Sushil Shrestha, E-Teacher Scholarship Program
Learner Perspectives
“I was very excited when the Regional English Language Officer (RELO) informed me that I had been selected for the prestigious E-Teacher Scholarship Program,” says Sushil Shrestha.
For Shrestha, who has been teaching English for over seven years, and currently teaches 12th grade English at a private school in Kathmandu, Nepal, this was his first experience in an international teaching-learning setting. In the course, Shrestha and other students used online materials and resources to improve their skills.
“I had never received any scholarship in my life, neither had I been given any opportunities like this to further pursue my academic interests.”
The scholarship was for the online course Critical Thinking for the English as a Foreign Language Classroom, a course that Mr. Shrestha believed would help him with his greatest weakness.
“All along in my professional career, and in my personal life, I had felt a strange sense of inferiority because I believed that not knowing how to use critical thinking skills was my weakness,” says Mr. Shrestha. “I had come across an abundance of critical thinking theories; but thus far, all I had read was theory-oriented; my thirst to improve my critical thinking skills remained unquenched.”
Mr. Shrestha’s moved forward with the class, but his lack of confidence nearly hindered him from successfully completing the course.
“When the course began, I felt uncomfortable as I read the profiles of the participants from other countries because they all seemed to have more professional experience and accomplishments than I,” says Mr. Strestha. “However, our differences in experience were never an issue during our discussions: the instructor emphasized the importance of humility as an essential element of critical thinking. All of my course colleagues were friendly, helpful, and utmost cooperative throughout the course. Furthermore, each week the instructor gave me positive feedback, which affected my performance; and before long, I felt that the gap between me and my fellow course participants was practically gone.”
“My understanding of the concept of critical thinking has completely changed. I used to think people were born with critical thinking skills. Now I understand that critical thinking skills are acquired through rigorous use of reason in pursuit of meaningful understanding.”
“The course empowered me. It taught me how to prepare effective lesson plans by strategically incorporating critical thinking activities, which enable my students to practice and develop their critical thinking skills as well as to assess their current abilities. Now my teaching approach is to educate my students to be able to solve practical daily life problems by making choices based on thought and information.”
“Not only do our students need to be taught to think rationally, but also we need training programs for our teachers. I have carried out two workshops on critical thinking, one for a group of 50 students and one for my colleagues, and we are currently working together on preparing lesson plans for an entire course based on critical thinking. It is obvious to me that having been selected for the E-Teacher Scholarship Program changed me into being more efficient and consistent as a professional and as an individual.”