Juana Loayza

Juana Loayza, an expert in education and the natural sciences, has improved the teaching of mathematics and the sciences to public school children in Peru, in a method that links these subjects to the natural and social environments of the students. She began with a successful experimental effort in four schools in Arequipa and three in Lima and is now focused on expanding her work nationwide.

Juana Loayza is training public high school teachers to overcome their own limited preparation in order to effectively teach the challenging subjects of biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Through her method, Yachay Wasi, which in the indigenous Quechua language means "House of Knowledge," teachers are showing the levels of commitment and voluntary effort they can reach, despite working in resource-poor conditions, when they are inspired and made conscious of their potential. Yachay Wasi is designed to be practical and easy for the teachers to learn; it links the subjects to the students' environment and promotes thinking skills and increased self-esteem among them as they master the subject matter. She has created hands-on science and math lessons focused on group learning, student participation, and interaction, using low-cost materials. Ultimately, she aims to produce a population of students with the necessary skills for promoting sustainable development and real democracy in Peru.

Low educational levels in public schools plague Peru and most of the Andean region. Public schools produce many students who lack the minimum qualifications for university studies or higher technical training and, hence, are unable to insert themselves successfully into the rapidly changing labor markets of these countries. The public schools also generally do not provide students with experience in cooperative practices or sensitivity to their environments and the development needs of their countries. This problem is particularly notable in the areas of natural sciences and mathematics. Most teachers are themselves poorly trained in these subjects, and traditional teaching methods leave students with little interest in learning. Teacher training is not oriented towards the development of the students' general mental and cognitive capacities or to the application of knowledge to the students' "real world" environment; and traditional classroom teaching, including science labs, doesn't allow for group work or interaction with the objects the students study.

In Yachay Wasi Juana has created a theoretical and practical system to transfer knowledge to teachers, to establish a method of teaching through dialogue among students and between teacher and students, and to develop simple and low-cost materials and instruments that facilitate the learning method. Yachay Wasi is composed of a series of teams: a directive team and teams for administrative support, research, educational technology, and dissemination.
The program designs and creates thematic instruction models with accompanying materials. The first one to be implemented is a six-part, interdisciplinary module on "Conserving our Habitat," which provides teaching materials in biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics, all related to the environmental theme. The materials Juana has developed are one of the most innovative aspects of her work. She has created games from simple, low-cost materials to show students how science works and to teach basic math skills. The models have many advantages. They get the students interested; they ask questions to which students have to "discover" the answers, instead of being force-fed by the teachers; the students "play" and remember what they learn through the images; materials are affordable, easy to find, and easy to make. Teachers are offered training in several forms, particularly through carefully prepared training workshops and permanent follow-up activities throughout the school year. Yachay Wasi currently has permanent workshops in Arequipa and Lima, as well as itinerant workshops that travel throughout the country.
Since 1993, Juana and her team have worked with approximately 1,300 teachers in selected urban and rural schools. They are now poised to spread nationwide. Juana's goal over the next three years is to disseminate this method among some 20,000 natural science and mathematics teachers across Peru. She has also initiated good contacts in other Andean countries, in order to disseminate the method more broadly.
To expand its reach, Juana's organization is systematizing and refining the training workshops and reproducing the teaching manuals, modules, and games for nationwide distribution. The organization is also establishing teams in diverse regions of the country to work directly with public school districts. Juana is pursuing agreements with the Ministry of Education and other government agencies and has carried out a training pilot project through the education ministry to teach her methods to public school teachers; the training was sponsored by the national government, mandatory for the teachers selected, and will be the basis for future agreements and training workshops. She also is working with the national teachers' union and other teachers' movements and with relevant institutions. The organization is developing distance education programs and video materials and is seeking access to public television. Internationally, they aim to spread this method through various education and teaching networks in which Yachay Wasi is an active participant. Juana has initiated contacts within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and has participated in regional teaching congresses.
In order to economize on scarce resources and maximize impact, Juana pursues linkages with other educational initiatives that share Yachay Wasi's objectives. She is fundraising for an expansion phase among a variety of public, private, and international sources. To date the program has been self-financed, through the modest contributions of participating teachers–a measure of their commitment–and with small donations from friends and family members. The team itself has worked on a volunteer basis.

Juana studied biology at the university level for four years and medicine for two; she earned her degree in education, with a specialty in science education. She served for eighteen years as a public schoolteacher, which provided her with firsthand understanding of the relationship between poverty, education, and respect for human rights and the natural environment. As a teachers' union activist, she also came to respect what teachers are capable of doing, even amidst scarcity, if they are motivated and supported. Concern for improved teaching of the natural sciences and the encouragement of diverse friends and like-minded colleagues led Juana to create the Yachay Wasi method, which she first developed in one experimental school over a period of ten years. Starting in 1991, Juana and a small team of collaborators began working more systematically on methods for promoting the integral development of students, both in terms of expanding their mental capacities and strengthening their values and potential for contributing to development and democracy. Since 1993, the Yachay Wasi method has been extended to approximately 1,300 teachers, and Juana has begun to receive national and regional recognition for her efforts.