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19 Jun 2009 14:55:06
Life will never mean the same for staff and students from the University of Bedfordshire’s Faculty of Education and Sport after their nine-day trip to Malawi.
They were involved in delivering a Physical Education professional development training course to local teachers.
The nine-strong team, which was led by former student Michelle Rowe, also comprised current members of staff Paul Sammon and Mark Bowler, recently retired Dean Kate Jacques and her husband Roger Woods, a former HMI Inspector of Schools, together with final year PE students Michelle Cole, Alex Calcasola and Mark Loosemore and Students’ Union president-elect Julie Sadlier.
Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, has free primary education but in the rural schools where the project took place, there are often between 120-140 children in a class, with no desks.
In desperately overcrowded conditions, children sit and work on the floor. Teaching resources for PE are also extremely limited and many primary school teachers in the rural areas, where most Malawians live, are untrained.
SU president-elect Julie Sadlier said: “The trip to Malawi has changed my life in many ways. It has opened my eyes to a whole host of things that I took for granted and made me appreciate how much I have.
“Travelling and working with the teachers from Malawi was fantastic and has inspired me to pursue a career in teaching PE.”
The visit was made possible by fundraising activities that went on throughout the year and by the willingness of staff and students to use their expertise and time to create a professional development course tailored to the Malawian teachers’ needs.
The project aims were to:
* Demonstrate good practice in teaching and learning.
* Facilitate the delivery of more diverse activities in the curriculum.
* Develop the range teaching and learning strategies used by teachers.
* Illustrate the importance of health, hygiene and diet to the teachers and the benefits of physical activity.
Project leader Michelle Rowe said: “It was a pleasure to lead such a motivated team of professionals from the University and I feel very proud that the training we delivered will help to enhance, encourage and promote Physical Education in Malawi.”
The main PE activities delivered during the programme were athletics, games, gymnastics, health and outdoor and adventurous activities.
Each of these was enthusiastically received and this was reflected in the positive evaluations completed by more than 100 teachers who attended the intensive four-day course.
They appreciated the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and understanding of PE as the majority had little, if any, prior training in this curriculum area.
Kate and Roger held productive meetings at three teacher training colleges and the British Council with a view to establishing future partnerships and gaining access to sustainable funding to further develop this project.
For more information about the Malawi Project, contact Michelle Rowe at lizulu@hotmail.co.uk or Mark Bowler at mark.bowler@beds.ac.uk
Latest news» 2009» June» Life-changing experiences in Africa
