Professional Development Workshop for Grameen Shikkha
Creative Wings successfully conducted a Professional Development Workshop for Grameen Skikkha employees on 6th September 2014. This one-day workshop was designed to encourage teamwork and improve teaching and training techniques for employees from some of the training centres of Grameen Shikkha.
The workshop was conducted in two sessions. The first session involved activities to build team spirit among participating Grameen Shikkha staff by engaging them in discussions to make projects sustainable in the long run. Participants came up with several innovative ideas to make the training centre sustainable and increase student intake. One participant from each group presented their ideas to fellow colleagues. A range of ideas were generated during the three-hour session, discussed and cross-questioned by other participants to come to an agreed solution for implementation.
For one of the activities, all participants took part in a “course selling role-play”. Participants had to sell any one of their courses to another person and convince them to join the course. All the course counsellors successfully managed to convince prospective students to join a course.
The second part of the workshop was designed to encourage existing trainers to use creative and innovative techniques to engage their students in lessons. Eight participants in two groups designed two 15-minute lessons based on two different topics. One participant from each group taught a lesson based on the topic and answered questions about the topic from other participants.
After the initial lessons designed by the participants, the trainer (Abir Mallick) conducted the same lesson using various innovative techniques to demonstrate how a simple lesson can be made interesting by incorporating various techniques. The participants took part in several practical activities conducted by the trainer as part of the lesson.
To conclude the day, there was a group discussion session about how to breakdown a standard lesson into various parts and include activities to make it engaging for students. Various examples of a range of strategies were discussed during the group discussion. The participants are planning to implement some of these ideas in their future teaching and learning activities at various Grameen Shikkha training institutions.
All participants identified the need for continuous professional development for instructors and managers. Following are some important points identified by various participants during the session.
- Development of teaching and learning capability
- Latest and relevant continuous skills development for instructors
- Ensure quality training by up-skilling existing instructors
- Develop need based realistic training
Contributor: Abir Mallick