This article was written by Brenda Akite Otika and Angella Bulamu from our Uganda Programme team and was originally published in Education Leader Africa magazine.
The Covid-19 pandemic presents the biggest challenge to education in decades. More than ever, children at all stages of learning and transition need support to help them to bridge the significant loss of learning time. But it’s essential not just to respond to the immediate issues presented by the pandemic, but also to support education systems to build a more resilient future. This current situation is part of a broader trend towards an increasingly uncertain future, including the climate crisis, increased inequality and rapid technological changes. So all children need to build the foundations of lifelong learning to equip them to manage life in a world of ‘unknown unknowns’.
With a vision to create ‘a world where every child develops a love for lifelong learning’, the international NGO STiR Education supports education systems to reignite intrinsic motivation in every teacher and official, to role-model the foundations of lifelong learning for every child. STiR Education has been operating in Uganda since 2014. Presently, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Sports, the programme reaches over 60,000 teachers and 2 million primary and secondary school children across 39 districts, municipalities and cities. STiR is also planning to expand operations to Indonesia in 2021.
The STiR Education model
STiR Education’s approach works through role-modelling and relationships at all levels of education systems and it is based around three core principles: peer networks, action and feedback, and reflection. These core activities underpin everything that we do for teachers, school leaders and officials, and they form the heart of our termly learning improvement cycles (LICs).
Each LIC focuses on a different theme such as the science of learning. First, district officials are introduced to the content for the next term in a two-day training session. Then they lead training institutes for school leaders to build their confidence and capability to share this content with teachers. Every month, teachers attend regular peer network meetings, where school leaders expose them to key classroom practices and the evidence behind them. The networks encourage reflection and strengthen peer connections, fostering mutual support and sustainable improvement. Between meetings, teachers act on their learning by introducing these practices in their classrooms.
The next month, teachers reconvene to reflect on their experiences and adapt and refine their action plan accordingly. After each third network meeting, teachers move on to a new area of practice, and the cycle continues. This approach helps teachers gain a sense of autonomy (adapting ideas to their own contexts); mastery (pushing each other to improve); and purpose (regular discussion of the why).
School leaders play a key role in ensuring that learning continues outside of the monthly meetings. They develop a culture of developmental observations and feedback with teachers, creating emotional safety and using data to provide rich insights. They also engage in their own peer networks through the termly training institutes, in which they come together to share their challenges and develop their own confidence and capability to lead teacher network meetings. District officials also provide monthly coaching and support.
The importance of reflection
As we have outlined above, reflection is one of the three core principles of our programme. To STiR, reflective practice means thinking about what you do. It is closely linked to the concept of learning from experience, in that you think about what you did and what happened, and decide from that what you would do differently next time.
We consider reflective practice to be important because by constantly looking into their own actions and experiences, teachers and officials are able to improve and grow. Furthermore, they are able to see where and how they have been successful which will make them feel more proud of their work, increasing their motivation.
To create a sustainable impact across an education system, however, every stakeholder across the education system must role-model the desired behaviours and practices. Evidence shows that line managers are the most important agents of change in the workplace, so in order to sustain reflective practice at school level, it must also be developed at all levels in education ministries. Role-modelling is therefore an essential prerequisite for both teacher intrinsic motivation and the development of lifelong learning skills in children.
How the STiR programme promotes reflective practice
Due to the importance of reflective practice in driving improvement, STiR has embedded it into every programme activity. At the termly training sessions and institutes, officials and school leaders reflect on their practices, recognise and celebrate their successes, identify areas that need improvement and make plans to address the gaps. This engagement ensures that school leaders and teachers receive increasingly useful support in improving teaching and learning processes in their respective schools and classrooms.
Additionally, coaching meetings between the STiR team and district officials provide opportunities for each official to share their individual reflection on what they think they have done well and why as they implement their plans from the termly training. Officials are encouraged to identify an area of improvement from their experience specifying what they will do to improve, and this forms the basis and timeline for the next coaching session.
Reflective practice is also embedded within the monthly teacher network meetings. As teachers are introduced to evidence-based teaching strategies, they are encouraged to reflect on them, identify potential benefits and limitations, and collectively brainstorm solutions to overcome the challenges. At the end of each session, teachers develop individual plans incorporating these strategies in their upcoming lessons and share these plans with colleagues to receive feedback on how to strengthen them.
During implementation, teachers are observed by either a peer, a school leader or a district official, and they share individual reflections on their application of the strategy. After listening to feedback from the observer, they highlight actions they will implement in their next lessons.
The process of reflective practice also extends to STiR’s own staff. Internally, staff review programme data during regular catch-ups, with monthly meetings to assess progress and quarterly brainstorms to address bigger challenges. Throughout these activities, we celebrate bright spots, learn from each other and plan to improve by implementing our learning.
Finally, we also hold regular alignment meetings at district and national levels to provide an opportunity for all stakeholders to reflect on and analyse data, share learning and develop plans together to strengthen delivery. These meetings provide an important opportunity for all stakeholders to reflect and learn together, and agree actions for further improvement.
The benefits of reflective practice
STiR Education started an external longitudinal study in Uganda in 2019 to assess the impact of this intervention. Several outcomes indicated a significant benefit directly linked to the component of reflective practice:
- 95% of teachers reported continued improvement in teaching and learning outcomes following their engagement with programme activities. This clearly shows that not only does reflective practice help teachers to grow professionally, but also individual learners improve through the process. The study found that teachers were spending 94% of their time teaching and more than 80% of the learners show a determination to solve difficult problems.
- Secondly, data shows officials spending 60% of their time supporting teacher professional development. The utilisation of personal reflections with feedback from colleagues and officials has built a shared sense of purpose.
Reflective practice during Covid-19
The pandemic has made STiR Education adapt the design and delivery of its activities to respond to the realities of school closures in Uganda. We have worked to support the Ministry’s objectives of supporting continuity of learning and preparation to return to school.
Our main mechanism for supporting teachers and officials during this period has been fortnightly continuous professional development (CPD) for teachers, delivered over the radio. This CPD is recorded by district officials who reflect on the content with teachers over the radio. Additionally, they organise conference calls for school leaders to reflect on the content and commit actions to support teachers’ reflections and action planning (both for now and when schools fully reopen). The district officials also receive weekly coaching calls from the STiR team to reflect on the conference calls and their other priorities. These reflections have been hugely helpful in ensuring that the radio sessions reach as many teachers as possible and respond directly to their needs.
You can read more about the STiR Education response to Covid-19 in Uganda here.
Tips for promoting and implementing reflective practice
An effective self-reflection plan should span a whole term. Break this down into monthly and weekly topical reflection activities, which must be well-crafted to combine learner assessment activities with lessons to be taught. Some examples of questions to reflect on might include:
- Which competencies should the learner achieve by the end of this lesson?
- What did I intend to teach?
- Did the learners learn it?
- How much of it if not all, and why?
- What can I do to strengthen the learning process?
If needed, the same approach can be utilised to support improvement on activities that may not necessarily be linked to learners, such as the supervision of staff by school leaders.
Self-reflection coupled with support from peer teachers and/or officials produces a conducive ground for intrinsic motivation to thrive. Here are three steps to support school leaders to create and maintain a strong collaborative environment.
- The school leader (Principal or Headteacher) needs to model the culture of reflective practice while performing their duties. As the first inspector (teacher support), they need to create a culture of self-reflection, peer observation and feedback among their teachers. This will provide a model to challenge teachers while providing them with the necessary support to continuously reflect on their practices.
- The school leader’s approach should empower individual teachers to decide on which aspect of their teaching they require to strengthen for more effective feedback. For instance, through the STiR model, the observer and observee hold a discussion before the actual lesson to pre-agree on what aspects to focus on during the observation. This makes the discussion focused.
- Finally, follow-up on agreed actions allows for active reflective practice to instil continuous improvement. This element is critical because the observee is inspired to know that his or her colleague/supervisor is interested in their professional development. The observee commits to improvement because s/he knows that the observer will be checking on the progress made.