Meeting the Needs of all Students

An average day for a student at a secondary school in rural Tanzania involves a lot of listening, reading, and note taking. Although auditory and visual learners may feel at home in this environment, this leaves those that understand best by doing, touching, and moving at a disadvantage. Kinesthetic learners, those who learn best by actively participating in problem solving, can find sitting in a classroom all day challenging.

This past Saturday all Oldeani Secondary School (OSS) teachers spent their morning rotating through multiple sessions of teacher training aimed at helping them incorporate new techniques to best reach a variety of learners. Sessions focused on learning through touch to support kinesthetic learners, using technology to support visual and auditory learners, and understanding how to use Bloom’s taxonomy (a system used to define and distinguish different levels of human cognition—i.e., thinking, learning, and understanding). 

The sessions incorporated practice activities, brainstorming, and discussions for teachers to be able to understand how to use these different tools and techniques in their daily lessons. Training teachers is a sustainable way to revolutionize the standard of education in order to best serve students. With a focus on meeting the needs of diverse learners, TCF is committed to ensuring every student at our partner schools has an equal chance of success. To close out the day of training, teachers were asked to give their feedback– what was the main ask? More Saturdays in training!