Four go to Kenya

This documentary showed 4 teachers from England going to Kenya to teach.

The main problems faced by the teachers were:

- Mixed ages – because in Kenya if you don’t pass the exam you have to stay at school and as a result there are 20 year olds in the same class as 16 year olds.

- Mostly writing – the students were taught parrot fashion, meaning they were read information whilst they copied it down.

- Too much content – there is too much to cover in the Kenyan syllabus and therefore no time for teachers to use creative activities to enforce learning.

- Teaching styles – because the students were used to 1 particular style of teaching they did not react well to anything different and could not apply themselves fully.

'There was lots of teaching but not much learning .... We want assertive and confident people'

I totally agree with this statement. I do not think students can learn by just writing and being read to. There was no investigative learning enabling students to think for themselves and use research skills. The students were too placid, they were not keen to try different techniques and ask questions. If a student is assertive and confident they are more likely to ask questions and talk to there peers (on task) making learning for in depth and rewarding for the teacher and student.

The difficulties involved in transferring teaching techniques from one teaching culture to another is that students from different countries are brought up in different ways and as a result have different mannerisms, personalities and learning styles. For example, a debating activity in England would end up very heated with the teacher most likely having to step in so the lesson can progress, where as in Indonesia they end up agreeing with each other and it all a bit too pleasant.

Another aspect might be class size, in Indonesian schools there can be up to 40 students in one class, so classroom management will have to be different from teaching a class that is smaller. Also syllabuses might be different, so even if you are teaching in a way that is engaging students it might not be teaching them the techniques to pass exams. 

Students may not react well to a change of technique, they may be so used to learning in a particular way that no other way works for them.