Teaching the future: Personalized learning technology for teacher professional development

THE QUESTION

Can digital personalised learning technology empower teachers and improve classroom instruction?

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LOCATION: Malawi
SECTOR: Education
TECH: AI, Digital Tools and Services
TIMELINE: September 2024 - Present
PIONEER: Arianna Zanolini, Alice Ching’oma
PARTNERS: ODE Malawi, Onebillion, Imagine Worldwide

The Challenge

In Malawi, only 13% of 10-year-olds have basic literacy and numeracy skills. Literacy rates remain low, with just 56% of students completing primary school and fewer than 20% completing secondary education.

Teachers face significant challenges. Classrooms are overcrowded, with an average of 62 pupils per qualified teacher in primary schools. Current teacher training programs and curriculum reforms are promising but lack personalised, practical support to address specific classroom challenges. Without tailored solutions, improving education outcomes is difficult.

The Idea

This pilot will focus on teachers instead of children, using AI-powered personalised learning tools to support them directly. 

The BEFIT program currently provides 4 years of gamified literacy and numeracy learning for students via tablet apps. But while teachers have access to school tablets themselves, there’s no parallel experience designed for their own needs.

This pilot will upgrade teacher tablets to deliver tailored, engaging professional development, incorporating student learning data to recommend curriculum priorities, classroom needs and target support for the teacher. 

With these tools, teachers will receive relevant, real-time support, empowering them to improve student outcomes.

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Our learnings and stories so far

This pilot hasn’t started to publish yet, but there are plenty of other blogs to read below. Check back soon!