Follow-up in the Rassias® Methodology in Baja California
For two days, 14 English teachers participating in IAPE in conjunction with the Baja California Seal of Biliteracy program received a follow-up workshop, implemented and led by staff of Educando and Dartmouth College’s Rassias Center.
The Baja California Seal of Biliteracy program was launched in November, 2018 and seeks to improve English teachers’ pedagogy and increase student learning and motivation with an official statewide program that recognizes and promotes biliteracy and bilingualism among students in the State.
The workshop, which was conducted entirely in English, was held to reinforce the knowledge and techniques the teachers had learned during the first session in November. Additionally, this session allowed teachers to share classroom experiences and best practices, and to clarify questions.
The Rassias® methodology has more than 50 teaching techniques to help introduce and reinforce the knowledge of a language, such as English. Above all, however, the methodology focuses on inspiration, collaboration and empathy. Through IAPE, teachers are provided with tools that they can utilize to work with their students in more dynamic and motivating ways as they teach and share the importance of learning a second language.
IAPE seeks to build and support a network of leaders in English language teaching who inspire and open doors to Mexican public school students. The unprecedented results of IAPE were documented by a randomized, peer-reviewed evaluation published by the Inter-American Development Bank in 2014. Since 2007, IAPE has reached more than 2.5 million students.
The Sistema Educativo Estatal de Baja California and the Center for U.S.- Mexican Studies at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) have been working together for a year to establish this program, which was inspired by the Seal of Biliteracy in California, USA. They invited the Inter-American Partnership for Education (IAPE) – a partnership between Educando by Worldfund and Dartmouth College’s Rassias Center – to be the implementing partner because of its proven results inspiring teachers throughout Mexico.
