As part of the IEDP lecture series Benjamin Piper came and spoke at Penn last week. Ben works for the organization RTI and is based in Kenya. He spoke about the participatory teacher training method used by their organization. Funded by a grant they received from USAID, RTI has been able to expand and modify their trainings each year. They have seen great success in creating long-term change in the methods teachers use in their classroom. The participatory approach gives ample time for the teachers attending the trainings to practice the strategies being introduced. After practicing, other teachers give feedback on how well the strategy was modeled.  Ben was an engaging and thorough speaker and it seems like everyone really enjoyed his talk.