Sharing and comparing teaching methodologies

Teachers from Tarxien Primary C joined Irish and Norwegian counterparts in Durham, England, as part of a Comenius project to share and compare teaching methodologies with the aim of meeting all pupils' needs in mainstream schools.

Bernardina Schembri and Joan Mercieca visited the Crook Primary School which has just over 300 pupils. Two years ago, this school was allocated a special budget to change it into a technological school, so besides the classroom computers it's also equipped with a laptop that pupils can take home on loan, video conferencing is just being introduced and interactive boards have replaced the conventional black or whiteboard in the classroom.

During the three-day meeting the Maltese teachers had the opportunity to observe, compare and discuss methodologies used in the different countries with their foreign colleagues and exchange experiences and reports. The pupils also asked the foreign teachers questions.

Samples of children's works were collected to be compared and Mrs Schembri and Mrs Mercieca noted that classes from year one to year six were taught the same topic so that children with lower or higher abilities could be moved according to their needs. Teachers also met after school hours to plan and prepare an individual education plan and extra funding is allocated for children with special needs.

Crook Primary School caters for pupils who mainly come from housing estates in an ex-mining area where many families have socio-economic difficulties. Therefore the school makes a lot of effort to meet the individual needs of all pupils.

Pupils with learning difficulties, behavioural problems and also exceptionally gifted pupils fall under this category. The special needs co-ordinator at the school, together with the special needs teacher and assistant have weekly meetings where the pupils' individual educational programmes are planned.

This visit was a follow-up to one last May by Miss Brincat, a year 2 teacher at Tarxien, to the primary school in Culfudda, a small village in Ireland, which has just 60 pupils.

Tarxien Primary C will produce a book with the collated reports on reading, writing and numeracy methodologies adopted by the participating schools when the delegations are expected to meet again in May, here in Malta.