Getting the Word Out About Didactic Materials and Non-Formal Education

An interesting opportunity arose a few weeks ago during one of the workshops that my co-volunteer (Nicole) and I put on with the Board of Education. One of the attendees (a teacher) is also a co-host of a Saturday evening cable program in Encarnación. She approached me at the end of the workshop to see if we would be interested in talking about didactic materials, life in Paraguay (as a foreigner) and what we do here in Paraguay in general. Needlesstosay, we knew it would be a great chance to reach other people about non-formal education styles.

At about 5 pm yesterday we entered into the studio and watched them as they taped the first part of the show, which was about the history of Encarnación (yesterday was Encarn’s foundation day). When our time came to go on air, we arranged the materials that I had brought with me on a table. It was truly a success because we were asked to go over how to make and use each of the materials and then the lady (Marisol) talked about the workshop and encouraged parents to make the materials out of recyclable items.

I would have to say that my favorite part was how she repeated something I said during the workshop. At the end of the workshop I had told the teachers that if copying from the board was not necessary that they should try to implement more hands-on learning activities in their classrooms. I brought to their attention that we (the teachers and the workshop instructors) knew that the “copy-everything-from-the-board method” was not longer working and that in order to seguir adelante (continue forward) it was the time to try new teaching techniques. I stated that in Paraguay playing games in school may not be seen as learning, but only because this would be a new technique, and that in fact, many countries use games and activities to teach new information and skills.

Over all it was a success. Although there is not a way to measure and evaluate the outcomes and impact of the show, it at least gave viewers a glimpse of what Nicole and I hope will be the future of elementary education learning here in Paraguay.