Second Group Training

I would like to apologize for not posting a blog last week. I was so busy with a second group of secondary science teachers who came to me to request the technology education professional development (TEPD) I was delivered with the first group.
In one of my previous blogs, I stated that I was very disappointed because more than 50 teachers registered to attend the TEPD sessions, but only 20 of them showed up. I reported this situation to my dissertation committee members. Some of them told me that it would be interesting to investigate the reasons of defection of most of the teachers to the training. Although this concern was not included in my research questions, I decided to interview some educational officials of our Ministry of Education.
Among many reasons that I collected, the main one was the fact that the training I was providing was not formal; meaning the training was neither ordered nor supported by any direction of the Ministry of Education. Therefore, as I am doing an internship at the National Institute of Research and training in Education (INFRE), I asked for an administrative letter to be sent to secondary school principals. The letter requires principals to invite and to encourage their physical science teachers to attend the TEPD sessions. The conditions required by the director of the institute were to provide meals and training materials as I did for the first group. The impact of the letter was tremendous. In fact, before the end of the fourth sessions that I was offering, thirty other teachers came to me willing to attend the TEPD sessions. I completed the four sessions of the training with this second group within two weeks. Indeed, I started the training on March 28th and ended up on April 7th. Like I said in a previous blog, the teachers I am working with were only available during holidays. Therefore, I took advantage of the Easter break to work with this second group.

The sessions went fine and these group 2 members also participated enthusiastically to the different activities and discussions. Some of them proposed other means to make the artifacts different from the ones that I suggested. In total, considering both groups, 51 participants took the pre test and 41 took the posttest.
Next week I will talk either about my first class observations or about issues hindering students’ achievement in my country (my personal reflections).

The last sessions of the training

The technology education professional development (TEPD) implemented in the scope of my dissertation data collection finished up with the fourth session last Thursday. The two last sessions took place on March 25 and 27, 2008. During the third session, 23 participants and I talked about technology education and technological pedagogical content knowledge. Teachers learned the technological process of teaching technology education to students. During that same session they designed and made two instruments of music: a drum and a guitar. As stipulated in the curriculum, both instruments were made with materials available in the country.

The fourth session was devoted to the evaluation of the technological process of designing and making artifacts and the evaluation of the technological object. The 19 secondary school science teachers who showed up reviewed the competencies (disciplinary and transversal) included in their curriculum that teachers are required to develop while teaching technology education to kids; they discussed in small groups of 3 or 4 about the rubrics for evaluating the technological process and based on some criteria provided by the researcher, they evaluated the drums that they made two days ago. Like I said in one of my blogs, the making of the liquid thermometer was not an easy task because of diverse problems related to the dilatation of the liquid and the materials to be used. Therefore, instead of wasting their time to try to make that object, teachers proposed different approaches to make it. Because of the difficulties of making the liquid thermometer, many participants suggested that curriculum developers test the feasibility of the artifact before including it in the curriculum. At the end of the day, the researcher administered to the participants his two instruments (TETEBI instrument and Technology Awareness instrument) as post tests, he encouraged the participants to write their journal right on the spot, and finally, he administered the daily evaluation.

Overall, the sessions went well despite the defection of many teachers. Those who attended the TEPD sessions participated eagerly. They demonstrated their interest to learn the content of technology education and how to teach it to students. Through different speeches, teachers expressed their gratitude to the researcher for offering this training encompassing a theoretical part (different lectures) and a practical part (sharing the expertise in making the artifacts and providing with the materials utilized) and also for providing meals to the participants. The TEPD being one part of the data collection, during the next weeks, the researcher will implement class observations (as post test) aided by selected teachers in order to check whether or not the participating teachers are applying in their respective classroom what they learned.

Pictures: 1- One participant playing a guitar that he mane; 2-Teachers making a guitar; 3- The participants are having good time with their instruments

Illicit sale of gasoline in Benin: A dangerous business

In my first blog, I mentioned that during my stay, I will be writing about my research and some issues related to my country. After talking about the meeting time in Benin, here is another issue. Please free to email me if you need more information or if you have questions regarding these subjects I am writing about.
A dangerous business that has developed over the years since the nineties is the illicit sale of gasoline in every street and city of my country Benin. The common reasons raised by those practicing this business are the increase of unemployment and the excessive price of gasoline at gas stations.

Indeed, at the beginning of the nineties, because of economic difficulties, the government was unable to provide jobs; thus, many graduates without jobs or those laid off started this business. The gasoline came from Nigeria, a frontier country of Benin at almost no cost through smuggling. It is sold in every street and home. It is common to see someone selling the illicit gas near a regular gas station (in the pictures, some vendors' stalls).
Also, the increase of gasoline at gas pumps has encouraged this business. The difference between both prices is often at least the equivalent of a quarter. Therefore, almost everybody prefers to purchase gas in black market to save some cents or dollars. In addition, whenever there is a shortage of this product at the gas pumps, these dealers are ready to serve with a little increase.
Despite governmental authorities’ actions to stop the sale, this business is everyday expending (it is also expending to other Benin frontier countries such as Togo). In fact, it is a prosperous business, solving the unemployment problem and helping those who cannot afford gas at the pump. However, the problems caused by this illicit commerce are multiple. First, it is causing health problems to the sellers, because of the way the gas is transported and sold. Sellers are always inhaling the liquid. Second, the sellers’ life is always in danger because of the multiple fires recorded every week in the country originated by the storing up of the product. Finally, the use of this kind of gas is causing an environmental problem. Indeed, it is demonstrated that the gas that is sold contains a high percentage of lead, causing air pollution when it is used in cars and motorcycles, and people’s health problems.

Working with Instructors

I would like to apologize for the delay of this blog. It was written about a week ago. But because of electricity shortage and lack of internet connection in the capital city, I was unable to upload it. Indeed, for some reasons I could not explain, it is hard sometimes to get internet connection in my country. Today, I am lucky to upload my message; so enjoy it.
As I am meeting with my participating teachers in a few weeks for two other sessions (March 25th and 27th), I decided to discuss with the instructors topics related to the rest of the training. Two high school teachers and one technology teacher and I were working on the different sessions since the beginning of the technology education professional development. Each session of the professional development has two parts: a theoretical part and a practical part. In the scope of these two coming sessions, we met twice and worked on the presentations and three artifacts (two sound instruments and a liquid thermometer) teachers will make during the next sessions. The theoretical part of the two sessions will deal with technological pedagogical content knowledge and how to evaluate students’ artifacts. Essentially, we will be discussing about how to teach technology education based on the technological process stipulated in Benin secondary school science curriculum and we will design rubrics which will help teachers to assess students’ works. A Guitar and a drum are the two sound instruments teachers will be making. After discussion, we realized that the later instruments will be easy for teachers to make, whereas the liquid thermometer will be the most difficult to make, because of the concerns related to the dilatation of the liquid. For our next meeting (March 12th), we all decided to find ideas to how to make that artifact easy for teachers to construct with not complicated equipment.
We also made class observations as pre tests in order to investigate how secondary school science teachers are teaching the technology portion of the curriculum in their classroom. As I mentioned in my dissertation proposal, most of them were not teaching technology in their class for the reasons I already pointed out in the same document. However, those who were teaching chapters dealing with technology brought up some difficulties including their lack of veritable content knowledge, the lack of teaching materials, etc. It was notified in the curriculum that students should utilize materials in their environment to make their artifacts, but some of those materials are sold or could not be found easily.
I would like to thank those who are reading my blogs. I will be delighted to enlighten any question or topic related to my dissertation. Certainly, having your perspectives will be helpful. So, please feel free to send me your questions.

Meeting time in Benin: A cultural phenomenon

I know my last blog was a little boring, because dealing with problems related to my data collection. That’s why in this one I will tell you about a different matter. I remember in my first blog saying that I will inform about my research and some issues of my country as well. What I called “Meeting time: a cultural phenomenon” is a happening people will notice while travelling in some countries in Africa especially in the republic of Benin. This phenomenon is related to how people consider a meeting time or a time certain people agree upon for a meeting. It is common to hear in Benin while two or more people are setting up a time for a rendezvous or a meeting: Is it a Beninese time or a French time (Benin has been colonized by France and is a French-speaking country)? A French time means the exact time they agree upon; whereas a Beninese time means an hour or an hour and half after the exact time they agree upon. This practice is so engraved in people’s mind; consequently people will show up an hour or more after the scheduled time. This does not mean that people will be late for their work or when they are meeting an important authority or person. However, it is common place to notice this situation when it is a group meeting or when two friends are meeting.
Aware of this fact in Benin people’s habits, I told teachers I will be working with, that we will start the training at 8:00 AM, knowing perfectly that the opening of the activities is at 9:00 AM. So, whenever an African friend especially a Beninese friend is late at one of your rendezvous, do not be disappointed. He is probably using his home country time.

Disappointment

I am so disappointed and annoyed because among more than 50 teachers who originally registered and agreed to participate in the training, only 23 of them showed up for the first session and about 20 for the second. However, despite this defection, the sessions went very well. The teachers who attended the sessions – held in one of the biggest high schools of the capital city Porto-Novo – participated actively in the different activities.
During the first session (Tuesday 19, 2008), we discussed in the morning, issues related to science and technology, the differences and relationships between both concepts. Early in the afternoon, teachers made the first object included in the physical science and technology curriculum of middle schools in Benin: an electrolysis apparatus. The last activity of the day was the “Exploration on the Internet.” Internet connection fees were paid for teachers to search information related to teaching technology education. The topic discussed in the morning of the second session (Friday 22, 2008) was tilted: Why teach technology. Different perspectives were provided pertaining to the impacts of technology education on Benin secondary school students. Obstacles related to teaching of the subject matter were listed by the participants. In the afternoon, after reviewing their first object made on Tuesday, teachers started making the second: an electric current detector. The session ended with the daily evaluation. Two other sessions have been scheduled for Easter break (March 25 and 27). I hope that they will come.

Training about 50 teachers is one of the purposes of my data collection. I am very confused regarding what to do after getting this little number of participating teachers. Anyway, I already emailed my committee members about the difficulties encountered on the ground. One suggestion that I made was whether or not I should replicate the training in another province.

Return to my home country, Benin

More than three weeks that I left Kent to return back to my home country Benin to perform the data collection of my dissertation. After being away for more than a year, it was hard for me to adjust quickly. Indeed, it was snowing hard on Kent when I left on January 22, 2008 in the morning. I landed in Cotonou, Benin the next day at 1:50 PM (local time) in a hot and humid climate. The temperature was around 40oC. Because of that heat and the ambient pollution, I have been sick for a week. I know this is strange. Being a native of Benin which is located in West Africa, with a tropical climate, I can hardly stand the heat. Sometimes, I wish I could wear a short and T-shirt; but this is not our common clothing, especially grown people’s outfit. Now that I am recovered and that I started my research, I could send a few words every now and then related to my research and talked about some issues concerning my home country. Quickly, let me explain why I chose “Squirrel in Benin.” First, squirrel is an animal found everywhere in the south and the center of the country. Also, our national teams’ name is “Squirrels;” and second, the first things that I noticed when I arrived at Kent State University in 2001 are the squirrels especially the black ones. Therefore, because of this common animal that Kent State University and Benin cherished, I took the nickname “Squirrel in Benin.”


Now, allow me to talk about my background. I was a certified high school physical science teacher. After teaching for about 12 years, I had the opportunity in 2001 to go the United States to complete my Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction (Science Education). I returned back to Benin in 2004 where I worked with secondary school inspectors before returning to the US in 2005 to start the Ph.D program in Curriculum. My research has a double purpose: a practical purpose and a research purpose. The practical purpose is to design a technology education professional development for secondary school teachers in Benin. Through this, teachers will learn technology education content knowledge and the pedagogical content knowledge. The research purpose will consist of testing the participating teachers’ self efficacy and their technology education awareness. Presently, I am contacting the educational authorities of my country in order apply for internship in our National Institute for Research and Training in Education called INFRE and to get permission to work with the targeted teachers. The training will probably start in a few weeks.

See you in a few days.