PEP activities

Kick-off meeting in Uppsala, November, 2023

The kick-off meeting was organised at Uppsala University, Sweden, November 6-10, 2023, and it was the first time the PEP project team met in-person.

We used these days to get to know each other, talk about the state of the art of the English teaching at partner universities. We dedicated lot of time to understand what constrains our partners have, and what we can achieve with the PEP project. We also talked a lot about how we want to organise, manage and communicate within this project.

We also used this opportunity to have our first Steering committee meeting, and the Design Thinking workshop that was supposed to take place online on a later date.

There were also time to visit ISP (International Science Programme), Ångström Laboratories and Forum for Africa Studies.

Agenda in short

Day 1: Get to know each other.

Day 2: Get to know PEP project.

Day 3: Plan the PEP project.

Day 4: Sum up and look ahead.

On the last day of the meeting, we conducted a meeting evaluation, where we asked our partners what they thought of the meeting. We got very positive response, which correlates with how we, the organisers,

Ivory Coast meeting in March 2024

The second PEP meeting took place in San Pedro and Yamoussokro, Ivory Coast on 18-22 March, 2024. It was the second time the whole PEP group met.

Day 1-2: At Université de San-Pedro (USP) in San-Pedro.

Day 4-5: At Institut National Polytechnique Felix Houphouet-Boigny (INPHB) in Yamoussoukro.

The PEP teacher team worked with the Design Thinking method to analyse which institutional change is necessary to build successful Professional English Programmes. Discussion points were:

• English in the current curricula and possibilities for improvement with the Professional English Programme
• Student needs and requirements/how best can we meet them? What levels can we realistically aim for?
• Reliable available resources and support for students and teachers – share and What is useful? What will be available? Creation of resource library?
• Integration of resources for smoother running of professional English programmes

We also used this opportunity to have our 3rd steering committee meeting.

Apart from having meetings within the teacher team, steering committee and communication team, the whole PEP group met with University Management at both universities, to thoroughly discuss the continuation of PEP beyond the project´s lifespan.

Both universities also organised one Language Day each, where university students had the chance to practice their English with the PEP partners (at San-Pedro all PEP delegates took part in the Language Day, in Yamoussoukro only the PEP teacher team. The Steering Committee and Communication Team were busy with discussing how to practically organise the call for participants for PEP student pilot course).

The Language day was much appreciated by the PEP delegates and by the students. Everyone agreed that this kind of interaction is most valuable for the West African partners.

USP Vice-Chancellor, Professor Méite Méké, declared the first day of the PEP meeting that USP has decided that Wednesdays will be an “English-only” day for students and staff at the campus, to encourage the use of English.

This might serve as an inspiration for other partners in the project. We are happy to see that PEP already has an impact!

On the last day of the meeting, we conducted a meeting evaluation, where we asked our partners what they thought of the meeting. We got quite positive response, even though the teachers would have preferred longer teacher meetings and less travel time. Overall, we are satisfied of the organisation and outcomes of the meeting.

Teacher training in Uppsala, 2-6 September 2024

The Uppsala meeting was the third time participants in the PEP project met. In the Ivory Coast meeting in March, the PEP project decided that only the teachers would go to Uppsala for the training and that the Steering committee should meet by zoom after the training week so that the Project coordinator could give a summary of the training. The reason behind this decision was to use the time for teacher training solely, and also to save the funds for SC travels and accommodation to be able to purchase text books for English teaching.

The first day started with practical information from PEP Coordinator Ms Ulrica Ouline, and continued with Professor Christer Larsson, Head of Department of English, welcoming all teachers to Uppsala and the training.

English teacher Ms Christine Mackay Tircomnicu led the training superbly the whole week (Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 16:00 o´clock - many days even later since the teachers eagerly continued the discussions on course development!).

This teacher training was an important part of PEP Work package 3 - Oral communication, and consisted of:

• Course development
• Developing materials
• Teaching strategies

The teachers were divided into groups, working with different themes. Sometime the groups consisted of teachers from the same university, and sometimes the groups consisted of teachers from different universities to get different views and to learn from each other.

The teachers discussed teaching strategies, feed-back and assessment strategies. They also shared ideas on how to conduct a final examination including format and grading criteria.

During the week the teachers produced lessons plans, teacher instructions and teaching material. There were also many collegial discussions on pedagogical methods used at the different universities. Giving feed-back on each other´s lessons plans with the whole project group as “critical friends” made room for a learning-by-doing process which increases the local ownership, impact and sustainability of the training.

In Uppsala the teachers had the possibility to look at different English teaching books and to do a “wish-list” for each university. This “wish-list” will be discussed in next Steering Committee meeting. Also, Christine arranged that books (fiction, dictionaries) in English no longer needed at the Department of English were given to the West African teachers. The need for books in English is dire, so for the Galway meeting next year, the European partners will make an effort to collect books in English at their institutions.

On Wednesday afternoon one sample English speaking course was organised at the Department of English at Uppsala University. There the West African teachers had the chance to see how a professional English class could look like, and they also had a chance to see a “normal” classroom at an European university.

The organisers of the training felt that these 13 teachers have increased their teaching capacity and the knowledge, skills and abilities to improve the Professional English courses programs at their institutions. These staff have the potential to be role models to inspire and train a new generation of colleagues, and to be innovators in their institutions for developing impactful Professional English programs.

4. Pilot course for students (focus on oral communication)

The PEP pilot course for students took place during October-December 2024, at all six West African partner universities.

• 16 seminars
• Go on for 8 weeks
• Have 2 seminars per week
• Each seminar 2 hours

The students were asked to present a subject in smaller groups, but also for the whole class.

At least 15 students per university participated in the course.

The student evaluations show very good results: The students have reported that they feel more confident in speaking English than before. All of them are interested in a continuation course.

So, our hopes for the first pilot course (develop a higher proficiency in English, increasing their confidence in the use of academic English and motivating them to study English further) were met.

5. Ireland meeting in May 2025

The fourth PEP meeting will take place in Ireland May 2025.

• Programme TBD

6. Pilot course for researchers/teachers (focus on oral communication)

The PEP pilot course for researchers will take place autumn 2025.