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).