Abstract:

The changes that occur in a dynamic society pose new challenges in the knowledge and skills that the citizens who form it must have. Faced with this need, institutions, at a global level, have proposed a set of recommendations to adapt educational curricula to the new demands made by society. These recommendations have been developed within the framework of UNESCO's Education 2030 and included in SDG 4 (Quality Education) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. One of the tools for adapting curricula is the use of new methodologies that implicitly reinforce and improve teaching skills in order to develop them.

The Tanzanian government has launched several actions in the country's development plans to reverse the illiteracy rates and adapt to UNESCO requirements. One of these actions has been the implementation of the competency curriculum in 2006. The monitoring reports of this curricular adaptation show that, at a training level, they have not yielded the expected results. Specifically, these studies have highlighted the difficulties of the centers in developing the competency curriculum appropriately. Teachers do not have sufficient knowledge or are not sufficiently trained to deploy competency activities and, therefore, continue to apply traditional learning methods.

In accordance with the context previously analyzed, and within the framework of University Cooperation for Development (CUD), the working group proposes to transfer its knowledge, especially that acquired in the training and dissemination of teaching practice at different educational levels. The objective is to directly influence the improvement of educational quality in countries with structural deficits and lack of resources, such as Tanzania, and within the framework of Education 2030.

To achieve this objective, training courses are scheduled for teachers in schools in situ, based on the design of competence activities contextualized in the environment, both for monitoring and evaluation. The development of these activities in person allows the different tasks to be adapted to the reality of each school. This objective must lead to each school becoming a reference training center for surrounding schools, generating common spaces where experiences and resources can be shared, and encouraging debate and the search for solutions.

The courses are organized in face-to-face workshops where schoolteachers design the competence activities under the guidance of the team of university trainers. These activities are elaborated in detail in the schools with the external support of the group and, finally, implemented with their students under face-to-face evaluation by the university team.

The results obtained after the training carried out for teachers indicate a high degree of satisfaction in learning for the development of competence tasks. This satisfaction is also shared with the rest of the members of the educational community. In addition, the teachers positively value the degree of autonomy acquired in the design, development and implementation of the activities contextualized in the environment. Consequently, they consider themselves suitable to intervene as trainers in other schools in the area. This last point has led the pilot schools of the work to relate to each other, sharing resources and experiences, promoting mutual collaboration, and becoming the embryo of a future educational network (resource center) in the region.

Keywords:

Cooperation, development, contextualized skills, SDG 4.