Queries Received for RFP# PLD/CPS/LF/Web Drama/13/2012

Queries received for RFP# PLD/CPS/LF/Web Drama/13/2012 and Our Replies ( 10 pages).

Query #1 School Based Teacher Development Program

1.1 Who is responsible for its development and implementation? The programme has been developed by UNRWA HQ Education department in cooperation with UNRWA’s Fields (West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon). It will be rolled out and managed in each of the Fields by the Field management.

1.2 What is the current status development of this program? Start of implementation, with the 1st cohort of teachers starting the programme in October 2012.

1.3 When is this program scheduled to be launched across the focal markets? Phase 1 of SBTD will launch in schools across the 5 Fields in October 2012. Each Field has identified a geographical area where all schools will participate in the programme. There will be three phases of SBTD; each phase will have different geographical areas partake in the programme. The programme (in its current form) will end in June 2015. UNRWA is aware that the web drama will not be available for phase 1.

1.4 Will it be a simultaneous launch or staggered? As outlined above, there will be three phases with different geographical areas taking part in the programme: Phase 1- 2012-13; Phase 2- 2013-14; Phase 3-2014-15

1.5 Can we have more details on the program? The SBTD Programme is built around the concept of active learning, it is situated in the context in which teachers work –the school- and it allows teachers to work within a community of practice made up of their peers as well as experts from within and outside the school. The SBTD Programme, which has been developed by UNRWA staff from Headquarters and all five Fields, draws extensively on international evidence about teacher development: It focuses on

 The importance of teachers having high expectations about what children can achieve.  The importance, to the child’s learning, of active pedagogic approaches on the part of the teacher.

 The growing understanding of the increased effectiveness of school based teacher development, which permits teachers to work with their colleagues over time to change and improve classroom practice whilst working in their school.

Teacher development, like the professional development programmes of any profession, is a continuous process. The sorts of activities and reflection involved in the ‘Transforming Classrooms’ programme replicate the ways that teachers, across their careers, can improve practice. Being open to new ways of working, new research findings about how the brain works and a passion for helping children learn more effectively are at the core of being a teacher. Good teaching supports effective learning and effective learning enhances children’s life chances. The wider community expects professional such as doctors, health workers, lawyers and architects to keep up to date with the latest ideas and methods. Teaching is not an exception to this.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME The main aim of the SBTD programme is to improve teaching and learning practices and contribute to the development of UNRWA children. Through the programme, teachers will reflect on their own experience, interact with new ideas, plan and implement new approaches. The objectives of the SBTD programme are:  To develop an understanding of the personal and collective professional development processes;

 To ensure that teachers use active pedagogical methods in educationally engaging classroom environments;

 To promote the use of a variety of learner focused assessment strategies including formative and summative approaches;

 To build a repertoire of teaching strategies to enable the effective teaching of literacy and numeracy;  To create an understanding of the contemporary inclusion agenda and develop classroom and school strategies and practices to meet diverse needs;

 To be fully aware and implement strategies for engaging parents in raising achievement.

STRUCTURE OF THE PROGRAMME The SBTD Programme consists of six modules concerned with different aspects of teaching and learning and the environment in which teachers work and examining how these could be enhanced through various means to develop interactive pedagogies. The table below provides an overview of the six modules and the four units included in each module. It is worth noting that three Modules have double units. This is to allow more thorough investigation of the subject addressed in that unit. It is envisaged that each Teacher Development Unit (TDU) will take a teacher one week to complete. The double units will take two weeks.

TDM 1: Developing Active Pedagogies  Creating a variety of active teaching and learning strategies  The learner centred, educationally stimulating, classroom environment  Exploiting the local environment as a learning resource  Building a personal professional development profile TDM 2: Learning focused classroom practices  Expectations as the key to effective teaching and learning  Building successful communities of learning (double Unit)  Celebrating learning success TDM 3: Assessment for quality learning  Strategies for developing learner centred assessment practices  Teaching techniques to promote a varied approach to classroom based assessment practice (double Unit)  New ways of recording progress in learning TDM 4: The teacher role in promoting literacy and numeracy  Literacy across the curriculum  Strategies of reading and responding to information texts  Numeracy across the curriculum  Practical educational games to promote numeracy TDM 5: The inclusive approach to teaching and learning  Extending awareness of the inclusion dimension to teaching and learning (double Unit)  Defining and assessing the diversity of learner needs  Adaptive teaching and learning strategies TDM 6: Engaging parents in raising achievement  Strategies for engaging and working with parents in the learning process  Establishing an achievement dialogue with parents  The School literacy and Numeracy week (double Unit)

To make it easier to access the materials each unit has the same structure and includes,  Introduction that provides an overview of the Unit;

 Teacher development outcomes for that unit. These are the key learning points of the unit;

 Case Studies give examples of how a teacher or groups of teachers approached a particular issue, implemented a particular teaching strategy or way of working in their classroom.

 Activities: The activity will involve teachers working alone or with colleagues. They stimulate the teacher to consider different ways of teaching.

 Explanatory linking texts between case studies and activities. The text sets the activities and case studies in a context by providing insights into current theories and thinking about best practice.

 Summary and questions for reflection. Title Case Study 1(300) Activity 1 (300) Introductory Case Study 3 (300) narrativetext(300)

Outcomes (150) Case Study 2(300) Narrative Text (300) Case Study 4 (300)

Activity 2 (300) Summary Links (150)

Narrative Text (300)

A course notebook to record these reflections is a requirement and will be provided to the teachers participating in this programme. To assist teachers as they work through the programme there will be, over time, a range of multimedia resources to offer different perspectives and challenge thinking about classrooms and teaching and learning. Finally the programme will not be assessed by formal examination but teachers will be required to complete a portfolio which will include specified completed activities, reflections and examples of work carried out with children. Teachers will be given a Certificate of completion that will form part of a Continuing Professional Development File.

THE SUPPORT STRUCTURE OF THE PROGRAMME Throughout the six months of the programme, the whole school will be involved and support structures are built in. The Head teacher and Education Specialist play a particularly important role. Characteristics of the support structure include:  Ongoing support at different levels throughout the programme.  The Head teacher/School Principal will formally hold four meetings throughout the sixth month programme, including one in advance of the programme.  There will be three out of school teacher meetings led by Education Specialists from the field; these meetings will allow teachers to meet with colleagues from other schools to share experience and ideas.  Education Specialists will also support SBTD teachers’ progress during their normal school visits. 1.6 Is it going to include a newly designed and developed curriculum? If so, is the curricula going to be a unified, regional or universal curricula? The programme does not focus on curricula (see above for more information on the programme).

Query # 2 Role of multimedia resources to make the program stimulating

2.1 SMS will be used to communicate with teachers – can you please elaborate? What will be the content of the SMS? How many such SMSs will be sent during the program period? Sms communication will be used throughout the programme to inform and motivate teachers, head teachers and education specialists about various aspects of the programme at different stages of the programme (eg. Welcoming teachers to the programme and reminding them of the overarching aim of this programme; suggestion to reflect more on a certain topic following a support session; reminder to write reflection notes in the course notebook etc.). There are designated messages for teachers, for head teachers and education specialists; there will be approximately 30 messages throughout the duration of (1 phase of) the programme.

2.2 Online platform - The earlier RFP on the subject did not have this as part of the program structure? Can you please confirm? Who is responsible for the development, setting up and monitoring of the online platform?

There has always been the plan to have a web platform supporting the programme. It is not part of this RFP. The website will have, amongst other things, the teacher training material, other educational resources (text and audiovisual), information about the overall UNRWA education reform etc. The web drama will be linked to this website. The website will be developed, set up and managed by UNRWA.

2.3 The RfP document also mentions this online platform to be a source of information from across 5 UNRWA fields? What are these 5 fields? The 5 Fields are the areas where UNRWA operates: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, West Bank and Gaza. Query # 3 Interactive Web Drama

3.1 Can UNRWA define its understanding/expectation of an interactive web drama? UNRWA is open to suggestions and does not want to restrict potential bidders- interactivity could mean that the viewer decides on the development of the story by choosing the outcome of events (optional route), the interactive element could be through feedback and discussion on episodes (with(out) impact on future episodes)

3.2 What is the degree of interactivity UNRWA is looking for? The degree and/ or type of interactivity will depend on the suggested format. The key point is interest and engagement of the audience. This is one of the aspects that might need to be assessed in the formative research.

3.3 Is UNRWA expecting the storyline of the drama to be viewer defined i.e. based on feedback collected from the viewer? UNRWA is open to suggestions but the proposal has to be realistic in its approach. The formative research with the target audience should provide the necessary information about perceptions of teachers/ community (about teachers), behaviours of teachers, challenges they face, stereotypes (of teachers, parents, students etc) but also about the wider context in which teachers operate. The storyline should also address “best practice” in the various areas addressed in the course. Interviews with teachers, head teachers and other education experts could also inform the storylines.

3.4 Is the web drama dissemination expected to be linked to the roll out of the SBTD program? See above- Since phase 1 of the programme is due to start in October 2012, the web drama will not be available from the outset. However, the drama will be made available to the teachers of the 1st phase post factum.

Query # 4 Formative research

4.1 Please explain key objectives of this research? The formative research has numerous objectives: it should provide insight into the target audience’s preference with regards to format, style, characters etc. It should also inform the script development process (perceptions, challenges, etc.) to ensure the storylines are relevant, resonate with the audience and bring about the change in attitude that the programme aspires to achieve. 4.2 What does UNRWA plan to achieve through this research? The research is to inform the development of the drama.

4.3 Who are the key respondents? This is part of the proposal but the respondents are likely to include teachers, head teachers but also students, parents and possibly other members of the (camp) community.

4.4 When is the contractor expected to conduct this research? At the beginning of the project.

4.5 Where does this research sit in UNRWAs list of deliverables? The research should be reported on in one of the first reports but it is not a separate deliverable.

4.6 Is the contractor expected to include it as part of the Technical proposal? The research proposal should be costed as all other activities.

Query # 5 Deliverables and Target completion

5.1 Inception Report – It mentions design and development of website? What is the website being referred to? Our assumption is that the online platform development is beyond the scope of this RfP.Please clarify? Apologies- this is an oversight. The web development is not part of this proposal.

5.2 Within 10 weeks contractor is expected to familiarize himself with the regional context? UNRWA and partner organization will provide research material and assist with organizing visits – Can you elaborate on the familiarization that is expected from the contractor? And what is the research mentioned here? Is it different from the formative research mentioned in the earlier section? The contactor has to be familiar with the context in which the beneficiaries operate for obvious reasons, as outlined above. The research referred to might include existing (UNRWA or other) studies on existing classroom practices, inclusive education etc. This is therefore not to be confused with the formative research for the drama. Query # 6 Promoting the Web Drama

RfP does not state any requirement for promoting the online platform and the web drama ? How does UNRWA propose to promote it?

The drama will be part of the programme and teachers will be made aware of its existence through existing structures that manage the programme (HQ, Fields, Areas, Schools etc) as well as through the website referred to earlier. The link might be further distributed and/ or promoted through other channels.

Query #7 Is the RFP under local bidding only or regional bidding?

The RFP is under regional bidding

Query #8 Are their limitations on the budget?

There are budget limitations but the decision will be made based on the quality/ nature of the proposals submitted.

Query #9 Is a creative sample for the web drama needed to be submitted or just previous creative samples?

Previous creative samples suffice.

Query #10 Advise on the risk management part strategy?

This is a standard component that consist of an analysis of all possible factors that might delay or complicate the production of the drama and how your company would manage/ mitigate them.

Query #11

Should the remuneration be based on level of effort as per the daily rate of staff/experts involved or on a set fee?

Costing based on unit costs (including daily rates/ number of days) is preferred Query #12 Will the winner of the bid be involved in setting up the website? Or is it already set? The website will still be under development with flexibility to accommodate the drama.

Query #13 Do you have a maximum budget in place for this?

There are budget limitations but the decision will be made based on the quality/ nature of the proposals submitted.

Query #14 We still have not received 2 of the modules from the RFP. Can you please advice.

Please find attached two modules in English.

Query #15 a. Do we need to produce an episode for each unit in the training program for each module unit.(for Teacher Development Units TDM the module provided on page 26) b. How many episodes are required to be produced? c. The length of each episode? For example 5 min. (check page 28 of RFP)

Answer:

As per the RFP, UNRWA is open to suggestions; it is therefore up to the company to propose a) a format (optional route approach will differ from a series approach) b) length and number of of episode (shorter but more frequent or fewer an longer)

Query #16 Do we need to develop user guide on how to incorporate each episode into the existing teacher training manual or this is developed separately by the UNRWA.

The proposal should outline the vision of the company with regards to the drama and the interaction with the training material; Throughout the development process (ie not as part of this RFP) a userguide can be developed by the company in cooperation with UNRWA.