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. Following is a brief report.
The objective of the Teaching Skills Programme, which includes the Micro teach Sessions, is to increase the skills of the teachers, and to shift their attitudes and behaviours so that they may be better able to support the learning of the students.
The long-term plan and objective is to provide every teacher who has been trained with the Teaching Skills, five sessions of Micro-teaching experience.
Every teacher who undergoes the Teacher Skills Program with the first session of Micro Teaching is awarded with a certificate of completion. Thereafter, upon attending and fully participating in 5 sessions of Micro Teaching Practice, another certificate will be presented to the Teachers.
Teaching Skills Programme was conducted for the third cohort of Teachers from Husayni Madrasah Girls Section from 17th to 19th April 2016, while the same training programme was conducted for the Teachers of Yaadgare Murtazawi Madressa in Arusha from 23rd to 24th April.
A total of 38 Teachers were newly trained in the TSP in Arusha and Dar es Salaam whilst 62 Teachers continued with their journeys on the Micro Teaching Practice.
The Teacher Development Programme – Teaching Skills
The Teaching Skills Programmes (TSP) and Micro Teach Session 1 for Cohort 3 were facilitated by Sayyid Aliraza Naqvi from UK, sponsored jointly by the World Federation and Africa Federation, and the rest of the Micro Teach Sessions were facilitated by Sis. Shaida Abdulrasul, who is the current Principal of the Husayni Madrasah Dar es Salaam and has recently, joined in the team of MCE Facilitators.
Modules in the Teaching Skills Programme included:
- Role and Responsibility of a Madrasah Teacher
- Lesson Planning and Planning Skills
- Learning and Reflective Practice
Comments from Participants of Teaching Skills Programme from Arusha and Dar es Salaam:
- Your positive attitude and approach made me learn so much better and I would like to apply this attitude and approach in me as a mother first and then definitely a teacher.
- The instructor was kind, accommodating, encouraging, and not critical. He was full of energy and punctual.
- A highly educative seminar, all modules were covered and explained a better understanding to ‘madressah.’
- Teaching with new zeal and approach, making a difference.
- I always taught because I love teaching, now I will teach so that my students should love learning Islam.
- Your strong faith in me, the tools you have shared and the opportunity to apply and experiment is truly a gift.
- It’s the inspiration you gave and you answered a lot of questions I had in my mind
- He is wonderful, confident and has helped me overcome fear and weakness in some aspects in learning and teaching.
- He practised all that he taught us in the session.
- It’s great to see our community leaders putting emphasis on Madrasah.
- In the past, I have attended workshops on how to teach… this time I have actually learnt how to teach J duas for the facilitator always.
- This programme is needed for even the most seasoned teachers. So a great initiative
- I can now ‘believe in myself’ as well as children – to nurture them
- We learnt new ways to teach. Helped build confidence as teachers. Inspired to teach with the heart.
- A teacher statement can “make a child or break a child”, really touched me.
- It teaches us how to be efficient and well management of time in your lesson plans, taught us to be active listener and include all learning styles and the importance of being reflective!
- Everybody was made to feel important. No one’s comment was ignored nor ridiculed, which made everyone come out of their boxes and all were together in sharing.
The participants were given the opportunity to practice the skills learnt in the first two days and get feedback from peers as well as facilitators.
The following Micro Teach Sessions were conducted in the cities:
- Micro Teach lV session for the first cohort of Husayni Madrasah Teachers was conducted on 15th March
- Micro Teach ll session for the second cohort of Husayni Madrasah Teachers was conducted on 22nd March
- Micro Teach l session for the third cohort of Husayni Madrasah Teachers was conducted on 26th April
- Micro Teach l session for the first cohort of Teachers from Yaadgare Murtazawi Madressa, Arusha was conducted on 8th May
- Micro Teach lll session for the first cohort of Haydari Madrasah , Nairobi was conducted on 14th May
Micro Teach ll session was conducted for the second cohort of Haydari Madrasah Teachers on 15th May
The Micro Teach Sessions included:
- Debrief session and sharing of experiences after the first Micro-teach. The teachers were allocated into groups of 4-6 and were given the opportunity to teach on any topic they had previously taught to a batch of students (other teachers) and one observer who was also one of the participants.
- A debrief session was conducted to discuss general feedback from observations made and further tips regarding teacher-student relationship.
Comments from the Participants of Micro Teach Sessions in Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Nairobi:
- I think the learning progress was good. Getting feedback on the micro teach improves our teaching aids and methods. The feedback lesson/talk was very effective as it teaches us about how to give the feedback and how to receive feedback from others.
- This was the Micro teach 3, very helpful as many areas where I was not good I have had a chance to change myself.
- I love this process! It helps me become a much better teacher alhamd….
- Very helpful. It made me understand everyone has different ideas, thinking. It is ok to be different. Our tone, our language, presentation really matters to our students. This process has made me realize I should be more careful when teaching.
- It makes me realize that each time I do the MT; I can grow more into my field.
- It helps me increase my confidence.
- The session about unity and diversity was very nice and helped me learn a lot. It was a mind builder and eye opener, making a realization about diversity in a classroom and how it needs to be tackled. It was very well explained and lively.
- Microteaching has literally brought into me the love to teach and learn. I have surely grown and become a better teacher who students love and look forward to my class.
- Learning from each other, different methodology – we are all from same community but different strength. In differences we grow, in sameness we connect.
- The topic of diversity was a much needed one as a reminder as we take it for granted that everyone is bound to understand what we are saying. We are forgetting that people are different
- From the bottom of my heart, microteaching helped me a lot as now I can prepare my lesson plan easily with confidence and I have courage to stand and deliver my lesson with no fear. Knowing that mistakes make me to be a better teacher every day. Because it teaches me responsibility.
- It is wonderful for the new generation, highly necessary and will make our lives worthwhile
- The microteaching has enabled me to come out of my comfort zone and think out of the box, being more creative, being more interactive and insh… will implement this in my lessons.
- The process overall was very effective and awakened us into planning our lessons very well. The teaching which is planned can be effective and interesting. Otherwise it becomes hard to teach and learn!
- Got to know how the student feels and what they expect from us as teachers
Comments for MCE and the Facilitators:
- Keep up your efforts in spreading this awareness and critical, analytical approach in learning and teaching.
- Hats off to the team. You are doing a marvellous job!!!
- Thank you to MCE and please continue conducting these kinds of courses to make better teachers Ahsant!
The Africa Federation Tabligh Board (AFTab) wishes to convey its deep appreciation to MCE of the World Federation and Sayyid Aliraza Naqvi for developing and conducting these trainings for the development of Madrasah Teachers.
The Board also wishes to record its appreciation to Sis. Shaida Abdulrasul whose keen interest and dedication is of great help to us, especially in her new role as a Teachers Skills Programme facilitator for Africa Federation.
On behalf of Africa Federation we extend our gratitude to Husayni Madrasah Dar-es-Salaam, Yaadgare Murtazawi Madressa of Arusha and Haydari Madrasah of Nairobi for facilitating these trainings, Jazaka’llah.
We also wish to thank Arusha Jamaat, Dar es Salaam Jamaat and Nairobi Jamaat for hosting and providing all the support.
We extend our appreciation to all the participants for attending and contributing positively during the session.
AFTAB Secretariat
Dar Es Salaam.