Documenting Results from the International SCN Quality Education Project

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Documenting Results from the International SCN
Quality Education Project

• Dr. Tove Nagel,
• Project leader,
• NGO-forum, April 22. 2008

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Background of the Quality Education Project

• In 1999/2000 SCN organized and carried out the
  first Thematic Evaluation of its education
  programme work across 9 country programmes
• Few lasting changes could be seen on classroom
  practices, except that teachers had stopped
  beating children
• The challenge was then to come up with an
  approach addressing the poor quality of teaching
  and learning
• The Quality Education Project, QEP, was born in
  2002, and launched in Ethiopia in October in
  cooperation with Gonder College of Education and
  the Ministry of Education

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QEP group SCN staff
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Overall objective of QEP

• The long term objective of the Quality Education
  Project is to investigate and contribute to
  education quality development in order to improve
  childrens situation in school and their
  opportunity for learning.

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Why quality of education, and what is it?

• International concern about quality first came up
  at the Dakar World conference on Education for
  All, 2000
• No commondefinition of educational quality
  exists, and hence no agreement of what
  constitutes such quality.
• SCN focuses on the classroom and claim that
  childrens learning is prominent in any
  definition of educational quality.
• In 2003 SCN organized a conference on quality of
  education to impact on governments in countries
  we work. 20 high officials participated from
  countries that SCN is working in
• This resulted in some Governments wanting to
  cooperate on projects addressing quality
• All SCN education programmes are now addressing
  the quality of education

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What is QEP?

• QEP is a change approach based on action research
  to address the low levels and inadequacies of
  teaching and learning in education so as to build
  professional capacity in teachers, teacher
  educators and other education personel.
• QEP aims at empowering participants through
  training in simple qualitative research methods
  and action research so that they themselves
  investigate their own problems and find solutions
  to them.
• Such an approach probably more sustainable

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What does QEP do?

• QEP introduces qualitative research methods and
  action research into teacher education and to
  teachers in primary schools to bring about
  awareness of problems and support for change
• The intention behind involving teacher educators
  is in the long term perspective to bring about
  system change.

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What is action research?

• Action research is an approach used to identify
  and find solutions to practical problems
• Action research is investigation (research) for
  the purpose of change
• It uses mostly simple qualitative research
  methods (observation, interview and focus group
  interview, document analysis)
• REFLECTION is a necessary corrollary to action
  research
• Hence it feeds into what is called Reflective
  teaching or the Teachers as researcher-traditi
  on

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The action research cycle
Plan change
Observe what happens
Analyse data
Collect data
Analyse results
When is reflection most vital?
Identify the problem
Revisit problem
Collect data
Collect data
Plan change
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Background for the development of the QEP model?

• Action research in education is a well-know
  approach to educational change, ...in the West
• The MoE in Laos and Sida requested professional
  assistance in introducing action research into
  Lao teacher education in 2000.
• Experiences from the project in Laos showed that
  teacher education had to be connected to the
  classroom reality. Teacher educators do not
  necessarily KNOW the classroom reality.

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Changes are challenging..at all levels, personal
as well as for the system

• As a result of the experiences in Laos the Action
  Research model was modified when applied in
  Ethiopia, starting by observing others instead of
  self, ..at the beginning.
• It addresses different levels of education
  school level, teacher education, MoE-management
  levels.
• Change always raises system problems Pre-service
  vs. in-service teacher education - How to
  address? Monitoring...School inspectorate/disctric
  t ed. office level

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Why action research?

• Involvement of research informants and actors in
  a field provide the opportunity for
• Better understanding
• Legitimate knowledge development
• Learning by more people
• Change by those who are affected by the problem
  which leads to more sustainable change
• Processes that can be more democratic
• Participation which can take a variety of forms
• Professional awareness and development
• All these processses lead to empowerment

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How to introduce AR just as important as
contents to be taught....

• QEP tries to avoid blaming teachers/teacher
  educators and educational officials for the
  problems they have and for the lack of knowledge
  and understanding that they also might have.
• It tries to assist participants in becoming more
  reflective both about their shortcomings as well
  as their strengths.
• QEP tries to make teachers proud of the work they
  do, in spite of the negligence they often are
  subjected to.
• Teachers say that reflection is the most
  important thing they have learnt, but also the
  most difficult

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What does QEP look like?

• SCN programme officers involved in QEP
  interventions

• Project countries
• SCN country programmes applying
  some sort of QEP

Ethiopia Zambia Mozambique Zimbabwe
Nicaragua Nepal Uganda Albania Zimbabwe Guatemala
Cambodia Angola Nepal Guatemala
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Participants in Ethiopia

• Teachers 20 (2003) 500 by 2009
• Lecturers 11(2002) 17 (2004)
• University lecturers 10 (2004)
• Zone Ministry of education experts 17
• Supervisers from 3 woredas
• SCN education staff from 8 countries
• Partners from some SCN programme countries
  (Zambia, Mozambique and Angola)
• Establishment of QEP international resource group
  (2006) to exchange experiences and receive
  training

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Documenting results

• Fcous group Interviews with 75 teachers (by 10
  reseachers)
• In-depth follow-up interviews with 19 teachers
  (by two researchers)
• Five topics
• 1. Opinions about QEP strenghts and weaknesses
• 2. Training received and own experience in doing
  AR
• 3. Changes in themselves and in children. What is
  the evidence for these changes, if any?
• 4. Changes in professional views and what
  promtped the changes.
• 5. Future of QEP?

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Highlights from teachers responses

• I was not so interested at the beginning. But
  now we can accept the project happily. The
  project helps us to know more about education. We
  get readiness to become more practical. How? We
  have now group discussions both with students and
  with the parents. We interview both students and
  parents.
• It has made me self critical, to see my own
  mistakes.
• I HAVE TO IMPROVE MY DIGNITY AS A TEACHER. QEP
  makes me think more about my students, especially
  those who have problems. Now we deal more
  practically and actively with problems.
• QEP is much more important for teachers and
  students. It addresses the teaching/learning
  system. Therefore let the project stand by our
  side! I advise you! I appreciate the project.
• It is our duty and responsibility to continue
  the project.
• (Male teacher, 45, 2-3years in QEP, School A)

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Female teacher, 26, 2 years in QEP, school A

• QEP is nice, I have changed myself. The students
  have also changed and the school compound has
  changed. QEP changes your way of teaching. I ask
  if maybe the problem is ME and the way I teach.
• Before the students depended totally on the
  teacher. There was one-way teaching, teacher
  centered method. Now they are much more active.
  Students have become more confident. They were
  passive. Now they are much more active, due to
  our change of methods into more student-centered
  methods.
• I changed my methods. Before I was angry and I
  beat the children.

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Male teacher, 50, 4 years in QEP, School A

• There are big differences in my classroom. In
  most cases we externalize problems we encounter,
  even if they are our own fault. Now we are trying
  to resolve the problems instead of waiting for
  somebody to come and help. I resolve problems
  through utilizing the research methods I have
  learnt.
• When I joined QEP way back in the first group of
  teachers to be trained in the pilot, I was not OK
  with the profession. In fact I was planning to
  quit and leave the job. After my participation in
  QEP I changed, I now saw that education is the
  key to everything.
• In the classroom I was very autocratic. But after
  QEP I know how to treat the children. This whole
  life depends on education and I am responsible. I
  know that I am still committing many mistakes-
  before QEP I didnt think so. Before QEP I was
  not so concerned about myself and my own role.
  We are responsible for most of the problems we
  encounter.

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Cont... Prompts to change?

• One day a student asked me a question I did not
  know the answer to. This was a chock to my. It
  was a well-thought of and intelligent question. I
  had not believed that children could pose such
  questions. They are just children, you know, and
  I had never thought they were capable of thinking
  so well. After that I decided always to plan my
  lessons well. So now I am careful in planning,
  and I use teaching aids. I keep my class records
  updated at all times. I teach the lower grades,
  1-4, I am happy to teach those kids. I consider
  them to be my own. In the past I was careless
  about children. Now I like the profession, so
  therefore I also like children.
• Do you know what I have done with the money I
  have received in QEP when we have been paid per
  diem for being outside? I put all that money into
  a bottle and then I could afford to study for my
  Diploma in education. I could not have afforded
  that without QEP. I shall take my exams in half a
  years time! All thanks to QEP.

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Female teacher, 42 years, 26 years of service,
3rd year of QEP, School B

• Before QEP we teachers didnt understand
  students. If two students are similar in
  performance, we did not even try to
  differentiate. Now we see ourselves as
  supporters, not shouters!
• QEP for me is a creater. It created me. We used
  to externalize all our problems to parents, to
  children. Action Research was heavy for us, - we
  saw it as heavy. But it means improving yourself,
  so it is not so heavy. Now it is simple. It
  improves our work.
• Before we felt shy. We were thinking research is
  not for us.. But we are not shy any longer. We
  tried to hide our problems. But because we
  observed others and we discussed with each other,
  we started to understand.
• Even the community understands and appreciates
  the work we do thanks to our changes (punctuality
  and nice management of children, f.ex.) People
  really talk about and respect some of the QEP
  teachers.
• We have become leaders. (Even when it comes to
  picking garbage and cleaning the latrines)

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Cont. about the profession

• Before I used to shout Quiet! I was
  authoritarian. Now I see children as my own
  children at home. When I see that they are
  getting tired, I change my methods, do a drama,
  sing a song or something to distract them..
  before I was just thinking that children should
  sit silently and do what I say.
• At home we have also changed our way of handling
  children, all of us. One indication is now that
  absentism has become very low. When I come to
  school, children gather around me and try to
  embrace me. That never happened before.
• Contrary to previous times, now I am very quick
  and fast to come to school. I have come to be
  fond of my children. Why? In the project, even
  though you havent told us that we should love
  them, our work is centered around the children.
  So we asked ourselves why we are here, if it was
  not for the children.
• Before QEP we were not the owner of the
  situation. Everything was externalized.
  Curriculum, authorities, administration all got
  the blame for our problems. After QEP we see the
  profession as our own. After I observed others I
  saw myself immediately.

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Male teacher, 42, 24 years of service, 4 years in
QEP

• At first it seemed difficult. We dont have such
  culture. But through the project I have learn a
  lot of new things about the job, about children
  and about the profession. We didnt know about
  this, because we didnt know action research. We
  were fearful. We didnt know about research.
• Before I was careless about my job. I was not
  interested and I did not understand things the
  way I do now. I thought it was others
  responsibility and that they should push me. Now
  I am responsible for my job myself. The change
  has come, Children are the centre. Before I was
  not considering themWhen I entered the
  profession I was not ready to teach. I became
  aware after QEP. It is after the training that I
  became aware. I am more interested. I am in love
  with my job.
• View of the profession?
• It was not more than the salary. It was up to
  children to learn. I was not as serious as now. I
  sometimes just barked and went out. Now I follow
  each individual. My role was to come and write on
  the blackboard and then go again. This time we
  are all on time for school.

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Cont. On children

• Children? I see them now as individuals. I see
  them as humans, growing up. The next generation.
  It was not like that before. Now I am very
  serious with each individual child. Before I saw
  children as a mass.
• There is a wide difference between our QEP school
  children and other schools. Our children can read
  and write- in other schools at same level they
  cannot read.
• Children are motivated to learn, because we
  handle them differently and according to their
  needs. We work in clusters, you know, and then we
  can compare. Now I go to the families to see if
  the children are absent.

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Female teacher, 42, 4 years in QEP, School C

• 1. Before the student was seen to be learning by
  himself, it was not our worry whether he learnt
  or not.
• 2. Absentism. Before we didnt care, we even
  liked it. That way we got fewer students in the
  class.
• 3. Before we didnt care about the students
  motivation or understanding. We only cared about
  the few bright ones.
• Now it is the opposite. When I enter the
  classroom and before we start teaching I make eye
  contact with everyone and I see how they are. I
  greet everyone. Before I start teaching I talk
  about what they have been doing. I engage in
  personal conversation about everything. I make
  rapport (an expression from research meaning to
  create good contact). After personal rapport,
  even deeply we talk about the home, we start
  lesson on agreement.
• 4. Now we have regular meetings with parents. We
  dont only talk about the negative, we also talk
  about the positive. So now parents come to visit
  me on their own. We work together, parents and
  teachers. When I see each individual I observe so
  many things.

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Cont. What brought about the change?

• Observation in different schools at the beginning
  of the project. I was thinking.We are killing
  people, we are not saving them! I became so
  shameful. Then we started discussing among
  ourselves.. I didnt care about what others did
  before. Now I do. I learn from others also, when
  they are doing something good. You know, we who
  teach at the lower grades, we are the foundation.
  I am happy when I see children do things well.
  When you identify a child and his problems, he
  will always approach you. No children did that
  before. I always have many children around me. I
  bother about everything now, even teasing. I have
  my own private methods to make them stop.
• All things are changed. Everything is completely
  changed. Absentism is zero. Children have
  uniforms. Everything in them is changed. They do
  their assignments. Non-QEP children are different
  other teachers say, because we have become
  considerate.

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Female teacher, 42, 26 years of service 4 years
of QEP, School C

• Before I was just teaching and then went home. I
  didnt consider childrens learning. I was not
  considering whether they failed or passed. I was
  just teaching my lesson and went away. I was not
  worried about their passing exams or not, I was
  worried about the salary. Now, after the project,
  I have become enlightened. I consider the
  children. Before I didnt even know the names of
  the children. Now I start from the names and
  wonder about their background and their problems.
  Before, when they failed, I was externalizing to
  the curruculum or the parents. This is the lesson
  I have gotten from the project To the extent
  that children can learn even under a tree if the
  teacher is motivated.

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Female teacher, 32, 16 years of service, 4 years
in QEP,School D

• When asked about the most important change in her
  thinking, if any, she responded
• The most important change in me is that I am now
  aware of my responsibility towards children and
  their learning. Before I was not thinking about
  education as such,
• She was responding clearly and eagerly to our
  questions and with a firm voice. I reminded her
  of the first training of the pilot teachers in
  Gorgora, where she participated, and when the
  female teachers sat huddled in a far corner of
  the hall, not wanting to respond or to speak up,
  and that one of the male teachers was offering
  to talk for them. And then I almost had to sit
  on this gentleman in order to try to get the
  women to talk. What a difference! And this female
  teacher was for a long time one of the more
  reserved and did not participate very
  actively.She said So you remember this!? And
  then she laughed.

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Teacher 26 years, I wanted to leave and change
my profession. Now I think that the teaching
profession is the top! NowI love the profession
more than anything I also want to increase my
knowledge further. I will never stop teaching!

• QEP has helped us to ask ourselves Who am I?
  Both at school and at home. QEP means to think
  about our children and our activities. It helps
  us to struggle to solve our problems. Before we
  were practising negative things. We were
  externalizing, we used corporal punishment, like
  kneel down
• There are changes in children too. There are QEP
  teachers who teach them in grades 1-4. When I
  receive them in grade 5 now they can read and
  write. Before they could not.

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Conclusion

• QEP has brought about deep-seated changes in
  teachers attitudes to children, to themselves and
  towards the profession
• QEP has helped them to identify problems and look
  for solutions
• QEP has made teachers discover the individual
  child and become motivated to help them learn
• QEP has made some teachers more motivated to
  pursue professional learning
• QEP has contributed to less absentism,
  late-coming and bad discipline
• QEP has improved the relationship with parents
  and community
• QEP has made education more inclusive
• QEP has made teachers love their children
• QEP has made it possible for children to learn
• QEP teachers have reduced drop-out and repetition

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Teachers and directors discuss their action
research problems
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Results by 2005

• Lecturers at the college now acknowledge the
  existence and complex nature related to
  classroom interaction and childrens learning.
• They admit that this was not well known to them
  before.
• They gradually see that teacher education may be
  part of the problem.
• They have become less condemning and more apt at
  cooperating with teachers to help investigate and
  resolve the problems they face and willingly
  cooperate with them.
• After only two months, teachers see themselves in
  a different light by observing other teachers and
  are surprised at how they teach I didnt know
  that this is the way I teach! I was asleep,
  now I have awoken.
• They express keen interest in the project and in
  participating in bringing about change in their
  classrooms.

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What experiences do we have with using action
research?

• Action research is problem and solution oriented,
  hence it is PRACTICAL
• It encourages teachers and educators to think
  about their problems
• QEP teaches the need for INVESTIGATING the
  REASONS for the problems before addressing them
• It teaches SELF-reflection e.g. What role do I
  have in this problem? Who does the problem belong
  to? WHY is this a problem, and for whom...etc.
  etc. (e.g.How can I assist children...)

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Documenting change

• In 2005 a participatory illuminative evaluation
  of QEP Ethiopia was carried out Beofre we were
  teaching subjcets, now we teach children...
  (http//www.netreed.uio.no/conferences/conf2005/pa
  pers.html)
• In Jan/Feb 2008, a team of 10 ( 3 from Zimbabwe,
  3 from Zambia, 3 from Ethiopia and 1 from Norway)
  set out to document what had happened to teachers
  in Aleffa/takussa and Chilga woredas in North
  Gonder Zone in Ethiopia

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QEP Zambia -2004