UL Medical School climaxes 3-Month Faculty Development Training

In a bid to improve learning through quality a teaching style, the state-run University of Liberia College of Health Sciences (ULCHS) has concluded a three-month long pedagogy (faculty development) training exercise with its instructors.

The training was intended to identify the gaps that exist and to bring members of the instructional staff to auto speed on the different methods of teaching, says Dr. Odell Wannie Kumeh, one of the facilitators at the training.

Dr. Kumeh explained that the training was first piloted at Mother Pattern, and so they thought it wise to introduce the idea at the ULCHS after becoming trainers of trainers.

“In as much as we have been teaching over the years, there were some basic skills that we didn’t have. So having identified those gaps, the training will now make us to be full-skill professors because we ourselves learned also while administering the training,” stated Dr. Kumeh.

She named some of the basic training drills as facilitation, demonstration, classroom management and gender sensitive pedagogy among others, that will help the instructors to bring out the full potentials of every student.

“The feedback was great, the reception was good. Those who underwent the training knew that they had capacity gaps. So, they will now be the torch bearers and agents of change by doing those good things that they have learned during the course of the three-month period,” she added.

Madam Joyce Bartequa Gwikolo, one of the participants, described the pedagogic training as a great rewarding exercise, because according to her, will enable them to understand the different aspects of teaching.

“We learned about gender role, gender participation, setting test question, evaluating students and so on. It has truly been so enlightening,” she explained.

“It will help us a lot in many ways and one of those ways is that it will make us to have a set objective of what the learners need to learn,” the young instructor told reporters.

“The training has made us to understand that you cannot use one way to evaluate students. It makes us to know that we have to incorporate various methods of presenting the lessons to students and then evaluate them. This will enable us to tap into their different strengths because everyone cannot perform on the same level,” Joyce indicated.

At the same time, Dr. Joseph Wiah, also a participant, lauded the administration of the ULCHS and supporter BRIDGE-U for the “impactful” training exercise.

“It was good that I came into this training. I am saying this because since I have been teaching for about 10 to 12 years, I had not come under such a learning process before. Sometimes people say or believe that you know what you are doing, but when the time comes and you are brought to auto speed on some of these things, you immediately get to know to yourself that yes, indeed, there are lots of gaps that I must cover. What I have learned in this training puts me in a better position to do better,” Dr. Wiah, a pharmacist from the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice among other things stated.