After having a bit of a nightmare with internet last week, this blog is covering both week 8 and week 9. I can’t believe I’ve reached this point in my trip already, time is slipping away too fast! Today is the 1st April, and I have to leave Uganda at the end of this month L Before I left Northern Ireland 12 weeks seemed like such a long time to be in Africa, but it definitely has not been long enough. I’m just glad I have 4 weeks holiday after to work on this tan a bit before I get home!! The past week has been amazing, just like every other week here. We finished teaching last Friday, and amid lots of tears, hugs and gifts (Ugandans are an INCREDIBLY generous people) we waved goodbye to our classes and jumped onto our favourite bodaboda for the last time (the driver insisted on having his photo taken with us so he could remember his mzungo clients which was very sweet!). After the quickest packing-time ever, Rachel and I headed back to Jinja for the weekend; it is such a chilled-out fun place that I would happily go there every weekend if I could. We decided to pass on a second chance at rafting, and instead opted for a quad-bike safari with three friends. Banter to the max, I absolutely loved it J Now, anyone who knows me will know that both my coordination and steering skills leave a lot to be desired; turns out my quadding is even worse than my driving and I have the bruises to prove it! Like the horse-riding, we started off going along the edge of the Nile before heading into the bush and through lots of tiny villages. To be honest I’m glad I had done the horse-riding to enjoy the views, as we sped along the bumpy roads far too quickly to take in what was around us. Seriously, I could barely stay on my quad and dodge the potholes as it was, let alone taking time to look around me! However, we did have one un-planned rest, when Rachel’s quad ran out of petrol and she came to an ungainly halt in the middle of a village. While our guide siphoned petrol from the rest of our quads into hers, the entire village (including some animals) decided to have a community meeting in a circle around us, peering at the strange-looking (and very dirty) people before them.
That night, we were all sitting around in the backpackers playing card games (we have now introduced Jungle Speed to Uganda!) when an absolutely ENORMOUS thunderstorm started – like I’ve seen big storms before but this was massive; roaring thunder every couple of seconds with lightening that lit up the whole sky like daylight. Undeterred, around 30 of us threw plastic bags over our heads and traipsed out to the bus in shorts and tshirts at 1am to head to a nightclub – I love how crazy life is here, that just wouldn’t happen at home! With lots more practice of African dancing and a powercut partway through, we had an absolutely brilliant night.
After a horribly early start on Sunday morning to head back to Kampala, we went along to the streetkids project, Tomorrow’s Heroes. These kids are just incredible, you get more and more attached to them every week and I genuinely want to bring some of them home with me. This week, rather than staying at the church we split into our groups and the boys took us round some places that were special to them. My group, the Lions, took me to the place where they collect scrap to sell for 500 shillings per kilogram (around 15p), where some of them go to school and where they collect cardboard boxes every night to sleep in. This last place was the bit that hit me most; while I knew they were streetkids, it was very hard to realise that while I was going home to a warm room and bed these boys would be lying on cardboard all night. I don’t think we’ll be able to visit them this weekend, but I definitely want to go again as soon as possible.
This week has been so relaxing; without school everyday you might think Rachel and I would struggle to fill our time but we’ve managed to keep ourselves busy.... a spa on Monday, out for coffee on Tuesday, shopping on Wednesday and the Uganda museum on Thursday. As for this weekend, plenty of time at the beach (come on rainy season, leave us alone for two days!). Of course, we’re thinking of all our friends at home on teaching practice... I’m sure you’re glad to know we’re as busy and stressed as you!
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| My last day with P3Y |
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Having now finished my time as ’Teacher Suzi’ in City Parents’ Primary School, I feel that this would be a suitable time to reflect on how my period of school-based work in Uganda has differed to those I have completed in Northern Ireland. There are some obvious differences which I have mentioned in previous blogs; large classes, few resources, discipline and different teaching methods. However, the most difficult aspect of teaching here has been catering for all of the learners in my class.
There are seven streams in each year at City Parents’, in which pupils are grouped according to ability. In theory, this should make it easier for teachers to meet their learners’ needs, as all pupils should be at a similar level of understanding. However, the pupils are allocated into these streams at the beginning of Primary One, before they have even encountered teaching. They remain in these classes until another test in Primary Four, after which they are re-distributed into appropriate streams. Research by Piaget revealed that all children develop at different rates - physically, emotionally and intellectually. The clear implication of this finding is that while my pupils may have been at a similar ability in Primary One, I can see huge differences in their development two years later; in their understanding of various subjects, in their independence and in their social and communication skills.
It is not that a mixed-ability class is a huge challenge in itself; virtually all classrooms in Northern Ireland contain a vast range of diverse languages, cultures and abilities. In comparison, my class in Uganda was surprisingly uniform; all pupils spoke English and were from relatively similar social, economic and cultural backgrounds. In addition, there were no pupils who have been officially diagnosed as having a special educational need or behavioural problems; in general, children with such a diagnosis are not educated in mainstream schools. The challenge was that teachers do not attempt to cater for the variety of abilities within the class, using the now-familiar excuse that there are too many pupils. In Northern Ireland it is expected that teachers will consider how to make learning accessible to all pupils; the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland states that “teachers should employ strategies that motivate and meet the needs of all pupils” (2007:14). Similarly, the Northern Ireland Curriculum outlines that teachers should provide opportunities for all pupils to take part in lessons fully and achieve success in learning (CCEA, 2007). This is achieved through the process of differentiation, which Peters (1992) defines as the technique by which teachers adapt work to meet every learner’s needs. There are many ways to provide differentiated learning; for example, through task, organisation, support and catering to different learning styles.
I can honestly say that in my entire placement at City Parents’, I did not see any form of differentiation used. Every lesson followed the same pattern whereby the teacher would explain a concept at the blackboard, the children would recite it back and would then complete an activity independently, with no support from the teacher. The occasions when I would walk around the classroom helping individual pupils during a task, the teacher looked at me with a bemused expression and told me to sit down and start marking.
The implications of having no differentiation strategies were obvious; some pupils would finish a given exercise in ten minutes, and proceed to talk or create havoc for the rest of the lesson. On the other hand, some pupils would spend forty minutes struggling to complete a single question, or if they did manage to finish the questions would invariably receive zero for their efforts. Despite large numbers of pupils failing to grasp a concept, the teacher would insist there was no time for re-teaching and would continue onto the next topic on the scheme of work. While there are seven streams for each year, every class follows an identical scheme and completes the same exam twice a term, after which results are compared. Naturally, teachers feel that this reflects on their own abilities as a professional, and so strive to ensure that their pupils achieve top marks. Rather than personalising the learning for each individual to ensure they understand a concept, teachers resort to rote-learning dozens of definitions and answers, so pupils will perform well in the exam. What does this result in? Children who can recite answers like a parrot, but don’t understand what they are saying and cannot apply their knowledge to any problem or situation. Coon and Mitterer (2010) suggest that while rote-learning can be efficient, the learning is not as lasting or as flexible as when other methods of learning are used; witnessing this teaching strategy leads me to agree with their opinion.
While my teacher was open-minded about some strategies we use in Northern Ireland, he was very reluctant to consider using differentiation. Of course there are obvious challenges to differentiation; it takes a considerable amount more preparation and planning time before the lesson, and the teacher needs to be available to support individuals or small groups during the activity. However, it is extremely disheartening to mark dozens of books every day and see that large amounts of children have not grasped a concept. I genuinely do not understand how one can consider him or herself a successful teacher if their pupils are not actually learning while in the classroom. The one occasion where my teacher agreed to let me use differentiation and set a different mathematics task for high-ability pupils, he then criticised the task for being too advanced as, “This is what they will learn in Primary Four”. It did not matter to him that every one of these pupils were concentrated, focused and completed the activity successfully; the only aspect that mattered was that they were not following the Primary Three scheme exactly. Coming from an education system in which all pupils are encouraged to achieve their full potential (CCEA, 2007) it was frustrating to see that children here are not given the same opportunities to stretch their minds and develop their abilities and intellect.
Differentiation is a vital part of teaching which I have learnt about and tried to put into practice since beginning my course at Stranmillis. As with active learning (which I discussed in a previous blog), experiencing an education system in which this concept does not exist has helped me to realise how beneficial it is to children’s learning, and what a vital role it plays in the classroom.
References
Coon, D. and Mitterer, J. (2007), Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to mind and behaviour, USA, Cengage Learning Inc.
CCEA, (2007) The Northern Ireland Curriculum: Primary, Belfast, CCEA Publications.
General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (2007), Teaching: the Reflective Profession, Belfast, GTCNI Publication
Peters, M. (1992), ‘Differentiation’, British Journal of Special Education, Vol.19, Issue 1, Blackwell Publishing.
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