Productivity through knowledge sharing
ALL PROFESSIONS are groomed and moulded by the prowess of educators who are knowledgeable in their respective fields and skilled in knowledge transfer. On May 9, Jamaica celebrated our nation’s teachers, thanking them for dedicating their life’s service to shaping the lives of others through knowledge building, as well as assisting in the honing and mastery of skills.
The Information and Communication Unit of the Jamaica Productivity Centre (JPC), along with partners LASCO Distributors, decided to acknowledge the valuable contributions of teachers in a different way. We visited one of the island’s teachers’ colleges and celebrated with the lecturers as well as students who are on their final leg before transitioning into the classroom. We went to Bethlehem Moravian College – one of the oldest teaching institutions in Jamaica – located in Malvern, St Elizabeth.
Lecturers, final-year, and firstyear students, along with representatives from the JPC and LASCO Distributors engaged in a two-hour knowledge trade rap session. JPC shared information gathered from the in-school productivity campaign all-island tours pertaining to what currently affects the productivity and performance levels of students and various tools and concepts that can be imparted to assist with alleviating these problems. The lecturers and teachers-in-training, in turn, shared new learning, teaching and coping techniques that are currently being taught in teacher-training institutions which, they believed, would be valuable to teachers who have been in the classroom for a long time and are not yet familiar or aware of these new techniques.
From trainers to trainers, here are some of the noteworthy tips and suggestions given by faculty members in the Education, and Language and Communication departments of Bethlehem Moravian College:
ROLE PLAYING
“Role playing is very important because they get to feel a part of the learning process. They may not grasp all the information from the teacher, but having their colleagues role-playing the concept will better enable them to be immersed in the content. Also, it is to mix learning with entertainment because we do realise that children learn differently. This mix is known as ‘learn-tertainment’ and incorporates the use of videos, music and art.”
– Francine Burton Salmon
LEARNING STYLES
“Know the characteristics and learning styles of your students and try to understand their background. This will help you to determine the best approach or the best mix of approaches in order to achieve the most positive results.”
– Charmaine James-Miles
HANDS-ON SIMULATION
“Hands-on simulation is very important as well as helping them to develop an aptitude for research. Teachers should invest in helping their students to determine appropriate referencing materials as well as crafting proper search terms that will yield correct results when using online resources.”
– Dr Koreen Duncan
VIRTUAL TOUR
“Field trips are good but seem to be an expensive venture for some schools, so an alternative measure is for them to ask persons from the various industries to come in and talk with students. A virtual tour of facilities can also be arranged.”
– Dr Abriline Scott