THIS TEACHER TRAINING MANUAL on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) is developed by Finn Church Aid (FCA) and Teachers Without Borders (TWB) Finland. The manual contains guidance and practical steps for integrating elements of psychosocial support in the teaching and learning process. It is designed to be facilitated by trainers, local educators and community workers to the benefit of teachers, children and youth.

The training manual consists of six (6) training modules that can be used flexibly. The first three (3) modules are meant for supporting the teachers' wellbeing, and the last three (3) modules are meant for the classroom support for learners' wellbeing. The modules include the following sub-topics:

1. Stress and relaxation
2. Compassion
3. How to identify and support learners with MHPSS concerns as a teacher
4. Recreational activities for MHPSS
5. Social and emotional learning
6. Life skills

The content design allows you to pick individual modules or sessions and adapt the training content according to the context’s needs. We hope you find it useful!

This teacher training manual on Distance Education & Digital Pedagogy supports teachers and other education personnel’s continuous professional development in pedagogically high-quality distance education and remote learning especially in diverse, low resource contexts and is adaptable for use anywhere in the world.

The manual has been developed by Finn Church Aid (FCA) and Teachers Without Borders (TWB) Finland. The development of the training materials began already in 2020 as a response to the school lock-down situations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, when teachers and learners quickly had to adapt to remote education modalities. Even though the pandemic has subsided, the need for quality distance education prevails. Ensuring the continuity of learning for all learners is critical in all contexts, even and especially during crisis situations.

The training manual consists of eight (8) training modules that can be used flexibly:

1. Distance Education,
2. Distance Education Modalities,
3. Pedagogy of Digital and Distance Education,
4. Psychosocial and Emotional Wellbeing,
5. Learner-Centred Methods in Distance Education,
6. Home Support – Parents and Caregivers’ Role and Collaboration,
7. Inclusive Education, and
8. Assessment and Evaluation.

The content design allows the trainer or facilitator to pick individual modules or sessions and adapt the training content according to the context and target group’s needs.

We hope you find it useful!

The following curriculum provides the content for a new mobile mentoring initiative developed to accompany the Teachers in Crisis Contexts Working Group ‘Training for primary school teachers in crisis contexts’ (https://trc-dev.gn.apc.org/professional-development-materials-and-opportunities/training-primary-school-teachers-crisis). The material is intended to provide additional layers of instructional and emotional support via mobile technology to inexperienced and under trained teachers in the most difficult of teaching contexts. 

It has been designed to support both the Initial Training Pack and the Extended Training Pack and builds on the competency areas covered in both sets of trainings; ‘Teacher Role and Well Being’, ‘Child Protection, Well-being and Inclusion’, ‘Pedagogy’, ‘Curriculum and Planning’. The content provides teaching tips, motivational messages, reflection and discussion questions, plus images and video suggestions.

The training pack responds to a critical gap in open source, competency based teacher training materials that provide coverage of foundational knowledge and skills required by teachers in crisis contexts, where teacher training is often limited to ad hoc workshops. The pack provides the basis for an in-service training program which can be used in its entirety to prepare unqualified teachers, but is also flexible enough for adaptation and use of selected modules or sessions according to the contextual needs of teachers. The pack provides foundational teacher training content on Teacher’s Role & Well-being; Child Protection, Well-being & Inclusion; Pedagogy; Curriculum & Planning; and Subject Knowledge.