The lesson study, a continuing education opportunity for Burkinabe teachers

In 2018, during the first edition of the workshop "capitalizing on the achievements of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)'s knowledge co-creation program organized in partnership with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Capitalization Directorate of the Ministry of National Education, Literacy and Promotion of National Languages (MENAPLN), a group of pedagogical supervisors, former trainees of the JICA, shared their experience of adapting a Japanese approach to in-service teacher education called the "lesson study" (LS) approach. Based on the practice of this approach in some schools in the Central and Central Plateau regions, the group presented the conclusive results of the approach and showed the enthusiasm it arouses among teachers who find in it an appropriate framework of self-training allowing them to improve their pedagogical practices in the absence of pedagogical animation groups. The Directorate of Educational Supervision and pre-service and in-service Training (DEPFIC) of MENAPLN then takes the option to promote this approach among pedagogical supervisors and teachers who wish to engage in it voluntarily to contribute to the improvement of the quality of education.

First, five training sessions are organized with the technical and financial support of JICA and have helped to strengthen the capacities of two hundred and seven (207) pedagogical coaches, including sixteen (16) trainers of the National Institute for Training of Education Personnel (INFPE). Following this, with funding from MENAPLN, sixty-eight (68) other pedagogical coaches, sixty (60) from the Basic Education Districts and eight (08) from the Technical Directorate are trained by DEPFIC.

During these different training sessions, the beneficiaries were given the task, once back in their Basic education districts (CEB), of identifying one or two pilot schools to multiply the training with the teachers of the said schools and start the implementation of the approach.

Thus, from 2019 to 2022, the extension of the LS approach was initiated by the DEPFIC according to the following strategy:

Monitoring/supervision outputs of the implementation of the approach were then conducted to identify the achievements of the approach and gather suggestions for improving its implementation.

During these visits to the pilot schools putting the lesson study into practice, interviews with the practising teachers revealed the following achievements:

In addition to these achievements, however, there are some difficulties related to the lack of control of the approach by some teachers in pilot schools, hence the need to provide them with a capacity building that will enable them to better understand the approach.

A training session of about fifty teachers from pilot schools was then organized from 20 to 24 February 2023 by the DEPFIC with the financial and technical support of JICA to enable these actors to equip themselves in order to disseminate the approach effectively in their schools and be LS reference schools for the surrounding schools. Specifically, the objectives of this training session were to enable teachers to:

The work was carried out in the form of communication, group work, video viewing and simulation sessions.

The trainers M Donatien DAMBRE and M Alexandre YAMEOGO spoke to the participants about the different contours of the EL and answered all their questions about the approach during the five days of training. In the evaluation, more than 90% of participants were satisfied with the opportunity given to them to build their capacities. The participants made a commitment to Mrs Habibata TONE, Director of DEPFIC present during the session, to redouble efforts in the implementation of the approach a lesson study with the aim of improving the quality of education.

Kaliguetta OUIBGA
Chargé de Programme Education/Santé