International Projects

The Learning Systems Institute (LSI) at Florida State University has led the USAID-funded Strengthening Teacher Education and Practice (STEP) in Malawi Activity since 2022. Among the achievements during the third quarter of 2024, staff members from STEP supported teacher educators in planning and implementing 50 Participatory Action Research (PAR) projects, produced two videos on phonological awareness and the STEP Activity supported the development of a refined continuous professional development (CPD) implementation plan. 

In the third quarter of 2024, the LSI team saw continued progress toward the project goals of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Tunoze Gusoma (Schools and Systems) Activity.

LSI Reports Encouraging Results From The Primary Teaching Residency Program In Rwanda. The project is showing encouraging results after just two terms. During term two, more than 80 teacher residents (TRs) in the program used targeted instructional strategies and received a performance rating of "meets" or "exceeds" expectations in all three observed lessons in the term. The TRs' knowledge, skills and attitudes in literacy, math and science continued to grow and the TRs continued increasing their engagement with online Canvas and in-person academic programming.

The Learning Systems Institute (LSI) at Florida State University, in conjunction with FHI 360, Save the Children and the Rwanda Basic Education Board (REB), have been working together since 2021 to enhance the pre-primary education system to develop, promote and improve students' emergent language and literacy skills, as well as strengthen the lower primary education system, school environment and classroom instruction to enhance students' literacy outcomes.

Dr. Adrienne Barnes-Story, a Research Specialist at the Learning Systems Institute, has been awarded a 2024 SEED Award from the Council on Research and Creativity. Work on the project titled “Large Class Pedagogy in Low-Income Contexts: Exploring Methods with Teachers in Malawi” will begin later this year.   

In 2022, the Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University was chosen to lead a U.S. Agency for International Development sponsored project to improve teacher training in Malawi. Now in its third year, the STEP Malawi Activity is continuing to meet expectations and making successful strides to impact the entire primary education system.

The Community College Administrator Program (CCAP) is a six-week study program for higher education administrators from post-secondary vocational and technical institutions. Over the past decade, LSI has administered fifteen CCAPs with participants from fifteen countries.

STEP supports a nationwide approach to continuous professional development (CPD) for teacher educators preparing primary teachers. Providing teacher educators quality professional development opportunities in foundational literacy instruction are beginning to make a difference. 

As part of the USAID STEP Activity, the 1st National Foundation Literacy Symposium was held in Malawi in September. LSI was honored to take part in this groundbreaking effort.

The Learning Systems Institute (LSI) at Florida State University is in its fourth year of leading the Transforming Teacher Education (TTE) activity in Zambia, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). One of the opportunities extended by the program is a semester-long residency at FSU for select Zambian teacher educators. This past fall, LSI hosted Senior Lecturers Namushi Situtu and Sandra Mulesu.