The Pakistani Teachers Institute

For the third year in a row, Plymouth State University will be hosting the Pakistani Teachers Institute, a five week program with the goal of helping secondary school teachers from Pakistani to enhance their subject knowledge, pedagogical skills and disposition toward new ways of teaching science and mathematics. During the first week of the program, the teachers are introduced to a wide range of experiences, such as the use of meteorological instrumentation and doing TV weather in front of a blue screen. The main feature of the week consists of pedagogical discussions aimed to expose them to new ways of improving their teaching, such as active learning exercises and classroom demonstrations. Because of the conditions in most Pakistani schools, especially after the October 2005 earthquake, being able to apply these methods in a limited resource environment is of special importance. We will showcase the program, discuss how our experiences with the program have evolved throughout the years and bring updates from our latest participation in the program, which will take place June 26 to June 30, 2006.