World Bank Teachers Podcast

In the latest episode of the World Bank’s Teachers Podcast Elaine Ding, Analyst for the Teachers Thematic Group in the Educational Global Practice at the World Bank hosted a conversation on teacher-directed vs. student-centered pedagogical approaches with Lucy Crehan, an international education consultant, researcher, and author. Lucy is the author of ‘Cleverlands: the secrets behind the success of the world's education superpowers’, one of The Economist’s books of the year in 2016, as well as a book on teacher career structures for the International Institute for Educational Planning and UNESCO. Lucy has also advised foreign governments on education reform at the Education Development Trust.   In this episode, Elaine and Lucy discuss the debate about teacher-directed vs. student-centered instructional approaches to teaching and learning. Lucy provides firsthand insights about some of the benefits and drawbacks of implementing and sustaining these kinds of approaches in different educational systems, and highlights insights that have emerged from large-scale international student assessments. She also shares her own experiences in high-performing classrooms and discusses how teaching and learning can be organized to be most successful. 

This episode utilizes findings from the Facilitating Effective 1-1 Coaching Sessions technical guidance note (and summary slides) as a starting point to discuss how education systems can support pedagogical leaders in training and coaching teachers. Rita Almeida, Practice Manager for Europe and Central Asia at the World Bank, leads an engaging discussion on the importance of coaching relationships being rooted in trust and teacher autonomy, emphasizing how this research translates into reality in Finland. During the episode, Tracy Wilichowski, a member of the World Bank’s Teachers Team, discusses how the note can provide guidance to country teams on the key components of high-quality coaching sessions. To complement the evidence, Reetta Niemi, a teacher trainer in Finland, provides firsthand insights on some of the challenges in implementing and sustaining this model in practice. For information, you can check out the Coach webpage and the complementary tools and resources.

In celebration of the World Teachers’ Day 2022, the Teachers Thematic Group at the World Bank brought together policymakers, practitioners, and international education leaders to underscore the essential role of teachers in accelerating learning recovery efforts, and to discuss how to best support them with a strong focus on their well-being, motivation, and empowerment.

In this episode of the Teachers Podcast, Elaine Ding, Analyst with the Education Global Practice at the World Bank spoke with Dr. Keishia Thorpe, English Teacher at the International High School Langley Park in Maryland, USA and the winner of the prestigious 2021 Global Teacher Prize. Keishia received this award from UNESCO and the Varkey Foundation for her devotion to preparing young immigrants and first-generation Americans to succeed at her school. Keishia’s work to incorporate culturally relevant learning content into her school's curriculum helped her students connect with the material being taught on a deeper level and improved their overall classroom performance. In this episode, Elaine and Keishia discuss how this kind of curriculum change can lead to greater levels of student motivation in the classroom as well as assess how teachers and administrators can support the creation of similar educational environments.

There is now a fair bit of evidence to suggest that a financial insentive by itself does not always lead to better teacher performance. So what does? In this episode of the Teachers podcast, we discuss intrinsic motivation and its impact on student and teachers’ performance. The guests on this episode share their thoughts on how to develop educational environments that encourage intrinsic motivation. Tara Beteille, a Senior Economist in the World Bank’s East Asia Pacific Region and the Human Development Program Leader for Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar hosts this discussion with John McIntosh, Director of Design and Program Readiness at STiR Education, an international NGO that supports governments to foster intrinsic motivation in teachers, school leaders and education officials across multiple countries and Shwetlena Sabarwal, a Senior Economist with the Education Global Practice and a Global Lead on Education and Climate Change. This conversation addresses the best ways for educational administrators and policymakers to motivate students and teachers to enhance overall performance in the classroom.

The evidence is clear: effective teacher professional development (TPD) needs to include ongoing and individualized support to teachers in order to impact teachers’ instruction, and subsequently student learning. However, what is less clear are the details of what effective coaching looks like in practice, especially in low-and-middle country settings. This episode tries to answer these questions, building on the World Bank’s new “Facilitating Effective 1-1 Support Technical Guidance Note." This note provides guidance on how pedagogical leaders can effectively carry out coaching sessions to support teacher learning and improvement. Through implementation tips, case studies, and contextual considerations for policymakers, the note demonstrates how 1-1 coaching can be adapted to a variety of educational contexts. In this episode, Safaa El Tayeb El-Kogali, Practice Manager for South and East Africa at the World Bank, facilitates a dynamic conversation on the opportunities and challenges in utilizing the note's findings as part of government dialogue and implementation of TPD reforms. Safaa is joined by Dr. Philippa Cordingley, Chief Executive of Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education, Dahlia Elhefnawy, Educational Consultant with Egypt’s Ministry of Education and Technical Education, and Gabrielle Arenge, Doctoral Researcher at the University of Cambridge and co-author of the guidance note. Blog: https://lnkd.in/gKjdRDbq Guidance Note: https://lnkd.in/gd5rN3bA

This episode focuses on the teacher training component of the Aulas en Paz program, which seeks to foster the development of socioemotional skills in all members of the educational community. Ana Teresa del Toro Mijares, Consultant at the World Bank, talks with Dr. Enrique Chaux, Professor, Universidad de los Andes; José Fernando Mejía, Executive Director of Aulas en Paz, and Lina Maria Saldarriaga, Director of Aulas en Paz, about the design and implementation of the program’s teacher training model. Este episodio se enfoca en el modelo de formación docente del programa de Aulas en Paz, que busca fomentar el desarrollo de habilidades socioemocionales en todos los miembros de la comunidad educativa. Ana Teresa del Toro Mijares, Consultora en el Banco Mundial, habla con Dr. Enrique Chaux, Profesor de la Universidad de los Andes; José Fernando Mejía, Director Ejecutivo de Aulas en Paz, y Lina Maria Saldarriaga, Subdirectora de Aulas en Paz, sobre el diseño y la implementación del modelo de formación docente dentro del programa.

Today, Mariah O’Mara, Head of Communications of HundrED, speaks with Manal Quota, Senior Education Specialist at The World Bank and edtech innovators Agustín Porres, LATAM Regional Director at the Varkey Foundation – Comunidad Atenea, and Sameer Sampat, Co-Founder – Global School Leaders. The World Bank and HundrED launched the Teachers for a Changing World global contest to crowdsource tech-based solutions to teacher professional development. From a pool of over 400 applications, the teams identified the ten most impactful and scalable programs as the “T4T Champions”. In today’s episode, we discuss how two of these Champions have integrated technology in their TPD programs to ensure that teachers are engaged with the materials provided, and that their programs achieve the desired impact on teaching practices. What lessons can we learn from these experiences on how to leverage technology to support teachers remotely? This episode features two of the ten T4T Champions - Comunidad Atenea and Global School Leaders.

Today, World Bank Education South Asia Practice Manager, Dr. Cristian Aedo, and World Bank Education Analyst, Tracy Wilichowski, are speaking with Dr. Matthew Kraft, Associate Professor of Education at Brown University, and Dr. Murad Raas, Provincial Minister of Punjab for School Education, about supporting teachers through high-quality feedback and lessons from Punjab's model. A few years ago, the government of Punjab, under the guidance and leadership of Dr. Raas, introduced a large package of education reforms. These reforms included the introduction of a new classroom observation tool (based on the World Bank's Teach tool), allowing policymakers to track and assess the quality of teaching in the classroom. Teacher mentors regularly observe practice in the classroom and provide tailored feedback on instructional practice. To improve the classroom practices of teachers, the Punjab government has acknowledged mere observations are not enough. As such, they have also developed a video-based mobile course for school mentors and teachers to upgrade their skills (ITSP). Teacher coaching has emerged as a promising alternative to traditional models of professional development. Often, teacher evaluation reforms have been motivated by the belief that these new systems would promote teacher development through high-quality feedback. Dr. Kraft's recent paper, Can Teacher Evaluation Systems Produce High-Quality Feedback? illustrates the challenges of using evaluation systems as engines for professional growth when administrators lack the time and skill necessary to provide frequent, high-quality feedback. The World Bank has recently launched our new program Coach, which is focused on helping countries improve in-service teacher professional development. Coach includes a series of tools and resources, focused on giving guidance to stakeholders on the best ways to design, develop, implement and evaluate effective in-service teacher professional development programs and policies. These tools and resources are currently out for consultation, and we strongly welcome listeners to share their feedback with us at [email protected].

The evidence is clear: effective teacher professional development (TPD) needs to include ongoing and individualized support to teachers to impact teachers’ instruction, and subsequently student learning. Shanghai’s policies and investments have created a great teacher workforce that is supported by clear learning standards, regular and aligned assessments, and a balance of autonomy and accountability in school management. Today, we are speaking with Liang Xiaoyan and Zhang Minxuan, co-authors of the World Bank report “How Shanghai Does It” (https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/publication/how-shanghai-does-it ) to learn about the key features of the Shanghai education system that attract and develop an excellent teaching force. We discuss how lessons from the Shanghai experience can apply and be relevant to other countries around the world. Zhang Minxuan is a Professor and Former President of Shanghai Normal University and Head of UNESCO Teacher Education Center and Liang Xiaoyan is a Lead Education Specialist in East and Southern Africa for the World Bank Education Global Practice. Elaine Ding, Analyst in the Global Knowledge and Innovation unit of the World Bank’s Education Practice, moderates the conversation.