Presentation of how ICT to support teachers of

Entrepreneurship in Uganda

Case Studies from the ELATE Programme E-Learning & Teacher Education

Website: www.ugandaschoolresources.org

Focus for the Session

Pivotal Role of Teacher Training

Constraints facing teacher training establishments

Teacher Training Needs and ELATE

Major challenges which ELATE seeks to address:

1. Ensure relevancy / value congruence with schools (bridge the trainer / teacher divide) by setting up a collaborative “best practice” project involving partner schools.

2. Find avenues to influence educational development by working with key stakeholders by involving stakeholders in project management and authoring of materials.

3. Provide school-appropriate professional development for trainers, teachers & stakeholdersby providing training in the development of Open Educational Resources (OERs) to support trainee and practising teachers.

4. Supporting Makerere’s efforts to create a research and publication cultureby developing a research programme on school resources and the impact of OERs.

Research background…International research on school

performance indicates:

Weak relationship between total educational expenditure and educational standards

Returns from reducing class sizes are low

Positive returns from learning resource spending (higher than from increases in teacher inputs)

Returns from extra spending on books are high (World Bank/Elley)

Book spending more effective than ICT (5 times higher in the UK)

BUT the crucial factor in school performance is TEACHER QUALITY and this can be raised by training.(Basic premise underpinning ELATE)

The ICT context…Access to ICT is limited in schools, and on-line access is rare. However, teachers are increasingly able to access computers:

(1) In Internet cafés and offices.

(2) In those schools that have computer suites (Using CD-ROMs and memory sticks, if not on line).

(3) Trainees have access in training colleges and universities

(4) Many teachers already use e-mail to share materials.

ELATE has chosen to use ICT to provide direct support to teachers. Focus on “e-Delivery” of Open Educational Resources rather than “e-Learning”!

ELATE strategyOn the principle that:

“curriculum development leads to curriculum change”ELATE has involved key stakeholders and decision makers:

Ministry of Education & Sports, Uganda National Examinations Board, National Curriculum Development Council, Textbook Publishers and NGOs involved with ICT in schools

TeachingPracticeSchools

TheOpen

UniversityEducation

and ICTNGOs

NationalCurriculum

DevelopmentCentre

UgandaNationalExamsBoard

Ministryof

Education

MakerereTeacherTraining

ELATE ICT Strategy:

1. e-Delivery of subject guidance and pedagogic support to trainees and teachers (putting e-Learning on the back burner)

2. Recognise school constraints:Large classesNarrow focus on examinationsVery large, academic syllabusesLimited resources (beyond the chalk-board)

3. Encourage “active learning” and achieve “local relevancy” within those constraints

(This has assumed growing importance.)

Stakeholder involvement

Curriculum coordinator

Web developerWriting team

Each subject has an independent editor

8 subject writing teams: teachers in partner schools, textbook authors, curriculum developers (NCDC), examiners (UNEB) and teacher trainers (Makerere)

Authors’ workshop

ADVISORY BOARD: Education Officers from Ministry of Education and Sports + NGOs involved in ICT

1b. The ELATE Materials Gradual shift of emphasis..

Towards creating interesting activities that are “easy to use” within time and resource limits:

Worksheets (with guidance) Pictures (missing element when few

books) Data collection and analysis (Excel

exercise on malaria and bed nets) Low-cost science experiments Ideas for group work in large classes

Activities that have meaning to students in Uganda e.g. Malaria investigation, fieldwork in geography and chemistry.

Topic introductions that explain to students why they are studying topics e.g. trigonometry, prime numbers.

1a. The ELATE MaterialsInitial focus of writing groups..

What teachers need to deliver the syllabus…

(implicit adherence to a Transmission Model of teaching.)

Syllabuses Exam papers Schemes of work Lesson plans and advice Content notes and sources

But gradual awareness of conflict between need to maintain student interest through active learning and demands of large syllabuses.

ELATE Programme Outcomes

Large volume of locally relevant material (>600 lesson hours) Production and supply of OERs to the Worldwide web.

(had over 12,000 visits in first few weeks) Identified a viable strategy to empower teachers

(and raise quality across the school and training system). Professional development/capacity building – feeding into NCDC

curriculum guidance and Ministry training courses. Strong desire by stakeholders to build on this work.

The ELATE website has the potential to become a prime web portal for teachers in Uganda and throughout Africa.

Entrepreneurship example

To become compulsory through Secondary years 1 to 4.

Syllabus is highly content focused – with an emphasis on lists: What are the 10 attributes of an

entrepreneur? What the functions of a joint stock

company?

Relatively little application or evaluation – and little scope for “active learning”.

ELATE materials

USING CASE STUDIES

1. Ester's Air Time

2. Edrisa's Boda-Boda

3. Betty's Market Stall

4. Nice Bread Bakery

5. Broadway Confectionary

6. Quality Metalwork

www.ugandaschoolresources.org

Exercise: to be presented Thursday morning for the all.Produce a case about entrepreneurship in South Africa.

Part 1: The case (like Esther’s case)Part 2: The industry (background information)Part 3: Exercises

Eventually think of these TOPICS:1. The Entrepreneur in general2. Business in South Africa3. Marketing in a Small Business4. Business Planning5. Managing a Small Business

Trainee teachers: views

Comments made by the Authoring team: