Local Leaders of Innovative Education
By Messenger staff
Thursday, May 16
In April of 2013, the implementation of the project “Local Leaders of Innovative Education”, supported by the International Visegrad Fund kicked-off. Visegard is an inter¬na¬tional orga¬ni¬za-tion based in Bratislava founded in 2000 by the gov¬ern¬ments of the Visegrad Group (V4) countries—the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Poland and the Slovak Republic.
The fund’s key purpose is to provide grant sup¬port to com¬mon cul¬tural, sci¬en¬tific and edu¬ca¬tional projects, youth exchanges, cross-border projects and tourism pro¬mo¬tion.
In Georgia, the project is implemented by a coalition of NGOs led by the Partners Poland Foundation, four branches of the Partners for Democratic Change network and the Innovative Education Foundation, a Tbilisi-based organization that focuses on the utilization of information and communication technologies in education.
Local Leaders of Innovative Education aim to introduce in Georgia the teaching methodology used for initiating innovative educational actions in the local communities and schools. This will also strengthen the involvement of the leaders and NGOs acting in the education field,” Merab Labadze, founder and Executive Director of the Innovative Education Foundation told The Messenger.
18 teachers and scientists from all over Georgia selected through an open call will pass through the four-round training courses conducted by Polish, Slovakian, Hungarian and Czech experts.
Training 1: Introduction to active teaching: methodology, effectiveness, impact on values, students’ behaviors and approach to learning.
Training 2: Creativity in education: tools and methodology in everyday school practice.
Training 3: Tools of innovative education: simulations, games and role-playing in teaching.
Training 4: Debates and other deliberative models in delivering complex and controversial issues.
The first round of training courses in “Active Teaching” have already taken place (April 24-26, 2013). The remaining three rounds will be organized at the end of May, June and September of the present year.
“Nowadays, the lack of motivation in students is one of the key problems in the teaching process. The teachers have to make the students interested in certain issues and this is pretty tricky. Thus, these training courses help us to become acquainted with innovative approaches for future teaching. The most interesting is that after such trainings, the teachers are eager to create innovative resources for making lessons much more motivating,” said Tea Nonikashvili, a biology teacher from Gori.
Interest in teachers would become a guarantee for the successful teaching process in the future.
After the training courses, the participants will be able to use their new experience and skills in their schools. Besides this, participant teachers, together with their co-partner scientists, will have to plan and implement small school projects or events using the innovative methodology they’ve learned.
The students involved in the school projects, events and innovative lessons, will also take part in the students’ international virtual conference, linking young people from 5 countries.
In the beginning of 2014, the summarizing conference will be held.
