SUMMARY REPORT

ITEN TECHNICAL COOPERATION EXCHANGES

2nd Edition: 2016-2018

Teaching Techniques based on STREAM

- Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics

An experience between the

Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Suriname
and the George Mason- STEM Accelerator Center & STEM Teacher
Professional Development Programs at Center for Outreach in
Mathematics Professional Learning and Educational Technology
CONTENTS
SUMMARY OF THE COOPERATION ......................................................................... 3
ABOUT THE BEST PRACTICE ................................................................................... 4
ABOUT THE COOPERATION EXCHANGE ................................................................. 5
During the Activity .............................................................................................. 5
Following the Activity ......................................................................................... 5
Looking Beyond .................................................................................................. 6
ANNEXES................................................................................................................ 8

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SUMMARY OF THE COOPERATION

Requesting Institution(s): Ministry of Education, Science and Culture

SURINAME
Offering Institution(s): George Mason- STEM Accelerator Center & STEM Teacher
Professional Development Programs at Center for Outreach in
Mathematics Professional Learning and Educational Technology
UNITED STATES
Date of the cooperation July 28 to August 6 2017
activity:
Main theme of the Teaching Techniques based on STREAM - Science, Technology,
cooperation activity: Reading, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics
General objective of the 1. For the Ministry to know the most effective research
cooperation activity: based methods on teaching math and science for problem
solving and critical thinking.
2. To develop a professional development plan nationwide
for math and science teachers in Suriname for grades 1 to
8
3. To learn in general terms about STEM Education and how
to infuse it in the educational system K-12 besides the
curriculum.
Focal point(s): - Ms. Marushca Pross-Wong Fong Sang, Acting Head Curriculum
Development
- Ms. Daniela Rosario, Chief of Teacher Professional Development
Total number of - Number of ministries representatives: 2
participants in the - Number of specialists providing the activity, who are not part of
cooperation activity: Ministries: 1
- Number of attendees on the activities (e.g.: teachers who
attended workshops – if the case):
. 10 members trained as a part of the STREAM program.
. 25 teacher participants and 20 students aged (7 – 14) at the
workshop

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ABOUT THE BEST PRACTICE

1. Please, briefly describe in few paragraphs the best practice conducted by the offering
Institution, STEM Accelerator and the COMPLETE Center.
The motivation was to be able to build an innovative educational initiative to help address a gap
in the curriculum involving the need for integrated approaches to teaching and learning.
Towards this end the three investigators including Dr. Padmanabhan Seshaiyer (USA) and his
collaborators Ms. Marushca Pross-Wong Fong Sang and Ms. Daniela Rosario (Suriname) were
able to work together on expanding and integrating the theme of STREAM (Science,
Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) into the Suriname Curriculum. They
were able to build on a platform that has been established by Dr. Seshaiyer through a program
called BE-STREAMING and combine it with best practices learnt from a week long professional
development workshop for US teachers run by Dr. Seshaiyer that Ms. Marushca and Ms.
Daniela participated in. The BE-STREAMING program has been running since 2016 February
when it was initiated by Dr. Seshaiyer and the OAS-ITEN program helped to dig deeper into
potential implementation strategies of bringing STREAM into the existing Suriname Curriculum.
Currently, all three are working very closely to create joint lesson plans that incorporate
STREAM philosophy to both enhance the pedagogical practices of teachers as well as engage
student learning.

2. Do you feel that the Mission allowed the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of
Suriname to fully understand your policy/best practice? What would you change if you were
able to do the Mission again?
Working with Ms. Marushca and Ms. Daniela who are in higher positions in the Ministry has
definitely helped to promote the much needed awareness of the integration that was needed
in the Surinamese curriculum. Working with developing countries like Suriname can be a
challenge sometimes since they are being approached not only by Latin American organizations
but also by the European (Dutch) educational organizations as well and more people working
on the curriculum from different directions could sometimes become a problem to the teachers
and students if the vision from these different groups is not coordinated well. Luckily, working
directly with Marushca and Daniela helped to coordinate the goals of the integrated curriculum
well. One thing I would like to see in the Mission is to compare and learn from other OAS-ITEN
awardees to share and learn best practices so we can learn from each other.

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ABOUT THE COOPERATION EXCHANGE

During the Activity

1. What is the issue or challenge that your Ministry hopes to address by learning about this best
practice investigated during the cooperation mission?
The first challenge we would like to address is the implementation in the Suriname educational
system. A mind shift at teacher level is very important if we want STREAM to succeed. And for
the Ministry knowing what are the best teaching methods that have proven results in students,
we need to see what can be adaptable to the Surinamese reality and preparing Surinamese
students for the 21st century challenges.

2. Why was your Ministry interested in this policy/practice solution or approach promoted by
the offering institution? What elements seemed relevant?
- It is priority for the Ministry to update the curriculum in Math and Science with the latest
teaching methodologies available
- It is a priority for the Ministry to train teachers in Math and Science in a national scale with a
feasible plan
- This professional development training plan will also be a roadmap for teacher training in
other areas of the curriculum

3. Please briefly describe in few paragraphs the implementation and execution of the Technical
Cooperation Mission.
Please see attached article: Exchanging Best Practices in Teaching and Learning across
Continents: A US – Suriname OAS Partnership.

4. What products were generated from the Cooperation Mission (new policies, documents,
teaching tools, etc)?
- Introduction of BE-STREAMING in the Suriname educational system. In cooperation with
Professor Padmanabhan Seshaiyer the Ministry started a BE-STREAMING project (pilot) in the
basic education. In this project some teachers are already being trained in the pedagogical skills
to be able to integrate STREAM into the curriculum to improve student learning.
- Example STREAM lesson plan from this project.

Following the Activity

1. What was the impact of the Cooperation Mission?
- Finally the introduction of BE-STREAMING in the Suriname educational system
- Mind shift in integral education

2. Which activities and follow-up actions have been taken share the new professional
development plan with other stakeholders and to ensure incorporation of this plan and PD
approaches within and/or outside your Ministry?

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- Within the ministry: BE-STREAMING project in cooperation with Professor Padmanabhan
Seshaiyer.
- Outside the Ministry: no actions taken yet.

3. How have the beneficiaries (teachers, institutions, Ministries, etc) benefited from such
policy/practice (gaining knowledge; improvement of teaching classes; etc)? What evidence do
you have to support this claim?
- Adapted teacher training (BE-STREAMING project)
- Adapted lesson plans for teachers (please see attached lesson plan)

4. What challenges have you faced in implementing these policies/practices?

- The switch from subject-related education to integral education. In Suriname most subjects
are still being taught separately. For teachers it is big challenge to make the switch to integral
teaching.

5. Do you believe your Ministry can apply the knowledge acquired during the cooperation
mission at their programs and work in general?
Yes, we already started.

6. Has this cooperation generated a new or improvements on programs, initiatives, practices

and/or policies related to the teaching profession and how? If the Ministry possesses an official
document related to such new programs/improvements, please attach it to this report.
- BE-STREAMING project: introducing and enhancing the pedagogical skills of teachers in how to
integrate STREAM into the curriculum.
- Update of our curriculum K-12: enhancing the pedagogical skills of teachers how to teach in
such a way that kids are being stimulated to think critical, solve problems, build healthy
relations, communicate in a proper way etc.

Looking Beyond
1. What should be next steps to continue sharing the new knowledge or professional
development approaches with more teachers, future teachers or teacher educators? What
supports might help accomplish these next steps?
- After the BE-STREAMING pilot we plan to go for a nationwide implementation.
- For the future: a STREAM course in Suriname.
- More exchanges between Suriname and other countries to learn more about their
experiences in STREAM education.

2. What should be next steps to continue sharing the new knowledge or professional
development approaches with more teachers, future teachers or teacher educators? What
supports might help accomplish these next steps?
- Keep teachers informed about STREAM, more training

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- Give teachers the opportunity to be part of exchanges

3. What lessons have you learned from this Mission? Please mention the potential of replication
and scaling up of this practice in other countries and regions.
From this mission we have learned that it is important to take culture differences into account.
For example, a task to build roller coaster as in the US educational lesson plan does not have a
direct connection within the Suriname culture. However, one can easily adapt and build lesson
plans In Suriname for a zip line lesson plan activity that would be replaceable for the related
roller coaster lesson plan activity in the US.

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ANNEXES
 Exchanging Best Practices in Teaching and Learning across Continents: A US – Suriname
OAS Partnership
 Exchanging Best practices in teaching and Learning through Multiple Representation in
Problem Solving
 Lesson Plan Example (in Dutch)

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