(posted on Saturday, August 04, 2007)

School of Education part of 5-year USAID project

Seven Indiana University School of Education professors are in Macedonia this week to help promote modern teaching methods in math and science. The professors are taking part in a five-day workshop through Thursday with government officials, teachers, and other educational leaders in the country. They will be working on training instructors to conduct workshops with Macedonian science and math teachers.

 “These educators are anxious to think more deeply about investigative approaches to teaching,” said Diana Lambdin, Armstrong chair in teacher education, and a part of a team led by project director Terry Mason, associate professor in curriculum and instruction. “Their aim is to be able to deliver better math and science instruction in their middle schools and eventually to score better on international tests,” Lambdin said.

The team includes Frank Lester, Chancellor’s Professor of Mathematics Education, Charles Barman, professor of science and environmental education at IUPUI, Natalie Barman, clinical lecturer in the department of teacher education at IUPUI, Robert Helfenbein, assistant professor of teacher education at IUPUI, and Jeff Nowak, assistant professor of science education at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

The project is one Mason describes as a “culminating” effort for the USAID in Macedonia. “They’ve had a number of initiatives going on there for the last couple of decades,” he said, particularly noting education efforts. Indiana University has had a Macedonia linkage program since 2002. The USAID awarded IU and the Indiana Consortium for International Programs a three-year grant in 2004 to work with a new university. This School of Education team made an initial trip to Macedonia in December. “This project is a great example of how our faculty is impacting education throughout the world,” said Gerardo M. Gonzalez, university dean of the Indiana University School of Education. 

This project is focused on Macedonia’s “middle grades,” particularly addressing needs for building renovation, academic assessment, and technology. The IU team will focus on the math and science teaching needs. “The aim will be to provide professional development for math and science teaching for all of the teachers in Macedonia who teach in these middle grades,” Mason said.

Reform of the Macedonian education system is particularly important for the country which is planning to join the European Union. “They have to do some things to convince the European Union that they ought to be allowed in,” said Lester. “And part of that is making sure they have a 21st century education system.”

The IU team will work on convincing teachers to adjust educational styles that still rely on a teacher-centered model traditionally used in the former communist states. Traditionally, Macedonian middle schools break down the sciences into very specific disciplines, teaching them on very specific days and times. For instance, teachers may present physics in two 45 minute sessions per week and do the same for chemistry. “We’re trying to introduce the idea of some integrated science,” said Natalie Barman. “The world doesn’t exist in those discrete pieces.”

The work is challenging in no small part because of the language barrier. The professors say they will be working through translators, slowing up the progress they could normally make in a five-day session. And Macedonia is a very poor nation, with unemployment over 35 percent and more than a quarter of the population living below the poverty line. So teaching methods must incorporate low-cost solutions. “Everything we’re doing is with very inexpensive materials,” said Charlie Barman, noting plans for a lot of “kitchen chemistry,” such as experiments using salt and sugar. He notes, though, that such an effort isn’t that unusual in many poor districts of the United States.

Although the group isn’t planning another trip to Macedonia, IU instructors will continue to consult with the teachers through internet teleconferencing. This week they’ll demonstrate technology to allow face-to-face meetings online. “We could even visit a workshop that they were giving, and observe it firsthand,” Lambdin said.

Media Outlets:  the following comments are available as mp3 files on the IU School of Education Website at http://education.indiana.edu/audio.html .

Lambdin speaks about the goals of the program to train Macedonian teachers:
“These educators are anxious to think more deeply about investigative approaches to teaching. They have revised their curriculum in their country. They have a group looking at assessment. Their aim is to be able to deliver better math and science instruction in their middle schools and eventually to score better on international tests so they can join the European Union. And so our mission is to provide advice for their teacher educators and others who will do workshops with teachers in the country about inquiry-based instruction, or problem-based learning.”

Lambdin says the project begins with this visit, but continues afterwards with the use of technology:br /> “Where we can visit with them and talk to them face to face while staying here in Bloomington. So we haven’t at this point planned another actual trip. That may come about. But part of this workshop will be to demonstrate how we can keep in touch, how we could even, for example, visit a workshop that they were giving, and observe it firsthand.”

Mason says this is the beginning of a multi-year project:
“We’ll also be keeping in touch with them afterwards. It is a five-year project. The idea is that we would do this initial five-day workshop to give them the foundation to do this, and then we’re going to find means of keeping in contact and providing support for them as they continue to carry this out through the teachers around the country.”

Mason says Macedonia is a very poor nation, and as a result, teaching methods must involve inexpensive methods:
“One of the challenges of this project is for us to offer teaching methods that don’t rely on expensive equipment or materials, so that you can do science and math things with basic things you can find in everyday life, even there.”

Lester says the teaching project is part of an overall Macedonian effort to join the EU:
“They have to do some things to convince the European Union that they ought to be allowed in. And part of that is making sure they have a 21st century educational system. That’s part of the thinking of this project is to re-tool their educational system, revamp their educational system in a way that will make them more in line with trends and developments, interestingly, in the rest of Europe, at least, if not the United States.”

For More Information, Contact:

Chuck Carney
Director of Communications and Media Relations
Office:  (812) 856-8027
ccarney@indiana.edu