Using tech for teacher development

Why this sandbox?

Teacher professional development doesn't end when educators get their diploma. Continuous professional development (CPD), the process of lifelong learning for teachers to improve their knowledge, skills, and classroom practice, is crucial for the long-term effectiveness of education systems. Tech tools have been used in promising ways for catalysing CPD, allowing for peer-to-peer learning, feedback, and reflection.

In Sierra Leone, we are working alongside the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) to design and test a tech-supported CPD model. We want to test and validate a model that could potentially be scaled by the government and the World Bank.

We see this as a great opportunity to use our approach for designing and growing a policy alongside government.

This sandbox is a little different to the others in the Covid-19 portfolio as we are working directly with the government, and will the work will continue beyond March 2021. We'll have more to say about what we've learned from it in the future.

Quick fact

Not starting from scratch, but learning from previous experience

We had a lot of up-front learning to do when kicking off this sandbox. While we were embarking on a new CPD model, the TSC had implemented a number of models in the past (not to mention other those conducted in Sierra Leone by other organizations). We knew we needed to get a lay of the land first, so we conducted a scoping phase conducting interviews with a wide range of local stakeholders. We learned a lot, including:

• Sierra Leone needs more qualified teachers, particularly women teachers and teachers outside urban areas

• The government strongly believes in, and supports, continuous professional development for teachers

We also knew that this model should build on insights from across the globe. So we brought together CPD experts from the EdTech Hub, the World Bank, and the TSC, in a learning session where we each shared key lessons to be considered in our design.

Having reflected on this knowledge, we were now ready to move forward with a model of our own.

Slowly defining our CPD model

At this point (March 2021), it's fair to say that our CPD model is equal parts "knowns" and "unknowns". While we are still working closely with the TSC to articulate their vision, there are some things we do know for certain:

• We will test our model with the lowest-resourced and highest-need schools, to ensure it's effective and equitable.

• We will partner with the ministry's "One Tablet Per School" initiative, which uses tablets to collect administrative data at the school level.

• We will build on existing TPD content, training clusters and networks, and where needed adapt/create new resources.

Our latest step in defining the model is our draft theory of change, which lays out high-level outcomes, activities, and barriers and enablers (including existing assets) which will be part of our model.

Next, we will define sandbox experiments to test and validate components of the model, before hopefully starting to scale up.

Further reading

• Continuous professional development in Sierra Leone - Scoping phase overview

• CPD learning session synthesis deck

• Sierra Leone CPD - Draft Theory of Change

We welcome questions and feedback.

Please email Daniel Plaut: daniel@edtechhub.org