Introduction

Skills Lab is a regular time when students practically engage with curriculum content. Skills Lab follows a 3-part format, which helps teachers change their pedagogy from theory-based to competence-based. Integrated in this approach are social-constructivist principles and teaching strategies proven effective for the Sub-Saharan African context (Westbrook , et al., 2013).

The lesson starts with ‘Build’ in which the teacher interactively introduces new knowledge and skills while building on students’ prior knowledge and connecting content to the real world.

This introductory part sets up students for group work in ‘Practice’. In each Skills Lab, students are engaging in a practical group activity such as case study analysis, discussion and role play.

Finally, during ‘Present’, students get an opportunity to present their work and receive feedback on their group outcomes. Figure 2 summarizes learning principles underlying the Skills Lab structure. Besides these principles, the principle of formative assessment cuts across the entire structure. Through communicative methods in build, practice and present teachers monitor student learning and can redirect their teaching in-or after-class.