Teacher’s training workshop organized by the Islamic Education of the WF in collaboration with the Africa Federation Tabligh Board (AFTab)
Discussion group on “barriers to teaching”
A one day workshop catering for the professional development needs of the Madrasah fraternity was organised by the Islamic Education of the WF in collaboration with by AFED Tabligh Board (AFTab), facilitated by Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Zakaria from the UK. The workshops were held in Arusha, Dar-es-Salaam, Mombasa and Nairobi.
Appended below is report of the sessions held in Mombasa and Nairobi.
Mombasa – 16th October 2011
The first part of the workshop started with a discussion about whether Islam has a unique perspective of teaching, the role of teachers, the relationship with/between teachers and students and the overall duties/responsibilities of teachers in general.
The second part was leaning more towards Islam’s approach to education – looking at its aims and objectives and was highlighted with a reflection of Sura Baqarah Ayat 31. The discussion led towards the three main aspects of teaching, that is Love, Hope and Respect (towards students, humanity and individuals in general).
A couple of examples of the recommendations made at the end of the workshop were:
- A comprehensive professional development program needs to be developed which can help the teachers in improving their Islamic pedagogy as well as content knowledge
- A global forum for exchange of ideas and teaching learning material should be developed so that teachers all over the world can benefit from it and learn from each other
Nairobi – 15th October 2011
This seminar predominantly focused upon enhancing teaching methodologies in imparting Islamic knowledge which Sheikh Zakaria reiterated, was fundamentally different from teaching secular knowledge.
Some of the aspects that he emphasized upon and that teachers must inculcate in their teaching, whilst imparting religious knowledge, these included:
- Essentially, teachers should convey knowledge with zeal, love, understanding and respect for the child as well as the knowledge being imparted. Sheikh stated that Allah (SWT) was the first teacher while Prophet Adam was the first student, wherein Allah (SWT) not only uses these qualities but also gives specific instruction to the Prophet on how to be successful.
- Sheikh laid great importance on Teachers’ Continuous Learning and self development. He encouraged participants to continually better themselves by pursuing knowledge. Additionally, the concept of TAWHEED plays an important and pivotal role as all teaching is based on it and must come back to it.
- Barriers of teaching expounded upon included such elements as lack of resources, lack of proper preparation and organisation by teacher, lack of adequate knowledge, unpunctuality, and teacher becoming too dominant or too friendly.
An excerpt of a participant’s thoughts on the session:
“The one day teacher training with Sheikh Zakariya was a wonderful experience, as he showed us simple ways to communicate and get feedback from different teaching faculties. He stressed on the unity of teachers if respect has to be maintained amongst students. Furthermore, he differentiated between “teacher training” and “Islamic teacher training” where Islamic teacher training addresses the emotional, spiritual and intellectual intelligence of the child while teacher training addresses only the academic intelligence. All in all, it was a great session and I learnt a lot. I just wish we could have more of such seminars with a little advance notice and for more than one day.”
The Africa Federation Tabligh Board (AFTAB)