Blended English Teacher Certification Program with State Governments

Overview

<p>The goal of this teacher certification program is to support the professional development of select Mentors working with state governments to improve the quality of English instruction and critical-thinking skills in government schools, an emphasis that dovetails with India’s new National Education Policy, as well as Mission India’s strategic goal of supporting educational cooperation between India and the United States. </p> <p>By enabling a collaboration between a U.S. educational organization or institution, and state and union territory governments in India, this project seeks to upgrade English language skills of trainers and mentors to raise the standard of English instruction for middle- and secondary-school students. In India, school education falls directly under the purview of state governments. This initiative will help strengthen the leadership skills of English trainers working directly for state governments and build ties with state governments that are working on improving English language education. Having built a strong partnership with the Delhi government through the successful implementation of the TCCP, the U.S. Mission to India would like to expand this initiative using the blended certification program model, since this has proved to be sustainable and, since the first iteration in 2017, helped to make a positive impact on 1,100 Delhi Government schools catering to the educational needs of over 900,000 students.</p> <p>India’s new National Education Policy emphasizes capacity building of teachers and continues the long-standing, three-language formula, which includes English as a medium of instruction. The proposed courses will provide not only English language skill-building, but incorporate training in modern U.S. pedagogy, critical-thinking and public-speaking skills. By promoting democratic, student-centered classrooms in which students are actively engaged, the courses also support democratic values and active citizenship.</p> <p>This funding opportunity offers an opportunity for a partnership with a U.S. university or teachers’ association to offer a blended teacher certification program for secondary-school educators that focuses on the foundational concepts and methodology of teaching English as a Second Language. The training program should be implemented from mid-November to December or mid-May to the end of June, when schools in India are closed for vacation and teacher trainers are available.</p> <p>To improve the pedagogical and leadership skills of Master Trainers and/or Mentors working with state governments, American English Language Teaching (ELT) experts will offer a certificate program to 100 trainers working with Directorates of Education with one or two State Governments in India. This program will address gaps in their knowledge of the field of ELT, their role as leaders, and current classroom practices. As a follow-on of this program, under the guidance of an English Language Fellow, the Mentor Teachers will develop and deliver training programs for their mentees on current approaches in the field of ELT that will support English instruction in government schools.</p> <p>In 2017-18, in a groundbreaking partnership with the Delhi government, the U.S. Mission to India’s Public Affairs Section, through its Regional English Language Office (RELO) implemented a blended TESOL Core Certificate Program (TCCP) offered by TESOL International for 50 Mentor Teachers working with the Delhi government. RELO worked closely with the Delhi government administration to enroll a select group of 50 mentor teachers/leaders who led the training program for 2,000 government school teachers in Delhi after finishing the program. As a follow-up to this course, the RELO offered two face-to-face programs per year and Arizona State University’s Professional Development for Teacher Trainers: Ready, Set, Train!</p>