3/17/2016

Teacher Mentorship Training

A Participatory Learning & Action Approach to
Establishing Teaching Mentors to Combat Teacher
Turn-Over in Remote and Rural Cambodia

Training One: Unification & Community Building

Jessica A. White
EDU642
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
Table of Contents
Training Background and Context .............................................................................................................. 2
Participatory Learning & Action Approach ................................................................................................. 3
Logistics & Mechanics ............................................................................................................................... 3
Training Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 4

Trainer Guide ................................................................................................................................................ 5

Sequence ................................................................................................................................................ 5-6

Evaluation ..................................................................................................................................................... 7

Appendix.................................................................................................................................................. 8-14

1 | J. White T e a c h e r M e n t o r s h i p T r a i n i n g
Training Background

As the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport in the Kingdom of Cambodia works to re-develop a
quality education system nationwide, qualified teacher retention continues to be a struggle particularly
in remote and rural regions of the country. In these regions where resources and teaching materials are a
commodity, the local community has the potential to serve as an individual teachers greatest asset. As
such, in order to raise teacher retention in these areas, it is crucial to establish a local professional
community of support for new teachers immediately upon their arrival. This training will serve to equip
experienced teachers and leaders in these regions with the knowledge and tools they need to build this
community of support.

International Non-Governmental Organizations, such as the Nippon Foundation based out of

Japan, have worked to establish an academic infrastructure in remote and rural areas of Cambodia over
the last two decades. Previously, under the Khmer Rouge and during the tumultuous years following the
conflict and genocide that took place from 1975 to 1979, school buildings and other locations established
for both informal and formal education purposes were violently razed for the purposes of outlawing and
marginalizing academia. Since then, efforts to re-establish education as a system have been met with
resistance related to fear, economical priorities, and in some extreme cases ongoing, underground
loyalty to the Khmer Rouge movement.

Teachers employed under the current system are a blend of nationally certified teachers who
have received varying levels of pedagogical training from MOEYS and contract instructors who may
include volunteers, para-professionals and teachers from other regions choosing to serve short-term. As
such, training levels are not standardized and expectations for teacher performance are rarely
communicated, let alone monitored. This lack of institutional stability often leads to heightened teacher
insecurity, resulting in frequent teacher turnover and shortages.

This training in teacher mentorship would service this population in four potentially empowering areas:
1. Unification and Community Building (Single training with follow-up)
2. Enhanced Teaching Pedagogy & Learning Theory Practice (Biannual training)
3. Standardization of Best Practices (Monthly or bimonthly focus groups)
4. Collective/Standardized Needs Communication (Monthly or bimonthly focus groups)

Phase 1 (this training) activates the existing community of teachers as guides for the initiation and
orientation of new teachers in their schools. By preparing teachers to be mentors for incoming teachers,
a unification of the teaching team will be established as veteran teachers become resource partners for
the new teachers. As new teachers gain more experience and comfort in their school, they then have the
opportunity to mentor future generations of new teachers.

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Participatory Learning & Action Approach
In this training, the learning outcomes and follow-up will be heavily dictated by the needs of the
participants and their communities. The goal of this training is to equip participants with a toolkit of
guidance strategies to implement with new teachers in their school.
Based on prior research, it is anticipated that participants will arrive at the training with a desire
to receive additional formal teaching practice training and guidance in the areas of student outcomes and
learning assessment which will be made available to them in subsequent trainings. The issue of teacher-
turnover rates is likely to arise, and there is a hope that participants will work together to brainstorm
strategies to overcome this phenomenon. Strategies to elicit these strategies are suggested in the guide
to follow.
For each phase of the training, a participatory learning and action approach will be most
appropriate as this puts the participants at the center of the learning model. The participants needs will
be addressed immediately, and participants are most likely to walk away with instant solution strategies
for some of those needs.
Logistics & Mechanics
Anticipated Participants: Current local teaching staff with a minimum of one year of experience.
Teachers aspiring to or willing to redeploy for at least one more year.
Multilingual, to include Khmer & English to at least an intermediate level.
Timing & Location: Training will take in a three-hour session with scheduling flexibility
adherent to local needs.
Special Considerations: Local setting of current teaching staff(s) is likely remote/rural, lacking
traditional classroom resources. Accommodations will need to be made
to allow for group participation, visual communication and
comprehension evaluation.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this training, participants should be able to:
1. Orally describe, in detail, the schedule and general school day
procedures at their school including start/finish times, class change
procedures (if applicable), teacher roles in school day logistics
(monitoring, attendance, etc.), and others
2. Identify, given a series of written scenarios, potential problems that
a new teacher might face and orally make suggestions to alleviate
these problems
3. Prioritize, given a list of requirements, which tasks a new teacher
should be taught over the course of a given timeline
4. Role-play conflict and crisis-management situations that they have
experienced or encountered in their school environment

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Training Overview
Opening Sequence
During this sequence, meant to introduce instructor(s) and participants to the course, the participants
will:
- Get to know instructor(s) and fellow participants
- Establish individual needs and community needs
- Discuss anticipated outcomes for the course
- Project areas of expertise from each participant to maximize future contribution
Content Delivery
1. School logistics and mechanics
To solidify an understanding of the operations at each participants school, participants will:
- Draft and discuss a visual introduction to the logistics of their school
a. Considerations:
i. Best and worst-case scenarios
ii. Consequences of missed steps
iii. Priority level of logistical tasks
2. Troubleshooting
To gain practice at managing early stress levels and creating an environment of trust,
participants will:
- Identify, in a given scenario, potential anxiety-creating situations that can be
o Prevented
o Pro-actively managed
o Retro-actively managed
3. Information Management & Pacing
In teams, using a visual-kinesthetic aid to represent the timeline of a school year, participants
will:
- Construct a solid scaffold of information to be delivered to a new teacher over the year and
- Prepare an oral justification of their construction as it applies to the delivery of information to
new teachers
- Evaluate other teams constructions using a learned feedback approach
4. Conflict & Crisis-Management: Constructive Communication
In teams, participants will:
- Compose good idea and bad idea dialogues demonstrating learned communication skills in
the context of conflicts that arise in school environments
- Orally perform their dialogues for the group
- Discuss and evaluate the dialogues using learned communication techniques
Session Wrap
For the purposes of reflection and final evaluation, the participants will:
- Briefly self-reflect (in a mode of their choice) on their new role in a new teachers orientation at
their school
- Effectively communicate one piece of positive feedback for each of their peers
- Participate in a survey to evaluate the course

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Trainer Guide
The following sections are intended to act as suggestions for the facilitators of this course. These may not
prove to be the most effective methods for all participants and/or facilitators, and should therefore be
seen merely as guidelines rather than requirements. It is expected that facilitators are prepared to make
adjustments should the following assumptions be incorrect.
These methods assume that:
1. Participants are able to speak, listen, read and write at an intermediate level in the facilitators
language
2. Suggested materials are readily available
3. At least 4 participants are present for the full duration of the training
4. All participants have met the suggested prerequisites of 1 year of teaching experience with at
least 1 more year of service ahead of them
Coding:
IND = Individual work
P:P = Participant to Participant (typically in pairs or small groups)
OC = Open Class (typically used for whole-class discussions)
T:P = Trainer to Participant (trainer works one-on-one with a participant)

Sequence
Time Aims Interaction Activity
5 mins Warmer IND Ps briefly reflect silently or in writing about a horror story from
their first month of teaching.

5 mins P:P Ps discuss, in pairs, their story and how they overcame it.
5 mins OC Ps volunteer to share and discuss their experiences

10 mins Needs P:P Ps work in teams to create a list of ways that their horror stories
Assessment could have been avoided; what would they do differently? What
do they wish had happened?
5 mins OC Ps share their lists with the group

30 mins Anticipating P:P Hidden Doors [See Appendix A]

problems In teams, ps will draw a school building map
Using sticky notes, teams will create a maze-like boardgame of
traps and rewards that a new teacher might experience on their
first day.
On the sticky side, ps should write examples of actual things that
happen in various places around the school, and what a new
teacher might need to remember.
For example, if the teachers task is to unlock a certain door and
they forget, all of the children will be stuck outside.

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 (60) Ps will then select and play another teams game in groups.
5 mins Transition OC Allow for brief reflection or sharing of surprises from this activity
before continuing to the next.

10 mins Troubleshooting P:P Using the sticky notes from the previous games, ps will
categorize the traps and rewards by their level of extremity

15 mins OC Discussion:
Key Terms = preventative, pro-active and retro-active responses,
feedback sandwich
Introduce the key terms and discuss which traps and rewards
could be handled in which way. Would they change the level of
extremity of any of the sticky notes based on this? How would
they provide feedback (+/-) to a teacher in any of these
situations?
(90)
(Break)

25 mins Information P:P It is recommended that you reset the room during the break to
Management signal a change of pace for the second half of the training.
Scaffolding [See Appendix B]
Ranging from very large and heavy to very small and light, ps in
teams will be given a collection of building materials
(Trainer note: these materials could be anything that you can
find, ranging from chairs to dishes to stones to branches)
and a pack of cards with necessary pieces of information on
them.
Step 1: Ps must label their materials according to which card
they think best suits that material
Step 2: Ps must stack their building materials according to which
piece of information they would give a new teacher first, without
changing the material that is labeled
Step 3: Reassess do you need to change the labels?
(Probably!!!)
OC Step 4: Discuss & Share

5 mins Transition OC Gallery walk and provide feedback to peers regarding their final
constructed masterpiece.

15 mins Conflict P:P In teams, ps will work together to draft 2 role-plays surrounding
Management the same situation. This situation may be provided or created by
the teams. [See Appendix C]

15 mins OC Teams present their role-plays, receive feedback and discuss the
presented situation with their peers.

30 mins Final Wrap OC Ps write vows to their future new teacher, discuss training and
future implications of it, participate in survey.

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Evaluation
Several methods of on-going evaluation will be utilized starting immediately at the start of this training
that allow for follow-up discussions with facilitators and evaluators.
1. Learning Thermometer: Public, not anonymous
Prior to the start of the training, several large pieces of paper or simply tape lines on the wall will
be posted in an easily-accessed area of the meeting space (suggested: just inside the entry).
Using sticky notes, participants will indicate the degree to which they feel comfortable in the areas
of anticipated training outcomes [see Appendix D]: ability to communicate school logistics to
others, problem-solving, task scaffolding, community building.
Participants will be given the opportunity to independently place and move their sticky note
before the training, during the break and immediately following the training. Participants do not
need to explain the placement of their sticky note, but this is intentionally meant to serve as an
individual needs assessment for facilitators, so individual follow-up is encouraged.
Note: participants are not being graded/judged in any way on their participation and learning
levels, in fact this training is meant to build peer leadership and community building. As such a
communication of a lack of understanding should be encouraged and celebrated rather than
treated with any level of shame.
2. Online Discussion Forum: Public, not anonymous

With the understanding that some teachers may have limited internet access, an online discussion
forum will be established to allow participants to continue discussions, raise concerns and remain
in contact following the training. Facilitators will have ongoing access to this discussion for
evaluation purposes, and may follow-up should additional assistance be required. Interventions,
however, should be limited as the purpose of this training is to empower the participants and
build their community.

3. Formal Evaluation: Anonymous

[See Appendix E] A quantitative, Lickert-scale type evaluation will be distributed at the conclusion
of the training. Questions will evaluate participants expectations versus outcomes, the level to
which they feel the training contributed to their overall development, their satisfaction with the
timing and attention provided to various elements, and their desire for further instruction. The
evaluation will also allow for feedback on the trainer(s) performance and expertise in the content.

4. Follow-Up Visitations
Trainer(s) will schedule 2-3 follow-up visits in the participants schools to shadow and survey the
impact of the training. Trainers will be provided with monitoring materials [Appendix F] to
standardize the visits and allow for streamlined feedback of the impact. Visits are meant to
provide support and to establish a dynamic relationship between the training, participants and
trainers they are not intended to serve as an evaluation of the participants skills or success/lack-
of-success in implementation.

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Appendix
Summary of Contents:
Appendix A - Model game board for Anticipating Problems activity
Appendix B - Template for information cards (printable and/or reproducible) for Information
Management activity entitled Scaffolding
Appendix C - Sample role-play scenarios for Conflict Management activity, for use if
participants are unable to draft their own be it for a lack of time or other hurdles
Appendix D - Learning Thermometer model (to be blown up to appropriate size, likely by
hand)
Appendix E - Evaluative Survey for participants at conclusion of training
Appendix F - Trainers monitoring assessment for follow-up visitations

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Appendix A - Model game board for Anticipating Problems activity

Sample completed product of one team. Sample above shows an office space rather than a school, but the
concept remains the same with simple labels of various elements found in a classroom OR school.
Participant game boards should be butcher block paper-sized renditions of a blank 6x10 grid:

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Appendix B - Template for information cards (printable and/or reproducible) for Information
Management activity entitled Scaffolding

Schedules: Location of Learning Materials Technical Troubleshooting

Daily class change times,
lunch periods, dismissal
Weekly Regular meetings,
planning time
Monthly Meetings, trainings,
extracurricular events
Where teachers can go to get List of resources or people
books, pencils, paper, math available to teachers to assist
materials, chalk or markers with computer troubles,
electricity issues, broken
materials or classroom damage.

Annually Major breaks,

assessment schedules, school
year period

Discipline Student Reports Outside Learning Activities

Outline of expectations on Explanation of student report Overview of the expectation on

teachers regarding student processes, to include when teachers regarding activities
behaviors, punishment and reports are expected, what that take place outside of the
reward. should be on the report and classroom, including fieldtrips,
who receives the reports sporting events and clubs.

Parent Communication Homework Assessment

Explanation of expectations on Overview of homework culture Outline of assessment

parent contact, including
whether teachers are
responsible for regular contact
or not, when it is appropriate to
contact parents, how contact
should be made with parents.
at this school: is homework
given regularly? How is it
evaluated? How is it assigned?
What are the expectations for
timing?
expectations, to include: who is
responsible for assessment,
how often the students are to
be assessed, what is meant to
be assessed and the format for
assessments.

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Appendix C - Sample role-play scenarios for Conflict Management activity, for use if
participants are unable to draft their own be it for a lack of time or other hurdles

Scenario 1
You are paired with another teacher to monitor the students before and after school hours. There is no
set schedule for when you are meant to begin monitoring, except that it is your responsibility to make
sure students are lined up in an orderly fashion, prepared for their morning fitness regimen at 8:00am.
You are on the schedule for this duty for 3 weeks. For the first 3 days of this schedule, your fellow teacher
has been casually arriving at 7:58am. On 2 of those days, you found yourself having to handle several
student disputes and behavior issues by yourself around 7:45am.

Scenario 2
You are teaching the afternoon session for the Grade 8 group this year. Several of your students have a
regular habit of arriving late and disrupting your class. One of the students explains to you that the
morning teacher has been asking those students to come to his class during or after lunch for various
reasons.

Scenario 3
You and another teacher have been assigned to the same course books, to be shared between your two
classes. Every time that you have gone to use them this week, they are either completely gone, or several
are missing, forcing your students to share even fewer books than normal.

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Appendix D - Learning Thermometer model (to be blown up to appropriate size, likely by
hand)

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Appendix E - Evaluative Survey for participants at conclusion of training

The following was adapted from the Illinois State ESL Regional Training conducted by the Illinois State
Department of Education.

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Appendix F - Trainers monitoring assessment for follow-up visitations

Date: ________________________ Trainer: ___________________________________

Circle One: First Visit Second Visit Third Visit
Comments and areas of focus from previous visit or training:
_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

General Observations from Visit:

To what degree (1 not at all, 3 somewhat, 5 definitely) are the following true?
Participant appears to be implementing elements of training: 1 2 3 4 5
Participant appears to understand elements of the training: 1 2 3 4 5
Participant could benefit from additional training: 1 2 3 4 5
Participant seeks out community leadership role(s): 1 2 3 4 5
Other community members appear comfortable approaching
participant for assistance/other communication: 1 2 3 4 5

Participant communicates effectively with community: 1 2 3 4 5

Other comments:

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