Lead Inspirare

Are you an educator teaching in an Early Years, Primary or Secondary school here in Nigeria? Are you seeking ways to accelerate your career and become more valuable so as to earn more money while teaching?

We can help you become a highly-skilled teacher. We have different training packages that you can benefit from.

How about you reach out to us, and let us help you find the right program that aligns with your goals?

Kindly send a DM here or message 08132473647 via WhatsApp.

Do you know?

Lead Inspirare’s Career Accelerator Program - a unique career development opportunity for K-12 educators is designed over three (3) levels: The Foundation Level, the “Emerging Educator Program” Level, and the Network Level.

The Foundation Level comprises of series of Virtual Learning Events, Personality and Teaching Mastery Assessments, a Career Decision Certificate Course from Wesleyan University, a Virtual Career Development Lab and Workout Sessions, Reflections and Feedback, and Strategic Coaching Sessions.

The First Cohort of the Foundation Level of our Career Accelerator Program for K-12 educators is ongoing. Activities were placed on hold to relieve the stress of the Muslims through the concluding phase of Ramadan. The program continues tomorrow, April 23, 2023.

Eid Mubarak to Muslims around the world!

PEDAGOGY MATTERS

One of the most alarming trends I have encountered in the education sector is teachers paying lip service to pedagogy. The same assumption that most teachers make that since they know what to teach, they will be great teachers, is the same assumption that affects the way teachers deal with textbooks.

In case you don't know, every textbook has a designed pedagogy to it. Let me use Math In Focus for example. It is designed based on CPA pedagogy and for its instructional delivery, it is based on “Gradual Release of Responsibility” model which is very close to 'I do - We do - You do' model.

The moment you pay lip service to the pedagogy of design and instructional delivery of any textbook, you will miss out greatly on the intended outcomes of the textbook. This is especially glaring for international books that are designed with 21st century pedagogy in mind.

A teacher teaching a topic in Grade 4 for example found the topic presented at abstract level. Some of his students were struggling to understand at this level, and he keeps solving multiple questions at abstract level hoping the students will understand. That's actually insanity.

The textbook is designed on CPA meaning Concrete - Pictorial - Abstract. A child who doesn't understand a concept introduced at abstract level, must be taught using pictorial first, if he doesn't understand, then the teacher must start building from concrete level which is where real mastery is attained.

A very close experience is someone teaching comprehension and the students are struggling, yet, he keeps reteaching at that level. This is counterproductive because knowledge precedes comprehension on bloom’s taxonomy. When a student struggles with application questions, the solution is to go a step lower on the taxonomy; to check comprehension which must be mastered before a student can apply.

Consequentially, many teachers are setting up their students for unproductive struggles which often lead to failure. This happens when you pay lip service to pedagogy and just focus on your knowledge of the subject matter.

I urge you to evolve pedagogically in order to maximize the impact you can have in the lives of your students daily. Your knowledge of pedagogy can help set them up for success too.

Teachers, Please Grow Professionally and Not Just In Years

Many assume that if they spend years teaching across classrooms, they automatically become Master Teachers. The opposite is actually true. Mastery isn’t attained automatically by just going through the same routines everyday for years. That assumption has led too many teachers into growing only in years but not professionally.

While change is constant, growth isn’t; it happens through deliberate practice done consistently over a period of time. Imagine a teacher who has been teaching for 12 years, she doesn’t know anything about formative assessment, not even baseline assessment, she doesn’t know how to differentiate instructions, she can’t even give effective feedback, even the term pedagogy is alien to her.

Her philosophy of education is that “if we pound yam into a leaf and put soup in a groundnut shell, the one who will be full, will be full”. What that implies is that regardless of how poor/ineffective you teach, those who will pass will surely pass.

Part of the reasons why schools have not really evolved is that teachers have failed to evolve. Many stick to traditional pedagogy and are ill-equipped to deliver the kind of learning that’s meaningful to this age, let alone the future.
You can actually be a teacher for 12 years and yet remain at Novice level.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise because perhaps you have not undertaken any meaningful professional development since you first picked up a teaching job over a decade ago. When you eventually do, perhaps it’s just to fulfil obligation without any meaningful effect on your practices as a teacher.

Of what good is your 12 years’ experience when you still can’t design a 21st century learning experience? You don’t even know anything about Bloom's Taxonomy not to talk of differentiated instruction. You can be a teacher for over a decade and remain at novice level. This unfortunately is the reality of too many educators in this part of the world.

Don’t undermine your own growth with baseless assumptions. Professional growth requires conscious effort at professional development with a habit of reflective practice; a conscious and consistent effort to always use learning to refine your practice. This is the way to excel in your career over time!

UPSKILLING IS REALLY ABOUT HONING YOUR SKILLS; CERTIFICATES ARE SECONDARY.

While there is an increased awareness around the need for constant upskilling and reskilling for a teacher to remain relevant and be impactful in this age, too many educators are missing out on the real focus and benefit of upskilling which is to help them “refine their practices”. Too many teachers now see upskilling as a way to having an impressive portfolio.

I have had countless experience of late where teachers would have completed professional courses online and yet, none of those will reflect in their practice within the classrooms. I have seen many teachers who have TEFL certificates and can’t even teach Basic 2 English successfully.

I have seen many teachers as well who have certificates of 21st Century Learning Design from Microsoft and yet could not even design lesson for knowledge construction; resulting to the traditional way of teaching where the focus is on regurgitation of facts.

Teachers record professional hours of training, yet, when you walk across classes, too many of them continue to teach the way they were taught in the past. Some even pay tens of thousands to get a crash course (focused on exam preparation) just to have high scores in exams for the sake of certification.

That is why the teacher interview process has to be very thorough of late. With the teaching workforce largely under-skilled according to UNESCO, whoever has chosen to embrace learning must know that it is about SKILLS.

These are the skills you will apply in your classrooms to drive meaningful learning and make significant impact in the lives of the students you teach daily.

Certificates are great no doubt; however, they are not the main thing. They might look good on your profile, however, without mastering the skills for which you have been awarded certificate, it is a complete waste of effort.

You need to be intentional about your learning for that way, amazing things can happen in your personal and professional life.

Engage in upskilling and let that reflect within your classroom; leverage that to make quality learning accessible to every child in your classroom.

WHATEVER YOU LEARN AND YOU DON’T USE, YOU LOSE!

Anytime I deliver training for a while now, I always end with the words, “whatever you learn and you don’t use, you actually lose”. This is to always emphasize that learning mandates action; learning must lead to action.

There is this popular quote from Jim Rohn where he said, “if you let learning lead to knowledge, you become a fool”. The essence of this is to let people understand that the real essence of learning is to transform character; learning must lead to change and must reflect in your practices and conducts.

Teachers fall into two extremes when it comes to learning. There are those who simply keep teaching without any attempt to keep learning (explore options for personal and professional development). At the other extreme are teachers who learn but do not apply what they learn. They suffer from what is called “eternal student syndrome”. These are teachers that would invest their time, money and energy on learning, however, whatever they learn doesn’t reflect in their practices at all. As such, learning isn’t a beneficial endeavor for them.

The middle course is what makes perfect sense. This is that you commit to lifelong learning while you develop a habit of reflective practice. You are always putting into practice what you learn, constantly using your learning to refine your practices. This is the pathway to personal and professional growth; the way to building an impactful, fulfilling and financially-rewarding career.