The Millennium Challenge Account – Georgia’s “Teacher and School Director Professional Development Project” implemented by the Teacher Professional Development Center, has started the first stage of the long-term training course for non-Georgian school teachers.

The training aims at improving the quality of teaching and learning in schools. The training has already been attended by more than 1500 teachers of exact and natural sciences, geography and English language of 7-12 grades of Akhalkalaki, Akhaltsikhe, Ninotsminda, Bolnisi, Dmanisi, Gardabani and Marneuli schools.

The teacher training is implemented within the first module of the course of general professional skills "Student-oriented learning environment".

The module has been developed by local and international consultants based on teacher needs and is the first stage of the long term course of teacher professional development within the project.

The trainings are conducted by Azerbaijani and Armenian trainers who have passed trainer certification course in Georgian language and the training materials have been translated in Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani languages.

It is the first time when such a large-scale professional development course will be offered to ethnic minority teachers as well as school directors.

In 2017-2019 certified trainers will train 2069 teachers of Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, Geography and English Language of 7-12 grades and 208 school directors of all non-Georgian schools across the country.

Teachers will be trained in general professional skills as well as a particular subject methodology. Knowledge and skills acquired at the trainings will enable teachers to make the learning process more fun, interactive and related to real life as well as tailor it to the requirements and interests of the XXI century student.

The current training will help participants identify the characteristics of the student-oriented learning environment, consider the factors necessary to create such environment and learn about the necessary strategies for achieving the above goal. The training aims to introduce to the participants the aspects that motivate students, demonstrate the need for prior knowledge activation and considering learners’ individual characteristics, give teachers the opportunity to realize the need of adherence to the principles of equality in the learning process.

The approaches and methods provided for in the module will allow participants to conduct the learning process for development of high level thinking skills among students, improvement of their knowledge and development of practical skills. The module also aims to integrate information-communication technologies into the learning and teaching process.

Millennium Challenge Account – Georgia’s “Teacher and School Director Professional Development Project" is implemented by LEPL National Center for Teacher Professional Development, with the financial support of Millennium Challenge Corporation and in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia.