Working with charity and government partners in Kenya, researchers in the Department of Education are co-creating online training modules for school leaders in two marginalised regions to support the country’s national education reform.
Launched in 2017, Kenya’s school reform introduces a new curriculum and is being rolled out in phases across the education system. Preparing staff has been hindered by geographical challenges and the varied quality of face-to-face training, particularly in resource-scarce areas outside of Nairobi.
To address the challenges of training educational staff, Professor Robert Klassen and colleagues in the University of Oxford’s Department of Education (supported by consultant Liz Maxwell from education spin-out Teacher Success Plaftorm), have developed and evaluated an approach that uses interactive, scenario-based learning (SBL) modules on smartphones, through which learners make decisions based on real-world contexts. Now, through the ‘Building Futures’ project, Professor Klassen’s team are applying this approach to co-create training for schools in Kenya’s Isiolo and Kisumu regions. Delivered in close collaboration with Kenyan educational charity the Dignitas Project and Kenyan Ministry of Education agencies, the project focuses on working with local experts to ensure the process is grounded in regional relevance, increasing the likelihood of successful adoption.
The project began by first developing a competency framework to build skills, confidence and professional readiness for delivering Kenya’s new curriculum. Then, through a series of workshops with local school leaders, a set of school scenarios were drafted aimed at helping leaders, teachers and management staff to develop these competencies. Feedback from 40 school leaders further refined the scenarios and helped establish scoring and benchmarking criteria.
The three scenario-based learning modules developed will undergo further testing by the Dignitas Project before being launched in 50 schools across Isiolo and Kisumu. The researchers also plan to support evaluation efforts and enhance the SBL technology by integrating an AI-supported teaching coach. The project was supported by the Social Sciences Business Engagement Seed Fund.
