Why the TEPATE project?
School enrolment rates in Mozambique have improved considerably over the last decade. Unfortunately, school completion rates and learning outcomes have not improved at the same pace. The Theory-Practice Balance in Teacher Education Project aims at improving the quality and relevance of initial teacher training at the Mozambican partner HEIs and by so doing, support the efforts of the Mozambican government to improve the overall quality of education in the country.
How?
Teaching is a profession that requires theory-based pedagogical thinking incorporated into everyday actions of a teacher. This means that teachers are required to master both theoretical knowledge and research based-approaches as well as practical skills. In Mozambique, teacher education at the moment is regarded excessively theoretical, not providing graduating teachers with sufficient pedagogical skills to apply learner-centred pedagogy in practice. The TEPATE Project focuses on enhancing the theory-practice balance of teacher education at the Mozambican partner HEIs.
Our approach
The expected outcome of the project is increased capacity of the Mozambique partner HEIs to develop and deliver teacher education that provides teacher trainees with better skills to apply learner-centred pedagogy in practice. Besides academic teacher training, the TEPATE project also targets the non-academic teachers of the country by providing them with in-service training materials, as well as selected school managers in order to support the rooting of new pedagogical practices on a school level.