INTED delivers its pedagogy and leadership curricula through programmes that are designed to achieve three aims:
(1) build local capacity of high quality professional development leaders
(2) support professional development leaders to build professional learning communities within schools
(3) deliver training to support collaboration of teachers and heads across of departments and schools
(4) innovate to take cognisance of the dynamic nature of classrooms and learning.
INTED recommends that schools adopt a continuous professional development ethos by progressing through our carefully selected module offerings in Tiers I, II, and III. Towards this end, we have developed the five programmes below that work together towards achieving these aims:
* Master Fellows Programme
* Fellows Programme
* School Specific Programme
* Seminars
* Design Technology Programme
DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAMMES
Master Fellows Programme
The Master Fellows Programme (MFP) is a 5-day programme where the capacities of trainees who have already completed a tier of INTED training are built to transform them from trainees into trainers that can deliver non-MFP programmes (see below) on behalf of INTED. Typically, a residential programme, each of the first 4 days is devoted for capacity building in the modules and the fourth day is used to pilot delivery and practice evaluation. All INTED trainings are led by Master Fellows, our professional development leaders, who have been trained and supported to deliver and customize module curricula initially co-designed with external consultants.
Fellows Programme
This 5-day programme is offered periodically to all secondary schools of a particular cycle or level, and is designed to build the capacity of academic or department heads to be professional development leaders; each school team comprises core subject teachers and the assistant head, who collectively upon their return, share practices and lead professional development in their schools. Typically, a residential programme, each of the first four training days are each dedicated to pedagogy and leadership modules and the 5th day for school planning and presentations. Fellows, who complete this programme are not yet INTED trainers, but prequalify for the Master Fellows Programme.
School Specific Programme
Hosted at their schools, the School Specific Programme (SSP) is designed as a 2-, 3-, or 5-day course that offers a significant opportunity for Heads to select professional development modules that can address their teachers' needs. Introduced during 2016, this has become our most popular programme. Trainees who complete a tier from this programme also prequalify for the Master Fellows Programme.
Seminar
INTED periodically or on demand, designs and delivers regional or national training programmes that are open to all teachers and heads, irrespective of school or level. One module will be treated per training day, allowing participants to progress at their respective paces through modules available across the various tiers. Leadership modules at the Tier I require having taken the respective tier Teaching Practices modules as a prerequisite; other specifications that may apply will be specified with each seminar. This seasonal programme that is aimed at cross-school and cross-subject teacher collaboration, and is our only one-day programme.
Design Technology Programme
The challenge of preparing students for the world of work in our rapidly changing society means it will no longer be sufficient to be users of technology. Our classrooms must not only reflect the dynamism around us, they should through intentional participation, take the opportunity to lead this change. This programme focuses on training teachers to acquire skills to be able to design technology, both hardware and software. Starting with building broad Design Thinking skills that are school-improvement focused, this programme continues with building software coding and hardware assembly skills that complement teaching and learning.
Leading Girls Learning Programme
Despite the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy boost to secondary enrolment in Ghana, the quality of education received is generally low, with performance disparities against girl students. Only a quarter of trained teachers in the Ghanaian Senior High Schools are female, with even fewer in leadership positions, and little evidence of the encouragement of those female teachers and leaders. However, there is documented research on the outsized impact that female teachers and leaders make globally, and evidence locally. Using a combination of pedagogy and leadership training, mentorship, and role modelling, LGLP will build the capacity of a majority of female teachers, who are underrepresented at the secondary level. This intervention designed to highlight the issues associated with girls’ learning at the senior high school level and to build capacity of teacher leaders as one of the solutions to address the gender achievement gaps.
Structure of INTED Training Programmes
All INTED programmes are typically interactive and complement lecture-style presentations with a significant focus on practice. In fact, one of the distinguishing factors of INTED is that all our trainings include a majority focus on practice.
Most programmes begin with an exploratory or introductory conversation between school decision makers and INTED Administrators. In this section, we will use our Tier I level that comprises teaching as well as leadership modules, and where most schools begin their interaction with us, to explain how our programmes are typically structured.
Our Tier I Teaching Practice (TP) modules are designed for teachers and heads of schools/departments and comprise:
(1) Presentation/lecture style training in the morning
(2) Practice session (called “Design Studio”) in the afternoon, where in department or subject area teams, trainees practice embedding new strategies into their lesson planning and delivery.
The Tier I Instructional Leadership (IL) modules are designed for Heads of Department, Assistant Heads, and the Head of School (“Heads”), who begin with the prerequisite presentation/lecture style teaching practice modules in the morning. The IL sessions, run in the afternoon in concert with “Design Studio”, is devised to train the “Heads” to support their teachers to correctly use the new teaching strategies in the classrooms, ending with the formulation of department “Action Plans” with the teachers at the very end. Instructional Leadership is designed to also allow the Heads to observe and work with their teachers in portions of the Design Studio, as part of the leadership session.
Each of these two Tier I modules (TP and IL) is in two sessions. The interactive morning “lecture” session starts after orientation and team building activities from 8:30am to 12:30pm, with a brief break around 10:30am, and a scheduled lunch break between 12:30pm and 1:30pm. Both TP and IL trainees participate together during the same first session. During the second “practice” session, the Design Studio for teachers is run in parallel with Instructional Leadership for Heads, from 1:30pm till about 4:30pm (both with flexibilities on time). Our team of administrators and Master Fellow instructors are usually available pre- and post-training to interact with and support programme participants. The INTED Team meets to debrief with the Head and Assistant Heads at the end of each day’s training programme.
We conduct training evaluation survey at the end of each programme, which, along with feedback during the training, is a meaningful step of understanding how to support teachers and heads to use the training in their schools. INTED opens a platform to engage Master Fellows with the Academic Heads of the schools at the end of the training programme, to continue to provide support. Trainees receive certificates after completing each programme.
