By
Prof. Opolot .C&Dr. Juliana Bbuye
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Traditionally, teacher education and schools
have lived separate isolated lives (Broadbent
and Brady, 2013)
But several advantages and benefits exist in
maintaining university-school collaboration
Ideally both the university and the schools
ought to gain mutual benefits from such an
interaction
There is a quest for effective
teacher preparation, and
continuous professional
development of teachers
world over,
How can universities and
schools work together to
address educational issues?
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To open up channels for sharing ideas and
information,
To initiate, maintain and uphold an open
two-way communication system between the
University and the Schools where students
teach.
Collaboration is the process of shared creation:
two or more individuals with complementary
skills interacting to create a shared
understanding that none had previously
possessed or could have come to on their
own Schrage (1990).
a process in which two or more individuals
work together to integrate information in
order to enhance student learning (Shrage, M.
1990.)
Open University UK introduced TESSA to
Makerere through a workshop for tutors of
B.Ed on use of TESSA OER materials
Workshop drew participants from School of
Education, Faculty of Arts, DOSATE and
Faculty of Science particularly Department of
Mathematics
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Where students are sent to schools for
school practice
where in-service students are sent on
projects within their own schools
Where University staff are invited as
facilitators to school workshops and
seminars or as supervisors of projects.
Where university staff give assignments that
link theory to practice to in service students
to do them within the school environment
where they teach from
◦ Head teachers as link persons between schools and
university
◦ Teachers
active participants that practice the
new approaches in schools
◦ University lecturers, CEES teach the in service
student teachers at the University
◦ “Project coordinator link person” from University;
conducted workshops at schools & monitored the
project
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Collaborating School teachers receive and use
TESSA written materials; in SST, Numeracy,
Literacy, Science & Life skills
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Teachers are provided with the CDs from the
TESSA collection to refer to and to share with
colleagues
Coordinators from the university keep on
checking with the tutors to identify progress
they provide opportunities for;
 learning new approaches of teaching and
learning
 in-depth acquisition of knowledge by the
learners and teachers
 teacher capacity building; teachers learn to
involve pupils more actively than before
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Personally I use the child centred approach
for 45% of my teaching. From my personal
observation even pupils now talk about
teachers that teach well and those that bore
them. I guess it is their experience with the
TESSA learning material. I guess pupils too
want to become more actively involved in
their own
TESSA materials have helped me to apply the
child centred ways of teaching very well.
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Methods make the children think and
investigate their own learning, thus becoming
more engaged in their own learning
Whatever I am teaching I make sure that I use
the local material on the environment to
make my pupils understand better and I make
sure each one the pupils is participating
actively. I teach outdoors where they see and
use what is in the environment.
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collaboration is bridging the gap between the
university and schools
The cordial relationships established with
schools helps the university learn more from
us and promotes research into teaching at
this level
Helps teachers to know how to handle their
classes well
So with time I have learnt to carefully observe
my environment
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Helps children to learn how to use the
materials around them in the learning
situation and
For example when I taught fractions, the
children discovered for themselves what
fractions are by using apples to get the
desired portions
to take a leading hand in their own learning..
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all teachers in the school become actively
involved using child centred approaches to
teaching/ learning
I want to see change in attitude among
teachers where we can move away from being
at the centre of teaching to making our pupils
taking the lead in their learning.
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The challenge here however is time. Each
subject has limited teaching time (80 minutes
per day) and we must complete the syllabus
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We therefore need to plan very well how to
use the limited class time to achieve the
planned objectives.
helpful
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Issue-mismatch between what is taught at
the university and the needs of the primary
school teacher (Math).
The mathematics taught at University is for
Secondary School level in-service teacher
training not for primary teachers. We feel
what is offered in Math at this stage is not
very
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“Allowing teachers (who are/have been
students) to be involved in the collaboration,
the university is able to look into itself and
see the good things we can continue to do
even after we graduate”.
“The university should also know gaps that
need to be addressed especially in the
curriculum offered”.
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Curriculum designers at the University should
study the curriculum that is taught at primary
level, plan and design the university level
curriculum that is relevant and will be of
benefit to the primary school class teacher
Workshops can be organized for different
subject teachers to discuss issues that affect
their individual subjects in order to properly
forge ahead
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Collaboration has the potential for creating a
renewal in education by combining the
strengths of two or more individuals in
productive relationships that can positively
influence student learning
Thank you for the
participation