Wednesday, May 18, 2005
You can lead a horse to water but.....
Man I was really looking forward to teaching this week, starting in on the Organic Chemistry section. My classes really just get a rudimentary introduction to it in this year’s curriculum, but I so much enjoy Organic Chemistry, and it is a chance to again teach chemistry from a systematic framework instead of the straight memorization I’ve had to present up to now. Extraction of metals and Non-metal chemistry. Ugh. That stuff isn’t even taught in US or European courses anymore. But it is in their syllabus, it will be on the National Examination, and so they need to get it.
So I began by talking about Organic Chemistry – why it is taught as a separate topic, why carbon forms so many compounds, how this huge welter of millions of compounds can be simplified into relatively few kinds of reaction groups. My first class didn’t want to hear it. I pasted my flip charts of stuff for them to copy before we talked about it. They didn’t like that – they wanted the discussion FIRST. I’ve learned that that doesn’t work, but it was really hard to get them to copy the stuff down. Some students had borrowed notebooks from older students that had the whole organic course written out. I insisted that they copy my notes anyway, and they didn’t like that either.
I also have some 30 US textbooks left from last year that Shari and her school sent me, and they have an EXCELLENT introduction to Organic. Clear, easy to understand, with color diagrams and easy sample questions with answers. I couldn’t use these books this year until now, because they just don’t cover the boring metal and non-metal reactions. I’d offered them to other chemistry teachers that could have used them, but they didn’t pick up on it. Gotta say THAT bothered me too, but that is another story.
Anyway, I made my pitch to my classes about how great these books are and how they will make learning Organic much easier for them. Since there weren’t enough for everyone, I offered them specifically to the students who had gotten the best grades in the mid-term. THEY DIDN’T WANT THEM! I then opened the offer to everybody, and a couple of students did take some books. In one class, I managed to give away eight books. In my BEST class, NOBODY took one. After I had the students carry the books back to my house, I really pressed them on why they wouldn’t take advantage of an offer like this. They said they were afraid the books would be stolen from them and they would then be in trouble. I believe that about halfway. Maybe less.
The students are already getting up-tight about the National Exams. There are signs in my classrooms ONLY 145 DAYS TO THE NECTA EXAM. I think they are totally fixated on the idea that the only way to prepare is to memorize all the questions from all the old exams they can find, and anything else is a waste of time. This is such a perversion of learning! There IS no interest in learning, there is only worry about passing the exams. And while I am SURE that the way they are preparing for the exams is counterproductive to the extreme, I really can’t fault them on their emphasis on the exam itself. It really DOES determine their future, and it is highly competitive. Consider that of the students who start primary school, about 1% make it all the way through the system and graduate. Based on the national averages, 75% of my current students will not be accepted to continue after this year.
It is difficult to feel that being a teacher here makes any impact.
And the US is increasingly introducing standardized testing to assess student achievement and teacher competence? Come to Tanzania to see where THAT leads!
I’m so glad I got this entrepreneurship program going. It is taught in Kiswahili, so I don’t even know what is happening when I sit in on the classes, but there IS enthusiasm and engagement going on there. And it is presenting information they CAN actually make use of. So my pleasure is vicarious, but it feels worthwhile anyway.
Man I was really looking forward to teaching this week, starting in on the Organic Chemistry section. My classes really just get a rudimentary introduction to it in this year’s curriculum, but I so much enjoy Organic Chemistry, and it is a chance to again teach chemistry from a systematic framework instead of the straight memorization I’ve had to present up to now. Extraction of metals and Non-metal chemistry. Ugh. That stuff isn’t even taught in US or European courses anymore. But it is in their syllabus, it will be on the National Examination, and so they need to get it.
So I began by talking about Organic Chemistry – why it is taught as a separate topic, why carbon forms so many compounds, how this huge welter of millions of compounds can be simplified into relatively few kinds of reaction groups. My first class didn’t want to hear it. I pasted my flip charts of stuff for them to copy before we talked about it. They didn’t like that – they wanted the discussion FIRST. I’ve learned that that doesn’t work, but it was really hard to get them to copy the stuff down. Some students had borrowed notebooks from older students that had the whole organic course written out. I insisted that they copy my notes anyway, and they didn’t like that either.
I also have some 30 US textbooks left from last year that Shari and her school sent me, and they have an EXCELLENT introduction to Organic. Clear, easy to understand, with color diagrams and easy sample questions with answers. I couldn’t use these books this year until now, because they just don’t cover the boring metal and non-metal reactions. I’d offered them to other chemistry teachers that could have used them, but they didn’t pick up on it. Gotta say THAT bothered me too, but that is another story.
Anyway, I made my pitch to my classes about how great these books are and how they will make learning Organic much easier for them. Since there weren’t enough for everyone, I offered them specifically to the students who had gotten the best grades in the mid-term. THEY DIDN’T WANT THEM! I then opened the offer to everybody, and a couple of students did take some books. In one class, I managed to give away eight books. In my BEST class, NOBODY took one. After I had the students carry the books back to my house, I really pressed them on why they wouldn’t take advantage of an offer like this. They said they were afraid the books would be stolen from them and they would then be in trouble. I believe that about halfway. Maybe less.
The students are already getting up-tight about the National Exams. There are signs in my classrooms ONLY 145 DAYS TO THE NECTA EXAM. I think they are totally fixated on the idea that the only way to prepare is to memorize all the questions from all the old exams they can find, and anything else is a waste of time. This is such a perversion of learning! There IS no interest in learning, there is only worry about passing the exams. And while I am SURE that the way they are preparing for the exams is counterproductive to the extreme, I really can’t fault them on their emphasis on the exam itself. It really DOES determine their future, and it is highly competitive. Consider that of the students who start primary school, about 1% make it all the way through the system and graduate. Based on the national averages, 75% of my current students will not be accepted to continue after this year.
It is difficult to feel that being a teacher here makes any impact.
And the US is increasingly introducing standardized testing to assess student achievement and teacher competence? Come to Tanzania to see where THAT leads!
I’m so glad I got this entrepreneurship program going. It is taught in Kiswahili, so I don’t even know what is happening when I sit in on the classes, but there IS enthusiasm and engagement going on there. And it is presenting information they CAN actually make use of. So my pleasure is vicarious, but it feels worthwhile anyway.
