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TESSA materials have been created and developed by experts working across a range of African countries. They are provided under an open creative commons licence and can be used and adapted for your own context as required.
TESSA materials are available in English, French, Arabic and Swahili
Click on the Content tab to access the resources.
This material is part of a collection of materials called TESSA Resources. There are 54 materials in this collection so you may find other materials here that maybe of interest to you.
As a result of using these free materials in your school or teacher training institution, you will have discovered ways to enhance your teaching and make it more learner-centred.
Course dates:
First Published 04/08/2017.
Updated 18/07/2024
The curriculum
frameworks provide an overview of the TESSA modules.
Key resources have been produced for the TESSA community, describing some important aspects of the teaching and learning process. These are referred to throughout the TESSA materials.
These modules are linked to the Primary
curriculum and support teachers in planning for active learning and teaching.
They also support teachers in teaching skills and values, alongside knowledge.
These modules are linked to the Primary
curriculum and support teachers in planning for active learning and teaching.
They also support teachers in teaching skills and values, alongside knowledge.
These modules are linked to the Primary
curriculum and support teachers in planning for active learning and teaching.
They also support teachers in teaching skills and values, alongside knowledge.
These modules are linked to the Primary
curriculum and support teachers in planning for active learning and teaching.
They also support teachers in teaching skills and values, alongside knowledge.
These modules are linked to the Primary
curriculum and support teachers in planning for active learning and teaching.
They also support teachers in teaching skills and values, alongside knowledge.
There are 15 TESSA Secondary science units which you can access from this page. They were developed by colleagues in Ghana, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
We have selected topics from the lower Secondary science curriculum that are difficult to teach and common across all countries. The units are grouped into five pedagogical themes, which reflect the skills and attributes of an effective teacher. They are:
Probing students’ understanding
Making science practical
Making science real and relevant
Problem-solving and creativity
Teaching challenging ideas
Each theme is exemplified in Biology (Module 1), Chemistry (Module 2) and Physics (Module 3), making a total of 15 units. If the topic that you are teaching is not covered, then we hope that you will be able to adapt one of the units to the context that you require.
If you would prefer to focus on one pedagogical theme then download all the section 1s in order to learn about ‘probing childrens’ understanding’; section 2s to learn about ‘making science practical’; section 3s to learn about ‘making science relevant and real’; section 4s to learn about ‘problem-solving and creativity’; and section 5s to learn and ‘teaching challenging ideas’.
The TESSA handbooks and toolkits support teachers and teacher educators in their work with pupils and teachers. All of the handbooks can be adapted for use in your context. Download and print the PDF version or download and adapt the Word document for your own school or institution.
Key resource posters that can be used/adapted for your classroom
We have reorganised the materials into a series of 15 'teaching packs' that enable teachers to access TESSA in a portable, user-friendly and linear paper format. Each pack is aimed at either early, middle or upper primary, and consists of a range of materials covering Literacy, Numeracy, Science, Social Studies and Life Skills. There is also a pack of additional resources focusing on topics around classroom management and aspects of TESSA pedagogy.
TESSA has a range of audio resources covering different aspects of teachers' work in Africa. Click on the resources collection titles below to find out more and listen to the materials:
Here you can download the complete TESSA Open Educational Resource (OER) material library, in word or pdf format, in a zip file, to save to your device, SD card, USB drive or CD.
Whatever their age or stage of education, all learners need strong foundations in literacy and numeracy to succeed in learning and in life. Learners must learn to read and use number so they can read and use number to learn.
In low and middle income countries, the majority of all children still need help to develop strong foundation skills, regardless of their age or stage of schooling. Without the right help, children can fall further behind with every passing year. This is why teachers must be able to teach foundation skills effectively, even in upper primary and secondary schools.
The professional development modules in this course are for all teachers working with learners whose attainment in numeracy is below their Grade or Form level. Although they are written primarily for practicing teachers, the modules are also appropriate for use in initial teacher education—particularly during school placements or practicum. The modules can be used by individual teachers, pairs or groups of teachers, whole schools, or in cluster or district workshops.
These Professional Development modules were collaboratively developed for the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) in Zimbabwe by the Open University, World Vision, and CARE International. The modules have been tried and tested in hundreds of primary and secondary schools across Zimbabwe, strengthening the teaching of foundation skills and improving learning outcomes.
© World Vision Zimbabwe
This brief guide is written for those leading teacher development in schools. The first part of the guide shares six learnings about building strong foundation skills from school leaders who did this effectively in Zimbabwe. The second part shares ideas for how to use the modules within teacher development sessions in schools.
You may want to work through all six modules as a professional development course, possibly over 3-6 terms - in which case, start with Numeracy Module 1, below.
Alternatively, you may want to find out which skills your learners are struggling with and go straight to where you can find help with these - in which case, start with the Numeracy Diagnostic Tools, below.
The diagnostic tools help you to assess which numeracy skills learners are confident with and where they need help. The assessments should take approximately ten minutes per learner.
Although you may want to assess every learner in a class, year, or school, this is often not practical. Taking a sample of five or ten learners may give you a good sense of which skills most learners are likely to need help with.
For every skill or concept assessed, the tool guides you to activities in the modules which support the development of that skill.
This module introduces counting, comparing, and combining numbers.
The activities in this module help learners connect ideas of addition and subtraction, establish number bonds, and practice addition and subtraction on a number line.
The activities in this module introduce learners more formally to the ideas of place value and the links between ‘hundreds’, ‘tens’, and ‘ones’ including using columns to add and subtract and using place value charts.
This module introduces multiplication and division. The activities help learners to notice patterns and use mathematical language when doing multiplication and division.
The activities in this module help learners build fluency with multiplication and division, and to begin working with bigger numbers.
This modules introduces fractions, calculating with fractions, and working with decimal fractions.
This section includes supplementary student learning materials for numeracy. These materials can be printed out and used for independent student learning, individually or in pairs or small groups. They are designed to be used as stand alone ‘cards’ or sheets, printed on both sides.
The cards can be used as a flexible resource library, to support learning in school, at home, or in informal community learning circles. If used and stored carefully, each card can be re-used many times by different learners.
Whatever their age or stage of education, all learners need strong foundations in literacy and numeracy to succeed in learning and in life. Learners must learn to read and use number so they can read and use number to learn.
Yet half of all children worldwide won’t be confident in basic literacy and numeracy skills by the time they are old enough to finish primary school. This is sometimes called learning poverty. Children from lower income households, communities, and countries are more likely to be in learning poverty. In low and middle income countries, the majority of all children still need help to develop strong foundation skills, regardless of their age or stage of schooling. Without the right help, children can fall further behind with every passing year. This is why teachers must be able to teach foundation skills effectively, even in upper primary and secondary schools.
The professional development modules in this course are for all teachers working with learners whose attainment in literacy is below their Grade or Form level. Although they are written primarily for practicing teachers, the modules are also appropriate for use in initial teacher education—particularly during school placements or practicum. The modules can be used by individual teachers, pairs or groups of teachers, whole schools, or in cluster or district workshops.
These Professional Development modules were collaboratively developed for the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) in Zimbabwe by the Open University, World Vision, and CARE International. The modules have been tried and tested in hundreds of primary and secondary schools across Zimbabwe, strengthening the teaching of foundation skills and improving learning outcomes.
© World Vision Zimbabwe
This brief guide is written for those leading teacher development in schools. The first part of the guide shares six learnings about building strong foundation skills from school leaders who did this effectively in Zimbabwe. The second part shares ideas for how to use the modules within teacher development sessions in schools.
You may want to work through all six modules as a professional development course, possibly over 3-6 terms - in which case, start with Literacy Module 1, below.
Alternatively, you may want to find out which skills your learners are struggling with and go straight to where you can find help with these - in which case, start with the Literacy Diagnostic Tool, below.
The diagnostic tool helps you to assess which literacy skills learners are confident with and where they need help. The assessments should take approximately ten minutes per learner.
Although you may want to assess every learner in a class, year, or school, this is often not practical. Taking a sample of five or ten learners may give you a good sense of which skills most learners are likely to need help with.
For the skills assessed in each of the five sections of the assessment, the tool guides you to activities in the modules which support the development of those skills.
This module introduces phonics—how letters represent the sounds in words and how to blend those sounds together to make words. Children learn to read and write more successfully when phonics is included in their teaching programme.
The Supplementary learning materials, below, include audio files to help you learn and speak the sound that a letter or group of letters make. The supplementary materials also include a booklet on teaching with phonics with further ideas and activities.
This module introduces digraphs and trigraphs—pairs or groups of three letters that have one sound. Learners often find these difficult. The module also introduces ‘tricky spellings’ and activities to help learners form the shapes of letters quickly and confidently.
The Supplementary learning materials, below, include audio files to help you learn and speak the sound that a letter or group of letters make. The supplementary materials also include a booklet on teaching with phonics with further ideas and activities.
This module helps you develop strategies for assessing reading and writing; introducing learners to letters with more than one sound, apostrophes, and silent letters; and helping learners move on to joined-up writing.
This module introduces activities to help learners read longer words, for example by reading and combining parts of words. It also introduces strategies for teaching learners to read and write short sentences.
This module introduces activities to help learners find and understand information from texts. The module introduces strategies for working with short stories as a ‘stepping stone’ to reading longer stories.
This module includes activities to help learners read and write longer texts and also encourages teachers to review and reflect on what they have learned over the course of the foundation literacy modules.
This section includes supplementary student learning materials for literacy.
The reading cards can be printed out and used for independent student learning, individually or in pairs or small groups. They are designed to be used as individual pages, printed on both sides, not as a book.
The reading cards can be used as a flexible resource library, to support learning in school, at home, or in informal community learning circles. If used and stored carefully, each card can be re-used many times by different learners.
The audio files help you to teach reading with phonics – learning and speaking the sound that a letter or group of letters make. You can play the audio files to your learners or just learn and say the sounds and words yourself, or perhaps some of each.
If you save the files offline on your mobile device you can use them as often as you like without paying any additional data charges. You may also share the files with other teachers.
The Supplementary Guide to Teaching Literacy with Phonics is a brief booklet to help you use the audio files. Part A explains how to teach the sounds of letters and groups of letters, Part B has some activities to use with your learners.
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