As Form 4 candidates prepare to write KCSE exams, teachers are busy polishing pale parts. Yes, teachers are determined in dotting I’s and crossing T’s. As I sit at the Penman Centre in Nairobi, to weld these words, I must posit: Teachers handling Form Four candidates should pause and pose some quality questions.
Firstly, have we kept on discussing targets set when the year was still young and virgin? Remember, right at the onset, there was the class target or school mean score, individual targets set by students, school recognition target, number of candidates to matriculate directly into university by scoring C+ (plus) and above, number of candidates to feature in the top 20 or top 100 in the country.
Secondly, have we been exploring ability grouping? Ideally, there are five approaches to ability grouping, namely: General, subject-based, academic villages, parenting groups or family units and pairing of students. Schools that access success in KCSE explore any of the aforesaid. After completion of syllabi, Form Four formidable dream team administers a serious exam in the candidate class. Then, explores general ability grouping. Classes are not fixed like Laws of Medes and Persia. The next serious exams can lead to formation of new classes. A well-staffed school should even know teachers who can handle different ilk of students based on abilities. For in some sense, a staff or a particular department is like a football team. For the team to score and scoop victory, the team knows who is a stupendous striker, middle-field star or deft defender.
Thirdly, have we tried to have effective group discussions? Formation of effective group discussions contribute to content mastery and retention. Largely, groups should be a cocktail of abilities. Then, no group should execute any task that is outside the framework of scheduled timetabled activities. Apart from the common group discussions that are ubiquitous in our schools, there are four major types of group discussions namely: Socratic seminar, fish-bowl, jig-saw, think-pair-share and round-robin. Ideally, pertaining memory and mastery of content, research postulates: Lecture method of teaching account for 5%. Reading of notes is 10%. Audio-visual is 20%. Demonstration is 30%. Discussion is 50%. Practise through exams accounts for 75%. Peer teaching and presentation carries the lion’s share — it is 90%.
Again, have we been setting exams that meet Bloom’s Taxonomy? Schools that do well in KCSE expose candidates to standard exams, which agree with Bloom’s Taxonomy: training them on High and Low Order Thinking. In 1956, Benjamin Bloom with four collaborators — Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill and David Krathwohl — published a framework for categorising educational goals known in popular parlance as: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives or Bloom’s Taxonomy. Exams obeying this model tests: Recall, knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
In addition, have we read and implemented the KNEC reports? Every year, KNEC publishes reports per subject. They point-out mistakes made. Correction of goofs. Reports also talk about subjects that require affirmative action. The onus is on subject teachers to read and implement the recommendations raised therein. It is imperative to focus on raft of reasons that caused poor performance the previous year, and come up with possible solutions.
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Moreover, have we embraced team teaching? Largely, in team teaching, teachers meet regularly. They compare notes in relation to pedagogy and methodology. They confab about Best Academic Practices; insightful instructional materials they can use in order to access academic success. Team teaching can include setting and marking exams together. Such initiatives promote healthy competition and team spirit. Indeed, through team teaching, tutors impress upon themselves and learners the essence of collaboration as a soft skill worth honing in these times and climes.
Furthermore, did we invite guest examiners and implement recommendations made? Some schools have home-grown examiners they can begin with. Then, when a school lacks teachers with basic training as examiners, it means that in case they do not invite them, doom will loom large. They may also fail to find what in The Alchemist, brilliant Brazilian penman called Paulo Coelho calls the elixir or alchemy of transforming metal into gold. This may lead to a lot of activity without productivity. There are schools where teachers create more contact hours with students and expand learning time. Unfortunately, woo betide them: they continue to register poor performance. Meaning, for things to be hunky-dory, schools must strive to get it right.
Lastly, have we focused on fattening the head as we cut the tail? Somehow, teachers must push top achievers to score more. As they assist struggling students to overcome challenges of poor performance.
© Victor Ochieng’
Describe this scribe as a peripatetic speaker and a trainer in schools.
vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
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