Educators have been challenged to put their newly acquired skills into practice and champion transformative change in the nation’s schools, as the inaugural joint professional development programme between Erdiston Teachers’ Training College and Columbia University’s Gordon Institute drew to a close.
The event marked the culmination of the joint training programme, which focused on educational leadership and teacher efficacy.
In his address, Erdiston’s Principal Dr Colin Cumberbatch, hailed the collaboration as a mutually empowering venture.
“The partnership between Erdiston Teachers’ Training College and the Gordon Institute for Advanced Study, Teachers College, Columbia University acknowledges and embraces the fact that both entities bring unique strengths and play complementary roles to each other in an attempt to achieve the shared goals of the partnership,” he said.
Those goals, he noted, centred on capacity building in school leadership and classroom effectiveness. The initiative aimed to expose educators to international best practice, enhance institutional governance, and instil “future-ready approaches” in local teaching.
Launched with 100 participants in the leadership track and 90 in the teacher efficacy course, the programme concluded with 94 leaders and 54 teachers successfully completing their respective courses.
While proud of the high leadership completion rate, Cumberbatch expressed concern over the attrition in the teacher efficacy group and outlined some of the challenges faced.
“Not pleased at all or satisfied with this level of attrition in the teacher efficacy course, we sought to investigate the reasons why persons dropped out or failed to continue and complete the course,” he said.
Outlining the findings, Cumberbatch said: “Persons had enrolled in other courses, there were clashes with other activities, the scheduling was not allowing for their full participation, one or two persons dropped out because they were ill, persons picking up jobs on promotion and were a little concerned about going into a new job and tackling the courses as well, underestimating the time commitment – after they started, they realised that ‘this is going to dominate a little bit more of my time than I thought’, so they didn’t continue.”
Acknowledging the growing pains of a pilot programme, Cumberbatch added: “This was the first edition of the courses in this partnership, and as the saying goes, we were building this aeroplane as we were flying it. We had some challenges which we had to address, but we met regularly to ensure that all was done to allow the smooth running of the courses. Was it perfect? No, but we did all in our power to shield you, the participants, from the behind-the-scenes issues. However, despite all that happened we are confident that we were able to deliver to you, the participants, high-quality, engaging, thought-provoking, practice-influencing, self-gratifying and caring content.”
Delivering an impassioned address, Professor Christopher Emdin of Columbia University urged graduates not to let their learning end with the course.
“My challenge to you is do not take what you’ve learned and keep it to yourself. Do not take what you’ve learned and use it only as empty information,” he said. “Everything from project-based learning to reality pedagogy to self-leadership, to my favourite, nimbleness, all of that is done not as an intellectual exercise, but as a return on the investments into you. We are expecting more of you. We’re expecting that information to be able to translate into your practice.”
Minister of Training and Tertiary Education Sandra Husbands encouraged the graduates to embrace the positive impact they can have on their students.
She said: “Continue learning as you strive to be successful educators and educational leaders to create a legacy that endures throughout generations. As a teacher, you live on in the lives of your children who also pass it on to their next generation, and that is how we live forever.” (SB)
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