Teachers in continuous training

The Pedagogical Development and Training Center (Fortbildungszentrum) at DSM is one of a few in our country.

Without a doubt, the pandemic accelerated digital transformation across our world. And even education experimented important changes which led to substantial differences in educational backgrounds. “Organizations had to change quickly, and even though we were already facing rapid evolutionary change, it had to be accelerated”, says Carlos Cabrera, Human Resources Chief Officer at DSM. “In that sense, our School must move forward. We must always have the best teaching practices and pedagogical models that keep us in the forefront”, he affirms.

For Deutsche Schule Medellín, it is evident that learning is constant. And while being faithful to the cornerstone that says that we are all apprentices, we created the Pedagogical Development and Training Center (Fortbildungszentrum). We considered the experiences and training of the team that was in place before the pandemic. It is a place in which our school teachers and other contributors receive training, accompaniment, classroom visits, personalized feedback and support from different work teams such as DaF-DFU, Steuergruppe and Inclusión Mesa TIC (ICTs inclusion table in English). They help them update their knowledge and they offer pedagogical tools that contribute to academic excellence in our institution. Their main objective is to contribute to our teachers’ training and skills for them to teach an excellent class, and to impact all those involved in the educational process.  Liliana Cadena and John Anderson Salazar are the teachers in charge of the Center. They both agree with Carlos Cabrera when they say that educational work demands constant training nowadays. “It is a part of our philosophy; our teachers are always apprentices. This allows us to improve our educational practices in order to ensure that our classes contain different methods and strategies. They also encourage differentiation, autonomy, and reflection, which generates an integral education”, they say. “From 2014, DSM has implemented training cycles. We started noticing specific training needs once we began improving our educational practices and sharing experiences and knowledge (internally and externally). For these reasons, our expectations as an institution were raised and that is how the Pedagogical Development and Training Center was created in 2020”, explains Carlos Cabrera.

From there, we plan group and individual encounters in accordance with the needs of each section and each work group in our School. They also receive support when planning their projects, workshops or activities. “We no longer offer general training, we focus on the specifics”, say its leaders. Thus, everything is addressed from a holistic approach. “In the past, training was general. Now, we talk about continuous training that impacts our entire institution”. Besides, we are also carrying out activities with our administrative and logistics staff. This gives us greater coverage and adds value to all the training processes in our institution.