NewsWhore
11-30-2010, 04:40 PM
Pre-first grade to fourth grade textbooks that were substantially modified with the creation of an integrated text and announced by the Ministry of Education as the great new item for the 2010-2011 school year are still the subject of fierce debate.
The Minister of Education, Melanio Paredes, and the team of specialists that worked on the preparation of the text say that the teachers were correctly trained for working with the books and the teaching guides from the start with more than 40 hours of instruction. Nevertheless, a large number of teachers consulted by Diario Libre said that the training that they received was not sufficient. They described it as "fast-track training", and some teachers went as far as saying that many of the questions that they asked during training were not answered by the trainers. Paredes admitted that the process had been rushed.
Interviewed on the Hoy Mismo TV program, Paredes assured the audience that the integrated text was not an improvisation but the result of a year and a half's work that included a discussion phase with national, regional, school district specialists and school principals, teachers and specialists in each area. He said that they were not considering changing the curriculum, nor have they eliminated the official texts, but rather they are promoting a change in focus. In a diagnosis of the text, academic Maria Virtudes Nunez Fidalgo found that the teachers say that they feel impotent when faced by some of the materials that were not conceived for the needs of the Dominican student and that during the workshops they did not really tell them how to use them. In response to this observation, the Minister of Education said that the lack of confidence has arisen because the material lacks the technological resources, including videos that will be ready by February and March 2011.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)
The Minister of Education, Melanio Paredes, and the team of specialists that worked on the preparation of the text say that the teachers were correctly trained for working with the books and the teaching guides from the start with more than 40 hours of instruction. Nevertheless, a large number of teachers consulted by Diario Libre said that the training that they received was not sufficient. They described it as "fast-track training", and some teachers went as far as saying that many of the questions that they asked during training were not answered by the trainers. Paredes admitted that the process had been rushed.
Interviewed on the Hoy Mismo TV program, Paredes assured the audience that the integrated text was not an improvisation but the result of a year and a half's work that included a discussion phase with national, regional, school district specialists and school principals, teachers and specialists in each area. He said that they were not considering changing the curriculum, nor have they eliminated the official texts, but rather they are promoting a change in focus. In a diagnosis of the text, academic Maria Virtudes Nunez Fidalgo found that the teachers say that they feel impotent when faced by some of the materials that were not conceived for the needs of the Dominican student and that during the workshops they did not really tell them how to use them. In response to this observation, the Minister of Education said that the lack of confidence has arisen because the material lacks the technological resources, including videos that will be ready by February and March 2011.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)