by Dagim Melese – TSE Co-Lead Country Trainer
Thinking Schools Ethiopia (TSE), part of Eminence Social Entrepreneurs, facilitated a two days instructional leadership training for educational leadership team of Wachamo and Heto Secondary and College preparatory schools on July 6 and 7, 2015 in Hossana. The training is part of the different phases of an ongoing transformational change processes employed for developing Thinking Schools. The participants of the training included school directors, department heads, key lead teachers, LIAE (Love In Action Ethiopia) experts, local education bureau experts, and experts working in the area of gender and family planning issues. A total of 97 people took part in the training. The purpose of the training was to introduce educational leaders to the thinking school model for reflective evaluation of its relevance, instrumentality, and adaptability in the contextual realities of Wachamo and Heto Secondary and College preparatory schools.
Two other purposes of the training are: enabling administrative /leadership support for systematic implementation of the techniques and tools at all grade levels and across all disciplines and building capacity within the schools and ensuring sustainability of the practices using the techniques which is key for achieving the teachers , instructional leaders, and students outcomes of having thinking schools developed . The training was highly interactive, collaborative, and participatory. Day one was devoted for allowing participants explore essentially constituting elements of the TSE model : Community building exercises, Personal Frames of References, exploring the context of Wachamo and Heto schools, and Five Pathways for Thinking . Day two was all about Thinking Maps, modeling the use of Thinking Maps introduction, practicing the use of thinking maps using general topics and later using subject specific themes . Examples of models of direct instruction of thinking skills were also shown. The two days training finally was completed with participants’ reflection of the overall training.
The training will continue in late August , 2015 just before the New Academic Year with whole staff training at the schools sites. The photos were some of the still pictures taken during the training.