Jirashen School Visit

Today all the TEFL trainees were able to visit an A22 volunteer, Hannah, at her site in the village of Jirashen. Jirashen is a small village, with a single school, which bravely volunteered to host all of the trainees for a day. We each observed two classes: a class taught in the traditional Armenian fashion, and a second class co-taught by Hannah and her counterpart, employing some of the techniques the Peace Corps and the Armenian Ministry of Education hope we as volunteers will help introduce into the school systems here. 

The first lesson I observed was Hannah and her counterpart co-teaching a group of 5th graders. I didn't appreciate how progressive their lesson was until I observed the second lesson of the day, taught in the traditional Armenian fashion. 

Most of the teachers in Armenia today were students during the Solviet era in Armenia- during that time, the prevailing theory of education was the "empty vessel" approach to teaching: students were expected to sit silently, hands folded on their desks, and simple soak up the knowledge that the teacher bestowed upon them. This knowledge was tested by having students recite their teachers lectures back to them. Since this is the way that many of the teachers were themselves taught when they were students, it makes sense that this is the approach that many of them bring to the classrooms as teachers today. 

The traditional lesson we observed was definitely taught in this style: students were called individually to the front of the classroom, and tasked with reciting long passages from their textbooks. If a student made an error over a single word, or even hesitated for more than a second or two, the teacher would jump in and make a correction- sometimes she didn't even wait for the student to make a mistake, when it became clear that a student was struggling, the teacher would just start reciting the text and the student would do their best to keep up. 

All of this really highlighted for us why the PC and the Armenian MOE want us to focus not only on teaching students English, but also on helping teachers to incorporate more interactive approaches within their own teaching. The problem with this is that I feel woefully under qualified for such a job. I really don't know how three months of training can take the place of something that usually takes several years of study in which to earn a degree.

But, let's set those concerns aside for now- there isn't really much I can do about them at the moment anyway. It was incredibly generous of Hannah to host us all at her school- and really brave of the teachers there to submit themselves to such scrutiny. In Armenia, it is almost unheard of to have other teachers truly observe one's class: instead, teachers have what are called "open lesson" days, where they will present a lesson that they have pre-taught the students earlier in the week and other teachers can observe everything gong well in the classroom. To be able to watch a classroom of students encounter material for the first time is a rare opportunity, and one that shouldn't be taken for granted.