THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPERIENCE IN MY OWN TEACHING AND LEARNING

I feel cheated since I do not have any ' on- going experience' but I am bound to share!

Well, I will tell a story  about my recent visit to my little girl's primary school and what I experienced there. Here goes:

On Saturday 28th of February, the parents and guardians of pupils of Primary four (my daughter is in a stream Flamingoes - beautiful name conjuring beautiful images of stately birds by a lake ) and Primary five. Purpose for this meeting? CHECKING  ACADEMIC PROGRESS OF daughters.

School: St. Theresa Girls Boarding Primary School, Namagunga.

The Head Teacher's report focused on the primary seven results of 2014 in relation to  NUMBERS and SCORES and GRADES and DIVISION 1 or 2 and RANKING. 

The chairperson School Management Committee went on and on reminding us about our parental roles in the up bringing of our children in order to help them ATTAIN GOOD GRADES! 

The resource person made it clear to all parents that we should take care of our children,s emotional, physical, psychological,and spiritual needs if we expected them to SCORE HIGH IN EXAMINATIONS!  She also spoke of the challenges of parenting in the 21st Century and mentioned TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS as one of the biggest hurdles parents should contend with.

The Q& A session - most interesting of all- A parent was concerned about the STREAMING of pupils in terms of FAST LEARNERS, MIDDLE LEARNERS , SLOW LEARNERS- the chairperson School Management Committee  retorted- 'THAT IS NOT YOUR BUSINESS LEAVE THE SCHOOL TO DO WHAT IT THINKS IS RIGHT!'

After the meeting, the actual checking of progress begun. Parents poured into the classes each to see a teacher  and all six teachers for all the subjects for a comment regarding their daughters.Pinned at the entrance the class were SCORES , GRADES and POSITIONS of three sets of examinations that the children had been subjected to and we had to look through their exercise books and make comments- we were warned- not to the teacher EVEN IF THE TEACHER WERE WRONG.

I picked my daughter and her books and file. I was shocked at the extreme neatness of my daughter's handwriting and to learn that she is transiting from the use of the pencil to a ball pen. I quipped to her that she was too neat for my liking.The teacher's role? TASK MASTER ! I could imagine what the children went through to have such neat handwriting-THEIR KNUCKLES must have suffered the endless lashes of the cane, all in the name of ATTAINMENT!

I came across the teacher's spelling error looking misplaced in this school where a simple error like missing a full stop, or not crossing your ts and dotting your is' earns you a big cross even if the answer is correct! the teacher had spelt  QUAVER as QUAVAR (a beat in music). I took him on and  in revenge!I told him to mark the spelling of that word and also to realise how hard it is to force down facts into the young children;s heads! How could they drive the children to perfectionism at such a tender age? Were they breeding ROBOTS?

Despite all this I smiled widely when my daughter presented me with a card she had drawn for me decorated with a multiple of colours with words written in a font style different from the standard font of the school- in which she expressed that she loved her family and she also made suggestions as to what I should cook for her when I visit her on the visitation day. -A clear sign that a human being  cannot be harnessed however much one tries.

What is it that is so disturbing about the nature of learning at my daughter's school?

1. Focus on  rigorous teaching, testing, and  regurgitation of facts
2. Method of work- strict time tables, strict schedules, measured way of doing work and structured writing  of responses 
3. Stiffing of  the learners' ingenuity, creativity etc- in an effort to make them all the same- the children all have similar handwriting!
4. Parental involvement is geared at pushing the competitive spirit forward. Any dissenting idea is not tolerated.
5. The children are made to feel guilty if they do not attain very high grades and are pushed beyond their limits !

What next? Is that all?

The whiff of fresh air is in the Lower Secondary Curriculum Reform, CURASSE)  which aims at shifting from an old tried and trusted model of Secondary Education to a broader and more inclusive curriculum that can satisfy needs of different abilities.The current curriculum is outdated in its strong emphasis on subject content at the expense of learner acquisition of marketable skills and competencies.

After carrying out the situational analysis and a market survey, the findings guided this curriculum reform which has the following aims:

• To promote effective learning and acquisition of skills
• To address the needs of all students and lay the foundation for improved pedagogy and assessment procedures which allow learners to more effectively realise their full potential and demonstrate their achievements
• To address the social and economic needs of the country by meeting the educational needs of learners who will take jobs in the world of work, become self-employed people or pursue academic studies beyond senior four.
• To allow flexibility to absorb emerging fields of knowledge in a rapidly-changing world
• To reduce content overload by specifying a realistic set of expected learning outcomes with a range of essential generic skills at the heart of the curriculum

One of the aims of reforming the curriculum was to reduce the load on the teaching and make it skills based to enable graduates of Ordinary Level education relevant to the learners in the society where they live. The subject menu has been reduced to eight learning areas:

Creative Arts-will embrace dance, drama, music and the visual arts.  These are all inter-related. Creative Arts will develop lifelong appreciation of and participation in expressive arts and cultural activities.

• Creative Arts will enable learners to:
• create and appreciate different art forms
• foster and enhance Uganda’s diverse culture
• explore and utilise the environment
• use art  and  culture to generate income and employment

Language-One's ability to use language lies at the centre of the development and expression of our emotions, our thinking, our learning and our sense of personal identity. Learners from S1 will be exposed to local, national and international languages.

Life Education -designed to address societal challengesLearning in Life Education will ensure that young people develop the knowledge, understanding, skills, and capabilities which they need for their psychological, physical and social wellbeing at school and later in adult life.

Life Education integrates Personal Social and Health Education and Physical Education.  This Learning Area is designed to address societal challenges such as:

• Obesity among young people
• Drug and alcohol abuse
• Early engagement in sexual activities
• Teenage pregnancies and high dropout rates
• High HIV prevalence among young adults
• The poor hygiene standards of young people
• Inadequate and inappropriate sources of information regarding sexuality

Religious Education-aims to develop spiritual and moral well-being in learners.It will ensure that young people acquire the knowledge, understanding, skills and values which contribute to spiritual wellbeing while at school and throughout life. Religious Education will enable young people to engage in a search for meaning, value and purpose in life. They will appreciate the beliefs and values that are fundamental to families and to the fabric of society.Learners will study either Christian Religious Education or Islamic Religious Education.

Science -Learners will use evidence to analyse and evaluate the way science is used in daily life.  They will engage in a wide range of collaborative and investigative tasks to develop functional science skills. Science will help them to become creative, inventive and enterprising adults.

 

Social Studies -will develop the knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes and values that learners need to participate actively in society. It will help them to be informed, confident and responsible citizens of the local, national, regional and global communities. 

Mathematics-will move to the applicable and functional mathematics that is required by all learners for full and effective participation in social and economic life 

Technology and enterprise-Learners will engage in creative, practical and work-related activities within a programme of study designed as a sequence of modules through each year. The learners will apply these skills on a range of projects. These projects will be selected according to ‘do-ability’, local area needs, learner preference and teacher competence. The projects will constitute responses to identified societal problems and challenges. The products of the skills developed in this Learning Area will be in form of designs, items, approaches, technical methods, experimental techniques, or prototype equipment.

Finally?

My story ends with a "Happily ever after"

1.  Teachers will be retooled to help them deliver the curriculum which is more skills based as opposed to the current one which is content loaded. 
2. The trainees in the CCTI course will have an upper hand in the delivery of CURASSE, because the course is enacting what the progressive learning  is and Nellie is finding it challenging but  beautifully engaging!
3. I am not a linear person, I resist structures and being put in to pigeon holes. I am a free spirit- the spirit of progressive learning and will make sure it takes root and holds! My blog to which  I intend  to engage all teachers of Literature in English will involve these ideas  (progressive learning) and novel ways to improve  learning of the subject.