level of the programme.Also considered is their participation in the course, their abilityto reflect on their experiences, and evidence of the impact oftheir work on their own learners.

These reflections, as well as reports on classroom observation ofyour teachers from peers or mentors/supervisors could be collectedinto a portfolio.

In some institutions, student teachers do not have a final examinationat all. At the end of the year, they present the evidence of their own andtheir learners’ work contained in their portfolios to their own lecturers/tutors, as well as external examiners.

TESSA Snapshot:

You could also encourage your teachers to present their work to abroader audience through a conference presentation, a workshop withfellow teachers, or an article in a professional journal.

Teachers are encouraged to think about how they will modify theTESSA activity when developing their own lesson plan. Followingthe lesson, teachers are required to evaluate their lesson throughanswering a small number of questions, for example ‘Did thepractical activities generate interest or excitement among yourpupils?’ ‘Give an example of one part of the lesson that youwould have handled differently. How would you have done this?’You can view one of the pre-service teacher manuals in Appendix 6.

The Open University of Tanzania has built reflective questionsinto written course assignments for teachers. You can see onesuch assignment in Appendix 5.

Reflective questionsincorporated into aTESSA workbook forteachers on a largescale programme





7 How can you evaluate and improve your use of the TESSA materials? [Reflective Practice]

When something new is tried out, it’s important to getfeedback, to answer the question ‘What have I/we learnedfrom using the TESSA materials with the teachers/studentsI/we work with?'

You can think about the experience on your own, but if you work withcolleagues or people in the school community, you could also getfeedback from them.

The ‘TESSA Feedback Tool’ (Appendix 7) was used to get feedbackfrom Social Studies lecturers at Kyambogo University who used a series of TESSA activities with their student teachers. Notice particularly the question:

� What constraints did you encounter in carrying out the TESSA assignment or experiment?

The answers given to this question will help the Kyambogo coordinator in planning for future sessions in which TESSA activities are integrated.

You could also ask your teachers/student teachers directly for theirfeedback. This could be in a survey questionnaire or less formally in afocus group discussion – a discussion guided by the broad questionssuch as:

� What was good?

� What was not so good?

� What improvements could be made?

In formal structured courses in which teachers are assessed, the effectiveness of the TESSA approach could also be evaluated throughteachers’ assignments, or even through testing of teachers’ competences.

TESSA Snapshot:

Teachers doing the B Ed at the Open University of Sudan are askedto practise fourteen key teaching strategies embodied and illustrated in the TESSA materials. Their teaching practice supervisorsassess their competence in using these strategies effectively. (An extract from these materials can be seen in Appendix 9).




However, evaluation is only useful if the results of evaluation are used –the important question for the curriculum planning or TESSA implementation committees is: How can we do things better nexttime round? Figure 3 illustrates how you can use evaluation effectively.

Plan

Evaluate

Improve Act

Make changesbefore the nextround of use.

Implement the use of thematerials

Figure 3Using evaluation effectively

Which TESSAmaterials willbe used?

What benefitsresulted?

How could theprocess be improved?




8 How can you deepen your engagement with the TESSA community and others involved in working with teachers in an open educational resource (OER) environment? [Community of practice]

The TESSA materials are OERs. This means that they can befreely shared, adapted and used by anyone. Through theTESSA webspace www.tessafrica.net you can share your experiences of using the materials, as well as activities andcase studies that you have adapted specially for your context.You will also be participating in the TESSA community acrossAfrica.

But you need to start with the community closest to you – in yourown context. If you are a teacher educator working in a college oruniversity, these questions might help:

� To what extent do teacher educators at my institution work together?

� How could I benefit from increasing this collaboration?

� Am I personally prepared to put the effort into working together?

� How can I start a conversation about how to do this?

Teacher development may start in an institution, but schools andcommunities are involved as well.

� How can you share your TESSA experiences with others who work with teachers in schools and in your local community?

From this base, you can share with the broader TESSA communityacross Africa and the rest of the world, through the TESSA website. On the TESSA website you will find examples of presentations, research reports, journal articles, and interesting case studies from different countries that you might find useful.




University of Fort Hare: TESSA Community Links

The Eastern Cape Province in South Africa is divided into twenty-three Department of Education Districts, responsible for supportingsome 6000 schools. Through workshops and meetings the University of Fort Hare has been disseminating TESSA to District Officials located across the Province, as well as directly with schoolslocated in the surrounds of the university's three campuses.

TESSA Snapshot: Use this column to make your ownnotes as you use this handbook




9 List of appendices[Appendices available from the TESSA website under each country area of under ‘Teacher Educator Resources’]

Appendix 1a: TESSA detailed curriculum framework (see www.tessafrica.net Curriculum Overview on Country homepages)

Appendix 1b: List of key resources (see www.tessafrica.net – on Country hompages)

Appendix 2: Getting Started booklet and Powerpoint presentation to introduce TESSA to an institution

Appendix 3: Fraction and Time materials (Open University of Tanzania)

Appendix 4: Using TESSA materials for Teaching (Cindy Makoe)

Appendix 5: Reflective Assignment (Open University of Tanzania)

Appendix 6: NCCE manual for one subject – extract (National Commission for Colleges of Education, Nigeria)

Appendix 7: TESSA feedback tool (Kyambogo University)

Appendix 8: Supervisor/tutor handbook (Open University of Sudan)

Appendix 9: TESSA Unit 2–14 ‘Skills’ (Open University of Sudan)

Appendix 10: An NTI-TESSA integrated manual for the re-training of primary school teachers (National Teachers’ Institute, Nigeria)

Appendix 11: 2009 MDG Teacher Re-training workshop Guides for Resource Persons (National Teachers’ Institute, Nigeria)


26

Working with PupilsA Guide for Teachers

TESSA materials

enhance and improve teaching

and focus on developing

teachers’ classroom practice in

the key curriculum areas of

literacy, numeracy, science,

social studies/arts, and life skills.

http://www.tessafrica.net

A GUIDE FOR TEACHERSS

27

TESSA WORKING WITH PUPILSA GUIDE FOR TEACHERS

TESSA: Working with pupils

About this guide

This guide aims to support teachers to use TESSA materials and activities in their classrooms.

TESSA materials enhance and improve teaching and focus on developing teachers’ classroom practicein the key curriculum areas of literacy, life skills.

Please use available space within this book to scribble notes.

Contents

1. Where can TESSA fit into your curriculum? 28

2. How can you prepare to use TESSA materials for your school context? 30

3. How can you adapt TESSA materials to use in your lesson plans? 31

4. How can you teach using the TESSA materials? 32

5. How does using TESSA materials contribute to pupil learning? 34

6. What do you think you learned from teaching with TESSA materials? 35

7. Why and how can you share TESSA? 36

8. Glossary 38

http://www.tessafrica.net© March 2010 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 LIcense.

TESSA is a consortium of 18 institutions engaged in teacher education and was established in 2005

by The Open University, UK.

28

TESSA WORKING WITH PUPILS

1.Where can you fit TESSA into your curriculum?

TESSA materials aim to enhance and improve teaching. Theyfocus on developing teachers’ classroom practice in the keycurriculum areas of literacy, numeracy, science, social studies/arts, and life skills. The TESSA materials are all ‘Open Educational Resources’ (OERs), this means these materials canbe freely downloaded, adapted, translated and integratedwith other materials at no cost.

There are seventy-five sections organised in three modules in each of thefive module areas shown in Table 1 below. More detail on the contentof each module is found on the TESSA website by clicking on ‘GettingStarted’ in the left-hand navigation bar, and then clicking on ‘CurriculumOverview’.

‘Key Resources’ can also be found on the TESSA website under your countryarea. These include ideas for teaching techniques such as brainstormingas well as advice on how to cope with specific issues like large classes.

Table 1: The five TESSA module areas

Module Area

Literacy

Numeracy

Science

Social Studiesand the Arts

Life Skills

Module 1

Reading and writing fora range of purposes

Investigating numberand pattern

Looking at life

Developing an understanding of place

Personal development

Module 2

Using communityvoices in the classroom

Exploring shape andspace

Investigating materials

Investigating history

Exploring social development

Module 3

Promoting communication in an additional language

Investigating measurementand data handling

Energy and movement

Looking at the arts

Community issues and citizenship

Before starting to use the TESSA materials we suggest you print out onesection to look at whilst reading this explanation.

You will see that a section contains:– learning outcomes (these are for you, the teacher, and show the

skills and knowledge you are expected to develop during these activities)

– activities (for you to do in the classroom with your pupils) – case studies (describing how other teachers have done this

activity or a similar activity) – resources (these are to help you use the activities with your pupils)




29

A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS

TESSA WORKING WITH PUPILS


Mrs Jenestar Wanjiru, anupper primary schoolteacher in Kenya, realised that her learnerswere not performingwell in creative writing.

“After going through

the TESSA Literacy Module 1 Section 5:Ways of Becoming a Critical Reader andWriter, I found a suitablesolution and tried it. It’s working.

”

TESSA Think: Now I know where the TESSA materials fit into my curriculum, but I need to think aboutpreparing the materials for my classroom

context...

The following steps are recommended for selecting and preparing to useTESSA activities in the curriculum:

1. Select an appropriate theme and topic from your curriculum/ scheme of work for the next few weeks – this might be one which you find particularly challenging to teach, one which your learners have struggled with or a new way of teaching that you want to try out. (Some important active teaching and learning methods and skills are given on p.12).

2. Locate and review relevant TESSA materials to identify suitable sections which match your chosen theme, topic or skill. You might find it helpful to look at the TESSA Curriculum Summaries (in your country area, under ‘Curriculum Overview’) or use the Search facility if you have internet access.

3. Ask yourself what you as a teacher have planned to achieve through teaching your theme and topic.

4. Read the TESSA activities and related case studies and resources.

5. Select the relevant TESSA activities or case studies that match whatyou planned to achieve. Find the resources you need (Section 2, p.5).

6. Adapt the TESSA activities to suit your pupils and your surroundings(Section 3, p.6)

Some of the things you will need to consider are:

� the prior knowledge and experiences of your pupils� the number of pupils in your class � the availability of equipment and the length of your lesson � the language level of your pupils.

7. Develop your lesson accordingly including the TESSA activities and remember to include all the vital items of a lesson plan (Section 4, p.8).

TESSA Snapshot: TESSA literacy module usein Kenya



2.How can you prepare TESSA materials for your school context?

The TESSA activities encourage the use of locally availableresources. A good starting point for preparing to use TESSAmaterials is to find out what resources you already have inyour classroom, elsewhere in the school and also in yourlocal community. Also important here is what resourcesyour pupils would have access to at home and in the localcommunity.

For more information go to the Key Resource: Using the local community/environment as a resource. You can find this by clickingon your country area and then clicking on ‘Key resources’ in the left-hand menu on the TESSA website.

It won’t always be easy to use new materials and ideas because you mayneed to share what TESSA is about before introducing something newinto the school. See Section 7 Why and How to share TESSA? (p.11).

TESSA Snapshot: Inspiring a class visit

Mrs Bibi, a teacher in Mauritius, made a scaleusing a clothes hanger,rope and plastic platesto demonstrate comparative terms, inthis case, heavy andlight.

TESSA Think: I’ve talked to other teachers and parents and found some really

useful ideas and resources.Now I need to think about changing the materials

for my pupils’ context…

Mr Kakande Ayasi from Wairaka primary school in Uganda was working with a primary 7 class in Social Studies on global warming.He organised the seventy pupils into groups of five and usedTESSA materials to stimulate discussion and to enable pupils toanswer questions on global warming. The activity arousedpupils’ interest and they proposed an excursion to local factories(Kakira sugar works) to see the impact on their local environment.Mr Ayasi is enthusiastic about the TESSA materials, finding theactivities drew on and enhanced the real experiences of pupils.But he comments that using them is time consuming; for example,time is needed for preparation for the excursions – surveying,seeking permission from authorities and booking the visit.

TESSA Snapshot: Using local resources



A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS

The TESSA activities you have identified as suitable for yourlesson will probably require changes to suit your contextsuch as language, grade level, local culture, available resources, teaching strategy and so on. You might find thatyou only need to make simple changes, such as place names,or you may find that you have to make more substantialchanges.

3.How can you adapt TESSA materials to use in your lesson plans?

Miss Gail Mulabita, a teacher in South Africa, wanted to use Resource 2 from Literacy Module 3, Section 1: Providing NaturalContexts for Language Practice for her grade 8 class. However,she found the level of language used in Resource 2 not suitablefor her grade 8 pupils, as Miss Mulabita points out ‘the lessonwould have been too easy’. So Miss Mulabita adapted the resource in two ways: she changed the language used in the resource and instead of the activity requiring the pupils to readand follow a set recipe, she asked her pupils to create imaginaryrecipes in pairs and write them down themselves.

TESSA Think: I’ve adapted the

TESSA materials to suit the grade and language of my pupils. Now I mustwrite my lesson plan

with TESSA materials…

TESSA Snapshot: Translating the TESSA materials

Mrs Paulina Nghikembua,a teacher in Namibia,wanted to teach a literacylesson in Oshindongabut could not find anyTESSA materials in that language. So MrsNghikembua selectedthe TESSA activity fromLiteracy Module Area 1that she wanted to do,from the materials available in English, andthen translated the partsof the activity that pupilswould use in Oshindonga.

TESSA Snapshot: Adapting TESSA materials



TESSA WORKING WITH PUPILSA GUIDE FOR TEACHERSS

4. How can you teach using the TESSA materials?

The TESSA materials promote interaction and offer ideas forinnovative teaching in your classroom to help your pupils’learning.

Once you have selected and adapted the appropriate TESSA materials,concentrate on the following:

� planning your lesson� teaching methods� classroom management� time management� assessing pupils’ learning� thinking about and improving your teaching

Planning is a continual process that helps you to think and preparewhat is needed to help your pupils respond well to you and the content of what you teach.

For your pupils to learn from your lessons they need to be:

� interested – if they are not, nothing of any value will take place

� very clear about what you want them to do and achieve

For further information on planning and preparing your lesson plans,go to the TESSA Key Resources in your country area of the website.

Mavis plans a lessonusing TESSA materials

Things to think about and do BEFORE the lesson starts

� A TESSA activity can take place across more than one lesson period.

� Some lessons can take place outside the classroom, but have an alternative plan should the weather change.

� It’s important to ensure you have all the resources you need at hand before the lesson starts.

� Organise your classroom to suit the activity.

� If you are using any technology, have you tested that it still works?

� Before you carry out an experiment, you may want to try it yourself or with your colleagues so that you are confident when trying it out with your pupils.

Mavis Ngini, a teacher inSouth Africa, was preparing a lesson whereher pupils were going tocreate anti-litter postersbased on a TESSA activity.In the previous lessonMavis’ pupils had already assessed the level of litter on the schoolgrounds and in the nextlesson they will collectand categorise the litterfor recycling or properdisposal.

For her lesson today oncreating posters, Mavishas to think through howmuch time the activitywill take, what resourcesshe will use, whether shewill need any additionalsupport, and how shewill manage her class.




The TESSA materials promote activity-based learning, however, as ateacher you need to remain involved throughout the lesson, evenwhen your pupils are engaged in group work. For more informationon using group work in your classroom, go to the Key Resources.

Do not panic if something in your lesson does not go according to plan.Wherever possible, during your lesson planning, create alternative activities to ensure the success of your lesson.

Things to think about and do DURING and AFTER the lesson

� If you involve people from outside the school in your lessons, ensure you have an alternative plan should they not turn up.

� Ensure that your alternative plan fits in with the classroom arrangements already made.

� Should something unexpected happen just before or during the lesson:o Acknowledge the problem.o Involve the pupils in solving the problem.o Identify parts of the lesson plan that can still take place.

� Ensure that you follow-up on any promises made to the class.

TESSA Snapshot: Facilitating small groupwork

Mr Obafemi Adamu, ateacher in Nigeria, divided his pupils intogroups to design someposters.

During this activity, Mr Adamu facilitateslearning by movingaround amongst thegroups to answer questions, give guidance,encourage problem solving, ensure full pupilparticipation, and givepraise, etc.

TESSA Think: The lesson with TESSA materials is

going well … but I also need to think about what learning is taking

place …




5. How does using TESSA materials contribute to learning?

You can turn the TESSA activities into assessment tasks thatcan help you to find out whether your pupils have learnedthe knowledge, skills, values and attitudes described in yourlearning outcomes. Where this is not possible, you can develop your own assessment tool.

For more information on assessment go to the Key Resource: Assessing Learning.

Giving and receiving feedback is an important part of assessment. It isimportant for you to give feedback to your pupils so that you can sharewhat they did well, what they did not do so well, and how they couldimprove. Remember to use this feedback to plan subsequent lessons,activities and assessment.

You should also give your pupils an opportunity to give feedback onthe assessment task so that you can find out whether they thought the assessment task was appropriate/not appropriate, easy/difficult, andany problems they may have encountered.

TESSA Snapshot: Reviewing and amending assessment approach

Jessica Osei, a teacher in Ghana, was disappointed with her pupils’ performance in the assessment task. She reviewed their writtenresponses and realised that many pupils had misunderstood the instructions.

In her next lesson, Jessica gave feedback to her pupils explainingthat because they had not clearly read the instructions she wantedthem to go through the assessment task and underline all the action words, for example, describe, explain, name and list.

The next time Jessica assessed her pupils’ learning she gave herpupils time to read the whole task and underline all the actionwords before beginning the assessment.

TESSA Think: The pupil feedback was very successful.

What else have I learnedfrom using the TESSA

materials? …




You should reflect on your lessons to determine whatworked well, and what did not work well so as to improveyour teaching, and plan better subsequent lessons. In doingthis, some of the questions you could consider are:

� What challenges did I have while planning and preparing

for this lesson?� How did the learners respond to the activities

– (participation, interest, excitement...)?� What did my pupils learn and how do I know this?� Were there differences in what they learned?� Were the outcomes of the lesson achieved?� What was I pleased about?� What surprised me?� What, if anything, was disappointing?� What difficulties were there in teaching the topic?� Was there enough time to do the activities?� Were the resources used appropriate and adequate?

Now you have responded to these questions, how do you feel aboutthe activity and the way in which you use it?

6.What do you think you learnt from teaching with TESSA materials?

TESSA Think: I’m finding it very

useful to integrate theTESSA activities in my lessons. It would be a good idea, to share with colleagues…




7. Why and how you can Share TESSA?

When Miss Peliwe Bahame, a teacher from Tanzania, returnedfrom a TESSA workshop, she immediately shared these excitingmaterials that provided her with activity-based learning resources, with her school leadership and members of staff.

Having used TESSA materials in her lessons, Miss Bahame wantedto share some of her adapted activities with TESSA users andTanzania, so using TESSA Share, she published her versions ofthe TESSA activities to the website.

Miss Bahame was also interested to know what other teachers’experiences were for using TESSA activities in their lessons. She posted a question on the TESSA Forum inviting responses.She was pleased when next she visited the TESSA Forum to readother teachers’ comments.

Home >> Pan Africa >> TESSA Share

Module Area

Literacy

Numeracy

Science

Social Studies / Arts

Life Skills

Curriculum Overview

Key Resources

Audio Resources

TESSA Forum

Teacher Educator

Guidance

TESSA Share

Pan Africa

TESSA Share

Use TESSA Share to explore, share, adapt and add your own resources

for teacher education.View All

Explore materials shared by the

TESSA community >>

Adapting TESSA Materials

All TESSA materials can be modified or adapted for different contexts.

Use TESSA Search to find the materials you wish to adapt.

Download the materials from ‘Adapt section’ or ‘Adapt module’.

Use a MS Word compliant editor to change the materials. (See

TOOLS for more advice)

Now share your version of the materials in TESSA Share.

Tools

The TESSA community has

selected a number of tools to

assist in the creation, adaptation

and use of TESSA materials >>

Creating new TESSA Materials

New TESSA materials could be an activity, a case study, supporting resources or a completely new section. Use

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TOPIC: Welcome, TESSA users!

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Welcome to the TESSA Forum, Guest. Here ideas, opinions and advice can be exchanged. Ask

questions, supply answers and share observations about working through TESSA.

Please Login or Register. Lost Password?

TESSA Forums

Welcome, TESSA users! (1 viewing) (1) Guest

Favoured: 0

#

Welcome, TESSA users! 1 Year, 2 Months ago

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AlisonBuckler (User)

New Member

Posts: 15

Greetings, and welcome to the TESSA site! In particular, welcome to

the Uganda forum!

I hope you have fun exploring all of the materials and find them both

informative and useful.

W

Forum Tools

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TOPIC: Teachers in rural areas

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Hello all.

I am currently doing some research on teachers in rural areas in Sub-

Saharan Africa. I spent several months last year living with teachers in

villages in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Sudan, and understand

the challenges that many rural teachers face.

I have recently come across two very different articles.

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You may want toshare TESSA with:

� Your school leadership;

� Your colleagues in your school;

� Teachers in other schools;

� Friends;

� Student teachers;

� District educationofficials.

The following case study details why and how a teacher in Tanzania,Miss Peliwe Bahame, shared TESSA with colleagues in her school, perhaps you can do the same.

TESSA Snapshot: Inspiring a class visit




S/N Active teaching and Some of the teaching skills you needlearning methods

1. Building models Thinking about what your pupils will learn. Being able to build the model yourself.

2. Classification Using observation.3. Collaborative activities Knowing your pupils to decide on working groups.5. Debate Giving all pupils an opportunity to participate.6. Demonstration Identifying what you will use to demonstrate.

Allowing pupils to handle, draw and discuss.7. Discussion Giving all pupils an opportunity to participate.8. Displaying real items Organising your classroom or exhibition space.

(exhibitions) Thinking how pupils can share their knowledge e.g. labels.9. Games Thinking about what your pupils will learn.

Being able to play the game yourself.10. Group work Arranging your classroom in advance.

Deciding how to divide your pupils.Deciding on a job for each pupil in the group.

11. Investigation/inquiry Planning the investigation/inquiry with your pupils.Deciding how pupils will report.

12. Making deductions Helping pupils to discover for themselves.13. Mind mapping/ Identifying clearly the issue or problem.

brainstorming Letting pupils know the rules.Giving a clear summary at the end.

14. Observation/identification Using local resources.Using questioning.

15. Prediction Helping pupils form appropriate questions.16. Problem solving Setting out the problem clearly.

Identifying in advance areas of difficulty.Thinking of questions which will help pupils.

17. Project method Using group work.Helping pupils discover and think for themselves.

18. Questioning Thinking about the type of question – open or closed.Encouraging a range of pupils to answer.Encouraging pupils to think for themselves.

19. Reporting/oral presentation Using a variety of ways – oral, posters, etc.20. Researching/exploration Defining the research question.

Deciding on the research method.Deciding on how the findings will be recorded.

21. Role play Using group work.Thinking about where the groups will work – inside or outside of the classroom.

22. Simulation Giving pupils a clear brief.23. Story telling/folk tales Identifying where you can find local and other stories.

Using different people to tell stories – you, pupils and local people.24. Student field work Planning.

Setting clear learning objectives for pupils.Using investigations.

25. Think-pair-share Using good time management.

Table 2 below shows some important active teaching and learning methods and some of the skillsthat you will need to use as a teacher.Table 2: Teaching and learning methods

Teaching and learning methods



Assessment: Finding out what pupils have learned and using thisknowledge to help you plan the next step in their learning. You canuse TESSA materials as assessment activities.

Formative assessment is finding out whether pupils are learning theknowledge and skills you want them to by asking questions as you goalong and showing pupils how they can improve.

Summative assessment is usually done in the form of tests and marksand gives a pupil a grade at the end of a unit of work.

Attitudes: How a person or group of people thinks about an issue.Attitudes can be positive or negative.

Classroom management: Organising and running your classroomto support the learning of all the pupils in your class.

Community: People who live, work or study together. Your schoolcommunity includes the pupils, teachers, head teacher and parents.Everyone who uses TESSA materials is another community.

Curriculum: The knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes thatyou teach your pupils. TESSA materials help you to teach this curriculum to your pupils.

Facilitating learning: Good teachers facilitate or guide the learningof their pupils and build their understanding. Good teachers are notlimited to passing on information. A teacher would help pupils to actively participate in class, they might do this by moving around andassisting groups of pupils rather than standing at the front of theclassroom.

Feedback: You give pupils feedback by telling them what they havedone well or how to improve. Pupils can give you feedback on a lesson.

Grade level: The educational level of a pupil or group of pupils.

Group work: Organising pupils into smaller groups (from 3–12 pupils)to work together on a task.

Knowledge:What is known about a particular topic – the facts andinformation.

8.Glossary




Learner profile: The characteristics that describe what a pupil is like,knowing your pupils’ profiles can help you adapt TESSA materials foryour class.

Learning outcomes: These say what skills and knowledge a learner(pupil or teacher) is expected to learn at the end of a lesson or set ofactivities.

Local context: The circumstances of your school – the type of area(rural, urban) and culture of the local community.

Mediating learning: This is improving your pupils’ learning by constructing the activities and situations which are relevant to themand their interests and needs. Making it easier for a pupil to learn bypresenting information in a way that they can understand.

Reflection: Thinking about your experience of teaching; which lessons and activities have gone well or badly? This helps you improvefuture lessons.

Reinforcing learning: Improving your pupils’ learning by using several different sorts of activities all on the same topic. Helping apupil to learn and remember something by using incentives to encourage them.

Resources: The equipment and materials you need for your lessons –this might include TESSA materials, books, pens, other people andlocal materials such as boxes, newspapers and food containers. Youcan use resources to help you teach and your pupils learn.


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