Assessing impact of Aga Khan Academy Mombasa’s (AKA, M) outreach programme on Students’ Learning Outcomes – an example of English language classrooms

AKA, M has been offering professional development programmes to English teachers and headteachers as part of its outreach activities since 2009. The Academy invited AKU-IED to develop AKA, M capacity in the area of monitoring and evaluation with a specific focus on outreach programmes. In response to this invitation, a small scale study was carried out to pilot teachers’ and students’ assessment tools developed as part of the capacity building workshop held in Mombasa, Kenya. The evaluation study aimed to examine the impact of AKA, M outreach programmes on students’ (grades 4 to 6) learning outcomes in English language in intervention areas of Mombasa. Three tools were administered to assess students’ cognitive (English Achievement Tests) and non-cognitive (English Language Attitude Scale, Student-Teacher Relationship Questionnaire) outcomes. A quasi-experiment was employed for the small-scale study to compare outreach (n=3) and non-outreach (n=3) classes. A sample of 367 students was recruited from the target classes. This paper focuses on pilot results of students’ learning outcomes. In general, students’ assessment tools have demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties. However, a few extremely difficult items can be reviewed before launching the main study. Results of group comparison have revealed that outreach classes have scored higher in achievement tests than their non-outreach counterparts in grade 4 and 6 with a significant difference in the latter (p0.05). The study has begun the process of accumulating evidence that the outreach programme evaluated can serve as a model of teacher development within professional development activities of AKA, M. It also provides a modest foundation for a larger and more representative sample study to produce generalizable data

Promoting curiosity through students’ questioning

Asking questions is central to intellectual effort; it is instrumental in bridging the gap between the known and the unknown. Questioning existed even before the time of Greek philosopher Socrates and still prevails in classrooms. Questioning is a major teaching and learning strategy for teachers in Pakistan. Unfortunately, teachers’ questioning overrules students’ questioning, leaving neither space nor time to create an interactive environment that promotes curiosity and meaningful learning. Using an innovative approach, we attempted to implement students’ questioning in an upper primary science classroom. The encouraging findings of our study and their implications are discussed in this article

Students’ attitude towards science in lower secondary classes : Comparison across regions

Science education is an area of interest for long and has gained a lot of attention from science educators. Keeping this in view, the current study explored the attitude of grade VI-VIII students towards science in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan. This research study was conducted as part of a 5-year project titled ‘USAID-LINKS to learning: Education Support to Pakistan’ (USAID-EDLINKS). A 5-point rating scale, Science Attitude Scale (SAS) was adapted from previous research. SAS has 32 items arranged under five constructs: learning science in school, self-concept in science, science outside of school, future participation in science and importance of science. SAS was administered to 1458 students, from twelve randomly selected schools from the two provinces. The result exhibited positive students’ attitude towards science, irrespective of province. However, comparison across regions favoured students from the province of Sindh as compared to their counterparts in Balochistan. A similar pattern was observed for all constructs except future participation in science, where both regions have exhibited a similar trend. The study concludes that students need to be engaged actively in science learning so that their positive attitude towards the discipline can be sustained and improved further as they grow older

Pakistan’s first-ever participation in an international large-scale assessment (TIMSS): Critique and implications

The International Large-Scale Assessment (ILSA) is a rapidly growing field in education which has gained considerable attention of stakeholders across the globe. Historically, ILSA emerged from the developed context which has drifted to the developing contexts in a short span of time due to globalisation. Pakistan has participated in ILSA (i.e., TIMSS) for the first time in the 2019 cycle. In light of the global critique on ILSA, this paper presents a critical analysis on Pakistan’s participation in TIMSS by raising questions embedded in contextual realities. The discussion adds to the understanding of ILSA in terms of historical developments, theoretical underpinnings towards participation in ILSA, and the general as well as context-specific critique on ILSA. The paper ends with the argument in favour of strengthening national LSA instead of relying only on ILSA

Sehat-5: Class 5: Teacher\u27s guide

https://ecommons.aku.edu/books/1014/thumbnail.jp

Sehat-2: Class 2: Teacher\u27s guide

https://ecommons.aku.edu/books/1011/thumbnail.jp

Sehat-1: Class 1: Teacher\u27s guide

https://ecommons.aku.edu/books/1010/thumbnail.jp

Sehat-4: Class 4: Teacher\u27s guide

https://ecommons.aku.edu/books/1013/thumbnail.jp

Implementing a Teaching and Learning Enhancement Workshop at Aga Khan University: Reflections onthe implementation and outcomes of an Instructional Skills Workshop in the context of Pakistan

The Teaching and Learning Enhancement Workshop (TLEW) is an indigenous name for the Canadian-based Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW). TLEW is a teaching development workshop aimed at enhancing faculty members’ stances towards student-centred teaching and reflective practice at the higher education level. This short paper discusses the initiation, implementation and institutionalisation of the TLEW at Aga Khan University (AKU) across entities in Asia and Africa. In total, 77 faculty members drawn from different entities of AKU participated in the workshop in 2016-2017. Empirical evidence collected from TLEW graduates through a survey and interviews suggests that the intense episode of planning, teaching and receiving peer feedback during TLEW helped participants in sensitising them to effective planning for teaching in order to engage and enrich students’ learning. Furthermore, the repertoire of pedagogical strategies has permeated graduates’ classrooms. Nevertheless, for sustainability a mechanism needs to be in place for providing faculty with institutional support and recognition for their contribution in teaching and learning. A need is advocated for TLEW to evolve as a mandatory component for all teaching staff at the university to help serve as a fundamental base for initiating and sustaining change through ongoing professional development opportunities and establishing a community of practice