For
sure, the most important and precious thing one can offer is experience, however,
humans never learn something by simply being instructed, most have to discover
it for themselves. All that I have witnessed and gone through educates me to believe
in the Creator for all I have not witnessed and gone through. Kindly we need to accept precisely what
experience offers to us.
The
process involved in my teaching which includes scheming, planning makes it
appear more of being a traditionalist because I am strictly being guided by
some sort of rules (syllabus) to follow; for instance the prescription for the
term’s work can never be altered by the individual teacher, in which case, the
head of the institutions inspects your scheming and planning to see whether it
is in line with the set rules (syllabus) in terms of time and methods to be
used. Now in such a ‘well planed system’, the teacher finds it a little bit hard
to introduce a new approach which may not easily be bought by the system. Mitra
once said the educational system we do have now is good but no longer useful to
the world in which we live.
Truly
there is something new on the arena, the progressive approaches that I would adopt.
However, it’s not going to be a walk over because the traditional approaches apart
from encouraging a one way kind of communication, it has anchored its roots well
in the following areas (i) it gives the teacher all the chances of exposing the
learners to information not readily available; (ii) the teacher determines the organization
of the content, the pace to which the content should be presented. In this case
the teacher gets the feeling of having full control of the system; (iii) the
teacher is able to facilitate a large class using this approach; (iv) some students
even enjoy so much when the teacher has a complete control of the class,
teaching, explaining concepts and moving around.
The
above are the hurdles that this new approach on the arena should break and take
over from the traditional systems. This will be a gradual process, a process
that will involve the following steps: (i) sensitization of stake holders on the
importance of frequent curriculum reviews to meet the growing challenges of the
market demand; (ii) involve class room teachers in any sort of planning that
involves the class room; (iii) let ICT be for all like EFA slogan; (iv) refresh
teachers through in-service training on the new approaches and development in
teaching; (v) let head of institutions be part and partial of the process if it
is to succeed.
Thank you Mustafa, I like your points on how we can adopt to progressive approaches. All stake holders should be sensitized . Right
ReplyDeleteThank you Mustafa, you can stick to the set syllabus but approach the teaching differently by focusing on the learner and not the content, on the process but not the end product. Try it out.
ReplyDeleteTruly it's not going to be a walkover to change from traditional to progressive. We shall have to take it a step at a time and will get there one day.
ReplyDeleteMustafa. Nice piece of work. What if we focus on those things we can handle as teachers. We can select some topics and become progressive.
ReplyDeleteMustafa. Nice piece of work. What if we focus on those things we can handle as teachers. We can select some topics and become progressive.
ReplyDeleteYou have made valid suggestions especially in the last paragraph, regular curriculum reviews and teacher in-service training. I am sure everyone of us in the CCTI can start helping our own colleagues with these new approaches. If it can work for my school, it can work for the neighboring schools and eventually the whole country.
ReplyDeleteTrue Mustafa. However, it is not about changing the content , it is all about changing the way we teach. You will agree with me that progressive approaches reduce the teacher's workload while making the learners busier than before. Which teacher would not want to make light their job?
ReplyDelete