From funds generated by the 2022 NSWIER/UNSW Maths Conference convened by Associate Professor Alan Watson, the NSWIER contributed towards professional workshops for teachers conducted by Professor Watson at Katoke in Tanzania in January/February 2023.
Teacher Workshops
The school is set up to be a lighthouse for education across the whole district. For twenty years schools have been invited to annual workshops at Katoke. This was an important part of my visit this year. With dedicated funds from the NSW Institute for Educational Research I was able to bring in two Tanzanian academics from St Augustine University, Mwanza to take a leading role in the professional program.
The Workshops, one for school heads or deputies (N=54) and one for teachers (N=94), were attended by grateful participants. They were very attentive as the visiting academics spoke on the theme, Building a Successful School in 21st century Tanzania and I presented The Seven Strands of School Improvement. In the evaluation of the overall usefulness of the workshops the respondents most rated them “excellent” and all rated them “good” or “excellent”.
Some of the open-ended comments were as follows:
Teacher Workshops
The school is set up to be a lighthouse for education across the whole district. For twenty years schools have been invited to annual workshops at Katoke. This was an important part of my visit this year. With dedicated funds from the NSW Institute for Educational Research I was able to bring in two Tanzanian academics from St Augustine University, Mwanza to take a leading role in the professional program.
The Workshops, one for school heads or deputies (N=54) and one for teachers (N=94), were attended by grateful participants. They were very attentive as the visiting academics spoke on the theme, Building a Successful School in 21st century Tanzania and I presented The Seven Strands of School Improvement. In the evaluation of the overall usefulness of the workshops the respondents most rated them “excellent” and all rated them “good” or “excellent”.
Some of the open-ended comments were as follows:
- I actually learned much on school leadership for school improvement and promise to use the learnt skills to improve my school quality delivery education. Congratulations Mr Watson.
- Let us have it every year if possible.
- The Workshop was useful. Please may you add another day in the coming workshop, if possible. Thanks a lot. May God bless you.
- The session was conducted well. Thank you and please try to look upon the challenges which have been mentioned.
- The seminar was very inspiring. Wish it could have been done a number of people more.
- Special thanks for all facilitators. You have well prepared and seminar is good to the teachers. Keep it up!
These workshops are part of a program of The Katoke Trust, a Christian aid agency which Alan began in 1998 to support development in Tanzania East Africa. The Trust is making an attack on poverty through education, medical and agricultural projects in north-west Tanzania. One of the projects is the Katoke-Lweru Secondary School (KLSS). Covid interrupted Alan’s annual visits but here are notes from the 2023 visit, his first since 2019.
Read more about the Trust HERE
Read more about the Trust HERE