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.