2.5.4: MANY QUESTIONS

What is true learning? I wish to say that it is the construction of knowledge through passion-driven spontaneity, using resources in a natural environment.

Like the Science Leadership Academy, we need to steer our schools and learning programs towards:

• Teaching learners how to learn.
• Opening learners’ minds to ideas through critical and creative thinking.
• Teaching learners how to live, to be citizens.
• Using enquiry based approaches, asking questions whose answers learners do not know.
• Helping learners to realize themselves in the community through community-based collaboration. If we are to be part of the community, we need to know the needs of the community and work with it to solve them.
• Honoring the lives of learners - allowing learners to do  things that please them. Let them research, collaborate, present and network.

What seems to complicate learning in our schools are the following:

• The laid down and rigid curriculum which is often irrelevant and meaningless to the learners.
• The failure of the teachers to identify the diverse strengths and multiple intelligences of the learners, culminating into the use of poor approaches to teaching and learning.
• The failure of the education system to see and recognize the position, role and contribution of the learner in his own learning.
• The mistaken view hat knowledge is an independent entity that has to be delivered to an empty vessel.
• The unknown reality that, when young children are left alone, the can originate great ideas from which knowledge can be constructed using simple local materials.
• That good and meaningful learning is originated by the teacher. The learner is less exposed and therefore has less body of knowledge.
• The failure of the teacher to plan meaningful but challenging activities and experiences for the learner.
• The failure of the teacher in becoming a constantly passionate and willing learner, ready to follow with the interest of the learners' activities and asking questions that lead to the desired goal.

Did I enjoy having to do a more creative kind of task? You guess I did! The exercise was a high challenge learning opportunity. It required creativity and it was quite thrilling. Tasks involving the creation and submission of a product, however simple, have been more rewarding for me than just written reflections. The infographic is another very powerful tool that I will be using in class. I see its immediate application and relevance to my work.

And the feeling of having to tackle something with which I was unfamiliar? That is where the fun begins. First, it looks complicated but as we collaborate and work together, a new thing or two turn things around, making the activity more rewarding.
 I felt the pleasure of the rigour of working hard when I submitted my assignment.

2.6.4: HIGH TECH HIGH

High Tech High (https://vimeo.com/10000408) adopts a constructivist approach in the following ways: 

1. Learning is passion driven. Learners are intrinsically motivated.
2. Learning takes place through learner engagement, i.e. it is hands-on or experiential. Students feel a sense of ownership of the work.
3. Learners analyze solutions to problems in their school or community. Learning is community-based.
4. Teacher treats learners as adults and partners. In this way, students feel a part of the decision making process
5. Mixes learners of different categories and social classes together.
6. Learning is a social activity. Learners socialize as they learn and learn as they socialize.
7. Instruction goes from whole class to groups
8. Teacher facilitates activities rather than lecturing
9. Students are engaged more and learn to work with others
10. Students are more cooperative and less competitive
11. A higher level of thinking is encouraged. 

Do you believe that this school promotes creativity? If so, how?
Yes, they allow students to try things out and make mistakes but ensure minimum accidents occur.
Does the school provide an inclusive environment? Yes, the school does not categorize learners in terms of those supposed to use their hands or heads, in terms of social classes. They treat all learners the same way and encourage all to use their hands and heads according to their interests.

Do you think this is a realistic, "do-able" approach that you could introduce into your school? This approach is realistic and "do-able". But needs curriculum review and re-tooling of teachers (acquiring expertise in 'low-threat, high-challenge' pedagogy that is better aligned with new ways of living and learning) to roll it out to the whole school.

Do you believe that they really are able to cover their syllabus requirements? If students and teachers have a say in decision making, then possibly, syllabi are set by them and they are able to move at their own pace. But, should we always measure students' performance and learning through the covering  of the syllabus or acquisition skills?

The school is called High Tech High – what is the role of technology in this school? The school uses a hands-on experiential approach to teaching and technologies are employed like any other tools to ease learners' work. I don't see technology making learners stupid. They are not spending time with it doing nothing. Instead, technology helps them to produce results faster, encouraging the students to do even more.

Do you agree with McWilliam (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZNZQRl8aRM)? Should we as teachers be less ready to boost students' self-esteem when they don't really deserve it? How does this promote or not promote creativity? Yes, I agree with her. May be we need to ask ourselves a question, "Does creativity depend only on appraisal/self-esteem?" No. I don't think pampering a child will make him more creative. At some point, that child may know that our appraisal was inappropriate. And when that happens, s/he may not respect you or his work. Instead, we need to be more realistic by:     

• Guiding students with better and right questions that call for high level thinking.
• Obligatory engagement by planning interesting lesson activities.
• Creating the right learning environment etc.  

WHEN WE WERE TRAINED AS TRS...	BUT OUR ADVICE TO YOU NOW IS...
Were asked to strictly follow a prescribed curriculum	There is need to adopt a more flexible curriculum of big questions
Treated teaching as the transfer of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values	Treat teaching as the process of probing learners to help them construct their own knowledge, skills, attitudes and values
Separated learners of different ages, levels and categories, i.e. streamed classes to improve performance	Mix learners of different categories so that they can learn from and with each other.
Were warned against allowing ourselves or our students to make mistakes during the teaching and learning process.	Allow yourselves and your students to make mistakes to encourage creativity.
Were not allowed to welcome learners' decisions or tolerate their involvement in policy formulation.	Treat learners as adults. Let them have a say in their own education.
Knew knowledge to be static and independent of the knower. It could be sought or examined.	Knowledge is dynamic. It can be constructed by the learners with the teachers' help.
Valued literacy above creativity.	Emphasize both literacy and creativity. They have the same status in education.
It was fashionable to study as an individual. Learning was individualized and competitive.	Encourage social learning. It is less competitive and more productive.
Tests and examinations were hailed as the best approaches to assessment of learners.	During assessment, balance learner performance in class activities with the end product
Technologies like calculators were not encouraged. Mental work was emphasized.	As much as possible, integrate technology in your planning and presentation of lessons.
Teacher-centered approaches were applauded for helping to complete syllabi faster.	Emphasize learner-centered approaches that enhance learner participation.

IMPORTANCE OF EXPERIENCE IN MY TEACHING AND LEARNING

It has been said that, "the greatest resource of any society is her children or her people." People learn best by "doing". Therefore, teachers are called upon to "plan activities". In a teaching-learning environment, activities create experiences. Experiences are always firsthand. They make more lasting impressions in peoples' lives than what is read in books or what is learnt theoretically. It is these that help learners to "internalize, respect and follow" content. Experiences can be physical, mental/intellectual or emotional. The best activity in a teaching-learning environment is one that creates the three types of experiences (physical, intellectual, and emotional). This implies that, the best teacher is one who plans activities that are hands-on, exciting and relevant to the learner in particular and to society in general (activities that learners will respect and follow). However, learners are unique. They will always have different experiences even from the same activity. That is why we need to understand them - their strengths, mix of intelligences, talents etc. When we do, we can motivate them using different approaches.

Personally, I am a traditionalist in my educational practice. But I would like to adopt more progressive approaches in my subject area of chemistry. However, I expect the following hurdles and roadblocks in my way:

1. Limited knowledge of the approach. I admit, I still do not know how to plan  hands-on, exciting and relevant activities all the time. I need more help in this area. In addition, I can't seem to find the right kind of questions to satisfy learners' curiosity through a problem or project based inquiry. They seem to apply more to field and/or environmental inquiries than to abstract subjects like mine. To overcome these, I presume I need to: 

1. Stick to this training. I've got a lot from it in a short time that I missed in my pre-service training and long time teaching experience.
2. Follow and collaborate with colleagues in my professional learning networks who teach chemistry and have made strides in this direction.
3. Try out the approach, possibly in short sessions, and experience and evaluate what happens. 

2. Opposing attitudes from other stakeholders in education in Uganda:
1. The learners. Although man has an instinct to explore, our learners are so much used to the traditional methods that, any attempt to over provoke them in a teaching-learning session is interpreted as; teacher unpreparedness, lack of enough subject knowledge or malicious tendencies (teacher doesn't want his students to know what he knows and to pass well). To overcome this hurdle, I presume, I need to work with a small group of students (outside normal class time) first, instead of involving the whole class from the start. When the group achieves success, more and more learners could be persuaded by their colleagues to the scheme.
2. Fellow teachers. All human beings fear and resist change. This is part of the "fear of the unknown". Up to now, teachers in Uganda have only implemented what is laid down by curriculum developers and government (through the MoES). Therefore, initiatives by teachers are looked at as "small ideas that may not go anywhere". Some teachers could even incite students against me, saying "I am wasting students' time". Many teachers do not want to take a lot of time planning their teaching, preparing lessons and engaging learners during instruction. They fear the success of my initiative could mean getting more engaged. To overcome the above, the best way is to involve them into and work with them through the initiative. This, of course, will take a lot of persuasion and time, but it seems the only way with fellow teachers.

3. Institutional managers. These are teachers who are promoted to administrative positions. Their work is to supervise the implementation of the curriculum on behalf of MoES. Initiating the use of progressive approaches as an individual teacher could be interpreted as diversionary or insubordination, and might attract disciplinary action. To overcome this hurdle, the progressive approaches must be discussed in advance with the administrator, so that he knows exactly what is going on in the small groups mentioned above. Later, the results of the project could be unveiled to the entire institution in a "ceremony". 

4. Parents. In Uganda, not many parents follow what goes on in institutions. They tend to rely on the institutional management and MoES to give their children the best that can be offered. So, if an initiative is well spoken of by the administrators and students, parents receive it.
5. Curriculum developers. The adoption of progressive approaches would warrant a curriculum change. The present one is largely theoretical and examination oriented. If it was used, only a few practical sections could be handled, students would fail examinations and this would attract a lot of resistance from curriculum developers. Curriculum change requires a lot of time, resources and research and collaboration with stakeholders and development partners. To overcome this hurdle, I would need to work backwards, first with the teachers, then institutional management, curriculum developers and finally MoES.

6. Ministry of Education. Implementation of the progressive approaches to teaching and learning would need many government policies in institutions to change, especially with regard to students' freedom and attendance. Fortunately, when all the stakeholders above are convinced, then audience with the MoES officials can be arranged and a way forward chatted.

3. Large classes. Progressive approaches to teaching and learning are normally arranged around learner groups. But there is a limit to the number of groups a teacher can handle. Large classes (which are characteristic of our education program) could be a hindrance to the application of progressive approaches.

4. Lack of resources. Unlike the traditional approach to teaching, progressive learning is experiential in nature. This requires a lot of teaching-learning resources and material (facilities like many classrooms, equipment etc). Such provision require a lot of funding. This could be a hurdle. However, to overcome the ned for a lot of money, local materials from the environment could be used.

5. Limited teaching personnel. Progressive approaches may not be simple without a coherent team to manage activities. At first, implementation cold be difficult. But involving others will soon overcome the hurdle.

6. Lack of adequate time to prepare exciting activities for the learners. Using the present curriculum, the workloads per teacher are too big to allow enough time to prepare real exciting class activities. However, change of curriculum to eliminate irrelevances could help to overcome this hurdle. 

FEELINGS ABOUT TEACHING

I am a product of the Victorian school system and one advantage with that system was their emphasis on good reading skills. These days students do not want to read widely. But I think that one will need to, especially during research work, which is basically what constructivism advocates for. Therefore, I have no regrets when I emphasize wide reading in my class.

Most of the time, we teach the way we were taught. But that might have had limitations. It takes a reflective teacher to seek a better way. The other alternative(s), of course, are professional development courses of this nature. Before I got introduced to constructivist approaches like “Problem solving and learning stations”, I always felt, “Surely there must be another way to engage learners better.” Even now, I have difficulties answering these questions sometimes (depending on the abstractness of the content):

• What do I want my students to learn? If this refers to content, then it must be relevant and appealing to students’ interests. It should also apply to real life situations as much as possible.
• But what specifically do I want them to do? This calls for the skill(s). These skills must have immediate application in life. Otherwise there may not be any motivation for students to engage in them.
• How do they go about the skill? What hands-on step-by-step activities do they need? What specific methods do I apply? These steps must be new and simple. Learning is deemed to have happened when students get “something new”. 
• What resources best help to create that reality?

Constructivism requires that learners hypothesize, question, investigate, imagine and invent knowledge. In addition, learners must reflect and make associations with previous knowledge to reach new understandings. I still find it difficult to prompt my students and then step aside to observe how they proceed. It can’t be done all the time. This is because very often students exhibit little knowledge of the subject due to limited exposure. Students need a lot of motivation and facilitation; time to study on their own, space to reflect on what they learn etc, in order to construct knowledge.  

As a caring teacher, I have always tried to understand my students – their strengths, weaknesses, and interests. But only a few of these and for a few students can be known because the mix of intellectual strengths and interests are too diverse. However, it is an interesting challenge that teachers have got to take up.

In light of the “big philosophical questions”, I observe that in order for constructivism to be embraced in Uganda, we need to review the curriculum and re-structure it into matching subject areas. That is not a short term venture. Fortunately, National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) has started on the project. We hope with technology integration and collaboration through Web 2.0 and social media it will be possible to use constructivist approaches to teaching and learning. One other thing is also inevitable, ‘re-tooling the teacher” in Uganda.

In constructivism, the teacher should not give learners the right answer. Of course that would terminate the debate. And surely that's why there is little search for answers in our classes. I hope to change this in future. 

In constructivism, the curriculum is not fixed. It is the students' interests and questions that are pursued. much of our present curriculum is dictated on the learner e.g. with a combination like Physics, Chemistry and Biology (PCB) a student cannot be good in all the three subjects. That has been unfair on them. 

In constructivism learning is interactive, building on what the student already knows. This method cultivates the teacher-learner friendship required for learning, unlike mere dissemination whether learners enjoy the subject or not. My teaching has been interactive but not always building on what learners know.   

To me, assessment including students' works, observations, points of view and tests is a welcome idea because both the process and product are important.  We once had this type of assessment. I do not know what happened. Currently, our assessment style encourages cheating of examinations. It looks at the end product without assessing the effort of the learner into the product. That is unfair. I'd rather embrace constructivism.

This topic is on "Designing Learning" and I think our unmaking as Ugandan teachers is in failure to "design engaging learner activities" and to "formulate the right kind of questions" to keep up the dialogue (students' quest for more knowledge).