On-going Activities

Teacher Training:

Bank investments in teacher training are significant. According to the results of a recent evaluation of the current portfolio, almost one in five of all teachers in the region have been or will be trained within the context of an IDB loan. The purpose of this initiative is to compile innovations in teacher education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Six case studies (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Venezuela) have been commissioned from experts in the field. Innovations examined by the case studies have developed new ways of educating teachers as a response to perceived failures of mainstream teacher training arrangements in each country or region. The results of these cases, presented in the form of best practices, will be published by the end of the year.

Teachers' Careers and Incentives:

Teachers are key partners in efforts to reform education. Yet relatively little is known about the factors determining who ends up teaching and what incentives are required to make current teachers behave in a manner consistent with the goals of major education reform efforts taking place across the region. The Unit, in collaboration with the Office of the Chief Economist and the IDB Research Network, is continuing its research along the lines. A survey tool is currently being implemented in six countries: Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The data thus obtained will be used to analyze existing systems of institutional incentives affecting teacher behavior and the quality of what is being taught in the region's schools. A parallel study is examining policies that can improve the quality and size of the future teaching force in the region. In both instances, the research focuses on what can be done to improve teacher performance of the current pool of active teachers.

Civic Education:

As school systems in Latin America continue to evolve, expectations as to the roles fulfilled by schools increase. The development of citizenship has been one of the major roles expected of schools, but a role that has received relatively little attention. New experiments and controlled observation suggest that preaching and sermonizing are essentially useless strategies. Children learn from the way the school, as a social institution, behaves. Ethics, by extension, can be taught through real life situations. Consistent with these findings, the Education Unit is in the process of reviewing and analyzing promises experiments and approaches. The results of these studies will provide basis upon which some lessons for school systems ready to take on these new functions can be applied.



Last updated: 06/19/07