IAUE HOLDS ONE DAY WORKSHOP FOR TEACHING PRACTICE SUPERVISORS The training of teachers still occupy a very significant aspect of all educational enterprise despite preconceived wrong notions about the profession. This is why qualified entrants seem to neglect the teaching field as this is giving stakeholders serious concern about the quality of needed teachers hence the desire to make student teachers acquire better and more effective teaching methods and skills. This concern was what necessitated a one day workshop for teaching practice supervisors by the Teaching Practice Unit of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education at the old lecture hall on May 6, 2014. Vice Chancellor of the university and Chairman of the occasion, Professor Rosemund Dienye Green-Osahogulu in her address described the university as a place where great emphasis is laid on every educational issue such as teaching practice, describing it as an important stage and essential component in the professional development of teachers. Teaching practice supervision she noted is an integral aspect of teacher education which success and effectiveness lie on the shoulders of the supervisors who are well trained, experienced, with high degree of fairness and morality in order to achieve desired goals. Represented by the university librarian, Dr. Boma Obi, she however frowned at some supervisors who do not supervise, yet award marks to student teachers based on lesson notes brought to their offices and cautioned others who ask for gratification before performing their legitimate role as teaching practice supervisors. The Vice-Chancellor condemned the embarrassing attitude, pointing out that it is unethical but expressed delight that such absurd attitude were not in existence in IAUE. Prof. Rosemund Osahogulu called for attitudinal re-orientation and commitment of supervisors to duties, including visit to designated schools to physically interface with the students to offer guidance and assess them properly. All these, she suggested, would eliminate many of the identifiable burning issues that militate against teaching practice supervision. The Acting Director, Teaching Practice Unit, Dr. Levi Deo Kalagbor in his welcome speech remarked that the workshop was organized to refresh and update supervisors on issues of importance bordering on teaching practice supervision, monitoring and evaluation and for the exercise to be properly and effectively supervised with a view to promoting academic quality. He observed that teaching practice exercise was an examination, a twelve credit unit course and hoped that the student teachers would learn new knowledge and skills to develop professionally from their supervisors at the end of the workshop. He also announced that plans were on to prepare academic programmes aimed at making sure that micro teaching and other methods have to be managed in line with the best standard practices. In his keynote address, the Dean of Faculty of Education, Professor Charles Okechukwu Iwundu stressed the need for practitioners to be proud of the teaching profession and protect it as they hold the life of future generations in their hands. He called on all to maintain and sustain the profession because without it, they have no business being in the university. Meanwhile, the Acting Head of Department Educational Foundation and Management IAUE Dr. (Mrs.) Rose Amanchukwu maintained that teaching practice is a serious affair that should not be toyed with and advised supervisors to do things the right way and ensure that they are not compromised so that they can bring about improvement in instruction. Speaking on the theme “21st Century Innovative Ideas and Practices in Teaching Practice Supervision Monitoring and Evaluation”’ the guest lecturer and director, Basic Studies, Professor Joseph Kinanee, who was represented by Dr. Adokiye Okujagu, noted that teaching like many other human-oriented professions has an internship programme during which trainees are given the opportunity to demonstrate practically what they have been exposed to in theory. This experience which he referred to as teaching practice provides the necessary laboratory experience for student teachers to develop the skills, attitudes and practical knowledge of what teaching entails, and translating same into actual classroom conditions. Supervision on the other hand, Professor Kinanee noted , is an important phase of the teaching practice exercise without which, there would be difficulty in determining whether desired teaching practice objectives and teacher education have been achieved. The guest lecturer who said only professional qualified lecturers should be incorporated into the exercise as stated in the regulating instruments for teacher education, added that in preparing for teaching practice, the unit should organize orientation/seminar for the participating lecturers to bring coherence into the mode of supervision and assessment of the student teachers. Professor Kinanee identified some challenges confronting the supervision process as length of time allocated for teaching practice which he considered short, increase in number of students enrolled for the programme as against a relatively fewer number of supervisors, lack of effective collaboration with teachers in participating schools, obsolete teaching practice programmes which can no longer meet up with global best practices in some institutions and inadequate funding for the teaching practice unit. Also included is corruption on the part of some supervisors or the student teachers, lack of post observation visits/conference with student teachers among others. He however recommended need for synergy between the teaching subject departments, the curriculum and instructional technology (CIT) department and the teaching practice unit, as well as the office of the Dean of Education. Others are regular workshops for methodology teachers, teaching practice committee members, and micro teaching lecturers for purposes of harmonization, enhanced remuneration package for teaching practice supervisors and moderators, increase in the duration of the teaching practice, orientation programmes for representative teachers and head of participating schools, as well as imbibing the idea of clinical supervisions, effective collaboration with school teachers/management, and need for supervisors to adhere strictly to the professional standards as released by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN). The lecture which raised a lot of burning questions and comments in the minds of the participants had the Acting Director, Quality Assurance, Dr. Emmanuel Ibara thanking the Teaching Practice Unit for putting the workshop together adding that meaningful teaching practice is tied to effective supervision. He advised supervisors to be firm, polite and humane to achieve the objectives of the institution which is a specialist one. Dr. Ibara also enjoined all to play effective role to ensure things are done differently in IAUE.
Posted on: Fri, 09 May 2014 14:37:44 +0000
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