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Kyrgyzstan Adopts Interactive Teaching Approach
FrontLines - December-January 2009-10
By Virginija Morgan
OSH, Kyrgyzstan—Just six
years into her teaching career,
Nurmiza Kenjebaeva, 28, represents
a new wave of Kyrgyz
educators. She is among 600
teachers trained in interactive
teaching methods by a USAID
project over the past two years.
In early October, Kenjebaeva
received the Best Teacher of
2009 award from Kyrgyzstan
President Kurmanbek Bakiev.
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Nurmiza Kenjebaeva during a lesson with her sixth graders in Murdash village secondary school, Alai district, Osh region
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“I owe this award to the training
I received from the USAID
Quality Learning project,” said
Kenjebaeva, who teaches Kyrgyz
language and literature at the
Murdash village secondary
school. With 408 students and 38
teachers, the school is located 20
kilometers from the Alai district
center in Osh region.
The Quality Learning project—
Sapatu Bilim in Kyrgyz—
helps state teacher training
institutes improve the ways they
teach. The project also works
with district education officials
to enhance professional support to teachers and helps the
Ministries of Education and
Finance—and local governments—
carry out a more effective
financing model in schools.
The project introduces
Kyrgyz teachers to learning
objectives—measurable, achievable
outcomes of the lesson—
instead of teaching objectives.
Teachers also learn to lead
interactive classes where both teacher and students are sources
of information for the class.
USAID’s project also teaches
educators to assess how students
are progressing toward the
learning objectives and to apply
follow-up activities to improve
results. Analytical and critical
thinking, creativity, and problem
solving skills are all stressed.
“After the trainings I feel as
if I was reborn as a teacher,”
said Kenjebaeva.
“My attitude toward the
school, children, learning, everyday
lessons, colleagues, and
children’s parents changed dramatically,”
she said. “But most
importantly, I became a much
better teacher for my students.”
She says that her students felt
“lectured to” and bored under
the old style of teaching. Now
her students are more likely to
ask questions and engage in
discussions with their teacher
and peers. “I came to understand
the advantages of group work in
class and cooperative planning
of lessons,” said Kenjebaeva,
who now tries to maximize student
participation.
Kenjebaeva credits the USAID
project with making a “big difference”
in her ability to teach and
motivate her students. “I learned
how to develop effective questions
for students, and how to correctly
direct the student towards the lesson’s
objectives,” she said.
The USAID Quality Learning
project anticipates it will have
trained nearly 800 more teachers
who will teach 50,000 secondary
school students by the end of
2009. The principles of the project
recently became binding for
all Kyrgyzstan in-service teacher
training institutes.
★
FrontLines is published
by the Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs
U.S. Agency for International Development
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