Teachers Professional Development for Quality Education
Quality is at the heart of education and teachers play a crucial role in providing quality education. Therefore, we can say that quality education depends on the teachers' role; they are the actors who set the scenario for the students. Every teacher has his / her own impact on his / her students. But what is it that enables teachers to have the greatest impact? In this context, there are several professional development programmes offered to teachers in different parts of the world. If these programmes prepare quality teachers, then they can better serve the needs of the growing population.
In this connection, AKU-IED has offered professional development programmes for teachers to improve their teaching skills. One of these programmes is Certificate in Education: Primary Education (Mentoring), which prepares mentors to promote quality education in government primary schools. This programme is spread over in nine selected districts of Sindh and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan.
This paper attempts to share some of our experiences gained through designing, implementing and evaluating the programme as tutors. We collected data about the quality of the programme through mentors' reflective journals, portfolios, classroom observations, group work, discussions and presentations. We visited different districts to observe how mentors are working in their respective clusters and discussed the mentees feelings about their learning during the workshops conducted by the mentors.
This paper specifically highlights the changes that have taken place in the school culture and pedagogical content knowledge that caused to improve the quality of education in the selected districts of Sindh and Balochistan. It also reflects the continuous support process and close monitoring system to these mentors during the change progress.