“I Will Never Forget This Lesson”: A Conversation with WorldView Mentor Teachers

At their core, Meri Martirosyan and Parik Naghdalyan are united by their profession and a shared love for school and teaching. Both are graduates of the WorldView Mentorship Scholarship program, and both affirm that the training fundamentally transformed the quality of their teaching. Together, these two teachers alone have already trained more than a hundred of their colleagues, equipping them with modern methods and empowering them to transform classrooms. Now, as mentor teachers for Visual Armenia, they lead trainings across the country—always eager to learn, and just as eager to share. With a smile, they even suggest that if a more advanced level of the mentorship program is ever created, they will be the first to apply.

Meri Martirosyan, a history and social studies teacher with 28 years of experience at Kapan’s School No. 3 in the Syunik Province, remains as passionate about learning as she is about teaching. She recalls: “You take the multifaceted methods from the mentorship program, try them out in the classroom, and you see the students’ enthusiasm and motivation. For example, after using the ‘Parts, Purpose, Complexity’ method to teach a world history lesson, I was so inspired when a student told me: ‘I will never forget this lesson.’”

Parik Naghdalyan, an educator with 19 years of experience teaching history at Pokr Vedi Secondary School in the Ararat Province, shares a similar passion. “When I see smiling eyes after a lesson—when I see excitement, results, and an engaging class—I feel a great sense of satisfaction. Now my lessons are more collaborative, and I give more space to group work. Beyond teamwork, we also use a concept called the ‘Choice Sheet.’ Students who want to go further can take on additional homework. This approach of moving each student one step forward is very important so that no one falls behind.”

Independent of one another, both teachers described how they eagerly awaited their mentorship classes every Thursday for six months. Guided by their lead mentor, international education expert Seda Kocharyan, they absorbed new theories and methods, received constructive feedback, and were tasked with applying everything directly in their classrooms. The program required them not only to learn but also to integrate WorldView’s resources into real teaching practice.

The Impact of Long-Term Professional Training

“Why is a long-term training program so important? With a short-term one, you might get a lot of information at once, but you don’t fully absorb it,” says Parik Naghdalyan. “In this program, we gradually localized what we learned, and we saw the results. We had a responsibility to apply what we were taught and the opportunity to get feedback.”

Meri Martirosyan continues her colleague’s thought: “We reinforced theoretical knowledge through group work, then took it into the classroom and reinforced it even more. WorldView and the Mentorship Scholarship program were truly revolutionary for us. Now, even in remote regions, we can create an engaging environment for our students so that their education is on par with others.”
Both teachers highlight the practical skills they gained. Among them, time management stands out as a breakthrough that, in their words, “opened a world of endless possibilities.” They now know that even tasks that once seemed impossible can be accomplished through small, manageable steps.

Meri elaborates: “The teacher is the architect of the lesson; they design and implement it. The new methods—the five steps of lesson planning and problem formulation—are very different and have simplified our work. Time and resource management have become easier. This was one of the greatest innovations.” Last year, Meri was recognized with a medal by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports for her contribution to education reform. She is now preparing to apply for the third-level teacher qualification.

Parik candidly shares her own growth: “Before the training, recording and presenting a lesson was a challenge for me. But as part of the program, teachers were required to record three lessons and submit them for feedback. At first, I wondered how I would manage. But after making the first recording, I realized that any of my lessons could be documented. And since recordings are required for qualification applications, the portfolio I built during the mentorship program helped me achieve mine.” She now holds a third-level qualification and is preparing to apply for the fourth.