Headline, February 18 2022/ ''' '' THESE TEACHERS THERE '' ''' : EDUCATION

''' '' THESE TEACHERS

 THERE '' ''' : EDUCATION

TEACHER TRAINING : IN 2020 A PANEL CONVENED BY THE WORLD BANK and other bodies concluded that these are some of the best things education reformers can spend money on.

In the past few years the approach has been applied in Gambia, Ghana, Nepal and Senegal. One programme in Kenyan government schools helped push up the number of children reaching the national standard in English by 30 percentage points.

A STUDY PUBLISHED IN 2010 ESTIMATED THAT on any given day around a fifth of Nigeria's primary school teachers were absent from their classrooms.

Earlier research suggested as little as one one-third of class time is used productively. In Edo, tablets register when teachers arrive. They can tell if a teacher has scrolled through a lesson faster than appropriate, or if they have abandoned one halfway through.

Beneath lies a low-tech foundation : a team of officials - about one in every ten schools - that observe lessons and coach teachers, helped by data from the tablets.

The depth of its scripting and the whizziness of its tablets set the work in Edo apart from many other attempts to improve schooling. But the programme has things in common with a broader family of reforms burdened with the clunky name of ''structured pedagogy,'' most of which are less controversial.

This argues that isolated splurges on goodies such as textbooks often fail to bring benefits. Making big improvements seem to require pulling several levers at once. So the idea is both to give more materials to pupils and better lesson plans to teachers, alongside fresh training and frequent coaching,

E is for everywhere : But it is not only in poor countries where tightly structured approaches to schooling are gaining a following.

IN AMERICA, for example, there is a growing awareness that schools have been clinging to modish but ineffective ''child-led'' ways of teaching reading that other developed countries such as Britain have junked.

Literacy programmes that were dismissed as old-fashioned are coming back into favour.

McGraw Hill, an American publishing company, sells a series of highly scripted courses aimed at primary-school children. Bryan Wickman of the National Institute for Direct Instruction, a charity in Oregon, says that using the simplest, clearest language possible is crucial when teaching the smallest children.

He says the idea that lessons based on scripts must inevitably bore children should surprise anyone who enjoys other things that are performed from scripts, such as plays.

SUCCESS FOR ALL, a programme used in some British and American schools, puts much faith in ''cooperative learning'' - which involves encouraging children to solve problems together in small groups.

But much else that goes in its classes is structured and scripted. Such prescriptiveness helps teachers adopt techniques that research suggests work well, says Nancy Madden of John Hopkins University, one of Success for All's creators.

These include giving pupils quick and frequent feedback and keeping up a rapid pace to keep children interested.

Ms. Madden says teachers who have grown familiar with her programme's techniques are not expected to keep following scripts to the letter. But when, in the past, her team relied mostly on training workshops to spread their approach, they found that only a fraction of teachers kept up the new practices once they were back in their classrooms.

She admits that teachers sometimes bristle at the constraints that scripts impose : ''It is not what they teach you in teacher school.'' Sceptics often come around, she says, when they see kids making swift progress.

Mr. Wickeman points out that other expensively trained professionals, such as pilots and surgeons, also have procedures that they must follow to the letter.

After some initial complaints [ similar to those expressed by dubious teachers ] such regimented approaches have become widespread in those fields. They help reduce mistakes, and spread ways of doing things.

Back in Edo, Mr. Obaseki's transformation still has plenty to prove. An analysis published in 2019 by the state government and NewGlobe claims that during the first year of the reforms children learned as much in a single term as they were previously learning in one year.

But the project has yet to undergo a rigorous independent evaluation. Much of the existing evidence that supports scripted schooling relates to basic literacy and numeracy among the youngest children.

In Edo, lesson scripts are being used to teach almost every subject, and are being applied to teenagers in junior secondary schools.

The Honour and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Teaching, Techniques and Teachers, continues. The World Students Society thanks The Economist.

With most respectful dedication to The Global Founder Framers of The World Students Society - the exclusive identity and ownership of every student in the world - and then Leaders, Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.

See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Eleions on !WOW! - [ for every subject in the world ] : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

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