International Research & Exchanges Board

Search:
 

Program Results

Summer Training-of-Trainers Program has an Exponential Effect on Teacher Training in Armenia

In 2003, IREX and its basic education programs’ teacher trainer corps created a training-of-trainers program. The program was offered as a 10-day summer school to 64 teacher trainers and pedagogical institutions in Armenia. The program covered learning theories and circles; interactive teaching and learning methods; integrated curriculum and backward design; assessment; and educational leadership. After completing the summer program, the teacher trainers created a 70-hour training program that has since been conducted in seven teacher training facilities and over 500 schools. The teacher-training program participants receive joint certificates from IREX and the Ministry of Education and Science’s National Institute of Education. In the 2004-2005 academic year alone, 2,000 teachers and school administrators participated in the training program.  

IREX Teacher Trainer is Named Armenia’s Teacher of the Year

Every year the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia designates a Teacher of the Year. In 2004, the ministry chose Anush Grigoryan, vice principal of Yeghegnadzor Middle School No. 4, and a member of the teacher trainer corps. Grigoryan is one of over 3,000 Armenian middle school teachers from over 200 schools that have participated in the teacher training programs.

For the competition, Grigoryan presented her “teacher’s portfolio,” a program requirement that evaluated effectiveness, knowledge, and skills in teaching across disciplines with innovative, interactive, and student-centered methods. Grigoryan’s portfolio presented lesson plans, student work, and collaborative work with colleagues and students. Since this competition, teachers’ portfolios have become required as part of the ministry’s mandatory evaluation process of in-service teachers.

Changing of Teaching Methods Brings Changes in Mindset

IREX basic education programs in Armenia have changed how teachers work in the classroom and how they view the world. Teachers have overwhelmingly said that participating in the programs changed their attitudes towards themselves and society. “I have become a more active and opinionated citizen. Through teaching critical, thinking I have come to think more critically about issues in our society,” said Tamara Atayan, middle school teacher in Goris School # 4. Atayan worked with her peers and parents to establish a debate club in the school where students and parents can discuss economic and political issues.

E-mail this page