Karyn's erratic learning journey: Once upon a time in Africa... - 0 views
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The classrooms were cold and draughty. There were 45-60 children per class. Many were sitting two-to-a-desk. The teaching followed strictly behaviourist principles, with lots of call-and-response. With no text books and precious few learning materials, it was hard to think of alternative approaches.
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Teachers Without Borders on 20 Sep 08This reminds me of so many classrooms in Kenya where one teacher was teaching a class of 60, 80, even 118 students! During our workshops, some of the teachers were initially reluctant to try to move away from behavourist methodologies but eventually almost all of them decided to give it a try - a huge step in a classroom that's, on average, at least a double of what we're used to in North America.
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The government had identified that few of the children in the poorer schools could afford lunch and had introduced a feeding scheme. Schools were provided with soup and a budget for bread and peanut butter.
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This reminds me of students lining up to get food from the School Feeding programme at one of the elementary schools we visited in the Gugulethu township outside Cape Town. We found out that some of the students have to leave their classrooms ten minutes earlier before lunch to get their lunch from the School Feeding programme. Every day, in front of their peers, they have to get up and leave the classroom to get their lunch. Imagine how that must feel.
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you will have noticed that I regularly try to speak up for the third world teachers. They have no voice in this space, and I am a poor excuse of an ambassador for their cause.
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True. We don't hear these teacher voices from outside the developed world bubble. I hope that some of the TWB-Canada projects that Sharon Peters (http://www.wearejustlearning.ca) and I are working on will empower the teachers in Africa to share their stories through blogs. This involves a lot of capacity building, but it is an important task that can make all of us better educators.
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