Gates Malaria Partnership

GATES MALARIA PARTNERSHIP

TRAINING WORKSHOP ON CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Centre For Innovation Against Malaria

Banjul, The Gambia

5-6th August 2004

Course Report

Ayo Palmer CIAM

Angela Dawson GMP

Table of Contents

Summary of Course

Course Learning Outcomes

Day 1

Day 2

Participant evaluation......

Facilitator evaluation

Annexes

List of course participants

Summary of Course Participants Feedback

Timetable of Course

Analysis of Expenditure

Summary of Course

In May 2004, CIAM received a request from Dr Amabelia Rodrigues, a Gates Research Fellow based in Guinea Bissau to run a refresher course on developing training curricula for community based groups such as caregivers of children under 5 years.

Three participants from Guinea Bissau attended the two-day training workshop on developing training curriculum, teaching and learning materials. The course took place between 5-6th August 2004 in the training facility of the NMCP/CIAM complex in Banjul. The course was conducted in English with simultaneous translation into Portuguese Creole. Prior to the workshop course materials were translated from English into Portuguese with funding from WHO.

The aim of the course was to assist the participants to develop education and training programmes that are innovative, effective and educationally sound. The course facilitators were the Director of CIAM, Ayo Palmer and Angela Dawson, the GMP Education Advisor.

Course Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course the participants were expected to be able to:

1. Describe the components of curriculum development
2. Identify learner needs
3. Refine learning outcomes
4. Demonstrate structure and sequence in a learning programme
5. Match teaching and learning strategies to course content
6. Match assessment strategies to course content
7. Plan educationally sound learning interactions
8. Plan quality teaching and learning materials

The course was designed to be interactive and practical. Following the presentation of concepts, examples were provided from a Community Health Care Nurse course designed and implemented by CIAM. This was followed by activities designed to assist the participants to apply the concepts within a course that they are developing for mothers.

Day 1

On the first day, the components of curriculum development were introduced step by step. To assist the participants to both understand and learn by doing, the participants were encouraged to select a training programme that they would like to design as part of the training course. A training curriculum for mothers based in two villages in the northern region of Guinea Bissau was selected. These villages are part of the project site for the testing of the delivery of rectal artesunate, a research project funded by WHO and coordinated by Dr Rodrigues.

The participants were taken through the instructional design cycle, issues related to the purpose of learning, the characteristics of adult learners and the design and selection of effective assessment approaches. The process of crafting learning outcomes was started.

Participants and facilitators working on the first day. ©CIAM, 2004

Day 2

The learning outcomes that were previously selected were refined. Further concepts of sequencing and the learning pyramid were introduced and discussed. The participants were introduced to a variety of teaching and learning materials based on the example of the CHN course.

They were then assisted to identify ideas for teaching and learning materials that could be used in their course. The day finally concluded with an introduction on the evaluation of training courses.

Participants at work. ©CIAM, 2004

Participant evaluation

On the final day of the course the participants evaluated the course. The evaluation took the form of a de-briefing session and a review of whether or not expectations, which had been previously outlined individually on day 1, had been met. The assessment by the participants of the extent to which their expectations were realised is summarised in the Annexes.

A summary is provided below of the views expressed by the participants during the de-briefing session.

All the participants considered the course useful. They felt confident that they would be able to deliver a similar course to other health workers in Guinea Bissau. In particular the course had assisted them to reflect more deeply on the design of training courses for non-literate groups at community level given that their experience to date had been in the formal education sector. This was highlighted by one of the participants below:

“We are used to designing training programmes in the formal sector. If we had not attended this course we would have used the same approach. Now we will do it differently…”

In general, given the scope of the course content, the participants felt that the duration was short. and should be extended for future courses. They also suggested that CIAM should continue to offer such courses to other trainers from Guinea Bissau.

Facilitator evaluation

The facilitators considered the course a success both in terms of the approach used which resulted in the active participation of all the participants and the outputs of the participants. The small number of participants was ideal given the linguistic constraint and it also allowed for a more intensive hand on approach. Capacity has also been built within CIAM to deliver similar courses in the future.

Recommendations

For future courses the following issues should be take into account.

Course follow-up

Continued support among facilitators and participants should be provided through regular communication. The outline of the training courses that are designed and delivered by the participants should be shared with the facilitators. Consideration should be given to convening a feedback session either in Guinea Bissau or The Gambia.

Modification of course

Consideration would be given to including more information on evaluation of the impact of training courses.

Duration of Course

Future courses should be extended to 4 days to allow for flexibility in meeting the needs of the participants.

Annexes

List of course participants

Summary of Course Participants Feedback

Timetable of Course

Day 1 : Thursday 5th August

Day 2 : Friday 6th August

Analysis of Expenditure

TOTAL

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