GZAAT Teachers’ Program: What is the American Style of Teaching?

Our school, The Guivy Zaldastanishvili American Academy in Tbilisi, is characterised by different, original teaching methods compared to other schools in the region. In class, we use the harkness table, around which we build a discussion-based lesson, or we have hands-on experience in science subjects such as physics, chemistry, etc. However, these methods were not just made up, rather they reflect existing teaching practices in the USA, where education is of high standard and is considered one of the strongest in the world. This is why our school decided to make a program, sending teachers to different colleges, teaching them about American education in top universities, so that they can apply these methods in class. 

One of the first teachers that were chosen for the program in the states was George Mchedlishvili, in 1999. He talked about the program in great detail, recalling his personal experience. 

 “I was first assigned as an assistant teacher in Exeter, New Hampshire, a very successful boarding school. There I had a mentor but he made me take over the class after 2 weeks, during a 6 week course. With a mentor present who made notes and observations, I  improved my teaching for the remaining four weeks. I took it with great responsibility, but that was the way to start teaching. On several occasions, when I studied at Harvard Graduate School of Education, part of our training was delivering several classes to public schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I taught several classes and I liked this experience, as it was different from my experience in Exeter. I realised that class after class I was gaining knowledge and skills on how to lead a class and how to explain to the students. 

“The first year when the school opened there were just 56 students and 6 teachers, along with very minimal administration. It was a very small school, but there was a big range in the knowledge of the students. Some were bright in math, while others barely distinguished between squaring and doubling a number. But over time I developed a system of support classes and gradually we helped the struggling students reach acceptable levels so that they could finish the year.”

“The difference I noticed between how I was taught and the teaching methods I learned was that the knowledge was mostly factual, there was less applicability and later I realized that certain math concepts could be so widely applied in the real world and we could use it in many fields.” 

This program, after being inactive for a few years, was renewed during the pandemic. To understand more about the process, we interviewed our school director, Mr. Andres Cruz. 

“Years ago I started thinking about what could be a good professional development for faculty. When you suffered a pandemic, teachers also suffered the pandemic, so they were very isolated. Then I remembered that I have a very good friend of mine in a very important school in California, Cate school, that is very similar to ours. So I thought, if I could go there, visit that school and convince them to host a couple of teachers for three weeks every year and see what they’re doing in all the classes, it would be a very professional idea,” said Mr. Cruz.

He mentioned the initial plan to send two teachers abroad each semester. However, the school the teachers were sent to later said they were not interested in the program anymore, resulting in its cancellation.

“You know that during the first four years of school, original teachers were training in the USA and we cannot physically replicate this program now. But it’s not needed either, because Georgia in 2020 is not the same as Georgia in 2025. In these years, there are many teachers who know English now, who are willing to implement new methodology compared to back then.”

“Teachers and people in Georgia generally don’t have collaborative skills, but in the USA  everyone collaborates with each other and they have assemblies every day, from Monday to Thursday. Not hour long ones like we do, but 25 minutes long and everyone sits through these  assemblies and has fun. Actually, everyone loves it and instead of complaining about it, they want more. Imagine if I decided to have assemblies every day, you’d go crazy.”

The last two teachers that were sent abroad to Cate School were Khatuna Tskhadadze and Keti Sturua. We interviewed Khatuna to get more insight about the college. 

“I had the opportunity to see how high school works in America. They also use the Harkness method there, but in a slightly different way,  which they call the “partial Harkness” method. I really liked their approach to joint teaching; for example, they have a combined history and literature course, which in my opinion provides a more integrated and effective way of developing students’ understanding of the humanities. It made me think that a similar course could be created by integrating history, art, and literature,” said Khatuna. 

When asked about the differences between our school and Cate school, Khatuna answered: “There are many things that are different there. There are lots of activities that students do together even after classes. The infrastructure is also very impressive: they have all kinds of sports facilities, playgrounds, and even a swimming pool. It’s a huge and very well-equipped campus. Here, school basically ends after classes and, in my opinion, students have much less of a sense of community. Even the teachers there live on campus, not just the students.”

While some teachers, like Khatuna and Keti, had the privilege of observing the process first-hand, others, like Levan Ghambashidze, had to research it themselves. Despite the setback, Levan stays up to date with the teaching methods through department meetings in the school.

 “We share the experiences, so sometimes you try something new, you share it with the department and then sometimes someone has a quite good exercise for specific skills and they share it with you. And having those discussions somehow makes us always fit for the new challenges. So the question is, where do we find new methods? There are pages, sites too and basically those are the tools we find online. Yeah, that’s how we develop.”

For Levan, the exchange program is valuable in a lot of ways, both for students and teachers.

 “I think that sharing experiences is one of the most precious things you can do in any profession, not only teaching, because one thing is what you learn academically and another thing is what you learn from the experience. I think that the ones who already went abroad to have a chance to see how the other schools are doing with the same method are really lucky and they told us a lot of things actually. So if I benefit just because my colleagues were there and they told me something, it would be absolutely beneficial for me and for every other teacher to go and see how other schools are doing.”

The program is no longer available to us at this moment, but our teachers have adapted to the different style of teaching and it is all reflected in the quality of their classes. A lot of students benefit from the communicative, creative, and discussion-based way of teaching, preparing them for top universities around Europe and the US.

Written By Sopo Gordiashvili, Tamar Tumanishvili

Edited by Elene Papiashvili, Ninia Chaduneli