CL Conference in Japan – February 2006

For this issue of the IASCE Newsletter, Board Member Yael Sharan has passed along this account from colleagues working to promote CL in Armenia.

CL in Armenia

Aleksan Hovhannisyan, the coordinator of Teacher Professional Development in the Ministry of Education of Armenia and Vesa Purokuru, a consultant to the Ministry, tell the story of how cooperative learning is part of thorough educational reforms throughout the country. Pasi Sahlberg, an IASCE Board Member, is on the World Bank team that helps implement the project.

Armenia, an ancient land-locked country about the size of Belgium, located in the southern Caucasus, declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then, it has been pursuing the course of democracy and of a market economy. Armenia inherited from Soviet Union an inefficient, obsolete national economy and education system. The consequent economic and social problems, including those in education, were compounded by the continuing impact of the devastating 1998 earthquake and by the virtual economic siege that resulted from political and armed conflicts.

Since 1994, Armenia has advanced in reforming its economy. Privatization has proceeded quickly. However, with a GNP per capita of US$910 in 2003, Armenia still ranks in the lower middle-income group of the world’s countries. Emigration and declining fertility have reduced its population, which was 3.8 million ten years ago, to about 3.1 million today.

Educational milestones

In Armenia, the main method of teaching was based on the traditional teacher-centered approach. Only a few teachers used active methods of teaching. More attention was given to memorizing content without understanding or acquiring necessary skills for applying what was learned. Teaching was based on the pedagogical views of a few Soviet scientists. Pedagogical literature looked like a narrow street with one-way traffic. Everything regarding teaching was decided ahead of time, and the teachers’ role was to implement the externally designed plans.

Today, Armenia has a total of 1400 schools with some 46,000 teachers. The National Institute of Education is responsible for in-service teacher training. Yerevan State Pedagogical University, Gumry and Vanadzor Pedagogical Institutions, and about 15 Teacher Training Colleges provide teacher pre-service education. Teacher professional development is mainly based on traditional approaches. Recently, projects implemented mainly by international organizations and NGOs introduced new approaches of teaching and learning to about 7% of teachers, which is not enough to promote positive changes in classrooms.

The way of education reform

Armenian educational reforms started in 1997. The aim of the first phase was to decentralize and rationalize the general education system and increase schools' autonomy. At the moment, reforms are in the second stage, which seeks to increase the quality of teaching and learning in schools. The Ministry of Education has decided to focus on changing the learning environment in the classroom through the introduction of interactive methods of teaching and the gradual development of a cooperative culture in schools and classrooms. The Ministry launched the “Education Quality and Relevance” project, financed by the World Bank and several NGOs and other institutions.

The objectives of this ambitious project cover the whole gamut of the educational system, but we will focus on only one aspect: introducing advanced teaching practices, especially cooperative learning, in teachers' professional development. It includes four intervention categories:

Training all teachers in new curriculum and assessment methods; training a small number of teachers in CL methods; training one-third of all teachers in basic computer literacy and information and communication technologies; and working with school headmasters to develop their support for the ongoing reforms.

Cooperative learning in Armenia

CL was introduced to about 50 schools in the first phase of the reform. It is hoped that through CL, teachers will help students develop new social skills and promote cooperative attitudes among students throughout the new school curriculum.

Armenian teachers’ knowledge about CL is understandably limited. Although there are two teachers’ guides that include some ideas about CL, and teachers were exposed in the past to some interactive teaching and learning methods, this project is the first large-scale attempt to help teachers benefit from the principles and practices of CL.

Armenian teachers are motivated to learn more and to practice new methods. However, individual and competitive approaches to learning and the authoritarian role of the teacher have deep roots in teachers’ mentality. Moreover, they fear that CL will limit the individual growth of pupils. They also have some doubts about assessment issues and are afraid of noise in the classroom during the cooperative learning process.   

First step: Training of trainers

The first of three workshops for trainers was held in November, 2004. There were three main themes: CL methods and principles, trainers’ capacity to disseminate CL methods, and their ability to produce training materials. Between workshops, the trainees are given tasks to explore and work on the CL theories and practices.

The first workshop dealt mainly with changes in society and education, concepts of learning, and principles of CL. All training was carried out using CL methods, with special emphasis on reflection on what was done and why. The second workshop was conducted as a Group Investigation, which clearly revealed the confusion that existed about CL and traditional methods. Many activities designed by participants as part of the workshop were very teacher-centered. The final trainers' workshop in September 2005 will concentrate on sharing trainers’ experiences and designing their plans for teacher in-service.

The 25 trainers who will complete this program will certainly face many challenges when they start to work with schools on CL next school year. Some of the most obvious obstacles include headmasters’ attitudes, parents’ beliefs and fears, other teachers’ attitudes, lack of time and support, overloaded curriculum, and inspectors’ lack of awareness of these methods.

During the first workshop, a Support Team for developing CL was formed. They are responsible for the development of a Teachers Manual on Co-operative Learning Methods. This team is also in charge of piloting the manual and the Trainer’s Guide during 3-day pilot training sessions. Trained trainers already have conducted pilot training workshops in different regions of Armenia. About 150 teachers in 6 groups took part in the first 3-day workshops.

Many teachers are already applying some basic elements of CL in their own teaching. They have a long way to go to overcome the traditional Armenian school system and attitudes, but they are highly motivated to continue the study of CL. We hope to have positive reports on the future stages of this pioneering project.

Aleksan Hovhannisyan can be reached at aleksanh@yahoo.com

and Vesa Purokuru, at vesa.purokuro@humap.com.