In collaboration with the Regional English Language Office at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad Peace and Education Foundation (PEF) conducted Fourth two-week training workshop for English Language teachers from non-mainstream institutes from 18-29 July, 2022 in Karachi. A total of 40 male Madrasah teachers from Sindh, Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan representing Muslim diversity including Barelvi, Deobandi, Salfi, Shia and Jamat e Islami participated in the workshop.
The U.S. English Language Specialist Dr. Luis Javier Pentón Herrera and Pakistani English Language Expert Muhammad Umer Azim teamed up to design and conduct the workshop. The workshop was participatory in nature and included integrated lessons with a variety of materials on the most important topics and content about teaching methodology, interactive activities covering listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar were conducted. The participants did micro-teaching: they prepared and delivered 15-minute mini-lessons. The Pakistani trainer and PEF project Manager met one-on-one with the participants to work on lesson plan work/feedback.
Public Affairs Officer (PAO) for the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Mr. Lee McManis, participated in the closing ceremony and distributed the certificates among the participants. At the end of the workshop the honourable Mr. Lee, congratulated the trained teachers on successfully completing a two-week training program. He said “As we close this training program, it opens the door for you to experiment, apply and innovate the learned knowledge in your local context. For us, the success of any training program lies in the success stories we receive from the participants. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to go back to your institutions, apply the learned knowledge, tools and resources in your classrooms, and most importantly, share them with others in your community. Our star teachers are those who run informal workshops, webinars and training programs to cascade the information further to benefit the maximum English language teaching community of Pakistan. I am looking forward to hearing some great success stories from you all.
This initiative provided professional development opportunity to the teachers, who are educating to the underserved and underprivileged students. The teachers improved their English communication, teaching techniques and improve teaching and pedagogical skills. Our ultimate aim is to equip these teachers in this project to provide quality, modern and impactful English instructions to their students for brighter future. Community of Practice (COP) for is formed.
Learning Outcomes:
As per participant’s feedback, teachers have:
- Learned how to engage the four language domains and practiced those skills.
- Learned the structure of Bloom’s Taxonomy and applied the structure to show an understanding of the need for a variety of tasks in a language lesson.
- Learned where to find materials on the American English website.
- Learned the structure of Garner’s Multiple Intelligences and demonstrated how to incorporate multiple intelligences to plan lessons.
- Used American English materials.
- Planned a student-centered mini-lesson.
- Received feedback on their mini-lesson.
Participants Quotations
It was an awesome experience to learn and modernize our teaching methods. On behalf of whole group, I would like to thanks Peace and Education Foundation Pakistan, RELO Pakistan and U.S. Embassy Pakistan for creating this learning environment for us. We strongly felt that we were absolutely unaware, we were lacking in our teaching, but now we are proud to say that we know how to teach, the methods, the techniques, the activities, advancement in concepts and many more things are the gifts we got and we will share the outcomes with our students. Madaris and religious institutions are a hub of thousands of students but they lack the advance learning methods and modernization of educational system.
Through this workshop it’s a door opening step towards a positive and creative change in such institutions. It will not only an educational advancement, it will also be a foundation stone for peace-building and helpful in creating a peaceful society because in the countries like Pakistan, religious institutions can play a vital role and are most effective for creating a Peaceful Society. We will be together through virtual space and will support each other to achieve this goal. Thanks to all of you.Sohail Abbas from Gilgit Baltistan
To be honest, immediately after my final year exams, I started teaching English at Jamia Tu Rasheed to grade 6, 7 and 8 without any formal and informal training. Consequently I miserably failed and it shattered my confidence. I seriously started considering to leave teaching profession. But then suddenly I was honored with the opportunity to attend an English teachers training workshop organized by Peace and Education Foundation (PEF) with the coordination of U.S Consulate Karachi. Courtesy of my honorable teachers Dr. Umer Azeem and Doctor Luis I learned a lot. Now I have learned different teaching techniques and classroom management skills. This is all because of this workshop. I would like to thank Ms. Rubab Zainab, Mr. Haseeb Iqbal and rest of PEF staff for creating such a coordinating environment. Thank you, Peace and Education Foundation (PEF) and U.S Consulate Karachi for restoring my confidence back.Hafiz Muhammad Ali from Karachi, Sindh
This two-week English Language workshop was very helpful for us as we learned a lot and the credit goes to Peace and Education Foundation and US Embassy for doing such commendable efforts. We appreciate their efforts. I have learned a lot about listening, teaching skills from Dr. Umar Azeem and Dr. Luis. Before attending this workshop, I used to teach in a common way, but this workshop has uplifted my motivation and professional capacity. After this training, I can say am a professional teacher. We learned a lot about lesson planning, class management, critical thinking, project based learning and Error Analysis from Dr. Umar Azeem and Dr Luis. At the end, I have a humble request to Peace and Education Foundation (PEF) for conducting English training workshop for Female teachers. Thank You.Hussain Ahmed from Karahi, Sindh
I have learned a lot from this Workshop. I taught English in Government Secondary School for 20 years and remained principal of that school for eight (08) years. I retired from my position 2 years ago. Now am working in Jamia Sataria as a Head of Madrassa and English teacher. The workshop not only taught us the language skills but we also learned that the Madarsah have a huge role to play in society and particularly in education services. In the end, I want to talk about Mr. Azhar Hussain that 21 years ago, when he started working with Madaris he faced extreme rejection but he continued his work. And nowadays He is performing major role peace building in Madaris. I summarize my words in a few Urdu Poetry about Azhar Hussain:
چھیڑی تھی اس نے حدیث عشق تنہا ہی مگر
رفتہ رفتہ اس کے گرد کارواں بنتا گیا
آندھیوں کے رخ پہ بھی جلتی گئی شمع حیات
بجلیوں کی زد پہ بھی آشیاں بنتا گیا
Abdul Khalid Faridi from Karachi, Sindh
Workshop Pictures:
