Aflatoun International, with support from Erasmus+ Programme hosted a Master Training workshop on Aflatoun’s child centered active learning methodology in The Hague, The Netherlands on 20-24 March, 2017. Participants were derived from Aflatoun’s partner organizations based in Europe (predominantly), Middle East, Asia and North America. Twenty nine participants from 16 countries benefited from this five day intensive training of trainers. In addition to local NGOs International organisations such as Engender Health, Dorcas International, Child Fund, and Open Society Foundation delegated their staff members to participate in Aflatoun training.
This unique practical and experiential training workshop is developed for teachers and trainers who are new to the field of Child Social and Financial Education; a basic but very practical workshop designed for ease of applications in diverse contexts around the world. The training had dual objectives: i. to introduce participants to the content of Aflatoun’s curriculum by looking at its five key themes: Personal understanding and exploration, rights and responsibilities, saving and spending, planning and budgeting, social and financial enterprise; ii. Participants were introduced to a selection of basic active-learning methods such as brainstorming and group-work so that they may move towards a more active, child-centered pedagogy. They were taken through a series of sessions as though they were themselves teachers; equipping them with skills that will enable them replicate the same workshop in their countries using Aflatoun’s Training Manual as a guide, with actual teachers.
On the final day, the participants had a chance to learn more about and practice some sessions from Aflatoun’s new Peacebuilding curriculum – “Life Skills and Financial Education for Peace” as well as Aflatoun’s new digital refresher teacher-training platform www.education.aflatoun.org. Additionally, they had a chance to develop action plans and to discuss next steps.
