Adapted teaching

Hello, my name is Tonje and I am 22 years old. I am one of the students who went on exchange to Dar Es Salaam through the NOREC project. I had my internship at Uhuru primary school from January to April spring 2024. Here I was with eight other students, and we were divided into two different units: children who are deaf- blind and children with intellectual disability. We changed which unit we were on every day. During our stay, we focused on the CRPD and CRC.

When we were with the children with intellectual disability, we spent a lot of time with them in the lessons. Here we observed how the teacher approached the children and we helped them with their schoolwork along the way. In the lessons, there was a lot of focus on student participation. The students were allowed to come up to the blackboard and solve calculations. I had a feeling that the teacher and the student had a good relationship. The teacher went around to each individual student who needed a little extra help and gave them a plan that the student could master. We NOREC participants helped the students as best we could. There were often language barriers that made it a bit challenging for us to understand what the children said and how we could explain to them, but I thought we managed it through body language, simple words and with help from the teachers.

When the children finished their tasks, they came to us to have them corrected. This was an opportunity for us to build relationships and compliment the children for their good efforts. We used the teaching as a good opportunity to get to know the children, teachers and the school system in Tanzania better. As social educators, we often come across situations where people need adapted training. I experienced how the teaching program can be adapted to the individual student. Some students used puzzles and others were given the math piece in the form of figures or copying numbers.

I thought it was useful and good that the students could participate in the same teaching but were given tasks adapted to their own needs. Despite limited resources and staff, I thought the teaching situation was well adapted to the students. After these three months, I am left with gratitude for having experienced so much. I have gained more experiences, new friends, memories and I have learned a lot from Uhuru primary school and from the NOREC project. I will take the new knowledge and all the experiences with me further.