Teachers from Issyk-Ata district learn about interactive teaching methods

BISHKEK, September 4, 2018 – Workshops for 25 teachers and school heads from five villages in Issyk-Ata district (Novopokrovka #3 High School, Luxembourg Vakker High School, Aidarbekova High School, Budenov High School and Yuryev Shabotoef High School) were held from August 23 to 25, 2018.

The workshops were held as part of the Child and Youth Friendly Kyrgyzstan project, which is designed to create a friendly and supportive environment for children, where the voice and opinion of every student are heard. The goal of the training was to improve teachers’ knowledge of various interactive teaching methods and tools. These methods will enable the teachers to develop educational approaches that are more interesting to their students and better reflect children’s needs. The teachers also learned how to mobilize youth, work with school parliaments, and about the importance of taking children’s views into account during decision-making processes. These methods and tools will improve students’ performance, as well as encourage their participation in extra-curricular activities and enhance their civic awareness.

“Over these three days, I learned more about interactive techniques. For me, this refers to teaching methods that can involve different children in the learning process, for example, those who are passive or very active. Moreover, together with other teachers from Issyk-Ata district, we developed an action plan for effective training and identified the necessary resources and tools for motivating and involving students,” said Perizat Orozbekova, deputy director of educational work at Budenov High School.

Based on the workshops’ outcomes, teachers will be able to apply the principles of inclusive education and a peer-to-peer approach to their lessons. Moreover, the skills they learned will help them coordinate extra-curricular activities based on students’ interests.

Kanat Nogoibaev, the project coordinator, said, “The workshops’ participants commented on a teachers' manual for working with high school students. We hope that this document will be useful for them in the future.”

Finally, the teachers also became acquainted with the project’s work plan for the upcoming academic year. This enabled the plans to be developed so that they involved the teachers wherever possible, especially with reference to assisting the students’ social initiatives.