Monash University > News and Events > Monash Memo

Lesson from student teacher

25 June 2008

Monash education student Lewis Haskins put his Monash training to work as a volunteer teacher in Tanzania.

Monash education student Lewis Haskins was determined to make a difference when he travelled to the troubled east-African nation of Tanzania as a volunteer teacher.

Mr Haskins thought the skills he had developed at Monash were being wasted as he sat in the corner of a classroom in the town of Moshi and marked worksheets while untrained Tanzanian teachers took lessons.

"Their teaching methods were a fair way behind what we use in Australia and I could just see the lessons going over the kids' heads," Mr Haskins said.

Rather than accepting the status quo, he drafted a letter detailing his belief that he could play a much bigger, positive role.

The letter found its way to Moshi's regional education officer, who agreed to meet Mr Haskins.

"It really made sense to me that the people we really need to teach are the people who are educating the future generations -- the teachers themselves," Mr Haskins said.

"I told him: 'I have the benefit of a top university course, let me help', and he was really keen to jump on board."

The meeting resulted in Mr Haskins delivering professional development workshops and lectures for teachers in several schools to help them improve their teaching methods.

Mr Haskins saw some results immediately.

"It was great to see the teachers planning and trying different things, like taking the students outside and getting them more involved in lessons," he said.

Mr Haskins plans to return to Tanzania when he finishes his degree.

As a result of Mr Haskin's experiences one of his lecturers, Dr David Zyngier, is working with Monash to establish an on-going program that would allow education students to travel to Africa and work with local teachers.

"There's the potential for Monash education students, African teachers, and ultimately African students, to get a lot out of this," Dr Zyngier said.