The Ministry of Education recently announced the results of the KCSE exam at a ruckus event that would have been mistaken, by the casual observer, as an announcement of a great scientific discovery such as a cure for an aggravating malady. The brouhaha displayed by the winning team, the boys, was enough to drown the shrieks and wails of the losing team, the girls. Read the full story HERE.
Competitive rote learning as advocated by the Kenyan education system, should be eschewed and totally discarded in favor of cooperative learning. The aim being to teach all equally, every student contributing, their worth being recognized and rewarded.
What is rote learning?
Rote learning is learning which avoids understanding of a subject and instead focuses on memorization. It emphasizes learning by repetition; the idea being one will be able to quickly recall the meaning of the material the more one repeats it.
Rote methods are routinely used when quick memorization is required and it is frequently used to prepare quickly for exams.
The disadvantages of rote learning are:
• Whilst this is useful in learning some basic things, such as the times tables or the alphabet, it is narrow and restrictive and does not teach children to think or how to apply that information.
• If exam papers are not well designed, it is possible for someone with good memorization techniques to pass the test without any meaningful comprehension of the subject.
• It favors the proficient retainers by heaping egregious attention on them while shunning the students at the bottom of the 'league standings' who may have proclivities in other areas
• It is not likely to produce innovators and entrepreneurs because such an education system produces people who have been trained to think in the same way.
Rote learning is a way of imparting basic information, but teaching a child to think, experiment and question are all part of the education necessary to produce a well rounded individual.
Learning Circles
Learning Circles is a form of cooperative learning whereby small diverse, democratic groups of people meet regularly over a specified period of time to focus their different perspectives into a common understanding of an issue or problem. The discussion takes place in an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding. The goal is deeper understanding by the participants and their efforts are often directed towards the construction of a final product or recommendation for a course of action.
Learning Circles as an education tool
Learning Circles can be used with learners of any age. After the basic learning stage, learning circles can be used to help students develop trust and respect for diversity of experience, and develop both listening and speaking skills among peers.
Learning Circles can bring together classes from large urban settings and geographically isolated rural areas and from around the world via the internet. Students with a wide range of educational, physical, and social abilities can interact with one another without regard as to how high the school is ranked nationally.
Theme Based Learning Circles
Themes are used to emphasize critical thinking and problem-solving approaches. Each classroom sponsors a section in one of the themes and their work is published in a review to be shared with other participants. Let’s examine some of the themes used in this innovative style of teaching and learning.
Places and Perspectives theme
The Places and Perspectives theme encourages students to explore regional history, culture, government, and geography by sharing their knowledge with people from different locations. The goal is to expose students to places beyond their own schools and communities in order to expand their outlook on life and broaden their views. For instance, a classroom studying history may interview native inhabitants or the elderly, or describe the historical attractions of the area. A classroom studying government might sponsor one of these sections: Examining local constitutions or monitoring Elections. Their final work will be published in the Places and Perspectives review.
The Society's Problems theme
The Society's Problems theme provides students the opportunity to explore problems that confront their communities and to work together as teams to propose effective solutions. The students research issues and discuss the impact of similar problems in diverse local communities. By comparing problems across different communities, students gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of these issues, and work together to propose solutions to them.
Learning Circle participants produce a final publication called Investigating Society's Problems covering a broad range of topics. The students may want to investigate teenager-related problems such as drugs, alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy, abortion, school dropouts, runaways and academic pressure.
The Global Issues theme
The Global Issues theme focuses discussion on a broad range of environmental social, political, and economic issues which affects the Earth's entire population.
The final publication for this theme is the Global Issues Review. Students may choose to study sociological issues such as worldwide starvation and poverty, harmful and persuasive media, racism, or terrorism. Some science-related issues include nuclear weapons, protection of natural resources, pollution, changing weather patterns, and genetic engineering.
Possible government issues include: national conflict and cooperation, the role of the United Nations, the development of emerging democracies and international trade agreements.
Cooperative learning for adults
Cooperative learning, which embraces the learning circles concept, is a relaxed, simple, low-tech form of gaining an education and understanding of issues in an informal, egalitarian setting. It reflects a growing conviction that there is a collective wisdom in groups. In study circles, participants learn to listen to each others ideas, not as points to debate, but as different experiences that each individual brings to the table.
In the study circle, each participant feels empowered to think for themselves. All are free to say what they think, to sit back and relax, and enjoy learning and thinking. Participants are encouraged to speak their minds freely and to engage in friendly disagreement.
Equality
Unlike the traditional classroom - where inequality affects not only the student/teacher relationship, but the relationships between students -in a study circle, a person with a doctorate has no more status than a person with a high school diploma. Value is placed not on having mastered someone else's ideas, but on generating and communicating ideas of one's own.
Most often, there is a facilitator whose job is not to have mastery over the subject the group is discussing, but to keep the discussion going. Facilitators need be "expert" only in managing the group so that all are heard and the conversation stays lively and on topic.
Democracy
By managing the process themselves, participants practice democracy. What is democracy? It's a system of shared power, a system in which individuals feel they can affect the outcome of political decisions. In the study circle environment - where there is equality, respect for others, and excitement about the exchange of ideas - people are engaged in the most fundamental aspects of democracy. They will come to conclusions or make decisions through talking, listening, and understanding.
Connection
In study circles, "connection" is central. Participants seldom take part just to learn objective facts. The importance of what they learn lies in its connection to their lives, their own experiences, and the real problems and issues they face. A study circle is "education for life."
And, of course, the participants themselves are connected. When people talk about their lives, share their feelings, and listen to each other with respect, there is connection and a sense of community, a sense of belonging.
Education as transformation
Today, conventional education focuses more and more on careerism, seeing education in the narrow role of helping people get jobs. Study circles focus on self-realization and social transformation by encouraging participants to blossom as individuals and to bring about change in society.
Study circles bring people together to talk, to feel part of a community, and to practice acceptance of diversity, promote equality and engage in democracy.
The way forward
The learning circles method of education would probably be suited to students in the final stages of primary school and beyond. Here are some points to consider as we seek to not only educate but to also empower:
• Class sizes should be divided into groups at some time during the school day where a free flow of ideas is indulged. All the students can be given roles in the group when it is time for working on a project. Examples of roles could be: an illustrator, a model maker, the presenter, the researcher, the facilitator and so on.
• Instead of final exams, why not have presentation of material that students have researched and put together?
• Beyond high school, educators should think about prompting students towards vocational and technical schools. There are many bright students who may not be able to memorize and recite facts but have an inclination towards the trades.
• Take students on field trips to potential work areas where they may establish a mentorship with professionals.
• Educate students from every day examples. Lessons may be taught from the newspaper where students question news stories and the teacher uses this opportunity to impart a valuable lesson. Take for example the recent news story about the stolen funds donated by the United Kingdom for free primary education. This would become a lesson on the workings of the Ministry of Education, its budget, employee salaries, and the work of different officials and so on. An enlightened student bringing this information home to his parents would more than likely influence how his parents would vote at the next elections.
This section welcomes input from reform minded educators from Kenya and from around the world
Conclusion
There is material that goes further as to how to conduct a learning circle in detail but we will not dwell on this area in this article. We only seek to introduce this new way of learning and thinking. It will be a welcome departure from the vacuous rallies our rulers subject us to that are agenda less, replicated at varying venues with different needs and do not bring about any progress.
The progress and development of neighborhoods and localities will not be brought about by this corruption ridden government. It will be brought about by people getting to know each other, discussing their problems and mutually adopting a consensual solution for implementation. Rural dwellers share and have more in common with their neighbor than with that elite tribesman whose grandiose lifestyle, swathed in ill gotten trappings, does not reflect our experiences or struggles.
Full disclosure: The opinions expressed in this and other preceding articles will be part of the manifesto of a political party to be known as The African Economic Democracy Party that will be seeking the mandate of the Kenyan people in the general elections of 2012. We will continually strive to present solutions with substance to issues affecting fellow Kenyans in order to uplift the living standards of this generation and bring prosperity to future generations.
No comments:
Post a Comment