The Madrasah Centre of Excellence (MCE) of the World Federation in collaboration with Africa Federation Tabligh Board – AFTab continues to organize Teacher Development Programmes for the Madaris in Africa.
Neuropsychology of Learning Programme was conducted for the first cohort of Haydari Madrasah Teachers in Nairobi from 2nd to 3rd April and the same training was conducted for the fourth cohort of Husayni Madrasah Teachers in Dar es Salaam from 24th to 26th April 2016.
These were facilitated by Sis. Shama Dewji, Br. Shabbirhussein Khalfan and Sis. Shaida Abdulrasul.
Following are the objectives of the Teacher Development Program – Neuropsychology of Learning (NPL):
At the end of the program, participants:
- Experienced a comprehensive self-assessment covering key psychological frameworks involved in learning.
- Reviewed in detail the learning needs, energies and thinking approaches for different students.
- Identified the inherent strengths and challenges they might face as teachers based on their needs, energy and thinking approach.
- Learned how to adapt their style to teach more effectively.
- Established an action plan to apply these skills and techniques in everyday situations.
- The key for the success of the Program is to put into practice what has been learnt.
Benefits of application of Neuropsychological approaches in Academic learning:
- It supports students to improve their learning and attain higher retention levels.
- It facilitates effective learning activities that enable higher engagement and involvement in the learning experience.
- It builds a two-way learning relationship between the teacher and the student that ensures student development is at the level of the student taking into account different stages of the child’s development.
- It enables the teachers to ensure the right processes are used for the different types of content being learnt in the madrasah and ensure it is child specific.
- It helps the teacher to avoid “labelling” learners by showing greater understanding of the child’s personality in the learning process. It gives the teacher the ability to make constructive use of differences and capitalize on all talents.
Comments from the Participants of Neuropsychology Programs in Dar es Salaam & Nairobi:
“What I liked the most was……
- Understanding yourself before understanding your student.
- It was a very pleasant experience. Recognized myself and met so many amazing people. Both participants and facilitators.
- How friendly and welcoming the facilitators were.
- The class was so interactive and engaging that it helped me in public speaking which was my fear.
- Juggling between different temperaments and energy interactive styles
- The facilitators were very approachable and very well prepared.
- The practical examples given by the facilitators. Role Plays
- The variety of activities and methods used that really helped the content to sink in. It was a very effective session.
The Africa Federation Tabligh Board (AFTab) wishes to convey its deep appreciation to MCE of the World Federation and the AFED NPL Facilitators; Seyed Aliraza Naqvi, Br. Shabbirhussein Khalfan, Sis. Shama Dewji and Sis. Shaida Abdulrasul for conducting these trainings for the development of Madrasah Teachers. We commend their commitment towards the training and development commensurate with the Africa Federation objectives.
On behalf of Africa Federation we extend our gratitude to Husayni Madrasah Dar-es-Salaam and Haydari Madrasah of Nairobi for facilitating these trainings, and for all the services they offered to make these sessions successful.
We also wish to thank Dar es Salaam Jamaat and Nairobi Jamaat for hosting and providing all the support.
AFTab wishes to offer its deep gratitude to Africa Federation for providing the moral and financial support enabling to conduct such training in various Jamaats.
We extend our appreciation to all the participants for attending and contributing ideas, views and questions during the session.
AFTAB Secretariat
Dar Es Salaam.