Thanks to you Chinenyengozi Alozie, Biology Teacher at CITA High School, many students are benefitting from new ways of learning that are allowing them to perform optimally and become confident learners.
When the British Council Nigeria’s School Exams team decided to launch the Partner Schools Global Network (PSGN), Online Support for Schools (OSS) in Nigeria they did not anticipate the sheer scale of success and impact of the programme across schools in the country.
A recent study showed that short online pedagogical training programmes have the potential to affect participants’ interpretations of teaching situations. These changes might be a sign of preliminary changes in the teachers’ underlying teaching conceptions. This was certainly the case for Chinenyengozi Alozie, a Biology teacher at CITA High School in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
She found out about OSS in 2018 and registered to complete two courses, Special Education Need: Understanding Dyslexia Course and the Assessment for Learning Course.
The course on Special Education Need: Understanding Dyslexia, is composed of 11 modules with a total of 33 hours aimed at helping teachers to identify and make a difference to dyslexic learners in their classes. As a result of this training, Chinenyengozi is now able to identify students who exhibit possible signs dyslexia early, apply the specialised training methods she learned on the programme and where necessary offer advice to parents, referring them to the appropriate professionals if or when the need arises. According to her “with my new understanding, I am now of the belief that there is no such thing as a dull student only appropriate channels to unleash the genius in them”.
With the Assessment for Learning Course, which provides strategies for assessment in an individual context, she has adjusted the assessment methods for her students.
PSGN is a global community for schools that deliver international qualifications from the UK such as IGCSE and A level, in partnership with the British Council. The PSGN allows British Council to offer support to the 2,000 schools across 34 countries around the world through services such as training, access to resources and networking opportunities.
For CITA High School, they now have access to a global community of professional trainers, training modules and world-class, qualified courses. For teachers, it provides flexibility. The self-serve platform allows them to work in their own time and to share ideas as well as opinions with peers across the global network through discussion forums.
“There are a lot of courses that I am yet to study, which I believe will help me in my teaching as well as help my students learn with more ease and retain what they have learnt for a lifetime.” Chinenyengozi Alozie