Teachers from some of the best schools in the country have urged their colleagues to embrace “peer learning” in order to learn from each other, improve teaching skills, but also give feedback about conducted class lessons, to make them better in the future.
Peer learning is the process where students or colleagues learn with and from each other. This is usually facilitated through teaching and learning activities such as student–led lessons, study groups, peer-to-peer learning partnerships, and group work.
Teachers made peer learning observations during EdTech Monday, on November 1, 2021 via KT radio.
EdTech Monday Rwanda is a Mastercard Foundation and ICT Chamber initiative that aims to spark the EdTech Ecosystem in Rwanda. The initiative brings together EdTech stakeholders, including EdTech entrepreneurs, Education, and technology policymakers, and EdTech consumers to discuss how to tap into the power of technology to increase learning outcomes.
EdTech Monday Rwanda discussions take place on KT Radio every last Monday of the month and the participating audience differs depending on the topic of the day.
This month, the discussions centered on “teachers: leading in crisis, reimagining the future.”
Teachers included Callixte Gatera, from Fawe Girls School, Justine Manishimwe from Maranyundo Girls School, and Jean Damascene Musonera from Gashora Girls Academy.
“Where there is a will, there is a way. Information is everywhere, on the internet teachers can always research and see the way things are elsewhere, in other schools, or how their colleague’s work. If a teacher has no lessons, he/she can attend the lessons conducted by colleagues to learn from, but also give them feedback on how it can be done better, in the future,” Musonera said.
“Learning from each other is important, this is something I learnt from Gashora school and it can be implemented elsewhere. Teachers of these days should not teach as they were taught. If we don’t adjust to the best and current way of teaching, we are spoiling the future of our children.”
Peer learning isn’t just for students at school or college. Workmates can learn from each other through a peer-to-peer organization.
“Peer learning is specific evidence-based instructional strategy that is well-known and widely used, particularly in physics. In fact, peer instruction has been advocated as a part of best methods in science classes,” Henderson Dancy, an American researcher said in his research published in 2007.
