Teaching with skill and joy to deliver life-changing education
Tags: Education, Staffroom

To mark UN World Teachers Day, teachers around the world are sharing their stories of success, despite working in challenging environments. This article is about a government teacher in Liberia called Prince.

View more stories of teacher transformation here.

I first saw Prince Dormeyan in the Grade 2 classroom at Kandeja School in September, 2017. As a Learning Innovation Officer at Bridge International Academies, I have had the opportunity to observe Prince teach numerous lessons over the past two years.

I was immediately impressed with his teaching ability. Prince delivered each part of the lesson precisely according to time, and effectively used the teacher guide to lead individual pupils with excitement. I was touched by his instructional skill and by those thoughtful interactions with his pupils.

Prince grew up in a small, remote village called Flelelah in Lower Bong County, central Liberia. The youngest of six siblings, Prince and his family fled their village to Totota in the 1990's due to civil conflict in the region. Like the other members of their community, both of Prince’s parents worked as farmers.

As a child, Prince was unable to attend school, because the nearest school was 1 hour 45 minutes away. But at age six, Prince’s life took a new path. A local NGO, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, constructed a nearby school to accommodate younger pupils. Prince was able to attend school for the first time.

Prince eventually completed secondary school at Gboveh High School. Following his secondary studies, Prince enrolled at Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute (KRTTI). After graduating in 2017, Prince returned to his home village, Felelah and began teaching in the local school. But eventually, Prince left his parents and his village in the quest for new opportunities. He says: “I couldn’t continue in my village due to the quest to open a new page in my life.”

Trees in Monrovia, Liberia. Photo by Bethany Laird on Unsplash

A career at Bridge LEAP schools

In 2017, Prince was recruited to teach at Kandeja School, a government school in Monrovia. One year earlier, Kandeja School was selected as part of an innovative public-private partnership between the Liberian Ministry of Education and Bridge International Academies (Bridge).

This partnership, known today as the ‘Liberian Education Advancement Program’ (LEAP) program, is designed to scale up effective new approaches to teaching and learning in Liberian public education.

Bridge is one of a number of partners — and the largest — managing 68 of the 200 LEAP (formerly Partnership Schools for Liberia [PSL]) schools. This includes some of the most remote regions of Liberia in most need of quality education, such as Maryland County in the south-eastern which borders the Ivory Coast—an area with a high number of refugees.

Before stepping in to the classroom, Prince completed weeks of teacher training. Here, Prince learned and practiced the crucial skills and knowledge necessary to deliver high-quality education. This training built upon Prince’s existing pedagogical training, learned at the Rural Teacher Training Institute in Liberia. At his Bridge LEAP training, Prince learned about new and innovative ways to manage his classroom, deliver lessons, and provide feedback on pupil performance.

When he entered the classroom, Prince was supported through high-quality instructional materials, delivered via a teacher tablet. Over the past two years, Prince has used these resources and training to impact dozens of students at Kandeja School. In recognition of his strong performance, Prince has been invited to train new teachers at other LEAP schools throughout Liberia.

A unique combination of skill and joy

Prince is a truly unique teacher, because he exudes both skill and joy in the classroom. Prince uses various, evidence-based teaching techniques to ensure that all pupils learn and demonstrate mastery in a lesson. But he also leads each and every activity in a truly joyous and engaging way.

On the technical side, Prince executes each of Bridge’s core teaching skills with precision. He calls on individual pupils throughout the lesson to ensure that each and every pupil engages with the material and demonstrates mastery of the content. He uses each pupil’s name when cold-calling, making them feel truly part of the class. When Prince calls on one pupil who answers incorrectly, he always returns to that pupil after receiving the correct answer to appreciate their participation and ensure that they understood.

When he poses a question, he strategically waits 3–4 seconds before calling on a pupil. This ensures that he does not always call on the same pupil, and that all pupils have time to think and volunteer. I recall a time when Prince allowed enough time for pupils to answer a question and as a result, a shy pupil who rarely participated was able to volunteer an answer.

He flawlessly manages the classroom by redirecting pupils. When re-directing pupils, Prince states the name of the pupil and says precisely how he wants the behaviour or effort of the pupil to change. When observing one of his maths classes, I noticed that some pupils in the back of the classroom were off-task. Before they could distract other pupils, Prince quickly redirected their behaviour towards productive participation. Prince has also skilfully used strategies like a whole-class clap to avoid singling out misbehaving pupils.

As pupils work, Prince never stops moving. He challenges the notion that teachers belong at the front of the classroom. He circulates throughout the room, collects information about pupils’ understanding, analyses errors in pupil work, and makes recommendations for improvement. When I observe Prince circulating throughout the classroom, it’s clear that he reaches each and every pupil with feedback and support, rather than lecturing to the class as a whole.

But skill is not the only important aspect of teaching. Prince manages to lead a classroom with joy and enthusiasm. Prince can always be found smiling, and that smiling encourages pupils to relax and participate.

He uses praise masterfully. Instead of always identifying bad behaviour, he highlights the good behaviour of pupils in the classroom in order to redirect misbehaving pupils. I have also seen him lead the class in cheers like the ‘Super Cheer’ to motivate every pupil.

He uses this cheer to recognise class effort or top performers. Prince also leads the class in singing local songs to celebrate the hard work at the end of a lesson.

Most importantly, he brings that joy to his interactions with pupils. He models what it means to love learning, and his pupils follow his example.

Some skills, like cold-calling, wait time and circulation can be taught. Bridge training for LEAP government teachers introduces these skills, and ongoing professional development ensures that teachers are implementing these skills effectively in their classroom.

Other qualities, like Prince’s joy and enthusiasm can’t be taught through training. But at Bridge, we believe that a thoughtfully-structured classroom environment creates the space for this joy to shine through.

By designing lessons that maximise opportunities for teacher-pupil interactions during independent practice, we can ensure that teachers like Prince have the chance to support each and every pupil in skilful and joyful ways.

This is story is part of a campaign to mark UN World Teachers Day 2019. To see more stories about how teachers in low and middle income countries can be well supported to work effectively, please visit the campaign homepage.

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