University Times

Pitt is one of three U.S. universities that have signed on to a new joint international project with the Republic of Indonesia to promote teacher development.

In a $4.78 million project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),14 Indonesian universities are partnering with the U.S. institutions to develop modules that provide training to improve teachers’ skills and competence.

The decentralized basic education 2 project hopes to produce competent and professional teachers, especially at the elementary school level. The project will focus on decentralized teacher training, early childhood education and university partnerships through information and communication technology, school library development and public-private alliances.

At Pitt, the USAID project is being conducted by the Institute for International Studies in Education (IISE) in the School of Education. The project team is led by education school assistant professor Clementina Acedo and includes Maureen McClure, associate professor, and John Weidman, professor and director of IISE.

Florida State University and the University of Massachusetts also are participating. Faculty from the three U.S. university partners will visit Indonesia over the summer to meet their partners and develop plans for the project.

The Indonesian universities were selected because they have affiliated teacher-training institutes. Experts from the 14 universities will visit the U.S. universities to study the American teaching education program.

The first phase of the project includes 538 schools and more than 6,000 teachers in seven provinces.