the bachelor of education programme at a kenyan
TRANSCRIPT
THE BACHELOR OF EDUCATION PROGRAMME AT A KENYAN
UNIVERSITY: A CASE OF CURRICULUM COHERENCE IN THE
PREPARATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL HISTORY TEACHERS?
by
KEFA LIDUNDU SIMWA
THESIS
Submitted in fulfilment of the full requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in
CURRICULUM STUDIES
in the
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
at the
UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG
SUPERVISOR: PROF. M. M. MODIBA
2013
ii
DECLARATION
I declare that apart from the assistance acknowledged, this dissertation is my own unaided
work. It is being submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of
Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for any degree in any other university.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My doctoral programme at University of Johannesburg would not have reached its logical
conclusion without the support of my supervisor, family, friends and institutions. First, I
would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Maropeng Modiba, for her excellent
academic guidance all the way from the inception of the programme through to this stage
of its maturation. Her counsel will forever remain priceless.
Two institutions deserve commendation for their support. Moi University, for according
me leave to study and University of Johannesburg for providing an enabling academic
environment – its library is incomparable in terms of resources and service. In particular,
my greatest appreciation is to Mr. Godfrey Ngobeni for his unrelenting support and
readiness to always help. Without this support, it would not have been possible for me to
access the rich stockpile of resources that the University avails to its students.
The following friends deserve praise for their inspiration and pace-setting: Dr. Rose Rutto-
Korir, Dr. Dishon Kweya, Dr. Henry Wanyama, Dr. Frankline Keter, Dr. Stephen Ojwach
Dr. Timothy Onduru, Dr. Admire Chereni and Mr. Moses Esilaba. In addition, I also
acknowledge the encouragement and support I received at the University of Johannesburg
from fellow doctoral students and friends, amongst others, Nathan Moyo, Edmore
Mutekwe, Ogweny Aloyo, Ellenore Ryan and Sandy Stewart.
I also wish to extend my gratitude to two families for their gesture of hospitality,
generosity and magnanimity. The family of Simon Akala, his wife Beatrice and their
children, Francis, Chernie and Alson, for the warmth they accorded me in their home. I
had a home away from Kenya at their residence in Johannesburg. In Eldoret, Kenya, Dr.
Bernard Misigo and his family welcomed and made me feel ‘at home’ during the
fieldwork. I also appreciate Dr. Andrew Graham for his support in editing my work.
Lastly, having reserved this chance for family, I would like to distinguish the support from
my parents and siblings. They continue to believe in me and inspire my academic
endeavours. Had my mother lived longer than she did, I would remind her of the prayer
she made telephonically before I set foot on a plane for the journey out to begin my
doctoral studies. I wish to thank sincerely my wife, Sheila and children – Wayne, Twayne
and Dwayne, for understanding that it required their forbearance and bravery to allow me
to embark on this arduous academic voyage.
Sections of this study have been published in the following journal article:
iv
Modiba, M. and Simwa, K. L. (2011) An Examination of Curriculum Coherence between
a University and School Programme: A Case in Kenya. The International Journal of
Interdisciplinary Social Sciences. Volume 5 (11), pp. 289-302
v
ABSTRACT
The study highlights the conceptual and practical challenges in providing initial teacher
education that promotes, amongst other factors, coherence with the prescribed school
curriculum. It investigates a History Teaching Methods (HTM) course offered by a
university in Kenya to clarify how course related documents, lectures, students’
microteaching lessons, and perceptions about these three aspects obtained from interviews
with a teacher-educator and students addressed what the course had to provide as
possibilities for the acquisition of professional knowledge and skills that would enable
students to teach effectively the secondary school History and Government (H&G) subject.
Through a review of literature on curriculum coherence and theories on ethical pedagogic
practice and communication combined with primary data collected in Kenya, I explain the
nature of the challenges in the HTM course. The challenges, I argue, are primarily a result
of overlooking the disciplinary requirements of History. The findings suggest that
misconceptions about professional responsibilities of the teacher-educators are largely
responsible for the descriptive approach that characterises the pedagogical practices they
promoted. The absence of engagement with disciplinary requirements in lectures
contributed to the nature of the devices that were used by students to teach. In order to
clarify the nature of these pedagogic challenges, I adopted a generic qualitative approach
to the research. The direct contact and discussion with a teacher-educator and students
enabled me to explore their understanding of the requirements of teaching history at school
level. Through observations of lectures I established how the teacher-educators considered
these requirements as important to the teacher education they provided. Through observing
students’ microteaching lessons I was able to establish their understanding of the nature of
historical knowledge and how it ought to be approached when teaching. The study
contributes to the general field of teacher education by having devised a conceptual
orientation that can be drawn on to establish what is necessary to teach school history
effectively, namely, the importance of normative critical thinking and contextual
sensitivity. In this study, I indicate the pedagogic processes that need to be considered and
constantly in place to teach history by drawing on relevant paradigms and conceptual
orientations belonging to the discipline. I found that teacher-educators underplay the
importance of these factors and view them as having to be considered by academic entities
that are directly involved with history as a discipline. It is due to this oversight that the
programme seemed to emphasise descriptive and procedural orientations in initial teacher
vi
education. I conclude by suggesting that a course that educates student teachers for,
amongst other reasons, teaching H&G at secondary school in Kenya, has to consider
firstly, what is essential to history teaching and learning as a discipline and secondly that
effective history teaching has to be informed by reasoning that is not only relevant to
History as a discipline but also its practicality to the objectives of school history.
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii
ABSTRACT iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
LIST OF TABLES xiii
LIST OF FIGURES xi
LIST OF APPENDICES xiv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xv
CHAPTER ONE .................................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY ................................................................................ 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1
1.2 THE PROBLEM OF THE STUDY ........................................................................... 5
1.3 RESEARCH ASSUMPTION ..................................................................................... 5
1.4 THE HTM COURSE .................................................................................................. 6
1.5 SCHOOL HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT .......................................................... 8
1.6 THE PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION COURSES ................................................. 11
1.7 RESEARCH QUESTIONS………………………………………… …………………12
1.8 AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSE OF THE STUDY ..................................... 13
1.9 CURRICULUM COHERENCE AS A CONCEPT ................................................. 13
1.10 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY ........................................................................... 18
1.11 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................................. 21
1.12 RESEARCH DESIGN .............................................................................................. 23
1.13 ORGANISATION OF THE THESIS...................................................................... 25
CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................... 28
HISTORY TEACHING IN KENYA ............................................................................... 28
2.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 28
viii
2.2 HISTORY AT PRIMARY SCHOOL ...................................................................... 29
2.3 HISTORY AT SECONDARY SCHOOL: OBJECTIVES OF HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT ...................................................................................................... 34
2.4 CONTENT OF HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT ................................................ 37
2.6 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT: CURRICULUM DESIGN
COMPETENCE ...................................................................................................... 39
2.7. SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. 43
CHAPTER THREE ........................................................................................................... 45
HISTORY TEACHING METHODS COURSE WITHIN THE BACHELOR OF EDUCATION PROGRAMME ........................................................................................ 45
3.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 45
3.2 THE BACHELOR OF EDUCATION PROGRAMME AT THE SELECTED UNIVERSITY .......................................................................................................... 45
3.3 HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE ................................................................................ 49
3.3.1 Teaching a Subject ............................................................................................ 51
3.3.2 The Difference between School and University Subject .................................. 53
3.4 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. 58
CHAPTER FOUR ............................................................................................................. 59
MODELS OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT ................................................................ 59
4.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 59
4.2 MODELS OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT .......................................................... 61
4.2.1 The Practical-Craft Model ................................................................................ 61
4.2.2 The Technological Model ................................................................................. 62
4.2.3 The Personal Orientation Model ....................................................................... 62
4.2.4 The Academic Model ........................................................................................ 63
4.2.5 The Critical / Social Orientation Model ........................................................... 63
4.3 TEACHER PREPARATION APPROACHES ........................................................ 64
4.3.1 The Behaviourist Approach .............................................................................. 64
ix
4.3.2 The Reflective Practice Approach ..................................................................... 65
4.3.3 The Professional Development Approach......................................................... 65
4.4 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. 66
CHAPTER FIVE ............................................................................................................... 69
PRACTICAL REASONING AS BASIS FOR SOCIAL PRACTICE .......................... 69
5.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 69
5.2 ARISTOTLE ON THE ATTAINMENT OF HAPPINESS AS VIRTUE THAT RESULTS FROM RATIONAL ACTION ............................................................... 71
5.3 HUME ON RATIONAL ACTION AS FUNCTIONALLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE FULFILMENT OF A TASK ........................................................................... 73
5.4 KANT ON RATIONAL ACTION AS NORMATIVE AND MOTIVATIONAL IN NATURE .................................................................................................................. 73
5.5 MACINTYRE ON VIRTUOUS PRACTICE .......................................................... 75
5.6 BERNSTEIN ON THE PEDAGOGIC DEVICE ..................................................... 76
5.7 SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. 80
CHAPTER SIX .................................................................................................................. 81
RESEARCH DESIGN ....................................................................................................... 81
6.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 81
6.2 RESEARCH DESIGN .............................................................................................. 83
6.3 RESEARCH APPROACH ....................................................................................... 84
6.3.1 The Interpretive Phenomenological Approach (IPA) as research paradigm .... 85
6.4 RESEARCH PROCESS ........................................................................................... 86
6.4.1 The Pilot Study .................................................................................................. 87
Sampling .......................................................................................................................... 88
Data Collection ................................................................................................................ 89
Observation of Lectures ............................................................................................... 91
Questionnaire for the pilot study .................................................................................. 94
Documents Analysed in the Pilot Study........................................................................ 95
x
Reflections on Pilot Study ............................................................................................ 95
Consequences of the findings of the pilot study ........................................................... 96
6.5 THE MAIN STUDY ................................................................................................ 98
Sampling .......................................................................................................................... 99
Tools and data collection ................................................................................................. 99
Observation of Lectures ................................................................................................. 101
Interviews ....................................................................................................................... 109
6.6 DATA MANAGEMENT AND ANALYSIS ......................................................... 113
6.7 VALIDATION STRATEGIES .............................................................................. 121
6.8 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ........................................................................... 123
6.9 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................... 124
CHAPTER SEVEN ......................................................................................................... 125
HISTORY TEACHING METHODS COURSE AS TELLING ................................. 125
7.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 125
7.2 DAY ONE OF OBSERVATION – 14/11/07 (1.00 pm - 3.00 pm) ....................... 126
7.3 DAY TWO OF OBSERVATION OF LECTURES – 21/11/07 (1.00-3.00 pm) ... 139
7.3.1 Sub-topic: Introducing a Lesson: ‘what should be considered?’ .................... 141
7.3.2 Sub-topic: Teaching how to present the main body of a lesson: ‘lesson development’ ................................................................................................... 144
7.3.3 Sub-topic: Teaching how to conclude a lesson: ‘tying up the loose ends of a Lesson’ ............................................................................................................ 145
7.3.4 Sub-topic: Teaching about a sample lesson plan: ‘watch-out, soon it will be your turn’ .................................................................................................................. 148
7.4 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................... 151
CHAPTER EIGHT ......................................................................................................... 153
HISTORY TEACHING METHODS COURSE AS A PRACTICAL ACT ............... 153
8.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 153
8.2 MICROTEACHING LESSONS – EXAMPLE FROM FIRST SESSION ............ 155
xi
8.2.1 Skill practised: Using a Graphic to Clarify a Concept .................................... 155
8.2.1.1 Lesson: The Process of Law Making .......................................................... 155
8.2.2 Teacher-educator’s Feedback .......................................................................... 161
8.3 MICRO-TEACHING AND EXAMPLE FROM SECOND SESSIONS: LESSONS AS PROVIDING DESCRIPTIVE DETAIL .......................................................... 166
8.3.1 Skill practised: Set induction and closure of a lesson ..................................... 166
8.3.1.1 Lesson: Migration of Kenyan Peoples ........................................................ 166
8.3.1 Teacher-educator’s Feedback .......................................................................... 169
8.4 MICRO-TEACHING AND EXAMPLE FROM THIRD SESSION: LESSON AS UNDERPLAYING NORMATIVE CRITICAL THINKING ................................ 170
8.4.1 Skill practised: Posing questions to learners ................................................... 170
8.4.1.1 Lesson on ‘National Integration’ ................................................................. 170
8.4.2 Feedback by Teacher-educator........................................................................ 174
8.4.3 Students’ Feedback on microteaching lessons ................................................ 175
8.5 MICRO TEACHING AND EXAMPLE FROM FOURTH SESSION- LESSON AS LINKING CONCEPT TO A TEACHING AIDS .................................................. 178
8.5.1 Skill practised: Diorama .................................................................................. 178
8.5.1.1 Lesson: Early Agriculture in Mesopotamia ................................................. 178
8.5.2 Feedback by Teacher-educator........................................................................ 181
8.6 STUDENTS’ VIEWS ON THE HTM COURSE................................................... 185
8.7 DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................... 185
8.8 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................... 187
CHAPTER NINE ............................................................................................................. 189
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS, CONCLUSION
AND RECOMMENDATIONS ....................................................................................... 189
9.1 SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS ............................................................ 189
9.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH AND ANALYTICAL TOOLS USED IN CONDUCTING THE STUDY ..................... 194
xii
9.3 LIMITATIONS ...................................................................................................... 196
9.4 CONCLUDING REMARKS AND IMPLICATIONS .......................................... 197
LIST OF REFERENCES 198
LIST OF APPENDICES 226
xiii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.4.1 Course Content for HTM Course – First Semester 7
Table 1.4.2 Course Content for HTM Course – Second Semester 8
Table 1.5.1 Comparison of Content in the History (Department)
and Topics for H&G (Secondary School Syllabus) 10
Table 1.6.1 Professional Education Courses 12
Table 2.4.1 Topics in History and Government: Lesson Allocation 38
Table 3.1.1 Distribution of Courses in the B Ed Programme 47
Table 6.4.1.1 Procedure for Data Collection in the Pilot Study 91
Table 6.4.1.2 Lecture Observation Timetable 93
Table 6.5.1 Lectures, Observation and Interview Schedule 101
Table 6.6.1 Illustrative Summary of Analysis – Data from Lectures I 116
Table 6.6.2 Illustrative Summary of Analysis – Data from Microteaching 118
Table 6.6.3 Illustrative Summary of Analysis – Data from Interviews 119
Table 6.6.4 Summary of Analysis – Data from Lectures II 119
Table 6.6.5 Sample Summary Illustration of Student Teachers’ Lesson Plans 121
Table 7.1.1 Scheme of Work Format Illustration 133
Table 7.3.1 Chalkboard Illustration by Teacher-educator 144
Table 7.3.4.1 Teacher-educator’s Illustration 149
Table 8.1.1 Chalkboard Plan 153
xiv
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.3.2.1 The Relationship Between Different Aspects Used in
Historical Reasoning 56
Figure 6.4.1.1 Layout for Lecture Venue 94
Figure 6.5.1 Layout for the venue of Plenary Lectures 103
Figure 6.5.2 Venue Layout for Campus A Used for Video Recording 106
Figure 6.5.3 Venue 1 Layout 106
Figure 6.5.4 Venue 2 Layout 107
Figure 7.1.1 Sketch Illustration of Lecture Venue 126
xv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
BEd Bachelor of Education
H&G History and Government
HTM History Teaching Methods
KIE Kenya Institute of Education
MoED -HRD Ministry of Education and Human Resource
Development
MoEd Ministry of Education
PCK Pedagogical Content Knowledge
ROK Republic of Kenya
UNICEF United Nations International Children Fund
UON University of Nairobi
1
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The Bachelor of Education (BEd) programme is the dominant model used in the
preparation of secondary school teachers at university level in Kenya. It started in 1972 at
the University of Nairobi (Karugu, 2005; Sifuna, 1990). Over the years, it has spread to
other newly established national public universities, namely Nairobi, Moi, Kenyatta,
Egerton, Maseno and Masinde Muliro. Although most of the primary school teachers
continue to be prepared in separate teacher training colleges (TTCs), current trends,
especially in the privately sponsored student programmes, are indicative of a teacher
education sector that would have both primary and secondary teachers exclusively
prepared at university.
The introduction of the programme was based on a teacher supply concern, the expansion
of the secondary school sector having resulted in a high demand for teachers who were not
readily available (Karugu, 2005). The government needed a teacher preparation model that
had certain guarantees, thus the BEd model “…was seen as the only sure way of planning
and projecting the teacher training at the University level” (UON, 1978, p. 7). From a
planning point of view, the model was superior to any other that had existed,1 and
operationally it entailed the study of two teaching subjects with an education component
that included a school practice exercise. Emphasis was on the study of all the three
subjects, and no student would be awarded a BEd degree if she/he failed any of the
subjects (Karugu, 2005). In short, the model had to facilitate the management of teacher
supply.
Teacher Education programmes in Kenya are supposed to be guided by five objectives,
namely “…develop communicative skills; develop professional attitudes and values; equip
the teacher with knowledge and ability to identify and develop the educational needs of the
child; create initiative, a sense of professional commitment and excellence in education;
and enable the teacher to adapt to the environment and society” (MoED-HRD & UNICEF,
1994, pp. 146-7). Public teacher education institutions are expected to develop
1 For purposes of this discussion, though, it is important to note that the choice of the BEd model was dictated by a teacher supply concern more than any other factor.
2
programmes that produce teachers who have the knowledge, skills and attitudes associated
with these objectives. The government regards “…academically and professionally
qualified teachers … as a prerequisite for provision of high quality and relevant education
at all levels” (ibid.). From these broad objectives, teacher education prioritises the initial
acquisition of knowledge and skills deemed appropriate for teaching. However, unlike
global trends in teacher education where-in the prescription of standards of practice is
increasingly the norm (Grossman & Thompson, 2004; Morrow & Torres, 2000), the
situation in Kenya leaves it to the teacher education programmes to make good on the
interpretation of policy. In other words, individual programmes have to ensure that quality
is upheld. Students begin the programme by studying more than two academic subjects as
a general requirement, and from their second year of study are offered two teaching
subjects2 in addition to the professional courses. In the main, teaching subjects are offered
by the academic departments in the faculties or schools of Arts (or Humanities), Social
Sciences and Science. The professional courses are offered by the faculties or schools of
Education3, with school practice or practicum playing a central role in these programmes.
As part of the requirements of the programme there is a mandatory placement of student
teachers in schools for a period of 12 weeks. Generally, teaching practice in schools is held
at the end of third year of study. At this point of the programme, about 75% of the
curriculum would have been covered. The teaching practice component is crucial as
students who do not attain the pass mark would not fulfil graduation requirements. Overall,
the total aggregate of the curriculum requires that students would have studied two
teaching subjects and the professional studies along with school teaching practice.
Structurally, the curriculum of professional education courses is supposed to be organised
to foster congruence between what is studied at university and what is expected of pre-
service teachers when they get to schools as professional teachers. As indicated above, the
curriculum of the B Ed programme straddles across two or more faculties/schools with
different academic departments that offer the teaching subjects. In this case, the
professional education courses are supposed to serve as contexts for synthesising if not
integrating the curricula studied in the disparate academic departments. Therefore, in order
to attain appropriate levels of programme integration (in terms of blending the different 2 This number is determined by the employer. The Teacher Service Commission in Kenya is mandated to hire all teachers for public schools. Its policy requires that teachers be hired at secondary school on the basis of their certification in two teaching subjects. 3 The naming of the various units/, divisions/ or departments in the universities is not uniform, thus leading to adopted naming in the discussion.
3
curricular courses), the professional courses as key avenues for this integration (see also
Thornton, 2000; Grossman, 1990) need to be appropriately conceived, developed and
implemented to assist students develop the knowledge and skills they need to align what is
offered at university to what the school curriculum expects as curriculum design
knowledge and skills they have to acquire upon graduation.
As is the case in many countries, in Kenya too teacher education programmes for
secondary school teachers located in the post-secondary school sector require university
education. Undergraduate programmes are of two main types, concurrent and consecutive.
In the former, both education and academic subject courses are studied simultaneously
over the entire period, while the latter mode allows for the last portion (session or year/s)
of the undergraduate studies to be dedicated to professional education courses.
Disciplinary subjects are offered for most of the period of study, with the professional
education courses, including practice teaching, as an ‘end-on’ or ‘add-on’ component. The
postgraduate model is different again, and varies from country to country. For instance, in
the United States of America (USA), some universities allow a number of students to
continue after their undergraduate studies with postgraduate studies that culminate in a
specialised qualification, namely a Master of Teaching degree. The undergraduate courses
allow elementary school teachers to major in education, unlike their secondary school
counterparts who can only major in academic subjects (Scannell, 2001). A variant of this
model is the postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE), common to teacher preparation
programmes in the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands (Eraut, 2000; Korthagen,
Loughran & Russell, 2006), and becoming entrenched in Canada, Australia and New
Zealand (Cameron & Baker, 2004; CESC, 2002; Yackulic & Noonan, 2001). However,
Corcoran (2007, p. 5) has argued that even though “[e]ffective professional development is
designed to help teachers meet the needs of real students in real classrooms”, there is
general concern that pre-service teacher preparation does not equip prospective teachers
with the appropriate knowledge and skills for classroom teaching (see also Black &
Halliwell, 2000; Cope & Stephen, 2001; Karugu, 2005; ROK, 2005; Sitima, 1995). For
Ensor (1999), whilst the rhetoric of many programmes emphasises a propensity to
transform the professional argot of prospective teachers, there continues to be a chasm
between what they offer and the school’s curricular expectations. The situation points to,
in general, an absence of curriculum coherence between teacher education and school
programmes.
4
Criticisms of the secondary teacher education programme have persisted in Kenya over the
years (Sitima, 1995; UON, 1978). For example, a mismatch has been pointed out to exist
between the output from teacher education institutions and the needs of secondary schools
in terms of key school subjects (ROK, 1998). In addition, it has been observed that:
One of the major weaknesses in the university teacher education programme is the adoption of the “unit system” in major teaching subjects. This system does not take cognisance of secondary education curriculum. Undergraduates specialise too early yet when posted to our schools they are expected to handle all concepts/topics in their teaching subjects of specialisation. Cases have arisen where some graduate teachers cannot handle or teach those topics that they did not take in their course (Sitima, 1995, p. 111).
This view reiterates recommendations from a 1978 study conducted by the Deans’
Committee at the University of Nairobi on the BEd programme that the programme be
reoriented to address the needs of the secondary school curriculum (UON, 1979):
“…subjects must be looked at for what they have to offer the teacher … The teacher’s role
and responsibilities in the field [school] are the ultimate criteria for developing a teacher
education programme’ (ibid. p.102). The Committee further suggested that, an appropriate
teacher education programme would be one that enabled the student teacher “…experience
accomplishment by having mastery of the content and skills of the subject. The student
teacher must feel that [he/she] is successfully managing classroom tasks and becoming
competent in the subject [he/she] is being taught” (ibid. p.103). Therefore, the curriculum
required pre-service teachers’ mastery of subject matter and the attendant methods of
communicating this knowledge to secondary school learners. In this way, the programme
would have aligned itself with the secondary school curriculum.
Although recent research on teacher education in Kenya has dealt mainly with what post-
teacher education programme teachers do in classrooms (Mueni, 1999; Odeo, 2003; Osoro,
2006; Too, 2004), approaches in teacher education are challenged to reflect the specific
attributes and practices that can guarantee the preparation of teachers who are responsive
to the needs of the school curriculum. The conceptual orientation adopted has to address
what is important in the school sector it serves. It is important for it to forge curricular
congruence with the school curriculum both in purpose and scope. Indeed, this is what the
general objectives for teacher education in Kenya require the pre-service teacher
preparation programmes to achieve. In short, this is a responsibility that requires an
appropriate conception of teaching tasks and what learning should entail.
5
1.2 THE PROBLEM OF THE STUDY
Although Karugu (2005) has urged a review of teacher education curricula at university-
level in the light of changes that continue to take place in the country’s schools and,
despite the many research endeavours to advance teacher preparation practices, for
example, Lutta-Mukhebi (1982) and Shanguya (1995), studies that look at the
responsiveness of such curricula to the purpose of teaching school subjects have not been
conducted. There is therefore a lacuna in research that specifically looks at how teacher
preparation programmes cohere with school curricula. This study is an attempt to respond
to this void. It explores the nature and scope of the congruence, if any, in a programme
offered by one of the universities in Kenya.
I specifically focus on a course that I have taught, namely, the History Teaching Methods
(HTM) course to establish, amongst other factors, how or not it addresses the requirements
of the school syllabus. This is a course that is supposed to offer specific methods of
teaching History at the secondary school level. Prospective teachers are supposed to
obtain, inter alia, the core knowledge, skills and dispositions for teaching History and
Government (H&G) at secondary school level. In short, this is a course that ought to guide
student teachers develop a clear understanding of what the knowledge area (subject) of
H&G entails and how it ought to be communicated and engaged with at the secondary
school classroom level. In this study I am thus studying the contribution of teacher-
educators to curriculum coherence between the HTMC course and H&G syllabus
requirements within the secondary teacher preparation program for History teachers at a
Kenyan university.
1.3 RESEARCH ASSUMPTION
The assumption in this study was that the organisation of the HTM course within the BEd
would address the objectives of H&G so that graduate teachers can better understand how
to translate them into practices that are meaningful to those taught. The teacher-educators’
programme planning, design and implementation were thus explored against the
professional, institutional, socio- cultural and other factors which were likely to impact
their decisions as facilitators of the effective teaching of H&G. As regards responsiveness
to the syllabus requirements of H&G these factors created opportunities and/or acted as
6
inhibitors that affected how they could be or not effective in facilitating student learning
for teaching H&G.
Since the study has a particular interest in the HTM course, the next section discusses it in
relation to the H&G programme. Attention is paid specifically to how students are
prepared to teach this programme.
1.4 THE HTM COURSE
The HTM course is taught in the third year of the B.Ed. programme, prior to which,
students will have studied eight professional education courses. By the time they get to the
third year they would have been exposed to a significant percentage of the knowledge
referred to as curriculum knowledge, knowledge of educational purposes, knowledge of
the learners, and knowledge of curriculum material, knowledge of self and general
pedagogical knowledge. This general knowledge is supposed to serve as scaffolding to the
methods of subject teaching. There is no specific attention given to the teaching of history
content knowledge. It is assumed that students enter the third year with adequate content
studied in their first two years of the degree.
The course is divided into two parts. In the first part, which is offered in the first semester,
students attend lectures, and this could be referred to as the theoretical component of the
course. Its content covers topics such as H&G objectives; preparation of the schemes of
work; lesson planning; and, assessment and evaluation in H&G (see Table 1.4.1 below for
a detailed list of topics covered).
The second part of the course falls in the second semester where, through the
microteaching sessions that follow plenary lectures on specific skills on teaching, students
are given a chance to begin to practice teaching (see Table 1.4.2 below for a detailed list of
topics covered). This could be referred to as its practice-based component. This part is
offered before students go to schools at the end of third year for their 12 weeks school
practice (teaching practice/practicum).
7
Table 1.4.1 Course Content for HTM Course – First Semester
1. Background information on the course and course objectives.
2. The meaning and essence of History: Definition; History as a secondary school subject (aims and objectives); Relation to other school subjects; Objectivity in History.
3. Sources and Uses of History: Written and unwritten sources of history; the place of oral traditions; various types of documents in history; history as an indicator of the future; laws and explanation; elements of a historical process; research tools and evidence in history; the relationship of history with other selected disciplines.
4. History in the Secondary School: To include a close study and evaluation of the curriculum, syllabus, schemes of work and lesson plans, importance of the micro-lesson to the student-teacher.
5. Some thoughts on the methods of teaching History: This will include a quick survey of the lecture, discussion, questioning, debate, project methods, etc.
6. Learning Resources in History: A discussion on the effectiveness of teaching aids in history; Community resources and the history teacher; Criteria for selecting media in History; The place of media learning and teaching.
7. Measurement and evaluation in History: Evaluation of learner performance in history and government; language usage in history; pros and cons on types of tests in history (True – false; pictorial, objective type items, filling in gaps, tests, essays). The place of the examination in history i.e. formative, summative evaluation, Hints on preparing for examinations.
8. The field-work and Research in History: The museums, the archives and the libraries and their importance in research; field trips and historical societies.
9. The participant in History: The role of the student in history learning with a special emphasis to his interests, abilities, activities and problems. Role of instructor in teaching and learning - educator and historian.
8
Table 1.4.2 Course Content for HTM Course – Second Semester
I Educational Media Practical
Practical activity - students prepare teaching aids and media. The activity will include:
(i) How to use the Chalk Board
(ii) Graphics – diagrams and illustrations
(iii) Construction of 3-dimensional aids
(iv) Operation of Audio visual Equipment
(v) Study of a Model School Educational Media Centre
(vi) Preparation of Sound Recorded programmes
II Mini-Lesson Teaching
Practical activity in planning, preparation and presentation of a lesson. Skills highlighted include:
(i) Lesson Preparation
(ii) Preparation of Audio Visual Media for the Lesson
(iii) Lesson presentation: set induction, lecturing, reinforcement, stimulus variation, questioning, providing for learner participation, feedback and closure.
The HTM course thus constitutes a context in which prospective teachers are exposed to
the professional and academic content that they require to teach H&G. It has to ensure that
students acquire their knowledge for teaching (cf., Thornton, 2001) by developing a
pedagogical gaze or stance that suits the H&G curriculum requirements (see also Karmon,
2007). These requirements are discussed in detail in the next section.
1.5 SCHOOL HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT
The academic courses for History& G are conceptualised, developed and taught by staff in
the academic department of History from the first to the fourth year of study. In the first
year, students study two courses, one in each of the two semesters in a year. Although
there may be no direct relationship between what they are taught and what they are
expected to teach at secondary school, the spread of the curriculum content indicates some
responsiveness to the secondary school curriculum. However, topics that fall under the
government component, as shown in Table 1.5.1 below (item 22 to 32), do not have an
equivalent on the university course list. They include citizenship, democracy and human
9
rights, constitution making, electoral processes and local government systems. The table
below provides a summary of this content.
This content knowledge consists of core courses and electives. For every semester, in the
case of History, students cover two courses. Thus, by end of the fourth year they will have
covered 14 courses, five of which are mandatory or core courses. The latter focus on
Kenya and Africa in different times: the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial period,
philosophy of history and issues in African historiography. The additional nine courses are
selected from a list of 21 elective courses spread between topics that focus on Africa
(archaeology, economy), regional histories (South, West, North, East and Central Africa),
and topics in European, Asian and Middle East.
10
Table 1.5.1 Comparison of Content in History (Department) and Topics for H&G
Courses offered to Pre-service Teachers for H&G at University in the Department of History
Topics for Secondary School H&G
1. History of Africa since 1884 (mandatory)
2. History of Kenya to 1895 (mandatory)
3. History of Kenya since 1895 (mandatory)
4. Philosophy of History (mandatory)
5. Issues in African Historiography (mandatory)
1. Introduction to History & Government
2. Early Man; 3. Development of Agriculture
4. The Peoples of Kenya up to the 19th c
5. Social, Economic, & Political Organisation of Kenyan Societies in the 19th c
6. Contacts between East Africa & the Outside World
7. Trade 8. Development of Transport & Communication 9. Development of Industry
10. Urbanisation 11. Social, Economic & Political Organisation of African Societies in the 19th c 12. European Invasion of Africa & the Process of Colonisation 13. Establishment of Colonial Rule in Kenya 14. Colonial Administration 15. Social & Economic Developments in the Colonial period in Kenya 16. Political Developments & Struggle for Independence in Kenya 17. Rise of African Nationalism 18. World Wars. 19. International Relations 20. Social, Economic & Political Developments & Challenges in Kenya since Independence 21. Social, Economic & Political Developments & Challenges in Africa since Independence
22. Citizenship. 23. National Integration
24. Constitutions & Constitution Making
25. Democracy & Human Rights
26. Co-operation in Africa 27. National Philosophies 28. Lives and Contributions of Kenyan Leaders 29. The Formation, Structure & Functions of the Government of Kenya
30. Local Authorities in Kenya
31. Government Revenue & Expenditure
32. Electoral Process & Functions of Governments in other parts of the World
6. African Archaeology I
7. African Economic History to 1900
8. History of Africa to 1884
9. European History since 1750
10. The World since 1870
11. African Archaeology
12. African Economic History Since 1900
13. Africa & the Black Diaspora
14. History of North Africa to 1800
15. History of West Africa to 1800
16. History of Russia to 1917
17. Constitutional & Legal History of Kenya
18. U.S.S.R since 1917
19. Themes in East African History
20. Economic History of the Third World
21. History of Southern Africa to 1900
22. Transformation of Modern Asia in 19th c & 20th c
23. History of Modern Japan
24. Themes in East African History
25. History of Southern Africa since 1900
26. History of Middle East in the 19th c & 20th c
11
Comparatively, topics for H&G at secondary school are 32 in total, with teachers expected
to have a mastery of all these topics. By the third year, when practice teaching is required,
six courses shall have been completed. Accompanying a microteaching course are four
more content knowledge courses in history, so that at the end of third year, before teaching
practice, 10 courses of the 14 required for graduation at the end of fourth year should have
been covered. In addition to the content knowledge, the BEd H&G strand student has also
to study professional education courses. They are discussed in the next section.
1.6 THE PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION COURSES
Professional courses in the programme, as indicated above, are studied from the first to the
fourth year, and are 18 in total. Two courses are offered in the first year, with the
subsequent years (second, third and fourth) having six, five, and six courses, respectively.
The first year courses are introductory and cover general issues in education. They are
offered by the four departments of the Faculty of Education, namely Educational
Psychology, Educational Foundations, Curriculum and Instruction and Educational
Planning and Administration.
In each semester, two departments share one course, each offering half. From the second
year, courses are more specific, each focusing on a given area of specialisation. For
example, there are courses in Philosophy, Sociology and History of Education,
Curriculum, Planning and Educational Psychology. An outline of the courses is presented
in Table 1.6.1.
12
Table 1.6.1 Professional Education Courses
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4
Semester 1
Education I General Educational Psychology,
General Methods of Teaching,
Philosophy of Education
Special Subject Methods
Human Growth & Development
Sociology of Education & Comparative Education
Environmental Education
Educational Administration & Management
Semester 2
Education II
Educational Media Resources
History of Education
Curriculum Development
Educational Technology;
Measurement & Evaluation
Educational Planning & Economics
Human Behaviour & Learning
1.7 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
It is from this understanding that the study reported herein sought to address the following
research question: How does the History Teaching Methods course (HTM course)
promote curriculum coherence with the requirements of the objectives for History
and Government (H&G) as a secondary school subject?
The following subsidiary questions were used as scaffolding to the essence of this main
research question:
1. How is the BEd History programme organised at the selected university?
2. How does the programme prepare students to understand and teach historical
knowledge and forms of pedagogic communication that they can draw on to teach
H&G at secondary school?
3. How is assessment for teaching drawn on to improve student teachers’
understanding of historical knowledge and how it ought to be communicated?
13
1.8 AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The aim of the study was to critically examine the BEd History teacher preparation
programme offered at a Kenyan university with a view of establishing how it provides for
curriculum coherence, if any, between it and the H&G syllabus taught at secondary
schools.
Specifically, the aims of this study are as follows:
1. To describe the organisation of the BEd teacher preparation programme at a
selected Kenyan University using the example of the HTM course.
2. To explore how the BEd programme facilitates student teachers develop
knowledge and skills suitable for teaching H&G at secondary school in Kenya.
3. To identify and examine priorities in the theoretical and practice-focussed
assessment tasks given to student teachers and draw conclusions about the
appropriateness of such priorities to the objectives of teaching H&G at secondary
school.
For this reason the concept of ‘curriculum coherence’ provides an important analytical
framework for investigating the relationship between teacher preparation programmes and
the school curriculum.
1.9 CURRICULUM COHERENCE AS A CONCEPT
Curriculum coherence has been defined as the degree to which various educational
activities in a system accord with each other, both in intention and practice; and as an
articulated curriculum vision and common culture of values that distinguish a curriculum
system and a sensible connection and coordination between courses or topics that students
study as they advance through an educational programme (Coleman, Hoffer & Kilgore,
1982; Fuhrman, 1993; Newmann, Smith, Allensworth & Bryk, 2001; Schmidt, Wang &
McKnight, 2005; Smith & O’Day, 1991). It has also been understood as a deliberate means
through which an educational programme is able to bring together “competing tensions in
the curriculum” (Johnson & Ratcliff, 2004, p. 93). In the context of a teacher education
programme, it thus promotes the importance of a clearer and more integrated organisation
of courses and activities for student-teachers’ learning and practice of teaching (Roberts,
1998). Therefore, viewed in this sense, a coherent curriculum would ensure a design that
14
relays clarity of purpose to the way content is organised and communicated to student
teachers.
Roberts (1998) emphasises the appropriate streamlining of courses, activities and roles that
employ both a thematic approach and course integration. For the former, aspects of a
course such as theory, materials, methods and evaluation are brought together to reflect
connections that exist between course components. Meanwhile, for course integration,
strategies would involve teaching two related courses or offering them with a focus on a
single assessment task that requires students to draw on the courses and demonstrate an
ability to synthesise what is crucial to them in terms of concepts and principles. In
addition, other strategies such as sequencing and grouping of learning experiences could
be used to assist meaning-making from diverse knowledge and experience provided in the
courses.
Arguing in support of this notion of coherence, Ma (1999) recommends that pre-service
teachers need to learn more about the nature of the school subject they will be required to
teach than is taught in academic disciplines within universities, because the reasons for
teaching a subject in schools are different from those behind teaching it at university (see
also Lederman & Gess-Newsome, 1999; Levine, 1996). Initiatives aimed at achieving this
elsewhere have included school-based teacher education programmes (Ariza, del Poso &
Toscano, 2002), innovative pedagogies in teacher preparation courses (Gore, Griffiths &
Ladwig, 2004; Korthagen, Loughran & Russell, 2006; Ridley, Hurwitz, & Davis-Hackett,
2005), and the performance standards-based teacher assessment initiatives (Valli &
Rennert-Ariev, 2002). However, these varied approaches to teacher preparation stem from
a variegated conception of the possible ways of addressing the problem of incoherence. In
some cases, the foundation of the problem is viewed as having been caused by schools that
are either too rigid to change (Fleet, 1993; Kuzmic, 1994), or that ‘wash out’ all that pre-
service teacher education programmes could have bequeathed their graduates (Zeichner &
Tabachnik, 1981). Additionally, there are those who perceive the problem as being located
within teacher education programmes that have failed to take on new ways of preparing
teachers (Darling-Hammond, 2006; Loughran, 2006; Tisher & Wideen, 1990). To realise
coherence between teacher education programmes and the school curricula for which they
prepare teachers, it is therefore necessary that there be close co-operation between teacher
education providers and schools. In this way, programmes will be able to factor in features
vital to student teachers acquiring the competences required by school curricula.
15
According to Ball (2000), Cochran-Smith et al. (2005) and Grossman (2008), the teacher
preparation sector requires continued theorisation in order to address the chasm between
itself and schools. Among pressing concerns for teacher-educators is the need clearly to
pinpoint, inter alia, the subject matter of knowledge for teaching and the methods of how
such knowledge can be acquired, as well as what is required for one to be able to acquire
such knowledge with certitude (Ball, 2000). The challenge yet to be satisfactorily
addressed has to do with knowledge for teaching - what Shulman (1987) calls Pedagogical
Content Knowledge (PCK) – which is of most worth and how such knowledge can be
acquired and used by teachers for the benefit of the diversity of learners often found in
different school settings. Therefore, curricular efforts that attempt to look at teacher
preparation in relation to the needs of schools are important for the theorisation necessary
to generate clarity of PCK and ways of developing it.
Stark (1986, p. 434) has described curriculum coherence in teacher education as “a
condition of logical consistency created by a set of well understood principles”. It presents
coherence as an academic plan that primarily involves a definition of what needs to be
achieved and the methods to do so. For coherence to be in place, congruence at this
planning stage cannot be compromised, so a curriculum can only be conceived as coherent
if simple logical consistency exists between the purposes and the methods.
The conception resonates with Tatto’s (1996) view of curriculum coherence as including,
inter alia, shared understandings among teacher-educators that facilitate the provision of
opportunities aimed at the attainment of a common end. Viewed in this sense, coherence
becomes a conceptual and structural undertaking within pre-service teacher preparation
aimed at planning and practice that promotes congruence in aims and their translation into
practices. However, even though Hammerness (2006) concedes the possibility of blurring
such differentiation by a deliberate linking of theory and practice, she still acknowledges
the need for paying attention to sources of disconnections in structure and content.
Structurally, coherence would then create courses that build sequentially on one another
and reinforce one another “… organizing and aligning courses and student teaching
placements around a particular conception of teaching and learning in an effort to construct
an integrated experience” (ibid. p.1242). Coherence therefore involves an attempt to
provide educational experiences that reflect a prioritised model of teaching at a teacher
preparation institution and promoted in schools in which student teachers are placed for
practice teaching. This would subsequently address the chasm between a school
16
curriculum’s requirements (expectations) and what is offered in teacher preparation
courses.
Buchmann and Floden (1992) offer useful caution in this regard, arguing that adherence to
the elements of consistency or connectedness in the structural and conceptual components
of a programme is not enough in teacher preparation. While the logical consistency of
different elements of a programme is useful in avoiding contradictions, in their view
coherence in teacher education as a curricular instance needs to be “... hospitable to change
and imagination, while true to the many facets of concepts and experiences. [In that case]
coherence is found where students and teachers can discover and establish relations among
various areas of sensibility, knowledge, and skill, yet where loose ends remain, inviting a
reweaving of beliefs and ties to the unknown” (ibid. p. 4) discourages the use of a water-
tight conception of coherence. For them, in reality no state is static. Making room for
probable idiosyncratic policy interpretation is pragmatic. In so far as those who are
mandated to implement such policies are sufficiently resourced through preparation, in this
case teachers, their appropriation of policy idiosyncratically may accommodate a variety
of possible strands of policy interpretation and give due consideration to incongruent
contexts. Therefore, while underscoring the importance of the vision of ‘connectedness’
inherent in the construct of coherence, Buchmann and Floden (1992) eschew straight-
jacketed approaches that deny fluidity in the way teacher-educators and their students may
be required by circumstances to function uniquely. They draw on Israel Scheffler (1973) to
emphasise that the promotion of coherence in a programme ought not to be used to
‘protect’ students from confronting incongruent situations. Instead, as reality will often
necessitate, it is important that student teachers are allowed to encounter experiences that
enable them to seek solutions that fit into the coherent framework encouraged in their
programme. In this way, the notion of curriculum coherence would have been used
meaningfully to allow for professional growth, where possible.
This understanding of curriculum coherence provides a useful perspective on how it can
serve as a curricular strategy for realising educational ends in teacher preparation.
Allowing idiosyncrasy in meaning-making by those who have to implement policy tools in
different settings thus makes it invaluable to understanding what is crucial to context-
bound curriculum policy interpretation. This is the reasoning that Thornton (2001a) also
uses to argue for a methods course as the cornerstone of teacher education, in which “[pre-
service] teachers [are] likely to have sustained opportunities for systematic consideration
17
of what it means to transform subject matter for purposes of instruction” (p.74),4 and
justify its worth on the basis of the school subject for which it prepares teachers.
Knowledge for teaching needs to be initiated through the use of the objectives of the
school subject as guiding principles that determine the knowledge and skills that
prospective teachers need.
This conception of curriculum coherence highlights the importance of close curricular
connection between a methods course and the school subject, and thus a deliberate
curricular principle meant to provide potency between a methods course and the school
subject. It also shows the importance of concordance between the two curriculum sites,
teacher preparation and the school curriculum. Therefore, in seeking curriculum coherence
between the two curricular sites, pre-service teachers have to reflect on purpose and
activities as a deliberate facilitation of the attainment of the subject’s objectives within a
specific context.5 In short, Thornton’s (2001a) construal of the role of a methods course (in
teacher preparation) provides an important conceptual starting point for efforts aimed at
understanding how the chasm between teacher preparation and school curriculum could be
addressed.
The focus on the objectives has implications for the conception of knowledge for teaching
a school subject and its enactment. In Shulman’s (1987) view, this knowledge is unique to
teaching as it is an amalgam of, inter alia, content, curriculum, educational objectives,
learners, context, and self. It is not theoretical (conceptual) but rather practical in
orientation. It is knowledge that is constitutive of action and, as Cochran and Lytle (1993)
note, is looked at as a reflection of pedagogical content knowing (instead of knowledge).
The ‘knowing’ aspect emphasises orientation to practice and is unique and specific to its
context. Hence, for the methods course to help student teachers develop this type of
knowledge it is important that the purposes of such school subject knowledge be
examined.
Teacher education requires a clear focus for its activities if it is to succeed in preparing
classroom teachers who meet the school subject curricular requirements, and has to
provide a useful context to afford prospective teachers knowledge for teaching. Given this
4 Grossman (1990) insists that the methods course is the best suited site wherefrom teachers’ knowledge for teaching pedagogical content knowledge is to be developed. 5 Knowledge for teaching is specialized. Shulman (1986) refers to it as “pedagogical content knowledge” to which Mayer (2006) adds that it is “a coherent set of classroom instructional activities and strategies”.
18
understanding, it is reasonable to argue that its success depends on how methods courses
conceptualise and prepare subject teachers.
1.10 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY
According to Thornton (2001), courses on methods of teaching constitute the link between
teacher education and school syllabus requirements. Specifically, this is a link that should
be informed by the objectives of the school subject. A methods course ought to be a site
for purposeful engagement that allows prospective teachers to discern what subject
objectives anticipate and how they may be realised through a teacher’s initiation of
appropriate instructional activities at classroom level. This explains why Grossman, (1990,
p. 16) has also asserted that it is through a course on methods of teaching that student
teachers are given the “…opportunity to acquire both knowledge about the overarching
purposes for teaching a particular subject and knowledge of specific strategies and
techniques with which to achieve these larger purposes”. In the light of these viewpoints, it
was thus crucial that a study conducted on coherence in a teacher education programme
should focus specifically on the objectives of a school subject’s curriculum as part of the
purpose of teacher education programmes.
Darling-Hammond and Baratz-Snowden (2005) see pre-service teachers as requiring the
following types of knowledge; “knowledge of learners and how they learn and develop
within social contexts; understanding of the subject matter and skills to be taught in light
of the social purposes of education”; and understanding of teaching in light of the content
and learners to be taught, as informed by assessment and supported by a productive
classroom environment” (p.5, italics in original text). In short, for effective teaching,
student- teachers need to understand how to promote the cognition and development of
those taught in a particular context, what is taught and how to teach and assess it
meaningfully.
This form of knowledge is important because it helps them understand how learning is
influenced by the growth and development of learners. It covers broad areas that include:
the nature of knowing; cognitive processing; meta-cognition; motivation; human
development: and physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and linguistic factors. For
example, understanding a learner’s strengths, interests and preconceptions helps a teacher
plan appropriately for specific instruction. In addition, from knowledge on human
19
development, the teacher is able not only to effectively manage the classroom activities but
also to select appropriate tasks, guide the learning process and motivate students to enjoy
learning. In addition, through knowledge of language development, the teacher is also able
to accord its acquisition and usage an important place within teaching. This is because of
the realisation that it is only through language (communication) that both teaching and
learning can be achieved and appreciated. In other words, teachers are guided into the
realisation that language is the currency of education. It can therefore be discerned from
this type of knowledge that the beginning teacher is prepared to use it as an enabling
building block for the achievement of the goals for teaching. It is knowledge that is critical
to the work of an effective teacher and which was of interest to me in this study.
As regards the subject matter, what is crucial is the syntactic structure and substantive
knowledge forms (see Grossman, 1990). Knowledge of the syntactic structure of a
discipline involves an understanding of the canons of evidence and proof within a
discipline. Essentially, this relates to the way knowledge claims are evaluated by members
of a discipline. The substantive knowledge of a subject covers the various paradigms
within a discipline that affect how it is organised as well as the questions that guide
inquiry. The latter has to do with an ability or competence to authenticate claims and
explain the various points of view used to organise content, as well as pursue an inquiry in
a subject. For example, in Nichol and Dean (1997) view, in History syntactic knowledge
refers to the skills and processes used to collect knowledge of the past. These skills and
processes shape an investigation. Syntactic knowledge is thus knowledge of the procedures
of historical inquiry by which historical claims are developed, that is, “historical ‘know
how’ [syntactical or procedural] knowledge results in this ‘know that’ knowledge (that
which we know), i.e. the facts of history [formed] from the connected statements
(propositions) about what happened in the past” (id. p.13). Knowledge of these two forms
of subject matter was thus invaluable in the study to highlight what students needed as
skills and processes to present or represent historical subject content to their learners.
In conclusion it is thus reasonable to argue that an effective teacher education curriculum
should help students understand how to teach the syntactic and substantive forms of
disciplinary knowledge.
This is a view that Hirst (1974) also emphasises in his writing on the forms of knowledge.
He asserts that the “comprehensive development of the mind in acquiring knowledge that
is aimed at an understanding of experience in many different ways” (Hirst, 1974, p. 130)
20
can thus be construed as entailing a critical training and discipline, not only of facts but
also of complex conceptual schemes and the arts and techniques of different types of
reasoning and judgement commensurate with what the teaching situations teachers find
themselves in dictate. Essentially, this logic adheres to the inherent epistemological
rationality of the school subject and its mode of teaching and learning.
Turner–Bisset (2001, p. 13) clarifies how the various knowledge forms “interact in the
professional work of the teacher … and go beyond the active classroom teaching phase to
include the planning, evaluation and reflection phases as well”. These knowledge forms
are:
… substantive subject knowledge; syntactic subject knowledge; beliefs about the subject; curriculum knowledge; General pedagogical knowledge; knowledge / models of teaching; knowledge of learners: cognitive knowledge of learners; empirical knowledge of self; knowledge of educational contexts; knowledge of educational ends; and, pedagogical content knowledge (ibid.).
In a sense, the complexity of teaching is ingrained in the multifaceted nature of what goes
into its preparation as an enactment. As clarified by Wineburg and Wilson (1993), “the
process by which teachers turn their subject matter knowledge into representations that
bridge the chasm between what they know and what they want their students to learn”
(p.748; emphasis added) plays a transformative role in the education of prospective
teachers. These questions help to break down into specific constituencies what on the one
hand, Shulman (1999) allocates to pedagogical content knowledge:
… pedagogical content knowledge is of special interest because it identifies the distinctive bodies of knowledge for teaching. It represents the blending of content and pedagogy into an understanding of how particular topics, problems, or issues are organised, represented, and adapted to the diverse interests and abilities of learners, and presented for instruction… [a] special amalgam of content and pedagogy that is uniquely the promise of teachers, their own special form of professional understanding. (p. 64).
Thus, the main assumption for the study lay in the focus on the knowledge and skills
proffered to student teachers in their course on methods of teaching a secondary school
subject. Bernstein’s (2000) conception of what takes place in an activity of pedagogical
communication thus helped to make explicit the nature of interaction that needs to be
forged between a teacher and learner in a context of teaching and learning H&G if at all
the objectives for the subject are to be attained. Therefore, it is the understanding of what
each of these elements contain and how they can be integrated by student teachers that
teacher-educators needed to initiate in a history methods course for purposes of realising
curriculum coherence between the pre-service course and the H&G.
21
1.11 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
According to Bernstein (2000), the success of modes of transmitting (communicating)
educational knowledge is dependent on a set of rules that constitute the functional logic of
a pedagogic communication, namely the distributive, recontextualising, and evaluative
rules. Each of the rules fulfils a specific role in the communication process (Singh, 2002;
Lamnias, 2002).
Pedagogic communication is influenced by the distributive, recontextualising and
evaluative rules in a number of ways. The distributive rules “… mark and distribute who
may transmit what to whom and under what conditions and they attempt to set the outer
limits of legitimate discourse” (Bernstein, op. cit., p. 31). They regulate the nature of
relationships that exist between “… power, social groups, forms of consciousness and
practice” (ibid. p. 28). The role of the distributive rules is therefore to create structures that
distribute the potential meaning of the available knowledge in order to construct both
forms of practices and consciousness (Apple, 2002). At school level, these rules apportion
both the roles and nature of relationships therein by clearly demarcating the teacher,
learner and the conditions under which teaching and learning take place. The
recontextualising rules are concerned with the formation of specific pedagogic discourses,
and are used for “…delocating a discourse, for relocating it, for refocusing it …”
(Bernstein, 1996, p. 47). For instance, in the context of the school, this means that a
subject is taught according to the school rules or principles of a subject’s order, such as
those relating to selection, relation, sequence, and pacing (Daniels, 1995; Singh, 1993).
Therefore, these rules not only “… select the what but also the how of the theory of
instruction” (Bernstein, op. cit., p. 35; emphasis in the original reference). The evaluative
rules constitute the essence of a pedagogic practice, and are concerned with recognising
what counts as valid acquisition of instructional and regulative texts. Whereas the
instructional texts refer to the subjects or curricular content, the regulative texts entail the
various aspects of social order, such as the conduct, character, manner and posture of the
learners (Singh, Dooley & Freebody, 2001). The purpose of the evaluative rules, overall, is
to give meaning and purpose to the pedagogic practice.
There is a logical relationship between the three sets of pedagogic rules that is hierarchical
and facilitates the fruition of a pedagogic communication (Daniels, 1995; Hasan, 2002).
22
For instance, whereas the recontextualisation rules draw from the distributive rules the
functional logic of what to select and how it should be transmitted, the evaluative rules are
guided by the ‘outcomes’ or ‘products’ of the recontextualising principles (content and
how it is transmitted), to influence the components of the activities of knowledge
validation in a pedagogic practice. This implies that the pedagogic rules are an
indispensable component of any pedagogic communication (Edwards, 1991).
It can be argued that Bernstein’s theorisation of pedagogic communication provides a
coherent understanding of how the nature of knowledge has to influence the activities
within an educational programme. In the case of educational practice, it is reasonable to
argue that this is influence that can be described as related to Foucault’s notion of
disciplinary regime (see also May & Powell, 2007). It stems from, in part, the panopticon
technique through which prison officials “…would make it possible for a single gaze to
see everything perfectly” (Foucault, 1977, p. 173).
According to May and Powell (2007), Foucault viewed “panopticism … [as] a process
whereby certain mechanisms permeate social systems beyond actual, physical institution”
(p.124). As a result, the techniques have since been borrowed by the wider society as
“flexible methods of control, which may be transferred and adapted [as] … centres of
observation disseminated throughout society” (Foucault, 1977, pp. 211-212). It is on the
basis of this borrowing that Foucault’s notion of disciplinary power can be applied to
diverse activities in social institutions.
In Foucault’s (1977, p. 170) view “[d]iscipline makes individuals – it is the specific
technique of power that regards individuals both as objects and as instruments of its
exercise”. The power inherent in discipline, in turn, has a relationship with knowledge. It
stands out as “a way of organising social relations” (p.92), which according to Foucault
involves the “institution of hierarchical power relations” (p.37). This form of power,
though, is diffuse in its operation, “coming from everywhere”, and in being invisible, it is
all-pervasive and irresistible. Disciplinary power is thus a form of subtle consciousness
that has a significant influence on how people conduct their affairs (work).
The concept of ‘disciplinary power’ has implications for teaching a subject or discipline.
Under its invisible normalising gaze, subject teachers are supposed to function (teach) in
ways that continually facilitate a form of teaching that focuses on the development of
thought processes and understanding commensurate with the subject, seeking concordance
23
with the criteria that define how knowledge is to be acquired and authenticated, and that
exposes a logical grammar that guides how propositions and explanations are meaningfully
constructed.
Pre-service teachers are supposed to be helped to develop an understanding and good use
of these constructs. They should be prepared for teaching that prioritises a subject’s logic
of knowing and learning, which is what a teacher requires in order to address a subject’s
epistemological criteria. Therefore, by looking at the pedagogic socialisation processes in
the HTM course, it is possible to understand the nature of the translation of a school
curriculum that teacher-educators would have made for their students. It is in this sense
that Bernstein’s (2000) work provided, amongst others, a useful theoretical optic through
which H&G could be conceived as a curricular form of school knowledge, requiring a
particular orientation of teacher knowledge which student teachers needed to access during
their pre-service education – the HTM course in the case of this study.
On the whole, the design for the study was conceived from a conception of knowledge for
teaching H&G at secondary school within a course on methods of teaching as an exercise
that required, inter alia, student teachers be exposed to a clear understanding of how H&G
objectives needed to be represented and communicated pedagogically. In short, the design
for the study had to reflect a clear pathway by which these features of the HTM course
would be empirically examined. In the next section, a brief description of the research
design adopted for the study is presented. A detailed account is presented separately in
Chapter Six.
1.12 RESEARCH DESIGN
The research design adopted for the study guided me in following adopting an approach
and data collecting methods and tools that were useful towards attaining data that was
dependable and transferable in future studies. Yin (1994) and Merriam (1998) views’ were
valuable as a basis from which to choose a case study design within the qualitative
research paradigm. For these authors a case study research ‘investigates a contextualised
contemporary…phenomenon within specified boundaries’ (Hatch, 2002:30). The HTM
course, which was the focus of this study, presented such a bounded phenomenon. In order
to understand the activities that went on in the course, between the teacher-educators and
students, it became necessary to adopt a research orientation – that would help me focus on
24
aspects such as actions in a natural setting, participants’ perspectives as subjects or
individuals, researcher as a data collector and meaning-making (see also, Hatch, 2002).
Thus, the design together with an interpretive phenomenological approach enabled me to
capture, describe and understand this course within its natural and unique context (Bogden
& Biklen, 2003; McMillan & Schumacher, 2006; Patton, 1990) of the B.Ed programme of
a university. I could describe in depth the activities, communication and other forms of
discourse used by the teacher-educators to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and
skills to teach H&G and how the students viewed what they offered as preparation for
teaching H&G.
In particular, the case study design allowed me a focussed and intensive examination of
the enactment (process and context) of the programme. Drawing on Bernstein (2000), this
content was considered as providing an external language of description through which the
secondary school H&G syllabus can be clarified. As an external language of description,
the pedagogic device used to communicate its content could illustrate or not to student
teachers how historical content could be recontextualised to fulfil the syllabus’s aims. As a
carrier of the external language of description, it needed to foreground the implied
knowledge and skills (the internal language of description) required to teach H&G, that is,
an effective pedagogic device.
In order to obtain a rich database, a researcher who adopts this design ought to use
according to Stake (2010) a number of data sources. In the case of this study this occurred
through using document and other artefacts analysis, observations and stimulated
interviews as data collection tools. In particular, I used content analysis and discourse
analysis, broadly focussing on ‘content’ as subject matter for the course and modes or
forms of communication (Mouton, 2001) as discourse. I was able to derive themes and
patterns (Rossman & Rallis, 2003) by exploring commonality in the ideas, beliefs and
attitudes of the teacher-educators and students who were involved in the course
(Wilkinson, 2000). By examining students’ practices in micro-teaching lessons and views
on how the course was dealing with the school requirements, conclusions could be drawn
on the consequences of the practices and communication/engagement (also see Berg,
2001; De Wever, Schellens, Valcke & Van Keer, 2006; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Miles &
Huberman, 1994; Minichiello, Aroni, Timewell & Alexander, 1990; Patton, 1990;
Schilling, 2006; Tesch, 1990; Weber, 1990) that occurred in lectures and how they were
consistent to what appeared in the texts used by the teacher-educators.
25
Third-year student teachers studying History as one of the subjects for teaching at
secondary school were chosen as participants. They were deemed to be knowledgeable and
informed about the programme (McMillan & Schumacher, 2006) because of their position
in the programme, at the point where the course of focus in the study was offered.
Observations were used to collect data from lectures and microteaching lessons in which
both teacher-educators and student teachers participated and interviews to probe and
clarify issues drawn from programme documents and the observation of lectures and
microteaching lessons (Fontana & Frey, 2005; McMillan & Schumacher, 2006)..
I conducted a pilot study at the end of my first year in the doctoral programme (November-
December, 2007), observing lectures over a period of four weeks. Following on the
insights gained from the pilot study, fieldwork for the main study was conducted in the
first quarter of 2009 between January and March at a public university in the Rift Valley
province in Kenya. All teacher-educators who taught the HTM course and the plenary
lectures that preceded microteaching lessons participated in the study. Two lecturers taught
the HTM course while six other lecturers presented lectures during the plenary lectures
that preceded microteaching lessons.
A detailed discussion of the research design, though, is presented separately in Chapter Six
of this report. In the following sub-section, I present the organisation of this thesis report.
1.13 ORGANISATION OF THE THESIS
The first chapter contextualised the study and discussed the aims of teacher education in
Kenya, statement of the problem, research questions, research assumption, a rationale for
the study, a broad conceptual framework and research design adopted for the study.
The second chapter focuses on history teaching in Kenya. It presents a discussion on the
teaching of history in primary and secondary schools in the country, arguing that teaching
History at school level is primarily aimed at citizenship or civic education. The meaning of
the latter is clarified in this chapter.
The third chapter deals with two issues. First, it discusses the nature of historical
knowledge to tease out principles crucial to what prospective H&G teachers need to be
exposed to as part of their preparation for teaching. In particular, it emphasises the
importance of a school subject’s objectives as a basis for, among others, anchoring
26
knowledge that prospective teachers need. The chapter also explains how educational
objectives are underpinned by assumptions that promote the development of specific
intellectual or cognitive attributes.
Chapter four looks critically at various models that have been used to teach instructional
procedures and activities and their implications for developing curriculum literacy for
teachers. The main features of these models are also clarified in order to highlight the
knowledge base requisite for teaching H&G. From the discussion, it becomes clear that as
a social practice, teacher education requires a certain orientation, especially for teacher-
educators, i.e., practical reasoning.
In chapter five, a discussion of practical reasoning as a basis for social practice is
presented in order to draw principles that are crucial to the engagement that the HTM
course has to promote. By looking critically at the different modalities of this concept,
features that need to be in the HTM course are isolated as crucial to anchoring the design
of the study.
Chapter six describes the research design and methodology of the study.
Chapter seven presents evidence from lectures on methods of teaching H&G. It
demonstrates how the HTM course communicated knowledge for teaching H&G. The
argument is that communication reflected a preference for knowledge and skills on
procedural aspects of teaching. Rather than support student teachers’ understanding of the
connection between the nature and scope of the objectives for H&G, the content, historical
model and approach, it prioritised how to prepare a scheme of work, lesson plan, construct
lesson objectives, present a lesson and evaluate own performance. The argument in this
chapter is that student teachers were helped to acquire the knowledge and skills for
performing the activities mentioned here rather than being assisted to develop an
understanding of what underpinned and was necessary to translate into materials and
activities that could promote the attainment of the objectives of H&G.
Chapter eight presents data on student teachers’ microteaching lessons from the HTM
course. It is examined to establish the knowledge and skills student teachers are
developing to teach H&G. The discussion focuses on the lessons and feedback given to
students about their teaching to argue for the nature of PCK that the course emphasised
and examine its relationship to the essence of the objectives of H&G. The discussion is
27
supported by data drawn from interviews conducted with a teacher-educator and student
teachers involved in the HTM course.
Chapter nine summarises the study, reflects on the appropriateness of the conceptual tools
it drew on and the research design that has been used. This is followed by further reflection
on the value of the findings presented and recommendations for further research in the area
of curriculum coherence in Kenyan teacher education programmes.
28
CHAPTER TWO
HISTORY TEACHING IN KENYA
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Kenya’s post-independence educational developments have had to contend with the effects
of colonial rule that lasted for almost two-thirds of a century. As in many other formerly
colonised African countries, educational developments at the time of attaining political
freedom were miniscule and unsatisfactory to enable the country to deal with the
challenges of self-rule (ROK, 1964). Inheriting a racially segregated education system, the
government was faced with a challenge of developing a single and unitary system of
education. Developing a common curriculum for all school-going children became a major
priority, and the idea resonated well with the desire to establish a single curriculum policy
development unit or agency. In short, the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) resulted from
a need to develop a uniform national curriculum that served all schools and as a result,
curriculum development became centralised. National educational goals that focused on
the unification of the diverse groups in the new nation-state, espoused by the first
indigenous education commission of 1964, became important. Indeed, the first Education
Commission had anticipated a centralised curriculum development structure in its
observation that:
As we consider the growth of national unity alongside the other needs of Kenya, it appears to us that a permanent curriculum study unit is needed. This would be a research body, but its intention would be basically practical, in the sense that it would be concerned with general findings about the reform of the curriculum and with particular adaptation to the needs of Kenya. Its relation with schools would be sufficiently close to permit experimentation with draft syllabuses, books and teaching materials. (ROK, 1964, p.39).
Hence, through the Education Act of 1968, curriculum development activities were
formally proffered to KIE and a centralised curriculum development model adopted. One
of its functions is the preparation of syllabi for all levels of public education except for
universities. It produces curricular material such as the syllabi, textbooks and teacher
handbooks and develops subject-level syllabi to cover knowledge, skills and dispositions
(attitudes) that address goals for the individual student, the concerned knowledge area, the
school cycle and the nation as a whole.
29
Since independence, History as a school subject has been regarded as an important
medium through which national educational goals would be achieved. Broadly, the subject
is considered an avenue through which the ‘diverse cultural heritage of the nation can
foster national unity, moral integrity and mutual social responsibility’ (Modiba & Simwa,
2011, p. 289). Specifically, at primary school level, History is taught under the
interdisciplinary subject of Social Studies (SS), thus, learners’ historical knowledge is
informed by the integrative objectives for SS. At secondary school level, History is offered
together with civic education and thereby referred to as ‘History and Government’.
This chapter presents a discussion on history teaching in Kenya. It covers the teaching of
History in primary and secondary schools, arguing that teaching History at school level in
Kenya is primarily aimed at citizenship or civic education. This conception has
implications for the way pre-service teachers of History have to be prepared. In the first
section of the discussion, an examination of History teaching at primary school is
presented. The second section moves on to dwell on History teaching at the secondary
school level. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of History teaching for
teacher preparation.
2.2 HISTORY AT PRIMARY SCHOOL
The History subject is interdisciplinary and requires teachers to draw content also from
fields such as geography, business and religion to weave an integrated approach. Teachers
have to create a context wherein opportunity to learn about one’s environment (social,
economic, physical and political) abound. The thematic approach adopted for the subject
emphasises the knowledge, skills and values for effective functioning in the environment.
In short, the curriculum emphasises educational relevance for the students’ context and
institutions within it.
Specifically, teachers are expected to select their teaching and learning activities from a
variety of methods of instruction, which include discussion; debate; question and answer;
story-telling; reciting; role playing; modelling; dramatising; singing; dancing; observation;
field visits; demonstration; nature walk; note making/taking; problem solving; and games
(Ministry of Education, 2009). There is an assumption that they have the competence to
select activities that would be appropriate to prescribed themes to make the lesson
experience meaningful to their learners. They have to use these themes as a framework in
30
planning and presenting lessons. The themes require a spiral organisation of the
curriculum. Content has to be recursively engaged with in the different classes (or grades).
The thematic framework also emphasises integration for teaching and learning.
The objectives for SS reflect a desire to develop learners into members of the community
(society). Family serves as the centre from which learners need to be brought up, so
knowledge of the domestic environment and all that pertains to it is viewed as crucial in
instilling the foundational social mores that learners will build on as they interact with
other people outside the home. The home, in all its dimensions, social, physical, political
and economic, is supposed to be engaged with in a manner that promotes the welfare of all
those who are in it. In learning about the environment and how it can be used for the
welfare of all, prominence is given to its conservation. To foster shared values, learners are
exposed to the history of ideas, institutions and systems. Mutual existence is also
encouraged through exposure to different cultural knowledge from the corpus of
communities that make up the Kenyan society and beyond. Through these objectives,
pupils are supposed to develop civic competencies as members of a democratic entity by
exposure to knowledge about the political structures in the country, also so that they
acquire and develop the appropriate skills and values that undergird the effective
functioning in their social and political milieu. These include respect for human dignity,
human rights, the exercise of democratic rights and the ability to resolve conflicts
amicably among themselves whenever they arise. Furthermore, knowledge and
experiences that cultivate principles of co-existence are important for the youth to unite
when growing up as members of one nation. In short, the objectives for SS promote the
acquisition of knowledge, skills and values that are central to democratic practices within
the nation. Importance is attached to the experiences that promote learners’ effective
functionality in their environment.
SS is defined as a ‘study of people and the environment in which they live’ (Ministry of
Education, 2009, p. 1), with the following broad objectives:
By the end of the course, the learner should be able to
1. Recognise and appreciate the family as an important social institution.
2. Understand, use and manage the immediate environment for individual and national development.
3. Develop awareness of the evolution and development of human beings.
4. Acquire knowledge of and show appreciation for the historical background of our communities.
31
5. Acquire knowledge of and show appreciation for desirable values.
6. Acquire knowledge of available natural resources and demonstrate ability and willingness to utilise them properly.
7. Understand the structure and functions of the government of Kenya and demonstrate ability to participate in its operations.
8. Understand and appreciate the rights of the individual and responsibility to the attainment of social justice.
9. Identify, understand and respect own and other people’s culture.
10. Recognise and understand the need for, and importance of interdependence of people and nations.
11. Acquire knowledge and skills necessary to understand and analyse population issues which affect the quality of life of the people of Kenya.
12. Understand and show appreciation for the love for and loyalty to the nation.
13. Be willing and able to resolve disputes in and out of school.
14. Understand and promote awareness and importance of democracy in society.
15. Identify and promote economic activities in the society.
16. Understand and use map reading skills to interpret information (Ministry of Education, 2009, p. ix).
Related to these objectives are eight themes on the basis of which the content to be learnt
is structured. During the first year of primary schooling, the subject requires pupils to
study the theme of ‘Living together in our home and school’ (Ministry of Education, 2009,
p. 1), which covers topics such as safety in the home, knowledge about one’s own family
and his or her school, and safety on the way to and from school. The latter also includes
important features that learners see on the way to school. In the second grade, the theme is
‘Living together in school and neighbourhood’ (ibid.), which covers the following content
- school and its surroundings; activities that take place at school, needs, safety on travel to
and from school, the school neighbourhood; child protection; resources in the location and
its type of administration. In the third grade, the theme focuses on the district. Learners are
expected to learn about the physical environment, communities that live in the learners’
administrative area, the needs, resources and economic activities that are carried out. In
addition, they have to study about caring for the environment and the type of
administration in the district. In the fourth grade, the focus is on living in the province as a
larger geographic as well as political area. The content includes knowledge of the physical
environment; people and population; social relations and cultural activities; resources and
economic activities; issues of citizenship, democracy and human rights; law; peace and
conflict resolution; and the Government of Kenya. For the fifth grade, content focuses on
32
living together in the country, with topics that include: the physical environment; its
people and population; social relations and cultural activities; economic activities and
resources; political developments and systems; citizenship; democracy and human rights;
and the Government of Kenya. The same scope of content is studied in the sixth year
though the theme is broadened to include the East African region. Topics include
citizenship, democracy and human rights, law, peace, conflict resolution, and the
Government of Kenya. The themes for the seventh and eighth year focus on living in
Africa and the world, respectively. The topics covered are the same as those studied in the
sixth year but in much greater depth.
Broadly, teaching and learning is highly structured. The syllabus stipulates time allocation,
with two lessons per week, each lasting 35 minutes for class 1-3; and, five lessons per
week, each lasting 40 minutes for the class 4-8. In addition, the specification of objectives,
content and methods of teaching mean that teachers are expected to adhere strictly to the
guidelines, with firm control over what should be taught and learned. However, the
objectives do not specify the knowledge, skills and values that can be used as benchmarks
to establish (pinpoint) with certitude what would indicate their achievement at the end of
the course. Therefore, it is possible that this lack of specificity may make it difficult for the
teachers (and learners) to ascertain when they have attained what is proposed in the
objectives.
Drawing on Bernstein (2000), it is reasonable to argue that the model that seems to inform
SS is based on an assumption that the learner does not know and so relies on the teacher as
the person to teach knowledge and skills. The teacher controls both the content and the
instructional activities, with content prescribed and the teacher’s role being to pass it on to
the learner. The pedagogical devices and the distributive, recontextualising and evaluative
rules are clear: who is the teacher and who is the learner, and the nature of their pedagogic
relation; what the content of the communication should be and how it is to be
communicated and evaluated (ascertained) is defined.
According to Goodson (2006), the identification of objectives; learning activities
(experiences); organisation (of learning experiences and activities); and the evaluation of
whether or not the objectives have been achieved, seem to give the learner an insignificant
role. The stipulation of the objectives tends to restrict the learners’ meaningful engagement
in lessons. It is a shortfall of the curriculum models that fail to engage the learners. Thus,
Goodson (2006) argues:
33
So much of the literature on learning fails to address this crucial question of engagement, and as a result learning is seen as some formal task that is unrelated to the needs and interests of the learner. Hence so much of curriculum planning is based on prescriptive definitions of what is to be learnt without any understanding of the situation within the learners’ lives. … a vast amount of curriculum planning is abortive because the learner simply does not engage (ibid. p.18).
Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the emphasis in the syllabus for SS considers
the teacher as a pedagogical fulcrum for learning. But to teach SS at primary school level
requires competence in multiple subjects that many of these teachers are likely not to
possess, as a brief account of teacher preparation for this level of education shows below.
Primary school teachers in Kenya are prepared, largely, in teacher training colleges. The
programme covers two years, in which time pre-service teachers study 10 and nine
subjects in their first and second year, respectively. In addition, there are three sessions of
teaching practice, one in the first year and two in the second. Specifically, subjects studied
in the first year are the following: Mathematics, including aspects of Business Studies;
English, including aspects of Library Science, Mother Tongue and Drama; Kiswahili,
including aspects of Mother Tongue and Drama; Science Integrated with Home Science
and Agriculture; Religious Education (Christian Religious Education/Islamic Religious
Education); Social Studies, including some aspects of Business Studies; Professional
Studies, including Special Needs Education, Guidance and Counselling and legal issues in
Education; Creative Arts (Music, Art and Craft and Drama); Physical Education; and,
Information Communication Technology (ICT). In the second year, subjects are grouped
into three. English, Kiswahili, Professional Studies, Physical Education and ICT constitute
core subjects that have to be studied. The additional four subjects are selected from either
option A with the following subjects: Science; Home Science; Agriculture; and
Mathematics; or option B that has Music, Art and Craft, Social Studies, and Religious
Education. In short, as it can be noted, the teacher preparation at this level offers a
crowded curriculum that may have a negative impact on the quality of the teachers (cf.,
Ministry of Education, Science & Technology, 2004).
Sifuna and Kaime (2007) allude to the possible negative effect on the quality of teaching in
schools that may stem from the way teachers are prepared. In their view:
…attempts to change the quality of learning in schools [have] to be linked to improvements in the education of teachers if they [are] to be effective … Yet this area has received relatively little attention from policy-makers, donors and researchers … Though development agencies have supported a range of teacher education projects, few have contained support for research on learning processes and practices. As a result, the
34
evidence base is weak, and much policy on teacher education has not been grounded in the realities that shape teacher education systems and their clients. (p.104).
In other words, that the curriculum at the teacher training colleges is crowded, as depicted
above, cannot overrule the eventual negative effect that may result from a hurried
approach that may be taken in order for pre-service teachers to be acquainted with the bare
minimum of each of the subjects they are expected to provide learners with foundational
knowledge for H&G.
Before reflecting on the competences for teachers of H&G, it is important to provide a
detailed discussion of its objectives, content and organisation.
2.3 HISTORY AT SECONDARY SCHOOL: OBJECTIVES OF HISTORY AND
GOVERNMENT
H&G has nine objectives, namely to:
1. recognise and appreciate the importance of learning History and Government;
2. acquire knowledge, ability and show appreciation for critical historical analysis of socio-economic and political organisation of African societies;
3. understand and show appreciation of the rights, privileges and obligations of oneself and others for promotion of a just and peaceful society;
4. promote a sense of nationalism, patriotism and national unity;
5. encourage and sustain moral and mutual social responsibility;
6. identify, assess and appreciate the rich and varied cultures of the Kenyan people and other people;
7. promote a sense of awareness and need for a functional democracy of the Kenyan people and other nations;
8. promote an understanding and appreciation of intra-national and international consciousness and relationships, and
9. derive through the study of History and Government an interest in further learning. (KIE, 2006, p. 6).
Broadly, the objectives can be put into two groups: those that are subject matter related
and those aimed at developing civic competences. The former can be related to the
following: recognise and appreciate the importance of learning H&G; acquire knowledge,
ability and show appreciation for critical historical analysis of socio-economic and
political organisation of African societies; and, derive through the study of History and
Government an interest in further learning. These objectives require learners to attain
sufficient understanding of their subject, i.e., its definition and purpose (utility) as well as
the disciplinary knowledge (the substantive / propositional and syntactic / procedural) that
35
distinguishes it from the other subjects. With such disciplinary competences in the subject,
it is hoped that some learners may be motivated to pursue further studies in the subject
upon graduation from secondary school.
In addition to subject-specific objectives, there are those that focus on the attainment of
civic competences. Learners are expected to demonstrate through the study of H&G the
following attributes: understand and show appreciation of the rights, privileges and
obligations of oneself and others for promotion of a just and peaceful society; promote a
sense of nationalism, patriotism and national unity; encourage and sustain moral and
mutual social responsibility; identify, assess and appreciate the rich and varied cultures of
the Kenyan people and other people; promote a sense of awareness and need for a
functional democracy of the Kenyan people and other nations; and, promote an
understanding and appreciation of intra-national and international consciousness and
relationships (KIE, 2006, p. 6). In this group of objectives, learners need to acquire
knowledge and skills that will make them participate fully in the civic life of the nation
and the world at large.
The diction of the H&G objectives is direct, with verbs that identify the qualities expected
from learning the subject. Teachers need to teach, inter alia, qualities of recognition,
acquisition, appreciation, promotion, encouragement, assessment, identification,
understanding and derivation. They have to weave disciplinary content knowledge with
ways of knowing in the subject to assist learners to comprehend particular propositional /
substantive knowledge of History and use it in broader spheres of their lives, viz. -
personal, social, communal, national and international. These attributes approximate
qualities that Little, Feng and van Tassel-Baska (2007) refer to as ‘habits of mind’ and that
are pillars in inculcating civic competence among learners. It is by these habits that they
have to be helped to be analytical about documents (as evidence), detect bias, the
differentiate fact from conjecture, and recognise the complex nature of human phenomena
in general. Briefly, this means that the study of H&G needs to be viewed as an endeavour
that goes beyond the simple exposure of learners to certain disciplinary content. Teachers
have to be able to develop in their learners qualities that go beyond content knowledge.
They need to give considerable attention to the subject’s procedural knowledge, that is the
‘know-how’ knowledge, so that learners can acquire the states of mind proposed in the
objectives for H&G. For example, learners are expected to: “acquire knowledge, ability
and show appreciation for the critical historical analysis of socio-economic and political
36
organisation of African societies” (KIE, 2006, p. 5), and similarly to: “recognize and
appreciate the importance of learning History and Government” (ibid). These two
objectives highlight the subject’s ‘ways of knowing’.
A number of history education theorists support this teaching and learning that puts
emphasis on the substantive and procedural components (see also, Bain, 2001; Bruno-Jofre
& Schiralli, 2002; Nichol & Dean, 1997; Seixas, 2006). For example, Seixas (2006) sees it
as providing a framework that could be used to benchmark: historical significance;
evidence; continuity and change; cause and consequence; historical perspectives; and,
moral dimension6 as ‘second-order’ historical concepts that guide historians in building
historical explanations. They are normally attached to disciplinary processes that attempt
to answer the following questions: How do we decide what is important to learn about the
past? How do we know what we know about the past? How do we understand the
complexity of the past? Conversely, the ‘first-order’ historical concepts facilitate the
comprehension of historical patterns and specific events. Concepts such as monarchy,
regime, kingdom and despot fall in this group.
Betram (2009) argues that whereas substantive knowledge consists of the statements of
fact, propositions and concepts derived from the activity of historical investigation, the
procedural knowledge entails the ways of knowing or the ways of doing History. Thus, it
is crucial to the teaching of history that both substantive and procedural knowledge in the
discipline is fostered, and teaching H&G ought to include the utility of such knowledge to
enable an understanding of the nature of past human activity and its relevance to learners’
present conditions. As Deng (2009) asserts, teachers need to understand sufficiently what
is crucial to educational ends. Echoing Deng’s (2009) view, Clark (2008) posits that, for
example, the teaching of history in schools for purposes of affirming a national orientation
or character of a country’s past events goes beyond a basic re-telling of what happened. It
invokes the need for an examination of values and identity and requires in-depth
examination of issues through the use of a historical inquiry framework. The secondary
school H&G syllabus provides the teaching and learning objectives that each topic is
supposed to achieve (Ministry of Education, 2006). They are discussed below.
6 This conception of historical knowledge is similar to the National Standards framework for history in the USA, where five aspects of historical thinking are required as a demonstration of ability in the subject. They are: chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and interpretation, historical research, and, historical issues-analysis and decision-making (see also, Westhoff & Polman, 2007).
37
2.4 CONTENT OF HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT
The four-year programme covers a total of 32 topics. In addition to knowing why History
and Government is important, students also have to study the evolution of the human race
beginning with early ‘man’ and the development of agriculture. Kenyan communities are
studied in different time periods, such as prior to the 19th century through to the present.
Prior to the 19th century, the focus is on migration, settlement, social, economic and
political organisation, after which the focus shifts to colonial structures, institutions and
developments after independence. The colonial epoch covers topics that include: the
European invasion of Africa and the process of colonisation; establishment of colonial rule
in Kenya; colonial administration; and the social and economic developments within the
country. The content also includes the study of the early contacts of the East African coast
with the rest of the world and developments in communication and transport, trade,
industry and urbanisation. Topics such as African nationalism, political organisations,
struggle for independence, and the political, economic and social developments after
independence are covered. Also studied is national integration, with a focus on aspects
such as citizenship, constitution and constitution-making, democracy and human rights,
electoral processes as well as the contribution of selected Kenyan leaders. The formation,
structure and functions of the Kenyan government, its sources of revenue and expenditure
thereof, as well as the formation and functions of local authorities are given attention. The
study of international relations focuses specifically on of the two world wars, co-operation
in Africa and national philosophies. The topics for the various years and the time allocated
to each are summarised in table 2.1 (below).
38
Table: 2.4.1 Topics in History and Government: Lesson Allocation
In the syllabus, chronology is used as an important organising principle and to sequence
the selected content (topics). The topics are grouped under themes and allocated time to
reflect their significance.
Form One Form Two
Introduction to History and Government
(9 lessons)
Early Man (9 lessons)
Development of Agriculture (12 lessons)
The Peoples of Kenya up to the 19th Century (15 lessons)
Social, Economic, and Political Organisation of Kenyan Societies in the 19th Century
(15 lessons)
Contacts between East Africa and the Outside World (21 lessons)
Citizenship (9 lessons)
National Integration (9 lessons)
Trade (15 lessons)
Development of Transport and Communication (15 lessons)
Development of Industry (21 lessons)
Urbanisation (12 lessons)
Social, Economic and Political Organisation of African Societies in the 19th Century
(15 lessons)
Constitutions and Constitution Making
(15 lessons)
Democracy and Human Rights
(15 lessons)
Form Three Form Four
European Invasion of Africa and the Process of Colonisation (16 lessons)
Establishment of Colonial Rule in Kenya
(16 lessons)
Colonial Administration (12 lessons)
Social and Economic Developments during the Colonial period in Kenya (16 lessons)
Political Developments and Struggle for Independence in Kenya (24 lessons)
Rise of African Nationalism (16 lessons)
Lives and Contributions of Kenyan Leaders
(20 lessons)
The Formation, Structure and Functions of the Government of Kenya (24 lessons)
World Wars (12 lessons)
International Relations (16 lessons)
Co-operation in Africa (16 lessons)
National Philosophies (12 lessons)
Social, Economic and Political Developments and Challenges in Kenya since Independence (20 lessons)
Social, Economic and Political Developments and Challenges in Africa since Independence (12 lessons)
Local Authorities in Kenya (12 lessons)
Government Revenue and Expenditure
(12 lessons)
The Electoral Process and Functions of Governments in other parts of the World
(16 lessons)
39
2.5 TIME ALLOCATION IN HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT
The H&G syllabus provides teachers with guidance on time management. A lesson is
allocated forty minutes and there are three lessons per week. On average, a school term
covers a period of twelve weeks and in a year there are three school terms. This means that
for every school term, three topics are supposed to be covered. In turn, this translates to an
approximate 36 and 108 lessons taught per term and per year, respectively.
Guidance on the teacher’s role is provided through the Teachers’ Handbook (Ministry of
Education, 2006). Specifically, it provides guidance on teaching and learning activities that
can be used. These range from teaching approaches that are expository (teacher-centred) to
the heuristic ones (learner-centred) (ibid. p.12). This is stated as follows:
This handbook is written to assist teachers to interpret the revised Secondary Education Syllabus. … therefore, [it] facilitates the interpretation of the syllabus, as well as suggests on the appropriate teaching methods, besides providing guidelines on time management. It also presents modes of assessment for various domains. … teachers are, however, encouraged using their innovativeness and creativity in organizing the teaching/learning resources. (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. ii).
Even though teachers are advised to use their discretion in selecting approaches for their
context, they are encouraged to give preference to participatory learning activities (ibid.).
They are also guided on the assessment of learning in the subject. Apart from the benefits
of assessment in general, they are given various methods of evaluating “learner
achievement and performance” (ibid. 42). These include oral questions, quizzes, tests and
examinations, and observation. The syllabus indicates that:
The suggested list of learning/teaching resources in History is neither exhaustive nor prescriptive. A wealth of other learning/teaching resources could be explored by sharing experiences with colleagues within the school and in other institutions….Assessments are essential elements in teaching as they enable the teacher to evaluate the achievement of set objectives. Thus a variety of assessment methods have to be used to ensure that all the objectives of the syllabus have been achieved.” (ibid. p. 19).
2.6 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT: CURRICULUM DESIGN COMPETENCE
According to Schneider and Ingram (1990), the success of policy at the level of
implementation depends on the nature of the policy tools or instruments used. Policy tools,
in this case, are conceived of as instruments (means) that assist in overcoming
impediments to policy implementation. In their view, they may reflect behavioural
assumptions of various kinds, such as authority; incentive; capacity; symbolic and
hortatory; and, learning. Of relevance here is the H&G syllabus serving as a policy tool
40
reflecting behaviour on the part of learners. In particular, Schneider and Ingram (1990, p.
521) contend that: “[P]olicies that utilize learning tools may be rather open-ended about
purposes and objectives, specifying only broad-based goals and leaving the choice of tools
to lower-level agents”. Such tools offer broad-brush statements about what ought to be
done by teachers. As implementers of policy they thus need the capability to interpret
policy. Teacher education has to help them develop curriculum literacy that they can draw
on and make judicious decisions with regard to subject objectives. In other words, for pre-
service teacher education, especially for courses that offer methods of teaching, curriculum
should help develop the capacity to interpret policy.7
Harley and Wedekind (2003) have expressed concern about the uncritical adoption of
policy initiatives, fearing negative policy influences may emanate from what they refer to
as ‘mythological truth’. Instead of engaging policy issues from a ‘scientific truth’
perspective, that takes a sustained ‘disciplined’ and ‘disciplinary’ approach, in which a
substantial and sustained corroboration of evidence and argument is prioritised in order to
arrive at a reasoned judgement, those who implement policy adopt them on the basis of its
possible social appeal. For instance, some H&G teachers would be attracted to the
phenomenon of teaching without regard for its objectives but focus on the momentous
requirements of their immediate task of teaching a lesson, or what Zumwalt (1989) refers
to as ‘going through the day’, where the immediate concern is with how to deal with lesson
presentation and management of learners for that given period, at the expense of the
broader educational outcomes or goals set for a given school subject. Therefore, what
Harley and Wedekind (2003) encourage is a situation in which teachers, as implementers
of policy, ought to engage critically with curriculum policy before appropriating it for use
at classroom level.
Bailin’s (1998) critical normative thinking provides a useful consideration that teachers
can be guided to adopt when analysing policy. In distinguishing between competence in
terms of skills and knowledge, Bailin (1998) argues that the former are mainly descriptive
and focus on proficiency of certain mental processes, while knowledge is normative and
hinged in principles, reasons and argument. In order for teachers to develop a critical
orientation towards their work, it is necessary that they be well grounded in normative 7 Grossman, Hammerness & McDonald (2009) conceive this as the acquisition of ‘the grammar of practice’. Likewise, for Hollins (2011), this type of knowledge for teaching may be found in pre-service teacher programmes that promote holistic approaches – focused inquiry, directed observation and guided practice. Essentially, it is our view that these approaches emphasise curricular coherence as a basis for meaningful teacher learning.
41
knowledge as it enables them to master certain modes of inquiry that are important in
fostering reasoned judgement in particular contexts. This view is corroborated by Audi’s
(2004) notion of practical reasoning which grounds the role of deliberation in whatever
one does. To arrive at a decision on what one should do, according to this orientation,
requires that a detailed criticism of the particularities of one’s situation be sufficiently
engaged with. In short, teachers’ work requires them to appropriately appraise policy
before enactment. Thus, this is a professional quality that their preparation should afford
them.
Apart from obtaining a clear understanding of what the objectives of the subject require in
terms of instructional activities (Thornton, 2002), teachers need awareness of the theory of
content (Deng, 2009) to be translated into teaching materials and activities. A subject’s
internal organisation (Bernstein, 1999) must be understood if they are to grasp ways in
which it can be taught and learnt. Teacher competences in these aspects of school subject
knowledge need to be emphasised.
Stenhouse (1976) provides a broad but succinct view about how a school curriculum
should be understood, that is as “… an attempt to communicate the essential principles and
features of an educational proposal in such a form that it is open to critical scrutiny and
capable of effective translation into practice” (ibid. p.4). It is an educational statement that
points out what is to be offered to learners and its underlying principles, namely the
content to be taught; how it is to be organised for presentation/teaching; who should teach
and who should be taught; and, how what is taught is to be assessed to determine how it
has been accessed by the learners. In addition to these activities and procedures, there
should be provision for amendments to a curriculum (content, process and results) so that
it remains current and relevant to the needs of its society. The development of a curriculum
for schools would thus require taking into cognisance the need to appreciably meet the
ever-changing educational needs of society. Hence, the success of a curriculum will
depend on how it is communicated (presented) to teachers and all other groups that have to
offer it. What Stenhouse (1976) appears to emphasise here are the variations based on
contextual differences. It is in this sense that what it proposes should be open to critical
scrutiny if it is to benefit the learners who will be exposed to it. Therefore, any conception
of school curriculum and its implementation should meet both disciplinary and contextual
requirements.
42
Kelly (2004) argues that curriculum is underpinned by different ideological positions that
impact on how it is conceived, planned, delivered and evaluated. He distinguishes three
broad approaches, namely “curriculum as content and education as transmission,
curriculum as product and education as instrumental and curriculum as process and
education as development” (ibid. p.46). He argues that each of the three reflects the roles
of teacher and learner. For instance, the teacher in the case of ‘curriculum as content and
education as transmission’ is centrally positioned, unlike the learner who must largely be
on the periphery as a passive listener (participant). The teacher is relied upon to provide
knowledge that has been deemed most appropriate for schooling. Subject matter
knowledge (disciplinary content knowledge) is given great emphasis and a teacher with a
sufficiency of it is regarded as a competent professional. This curriculum orientation views
the teacher as someone who knows while the learner depends on him/her for the
acquisition of knowledge.
Conversely, the ideology of ‘curriculum as product and education as instrumental’
positions the teacher, more pointedly, towards the attainment of curriculum targets.
Specifically, curriculum is conceived in terms of setting certain targets and developing
structures by which to realise them. According to Kelly (2004), this approach is closely
associated with the ‘aims and objectives movement’ (p.56). Teachers are preoccupied with
ensuring not only that they set objectives to be realised by their learners at the end of every
teaching exercise but also that such aims are developed and realised in the context of the
broader educational goals set at the national level. In respect to teacher preparation, this
orientation tends to emphasise the learning of teaching approaches that ensure that teachers
develop teaching practices that prioritise the attainment of the objectives set for schools. In
other words, teaching is viewed as a useful bridge by which teachers assist learners to
attain educational ends that have been delineated clearly. Teachers and learners thus have
to work co-operatively in order to achieve these ends.
The third curriculum ideology regards curriculum as a process and education as
development. This approach intimates a bias towards the development of the learner more
than any other interest. Both content and processes of education are geared to the interests
of the learner (Kelly, 2004), thus, unlike the preceding view, this particular one elevates
the considerations of the learner. Other aims are secondary to those of the nature and needs
of the learner. The concern for curriculum planning is captured in the following way: “The
essence of the process approach is that what is derived from what are stated as overall aims
43
is not a series of short term goals or objectives but rather a detailing of the principles
which are inherent in those aims and which are to inform and guide subsequent
practice…” (Kelly, 2004, p.81). The orientation to curriculum planning prioritises values
of democracy and freedom of choice. Teachers are expected to be well prepared as their
tasks (which are definitely daunting) focus on learner formation. As an end, this is
different from the other two ideological positions that tend to direct their energy either to
the attainment of prescribed ends or educational level targets.
In general, it is noteworthy that each of these views may bear some influence on what
eventually is given emphasis in the conception, development and implementation of a
school curriculum. Therefore, teachers have continually to balance their options on
whether their focus should be on the discipline (subject), educational targets or the
formation of the learner. In this sense, the curriculum becomes an arena of ideological
contestations (Kelly, 2004).
In the context of Kenya, though, the curriculum planning for History can be regarded as
“… a straightforward project of selecting outcomes and parsing those outcomes into
incremental learning trajectories” (Sumara & Davis, 2000, p. 839). Thus, it is
‘technocratic’ (Cornbleth, 1990) in the sense that those who implement it may have very
little room to manipulate it, given the variable conditions they may find themselves in. It is
context-proof and teachers have to implement it without significant modification to
develop the required competences. This is a competence that is often related to a specific
model of teacher development, namely the technological model (Deng & Gopinathan,
2003).
2.7. SUMMARY
This chapter has presented a discussion on History teaching in the primary and secondary
school sectors of Kenya. It illustrates how the subject is primarily aimed at citizenship or
civic education. The latter has implications for competencies that pre-service teachers of
History should develop in their teacher preparation programme. In particular, it is
important to note that the teaching of the History subject in Kenya is highly structured both
at the primary and secondary school level. The objectives of the subject, the modes and
methods of teaching, the topics to be covered, the time allocated for these topics, inter alia,
including crucial aspects of the subject are pre-determined by the curriculum developers.
44
This therefore determines and has implications on the way pre-service teachers of History
are prepared. Teachers of the subject are trained to adhere to the set guidelines of
delivering the content of the subject so as to meet the objectives intended by the
developers of the curriculum.
The chapter presents the argument that; the manner in which teachers are trained to teach
the subject lays a lot of emphasis on their role and thus views them as the pedagogical
fulcrum for learning. This, to a large extent, diminishes the role of the learner, a key
player, in the process of implementing the curriculum. The chapter also presents various
approaches put forward by various scholars regarding the design of the curriculum. These
approaches, it is explained, reinforce the fact that the curriculum is highly rigid and
therefore teachers being trained to teach have little room to exercise creativity depending
on the unique environments in which they teach the subject in Kenya.
In the next chapter attention is specifically paid to the HTM course, to highlight the
competencies it wishes to develop for student teachers. The course is examined within the
context of the BEd programme. By specifically focussing on an examination of its aims
and content organisation, its role as a teaching method course is highlighted on the basis of
existing literature on historical knowledge and its implications for practice.
45
CHAPTER THREE
HISTORY TEACHING METHODS COURSE WITHIN THE
BACHELOR OF EDUCATION PROGRAMME
3.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter addresses two issues. First, a presentation is made on the contextualisation of
HTM course in the BEd programme and its role in the preparation of H&G teachers. In the
discussion a deliberate effort is made to address in detail the structural and curricular
components of the BEd programme in general but also the HTM course in particular. This
expose is hoped to provide background information that the discussion of the subsequent
section of the chapter builds on. Second, it discusses the nature of historical knowledge in
order to tease out principles crucial to what prospective H&G teachers need to be exposed
as part of their preparation for teaching. In particular, the discussion emphasises the
importance of a school subject’s objectives as a basis for anchoring knowledge that
prospective teachers need. It also explains how educational objectives engender the
development of intellectual or cognitive attributes.
3.2 THE BACHELOR OF EDUCATION PROGRAMME AT THE SELECTED
UNIVERSITY
The BEd programme offered at the public university that participated in the study began in
the late 1980s, and is served by several academic units that fall under different faculties,
including Science, Social Sciences, and Education. The faculties have over the years
influenced the organisation and provision of courses in this programme. The Faculty of
Education offers the professional education courses whilst the academic subject (teaching
subjects in the arts and sciences) courses are offered by other faculties – mainly, the Arts
and Science. In general, the programme seeks to produce qualified professional teachers
who are effective and competent in teaching at their respective school levels. According to
documents of the university, the programme promotes teamwork, creativity, tolerance,
moral uprightness, excellence, initiative, scholarship, academic freedom, openness and
honesty, and thus reflects the aspirations of the general national objectives for teacher
46
education in the country.
It is a four-year programme in which students study three main subjects. Education theory
is offered under professional courses by the various departments in the Faculty of
Education, namely Educational Psychology; Educational Foundations; Curriculum,
Instruction and Educational Media; and, Educational Management and Policy Studies. The
other two subjects are offered by academic departments in the faculties of Arts and
Science, and are subjects that students study as their specialist teaching subjects. The
Teachers Service Commission (TSC), a national government agency for teacher
recruitment in Kenya, requires all secondary school pre-service teachers in the BEd
programme to study a minimum of two secondary school subjects.
The institution that is involved in this study does not offer all the secondary school
subjects, and students in the programme can only select two subjects from the following:
History and Government, Christian/Islamic Religious Studies, Mathematics, English,
Literature, Kiswahili, French, Geography and Business Studies.8 These subjects are
offered by academic departments from the Faculty of Arts.
The curriculum offers a concurrent model of study in which the teaching subjects,
professional education courses, and the mandatory university-wide courses are studied side
by side, over the same time. Concurrency has been viewed as providing students with an
opportunity, from the onset of their studies, to make links between the professional and the
academic courses (teaching subjects). In addition, the programme offers students a 12-
week mandatory school practice opportunity at the end of the third year of study. Students
have to obtain pass grades in the practicum in order to qualify for graduation at the end of
the programme.
The BEd programme offers courses for students in respective subjects over a four-year
period, with a minimum of 11, 15, 13 and 14 courses (modules) in their first, second, third
and fourth year, respectively. In total, students in the programme cover a minimum of 54
courses in order to qualify for graduation9. The courses are distributed into common,
professional and teaching subjects. Thus, there are eight common courses, 17 professional
education courses and 14 courses for each of the two teaching subjects in the four-year
8 There are more subjects offered under the science subjects such as Biology, Physics, and Chemistry but they are not dealt with in this discussion because they are offered at a separate University College, a constituent college of the University which was not included in the study. 9 Teaching practice constitutes the 54th course of the BEd programme.
47
programme. On the whole, the professional education courses account for 33.3% of the
total number of courses in the programme. The remainder are distributed among the
common courses (14.8%), and each of the teaching subjects has a 25.9% share of the total
number of courses (see Table 3.1, below.).
Table 3.1.1 Distribution of Courses in the B Ed Programme
Key:
P Ed – Professional Education; TS - Teaching Subject; TP – Teaching Practice
According to Thornton (2001) the most important role for a methods course is to link
prospective teachers with the school subject for which they are being prepared to teach, to
guide them to understand the relationship between subject objectives and teaching and
realise the specific purposes of what they have to teach. Grossman (1990, p. 16) also
points out the role of the methods course as being to “... offer prospective teachers the
opportunity to acquire both knowledge about the overarching purposes for teaching a
particular subject and knowledge of specific strategies and techniques with which to
Courses Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Total & %
Common 2 1 None None Semester - 1
3 None 1 1 Semester - 2
Total 5 1 1 1 8 (14.81%)
P Ed 1 3 2 3 Semester - 1
1 3 2 2 Semester - 2
TP
Total 2 6 5 5 18 (33.33%)
TS – 1 1 2 2 2 Semester - 1
1 2 2 2 Semester - 2
Total 2 4 4 4 14 (25.92%)
TS – 2 1 2 2 2 Semester - 1
1 2 2 2 Semester - 2
Total 2 4 4 4 14 (25.92%)
Total Courses
11 15 14 14 8 Semesters 54
48
achieve these larger purposes”. It ought to be a site for purposeful engagement that allows
prospective teachers to discern what subject objectives require and how such requirements
may be realised through instructional activities at classroom level.
Shulman (1987) would argue that such engagement entails the varied phases of teacher
planning for and enactment of teaching. It is an iterative process that involves
comprehension, transformation, instruction, evaluation and reflection. Since teaching
requires continuous reflection and refinement, Shulman’s view is that the requirement
creates a ‘new comprehension’ as one gets ready to teach. Student teachers need to be
aware that ‘pedagogical reasoning and action’ can only occur where there is passion and
keenness for teaching. These interdependent activities ensure that aims, activities,
organisation and assessment (evaluation) are sufficiently considered (John, 2006).
Therefore, pre-service teachers need courses in methods of teaching to guide them on how
to plan and translate such planning into practice in teaching. This task is onerous because
student teachers face challenges when having to use content to clarify concepts through
tasks required by curriculum specification, thus their preparation should avoid a superficial
understanding of what is crucial to their future tasks as classroom teachers (cf., Calderhead
& Shorrock, 1997).
The role of the methods courses is further emphasised by Brown (2009), who specifically
urges History methods instructors to look again at the continued use of the traditional
lesson planning model. In view of calls for teachers to adopt disciplinary orientations in
their teaching, course lecturers need to consider the importance of disciplinary knowledge
and approaches in this regard (see also Orton, 1997).
Teacher education programmes have usually compartmentalised curriculum and made it
the responsibility of the student teacher to work out how the different courses studied may
be integrated. Students are expected to demonstrate an ability to integrate, and as a result
teacher education in many parts of the world should be re-examined with the aim of
improving its thrust. Microteaching as a context for practice knowledge integration for
novice teachers is also invaluable for teacher learning.
In the case of the study reported here, microteaching as part of the HTM course plays an
important role in teacher preparation, and provides a safe context in which student teachers
begin to try out learning to teach. Through it they acquire the knowledge and skills for
teaching H&G and understand how they can contribute to building up a cohesive Kenyan
49
nation through developing habits of mind essential for citizenship.
According to Little et al. (2007), mental abilities such as being non-judgemental, detecting
bias, and weighing options as foundational to fostering habits of mind, are central to
citizenship. Van Drie and van Boxtel (2008) consider these abilities as the basic tenets of
historical thinking. In their view, historical inquiry and historical significance involve the
practice of reworking, analysing and interpreting past accounts. For them, historical
reasoning involves “an activity in which a person organizes information about the past in
order to describe, compare, and/or explain historical phenomena” (ibid. p.89). It is
informed by disciplinary ways of knowing about selected topics or issues. To develop such
reasoning there is need for appropriate initiation into the subject’s substantive and
procedural knowledge. The process is described by Yilmaz (2008, p. 38) as follows:
Historians try to explain what happened in the past by processing primary sources through such historical procedures and skills as selecting a topic, framing questions or hypotheses, corroborating sources, gathering and weighing evidence, building a thesis about the object of the study under investigation, and substantiating the thesis on the basis of logical reasoning, evidential argument, and imaginative thinking or historical empathy.
Since historical knowledge is drawn from multiple sources and the interpretation of
evidence (Nash, Crabtree, & Dunn, 1997), to develop an account of an issue, sourcing
from many perspectives and interpretations is important. The evidence obtained must also
be analysed in multiple and sometimes competing ways. Besides interpreting the varied
sources, these ways need to be comprehended before writing an interpretation or account
of an event, person, or place in question (Yilmaz, 2008). As a result, historical knowledge
is not value-free but subjective and theory-laden. This is the case even though it is
dependent on disciplinary commitment to key structural concepts.
In the next section a more detailed discussion of historical knowledge is provided in order
to develop a basis upon which an understanding of the essential features and principles of
History as a form of knowledge can be built.
3.3 HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE
According to Lee (2005), there are structural concepts10 that guide the thrust of historical
propositions, providing “a layer of knowledge that lies behind the production of the actual
content or substance of history” (p. 32). These are the building blocks upon which 10 Lee (2005) refers to these as ‘second-order’ / meta-historical / disciplinary concepts. They all involve the notion of ‘doing history’ or historical procedural knowledge.
50
substantive historical concepts in politics, economics and diplomacy are developed, to be
drawn on as a basis for reasoned logical accounts of the past human phenomena. They
include evidence, causation, change; consequence (effect) and historical perspective (see
also Seixas, 2006). In short, they constitute the structure of history, and in Nichol and
Dean’s (1997) view they are ‘procedural knowledge concepts’ as they entail the actual
process of developing historical knowledge. For them, a clear understanding of historical
knowledge is dependent on the acquisition of its organising concepts, that is, history needs
to be looked at as a way of organising human phenomena. As a form of knowledge (Hirst,
1974) it has a distinct way of structuring experience.
According to Hirst (1974), a form of knowledge is dependent on the unique, varied and
acceptable modes of perceiving phenomena that have been developed over time. These
ways constitute ways of knowing that meet four criteria: the possession of unique central
concepts; a distinct logical structure that orders concepts and the relations between them; a
discrete way in which propositions are tested against experience; and, distinctive methods
of enquiry. Crucial to these is the criterion of a ‘distinctive way of testing propositions
against experience’ that Hirst (1974) describes as follows: “… the central feature to which
they point is that the major forms of knowledge, or disciplines, can each be distinguished
by their dependence on some particular kind of test against experience for their distinctive
expressions” (p.130). In distinguishing a discipline or a school subject, therefore, the key
features to consider are its unique concepts, logical relations and a truth criterion that can
be readily tested against experience. This is what Hirst emphasises when he argues that
“[t]he only way in which we can successively distinguish different forms of thought is in
fact by reference to the particular set of terms and relations which each of the distinct
forms of thought employs” (p.118). On the basis of these criteria, he considers subjects
(disciplines) such as mathematics, history, chemistry, and physics as part of the readily
distinguishable ‘forms of knowing’ or experiencing phenomena. Each of these subjects has
a distinct way by which phenomena are perceived, constructed and understood.
Hirst’s conception of a form of knowledge has implications for how such knowledge ought
to be taught and learnt. It seeks to immerse learners in the concepts, logic and criteria of a
subject:
… in order for them to come to know the distinctive way in which it ‘works’ by pursuing these in particular cases; and then sufficient generalisation of these over the whole range of the discipline so that his [/her] experience begins to be widely structured in this distinctive manner (ibid.).
51
In as far as teacher preparation is concerned, knowledge of what constitutes a school
subject and how such knowledge ought to be taught becomes an important curriculum
concern. As he points out:
Acquiring knowledge of any form is therefore to a greater or less extent something that cannot be done simply by solitary study of the symbolic expressions of knowledge; it must be learnt from a master on the job. No doubt it is because the forms require particular training of this kind in distinct worlds of discourse, because they necessitate the development of high critical standards according to complex criteria, because they involve our coming to look at experience in particular ways that we refer to them as disciplines. They are indeed disciplines that form the mind. (Hirst, 1974, pp. 129-130).
Drawing on this assertion, it is thus reasonable to argue that teaching a subject involves
being initiated into looking at the world in a particular way, i.e., that subject’s way. It has
to employ deliberate activities that aim at enabling students to learn a subject’s ways of
knowing and delineating experience. Hirst refers to this relationship as ‘parasitic‘(1974).
3.3.1 Teaching a Subject
There are two separate levels of logical relations in the procedures of knowing within a
subject. At the first level, there is a network of relations between particular concepts on the
basis of which meaningful propositions are constructed11. It is in this sense that a subject
can be viewed as having a logical grammar which consists of the rules that build the
meaningful use of the terms (concepts) employed in the construction of propositions12. The
second level concerns relations between propositions relied on or drawn upon to arrive at
valid explanations and establish the criteria that characterise valid explanations in a
subject. The explanations in a subject are dependent on the progressive establishment of a
logical sequence of validated propositions, therefore, to learn a subject using its logical
features requires more than the mere acquisition of propositional (factual) knowledge.
Ordinarily, factual information (propositions) in a subject obtains from a disciplinary
procedure that entails a logical explication of what would otherwise be scattered pieces of
evidence about an event. It is this foundational procedure in the creation of knowledge that
should be learnt as it directs the attainment of a disposition compatible with the thought
processes (thinking) of the subject. It is on the basis of this mode of attaining meaningful
subject knowledge that Hirst regards it as obligatory that subject teachers be engaged in
11 This conception resonates with what Lee (2005) writes about with reference to history in particular, as discussed above. 12 According to Luntley (2006, p. 2) a “proposition is a combination of concepts that can be assessed for truth/falsity”.
52
the analysis of both the thinking characteristics (of such subjects) and the nature of how
this thinking is learned. The understanding that ensues from this analysis constitutes what
he considers valuable knowledge for teaching a subject.
The explanatory features of a subject’s mode of thinking needs to emphasise three aspects
and there ought to be close scrutiny of the concepts used to describe phenomena; the use of
general (common) rules in creating coherent accounts of what is explained; and, the
parameters employed in the verification of the information obtained. For example, in the
case of science, Hirst explains that this assent would help to make vivid the specific
utilisation of terms in expressing experimental truths, the importance of general laws and
the criteria for authenticating them. In his view, “[t]he only way in which we can
successfully distinguish different forms of thought is in fact by reference to the particular
set of terms and relations which each of the distinct forms of thought employs” (Hirst,
1974, p. 118). Subsequently, it would appear that he advocates knowledge of teaching a
subject that can be referred to as a ‘language of a subject’, which means that, to learn to
teach a subject is to learn to use the subject’s ‘language’ or conceptual lens. Hirst (1974)
refers to this as criteria that characterise a form of knowledge. In this regard, school
subjects can be conceived as “forms of knowledge that are used to demonstrate the distinct
ways in which human experience becomes structured round the use of accepted public
symbols” (ibid. p.44). In his view, there is a set of criteria that are used to distinguish
between the various forms of knowledge, each of which can be distinguished from the
others by looking at criteria such as: a set of distinct central concepts; distinct ways of
articulating and relating concepts; particular ways of citing evidence to corroborate
propositions and of proving their cogency; and, typical ways of carrying out investigations,
making suppositions, and asserting statements. These criteria are applicable to distinct
forms of knowledge such as “mathematics, physical sciences, human sciences, history,
religion, literature and fine arts, and philosophy” (ibid. p.46). The naming of some of the
subjects notwithstanding, it is important that Hirst’s construal distinguishes between what
a subject is and subsequently what this requires of a teacher. Therefore, a subject teacher is
supposed to be sufficiently aware of the criteria that distinguish his/her subject area in
order to guide learners by making it possible that they experience specific phenomena
applicable to their subject. In brief, Hirst (1974) argues that teachers can only help learners
achieve the educational objectives set for a school subject when they have sufficient
understanding of how such a subject is constituted and should be taught. The view can be
53
related to Skemp’s (1978) theory of instrumental and relational understanding. Whereas an
instrumental understanding of a subject engenders surface structures such as simple
memorisation of information (knowing the what of an item/issue), relational understanding
aims at deeper grasp of an issue in terms of the what it is, how it is, the way it is, and why
it is thus.
It is in the latter sense that Hirst (1974) maintains that educational objectives are
intellectual or cognitive in terms of nature and scope. They are geared to raising
consciousness by developing learners’ intellectual abilities, therefore, for teachers to help
learners attain such objectives through instructional activities they should be able to
discern the various ways by which they can be assisted to acquire and develop the ways of
knowing within a subject. For example, in the case of history, the educational attainments
anticipated in subject objectives have been found often to require the development of
certain habits of mind (Little et al., 2007), which include the following: to analyse
documents of all sorts to detect bias, weigh evidence, and evaluate arguments; to
distinguish between fact and conjecture and between the trivial and the consequential; to
view human subjects non-judgmentally and with empathy instead of present mindedness;
to recognise and analyse the interplay of change and continuity; to recognise the
complexity of causality and avoid easy generalisations and stereotypes when analysing
how change occurs; to recognise that not all problems have solutions; to understand how
people and cultures differ and what they share; to analyse how the actions of others, past
and present, influence our own lives; and society (ibid. p.274). As noted earlier, history is
best understood when one is able to use concepts and ways of thinking that are applicable
to it. Therefore, in teaching History as a school subject, teachers are supposed to guide
learners through appropriate instructional activities that lead them towards developing
mental attributes that are congenial to fostering one’s ability to deal with historical
knowledge in their lives. However, it is also important to note that school subjects are
different from what obtains at universities (Ma, 1999), therefore, those who undergo pre-
service teacher education need to understand the nature of this difference as regards the
school subjects they are expected to teach.
3.3.2 The Difference between School and University Subject
A prospective teacher ought to know what constitutes a school subject in terms of its
54
objectives and the content that embodies these objectives. In preparing pre-service teachers
for their task, there is therefore a need for a clear understanding of what is meant by
teaching a subject in order to address the requirements of its objectives. According to Deng
(2009), understanding objectives implies being able to identify and translate into practice
the theory of content that structures (organises) it. It is this theory that clarifies its internal
structure and determines how to organise content in ways that would result in meaningful
learning. A methods course would thus serve as a translation device for the school subject
curriculum requirements. It has to teach how to communicate the school subject by
exposing student teachers to its requisite knowledge and skills. It should provide what
Bernstein (2000) refers to as an ‘external language of description’. For this study, this is a
language that can enable the transformation of the language of H&G into another by
translating the theoretical (invisible) concepts into empirical descriptions, i.e., teaching
strategies and aids. If the language of H&G can be understood to refer to the internal
language (L1), i.e., the school subject curriculum requirements; the external language (L2)
is the methods course that ought to provide empirical descriptions (enactments) of what
teaching the specific school subject entails. The pedagogic communication produced or
enacted in the HTM course as L2 is supposed to reflect, amongst others, the expectations of
the secondary school H&G curriculum as L1, in particular as expected by the objectives. It
has to construct theory and empirical descriptions as pedagogical content knowledge for
H&G and thus enable student teachers to develop a pedagogical repertoire that would be
crucial to classroom teaching. It has to build what Stewart (2007) refers to as capacity
building for student teachers through an exposure that privileges them a pedagogical
repertoire for both thought and action as instantiated by the logic (principles) of H&G
objectives.
For the HTM course to succeed in preparing student teachers for teaching H&G there is a
need to facilitate an understanding of a teacher as a knowledge worker with a
responsibility to mediate the substantive and procedural knowledge of H&G. Its objectives
should help determine how to facilitate meaningful communication between a teacher and
learners. Through these objectives, students have to be guided to know factors that need
consideration during the planning for actual teaching and evaluation. The construction of
conceptual networks is guided by rules that define the nature of the possible relations
(connections) among them. In this process, due to their varied meanings, some concepts
have to be acquired (learnt) before others.
55
Teachers are required to recognise both the importance of prioritising concepts and the
facilitation of students’ understanding on the basis of the validity of H&G objectives.
Hence, it is supposed to reflect the logical priorities inherent in these objectives. The task
of History teachers, therefore, is to facilitate the development of historical thinking among
learners by ensuring that they (teachers) are richly resourced in deep understanding of the
requirements of the H&G objectives. They need to have a clear grasp of how these
requirements can be met from the concepts through to propositions and historical
explanations.
In order to realise historical thinking as the basis of all historical learning, Seixas (2006)
proposes benchmarking certain key structural (organisational) historical concepts that need
to be emphasised13, namely historical significance; evidence; continuity and change; cause
and consequence; historical perspectives; and, moral dimension (see also, Brophy &
Vansledright, 1997; Lee & Shemilt, 2003).14 While historical significance dwells on issues
such as why we care about certain events, trends and concerns in history, the concept of
historical evidence focuses on how to find, select, contextualise and interpret sources for
purposes of developing a historical argument. In continuity and change, emphasis is on
identifying the things that have changed or remained the same over time. The concepts of
cause and consequence involve an investigation into how and why certain conditions and
actions led to other phenomena. Historical perspectives require the development of an
understanding of historical phenomena as “foreign” with its different social, cultural,
intellectual and all other attendant contexts that shaped lives and actions of people. In this
case, historical events need to be assessed and understood within their own unique
contexts. With reference to the concept of moral dimension of historical interpretations
(being a cross-cutting characteristic of historical thinking), there has to be an
understanding of how the present generation judges actors in different circumstances in the
past and how different interpretations of the past reflect different moral stances in the
present. This is what differentiates studying History at university and school. Therefore, to
teach H&G is to be well grounded in espousing the critical building blocks of university
History that should be used to guide students in organising historical information and 13 These are ‘second-order’ historical concepts that guide historians in building historical explanations. They are attached to disciplinary processes. In this sense, they are technical. Conversely, the ‘first-order’ historical concepts are used in the ordinary teaching of history as they facilitate the ready comprehension of historical patterns and specific events. Examples of such concepts are colonialism, civil war, imperialism, cold war, and socialism. 14 Wineburg (2003) lists the following as critical concepts that build historical thinking: time, place, biography, viewpoint, causation, exploration, and precedent.
56
ideas. This organisation, identifies specific concepts, demonstrates their logical
relationship and the evaluation of historical evidence. Through posing historical questions,
referring to sources, using meta-concepts, substantive concepts, contextualisation and
argumentation, a logical history account that may focus on description of change,
comparison or explanation of an event / phenomenon is possible. In clarifying the value of
these activities, Van Drie and van Boxtel (2008) assert that:
… a person organizes information about the past in order to describe, compare, and/or explain historical phenomena. In doing this, he or she asks historical questions, contextualizes, makes use of substantive and meta-concepts of history, and supports proposed claims with arguments based on evidence from sources that give information about the past. (Van Drie & van Boxtel, 2008, p. 89)
The relationship between these aspects is clarified through Figure 3.1 below.
Figure 3.3.2.1 The Relationship between Different Aspects Used in Historical
Reasoning (van Drie & van Boxtel, 2008)
There is a difference between the purposes of teaching at university and the institutions
that precede it, i.e., elementary and secondary schools. At the university, the purpose is
largely intellectual, whereas schools have their unique functions that need not be
compromised in pursuit of those at universities. However, in as much as this difference
needs to be maintained, school teaching should also prioritise intellectual objectives by
57
giving importance to the logical structure (organisation) of knowledge in the subjects.
More importantly, due to the unique teaching functions of schools, due consideration
should be given to the psychological and sociological concerns that are vital in the
teaching and learning of school subjects. Without consideration of the latter, a majority of
learners might be disadvantaged.
According to Sandwell (2005), school teachers and professional historians do not share a
common understanding of what history entails. While most of the teachers view history
“…as a story about people, events and trends that constitutes a strong and linear nationalist
narrative of progress from the past to the present and future”, professional historians
“…understand history as a process of critical inquiry concerning evidence left over from
the past; evidence that historians interpret through complex, varied and contested
narratives” (p. 9). This difference is further captured by Nichol and O’Connell (2002) in
their study of school history curricula in thirteen countries, which concluded that a history
curriculum is overtly a political construct and in schools does not necessarily serve the
interests of those who work in the academy or university.
Historians’ conception of knowing in the subject has moved “beyond the positivism that
largely defined nineteenth-century historical writing” (Sandwell, 2005, p. 10), while the
school teachers’ mode of teaching continues to be based on the nineteenth-century
conception. Lee (2003) also points out that approaches to history that dominated the
development of historical writing of textbooks in the 19th through to the middle decades of
the 20th centuries “… have influenced the goals of history instruction, provided
instructional content as well as the form of secondary source writing used in history
classrooms” (p.2). This orientation emphasises the notion of a grand narrative about the
past that is well told but, most importantly, eschews any attempts at injecting variance in
the existing accounts of the past histories. However, teachers cannot teach history
effectively if they do not understand its logical grammar (Hirst, 1974). This is a logical
grammar that reveals the elements of a logical order that teaching a subject ought to
follow. For Hirst (1974), to know a subject is to learn this grammar and logical order. This
learning involves a detailed analysis of the key concepts used in the subject’s construction
of propositions and explanations.
Subject methods courses have to enable pre-service teachers to consolidate the knowledge
obtained from the academic courses in their subject area and the knowledge for teaching,
58
that is, instructional procedures and activities aimed at the accomplishment of the
particular curricular purposes.
3.4 SUMMARY
In summary, this chapter analyses the HTM course, a professional education course,
offered at the university in Kenya and its relevance to the preparation of teachers of
History. It reflects on how it had or did not have some relationship with what the student
teachers are expected to teach at school level. The chapter makes sense of the course by
looking at s how it placed importance on historical knowledge in teacher preparation. The
main argument highlights this knowledge as enabling an understanding of what constitutes
the subject and how it ought to be taught. Special attention is paid to t the difference
between teaching a school and university subject in order to highlight principles to which
student teachers need to be exposed if they are to teach H&G effectively.
The next chapter develops this discussion by examining different models of teacher
development in order to identify one that can be employed to teach instructional
procedures and activities referred to above. The implications of this model for developing
student teachers’ curriculum literacy are highlighted. In addition, the key underlying
principles of such literacy are clarified in terms of the requisite knowledge and skills they
require for effective teaching.
59
CHAPTER FOUR
MODELS OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
4.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter examines the different models of teacher development in order to identify one
that can be employed to teach instructional procedures and activities that are referred to in
chapter three. It highlights the implications of this model for developing student teachers’
curriculum literacy. In addition, the key underlying principles of such literacy are clarified
in terms of the requisite knowledge and skills they require for effective teaching.
Metaphors that have been used to define the essence of teacher education vary from help to
development, nurture as well as initiation. For instance, Tisher and Wideen (1990) define
teacher education in terms of a “set of phenomena deliberately intended to help candidates
acquire the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and norms of the occupation of teaching”
(p.241, emphasis added). Kyriacou (1997) sees the key purposes of teacher education as
including the following: “…build up their knowledge and understanding of effective
teaching; develop the key skills involved in classroom teaching; and, to critically reflect
upon and evaluate their own teaching” (p.1, emphasis added). For Berliner (2000), “…high
quality teacher education programs are profoundly challenging, indispensable and
inaugural components in the development of accomplished performance by teachers” (ibid.
p.358). In short, teacher education is depicted not only as a delicate endeavour but also
complex to the extent that those engaged in it have to be systematic in intent, procedure
and ascertaining outcomes.
To address the challenge of teacher preparation, Howey and Zimpher (1989) emphasise the
necessity of programmes being founded on conceptual frameworks that are well-
conceived, and regard a conceptual framework as providing a number of benefits. Apart
from providing programme coherence, it also clarifies the roles of a teacher, the nature of
teaching and learning, the mission of schools, and, the nature of the curriculum (its scope,
sequence, and integration of courses, and the relationship of pedagogical knowledge to
learning how to teach). Besides prioritising the key dispositional attitudes and behaviours
that should be developed through pre-service education, it defines the professional
environment within which the programme should operate, the nature of relationships that
60
should be fostered between and among faculty and student teachers, and the schools where
student teachers practice. Therefore, given these multiple functions of a teacher education
framework, it serves as a focal point around which every idea and activity in teacher
preparation oscillates. The implication is that within a framework of a teacher education
programme there should be a discernible logic of coherence. As a result, initial teacher
education programmes have to ensure that pre-service teachers are exposed to curricula
informed by missions or philosophies that underpin conceptions of teachers’
responsibilities. These are responsibilities that are often prioritised by teacher education
programmes.
In order to have a deep understanding of the different programmes, there is thus need to
examine critically the various conceptual orientations or paradigms associated with them
in order to highlight what is crucial to each one as regards the notion of teacher
competence.
Five dominant models or conceptual orientations have been identified in the literature on
teacher education programmes, namely the practical-craft (Donmoyer, 1996; Tom, 1987);
technological (Deng & Gopinathan, 2003; Volante & Earl, 2002; Zeichner, 1999);
personal (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990); academic (Carter & Anders, 1996; Feiman-
Nemser, 1990); and, critical-social (Kinchloe, 2004). The orientations have varying
implications for teacher development programmes. How they are conceived, designed and
implemented in preparing a teacher is likely to result in an emphasis on specific
competencies. Generally, although each model prioritises an active role for the teacher
with the necessary competencies, some of the models may not readily be adopted in
education systems that are centralised. According to Roberts (1998), centralised education
systems function in the 'operative model' that encourages teacher competences that only
afford them capability for enactment of a school curriculum that has already been
prepared. But, according to Deng and Gopinathan (2003), teacher development models
that tend to promote instructional practices that deviate from the traditional content-
dominated and assessment-driven modes of working are likely to cause stagnation if not
abandoned. This is because such practices seem to encourage grass-root autonomy
whereas management systems often are hinged on centralised practices where control
emanates from the centre if not the top. They are discussed below in detail.
61
4.2 MODELS OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
Teacher education programmes are guided by various conceptual orientations, which
according to Calderhead and Shorrock (1997, p. 1) are important because how “… we
conceptualise the work of teachers [and] how we think about their professional preparation
… ultimately shapes suggestions for the further improvement of teacher education”.
Loughran (2006) adds that, “…regardless of the words that comprise a teacher education
programme’s mission or vision or philosophy, the words themselves carry little meaning if
they are not enacted in the practices of the programme’s teacher-educators” (p.11).
4.2.1 The Practical-Craft Model
The practical - craft model in teacher preparation inclines towards an emphasis on the
artistry of those experienced practitioners (teachers) who have been perceived to be skilful
(Volante & Earl, 2002). In preparing teachers based on this model, the experiences of
long-serving teachers are used as the most suitable catalogue of examples from which to
draw practical knowledge, skills and dispositions for teaching. This exposure enables
student-teachers to learn how to manage classrooms, conduct lessons and perform other
tasks commensurate with what teachers do in schools. Therefore, a teacher preparation
curriculum in this model emphasises pedagogies such as demonstration lessons, exemplary
models of teaching and apprenticeships with experienced teachers as the most appropriate
means through which to prepare a teacher. In this way, teacher preparation is
communicated as a process of imitating what already exists in the practices of teaching,
obviously located in school classrooms. Thus, learning from practice tends to be over-
emphasised, and as Kennedy (1999) notes, the wisdom of the teaching practices in schools
thereby takes precedence.
Existing teacher education programmes reflect aspects of this model in different forms. For
example, notions of mentor-teachers (Harrison, Dymoke & Pell, 2006) and school-based
teacher education (Foster, 1999) are some of the variants of this model. Undergirding their
conception is the idea that pre-service or newly graduated teachers will learn more about
their work from those who have had experience.
62
4.2.2 The Technological Model
Unlike the practical model, which emphasises apprenticeship, the technological model
regards the acquisition of principles and practices derived from the scientific study of
teaching as the most appropriate way of preparing teachers. Therefore, in the exercise of
teacher preparation student teachers are supposed to learn the generic teacher behaviour
and strategies associated with student achievement. The acquisition of accumulated and
scientifically derived professional knowledge and skills guarantees sufficient preparation
for teaching. Ideally, the curriculum in this model tends to blend theoretical and practical
knowledge bases so that some courses are based at teacher preparation institutions and
others are encountered in actual school classroom settings. Consequently, the role of
teacher education is to undertake research on teaching practices in order to identify
competences that teacher candidates acquire in their university-based coursework.
Thereafter, they try out these competences in schools, especially during practice teaching
sessions (Carter & Anders, 1996).
This model emphasises the mastery of procedures of teaching and classroom management.
Backed by what would have been obtained from research, this orientation thus encourages
teachers to demonstrate behaviour that is proven to lead to certain desirable ends for
learners. However, Farnham-Diggory (1994) cautions that the tendency for this
behaviourist orientation is to encourage the uptake of only a few basic procedural skills
during initial teacher education with the understanding that more will emanate from
experience, often results in mechanistic teaching practices.
4.2.3 The Personal Orientation Model
The personal orientation model relates to the development of the teacher as an individual,
regarding the student-teacher as a professional novitiate who needs appropriate guidance.
Therefore, learning to teach is viewed as a process of developing understanding so that one
uses the acquired knowledge and skills effectively. The focal themes in the preparation
curriculum are moral and philosophical. Often, the model emphasises dealing with
feelings, purposes, images, aspirations, and personal meanings more than with teaching
skills or methods that are isolated from personal experience or biography. Thus, it employs
pedagogies that include the study and writing of stories and cases, action research, journal
writing, interviews and peer-learning. Learning how to teach through methods of teaching
63
is viewed not as an isolated activity from the general personal development. In this case,
the orientation takes a holistic view by discouraging the compartmentalisation of
knowledge, skills and dispositions required of a teacher. Therefore, as argued by Connelly
and Clandinin (1990), this paradigm attempts to integrate theory and practice through
student teachers’ narrative unity of experience.
4.2.4 The Academic Model
The academic model prioritises the main purpose of teaching as being the transmission of
knowledge and the development of understanding. In this case, to be able to teach there is
a need to master the academic content of a discipline. This model emphasises that teachers,
especially those for secondary school, should study more disciplinary courses in their
teaching subjects (Carter & Anders, 1996). For example, in Luxemburg teacher education
candidates cover a period of seven years while in Spain they study for six years (Eraut,
2000). In the USA a number of teacher education programmes are offered at postgraduate
level, after having had the undergraduate years that cover disciplinary-academic subjects
(Tatto & Stuart, 2000). In the UK, an increasing number of teacher education programmes
are reserving only the last year of the undergraduate education for professional education
courses, leaving the larger portion of the programme to be utilised for disciplinary content
(Eraut, 2000).
4.2.5 The Critical / Social Orientation Model
The critical or social orientation framework combines a progressive social vision with a
radical critique of schooling (Kinchloe, 2001 & 2003; Volante & Earl, 2002). Teacher
education is regarded as being a part of a larger strategy to create a more just and
democratic society, its purpose being to empower teachers. Teachers are perceived as
‘owners’ of their knowledge and destiny and are supposed to create a learning community
that promotes democratic values and practices. They are seen as serving two roles, that of
an educator and a political activist. They are supposed to help learners foster a critical
outlook and challenge the taken-for-granted assumptions about the world in which they
live. They are not only meant to be actively involved in curriculum development but also
in policy-making. These teachers are prepared through a curriculum that employs
pedagogies such as action research, self-study, and write-ups of life stories about their
64
work. These pedagogies encourage personal reflection in whatever is undertaken for study
(Carter & Anders, 1996).
The models that are discussed above highlight three main approaches to teacher education.
Eraut (2000) distinguishes them as follows: behaviourism, reflective practice and
professional development.
4.3 TEACHER PREPARATION APPROACHES
In short, developments in teacher education tend to reflect the needs of the changing times.
Beginning with an orientation that focused on teacher behaviour anchored in the
epistemology of behaviourism, a gradual shift has occurred over the years, so much so that
presently the focus is on teachers’ continuous uptake of professional knowledge. In
contemporary times, learning to teach is conceived as a professional responsibility for
teachers that is on-going. It may begin at the pre-service teacher education level but it does
not stop upon one’s graduation from training but continues into the induction, novice,
experienced and expert phases of a teacher’s career (see also, Berliner, 2001).
4.3.1 The Behaviourist Approach
According to Eraut (2000), behaviourism in teacher education was a phenomenon of the
late 1960s through to the early 1990s. In this epistemology, learning to teach emphasised
the exposure of prospective teachers to classroom teacher behaviour that had been found to
have an impact. Generally, in this phase of teacher education, emphasis was on the
identification of teacher behaviour that was effective in assisting learner achievement. This
meant that at the level of teacher preparation there had to be deliberate manipulation of
such behaviour so that pre-service teachers approximated them in their own practice. The
rise and popularity of the microteaching pedagogy in pre-service teacher preparation was
evident in this period (see also, Cruickshank & Metcalf 1993; Pelberg, 1976; and
Wilkinson, 1996). How to teach involved the identification of distinctive teaching skills
that were later developed through simulated practice. In turn, these skills would be
transferred to class by the prospective teachers. The epitome of this orientation in teacher
preparation was evident in the research programme then popularly referred to as ‘process –
product paradigm’ (Thiessen, 2000). However, behaviourism did not avoid criticism as an
epistemology that foregrounded a model of teacher learning that fails to have follow-up
65
mechanisms, especially for new teachers in schools after their qualification from training.
Its shortfall was addressed in the resultant model of reflective practice, which got
underway in the early 1980s (Eraut, 2000).
4.3.2 The Reflective Practice Approach
The reflective practice approach emphasised a holistic model of teacher learning in actual
school classroom settings. The school classroom became a site for a critical interactive
teaching and learning. Distinctively, it emphasised a development of methods for learning
about teaching from real lived classroom experience. In addition, it fostered theorising
about experience in a school setting with the guidance of a mentor. Thus, the reflective
practice encouraged partnership among school teachers, student teachers and teacher-
educators. Soon thereafter, beginning in the 1980s through to 1990s and beyond, the
nomenclature of ‘school-university partnership’ became a common feature in the literature
on teacher education in different countries. For instance, Menter, Brisard and Smith (2006)
give an account of partnership in initial teacher training in Scotland; Bonnet (1996) reflects
on some of the changes introduced in teacher education in 1990 in France, with elements
of this focus; Partington (1997) presents an account of developments in New Zealand, with
a distinct chapter on school-based teacher education as an aspect of partnership; and,
McIntyre’s (1997) description of developments in teacher education in the UK also
approximates to the characterisation that Eraut (2000) makes about the epistemology of
reflective practice in teacher education. Overall, it suffices to indicate that the reflective
practice orientation in teacher education manifests a blend of the personal, critical/social
and practical conceptual frameworks of Volante and Earl (2002), which emphasise the role
of the teacher as a practitioner whose own development is central to the success of
teaching as a practice. The work of Schon (1983) on a reflective practitioner may be seen
as one of the pillars in the development of the notion of reflective practice (see also studies
by Norsworthy, 2008, on teachers as reflexive practitioners; Yielder, 2001, on professional
expertise; and, Elbaz, 1983, on teacher’s practical knowledge).
4.3.3 The Professional Development Approach
The third orientation of the teacher preparation model, which Eraut (2000) contends is still
in its formative stage, is the professional knowledge one. Its development stems from a
66
realisation that practical knowledge is by itself a distinct form of knowledge. Although it is
related to theoretical knowledge, it is however not derived from it. The approach is based
on the assumption that a bulk of the knowledge for classroom teaching is located therein.
The responsibility of teacher-educators (in conjunction with classroom teachers) is to
facilitate the student teachers’ potential for constructing meaningful practical knowledge
that optimises his or her interaction with learners during instruction. Its focus is on active
engagement between teacher education institutions and schools, and it has led to the
opening of more possibilities for learning partnerships that involve collaborative
professional development between staff from teacher education institutions and schools.
Professional knowledge for teaching needs to be grounded in what takes place in school
classrooms.
There are examples of this approach from different parts of the world. In the USA, for
instance, this notion is demonstrated in professional development schools (Castel, Fox &
Souder, 2006), where emphasis is on teachers’ uptake of both formal and informal
knowledge that assists them to improve on their professional work (Richter, Klausman,
Ludtke & Baumert, 2010). This orientation to knowledge for teaching has subsumed the
older models of teacher in-service courses. Undergirding this perspective of professional
knowledge is the idea that professionals in the present world require to upgrade their
knowledge and skills continually throughout their careers, and so reflects the notion of
lifelong learning (see also Day, 1999). Teaching is regarded as a knowledge-based
profession and teachers have continuously to learn newer ways of carrying out their
practice. Therefore, teacher preparation needs a curriculum that is coherent, broad-based,
rigorous and impactful, and one that takes into account variables that may influence
teachers as they undertake teaching in schools after completion of their studies.
4.4 SUMMARY
This chapter highlights the importance of teacher education. It is viewed as a complex
process in which those engaged in it have to be systematic in intent, procedure and
ascertaining outcomes. However, the backbone of the chapter lies in the models of teacher
development. The argument presented here is that; models of teacher development are
founded on a number of conceptual paradigms which play a crucial role in this process. A
67
conceptual framework, it is argued, is the focal point around which every idea and activity
in teacher preparation oscillates. It thus provides a sound sense of coherence.
The models of teacher development are identified as; the practical-craft model which
advances the notion that long serving teachers have the right experience and are capable of
being used as the basis for drawing practical knowledge, skills and dispositions for
teaching and therefore student- teachers ought to imitate them. The technological model
asserts that teacher education should be concerned with conducting research on teaching
practices to identify the competencies that student- teachers acquire during their course
with a view of training these students to apply these competencies in schools especially
during their teaching practice. The personal orientation model lays emphasis on the
individual rather than on the teaching skills or methods that are isolated from personal
experience or biography. The academic model on the other hand looks at teacher
preparation from a purely academic perspective thus lays a lot of emphasis on excellence
in the subject. This argument is such that, a good teacher must have mastery of the content
of the subject in order to effectively execute the role of the teacher. The critical/ social
orientation model looks at the teacher as an individual with two roles; an educator and a
political activist. Thus, in teacher preparation, student-teachers ought to be trained through
a curriculum that will allow them to execute both these roles with ease.
With the models identified, the chapter further advances three approaches to teacher
preparation adding that teacher preparation over the years has reflected responsiveness to
the changing times. These approaches are; the behaviourist approach, the reflective
practice approach and the professional development approach. These approaches are
important since teaching is knowledge-based profession and thus there is need to invent
new ways of conducting the practice.
In conclusion, therefore, the BEd programme in Kenya can be said to have traits of the
technological and academic models. Whilst it requires students to master procedures of
teaching, it also has an orientation of the academic model. The emphasis on academic
content knowledge that has to be acquired in faculties other than the Faculty of Education
is significant in this regard. It highlights the importance placed on content as a form of
knowledge with its own grammar that students are supposed to be able to translate into
teaching and learning materials and tasks at classroom level. To understand how this
translation has to occur, they need to understand the normative requirements of the form of
knowledge they teach. Bailin (1998) would describe the qualities required by the BEd
68
programme as characteristic of a mental disposition needed for reasoned judgement that is
normative rather than descriptive. The next chapter looks at the differences between the
two concepts and highlights their implications for educational practice that would be
described as ethical or virtuous because it is informed by reasoning that is contextually
sensitive. This is the sensitivity that is described as, amongst others, creative, relevant,
tolerant, morally upright and characterised by excellence, scholarship, openness and
honesty, by the Kenyan BEd policy programme (MoEd & HRD & UNICEF, 1994).
The qualities and their implications for practice are examined in relation to the notion of
curriculum coherence. The discussion highlights practical reasoning as an underlying
concept to this notion. The argument is that if what is crucial to the HTM course as
practice site wherein student teachers need to develop qualities that are promoted by the
MoED and HRD and UNICEF (1994) document, then preparation for teaching H&G
cannot avoid ways of reasoning that are appropriate to it. They are central to the
responsibilities of a teacher and teacher-educators who have to ensure their development,
which is what makes practical reasoning a significant aspect of curriculum coherence. It is
discussed in greater detail in the next chapter to highlight its specific relevance to the
planning, design and teaching competences that students have to be assisted to acquire.
69
CHAPTER FIVE
PRACTICAL REASONING AS BASIS FOR SOCIAL PRACTICE
5.1 INTRODUCTION
Any attempt to clarify the meaning of practical reasoning and highlight its implications for
social practice can only be useful if it considers its various modalities. Although there are
varied definitions for practical reasoning, a consensus exists on it being a deliberate
rational process. For instance, Audi (2004) views it as a process of deliberation in order to
get to a conclusion, i.e., an action. This is deliberation that involves rational exercise in
pursuit of an appropriate response to a practical question, ‘what should I do?’ (ibid.,
p.119). Beheld in this light, practical reasoning becomes an inferential process (thought
movement from major to minor premises given their relationship) that obtains from an
agent who utilises his/her circumstances to seek practical responses to an issue at hand.
Therefore, as O’Neill (2008, p. 394) indicates, it is what one does by “…making the kinds
of practical choices that arise for human beings, given the material circumstances of their
existence”. It is an exercise that involves “rational deliberation leading up to and providing
the reasoned grounds of acting” (Rescher, 1966, p. 121). In short, it is a kind of reasoning
that requires one to weigh the pros and cons of a particular course of action, given that any
action has its liabilities (Buchmann, 1988).
According to Wedgwood (2002), it is possible to establish the appropriateness of one’s
practical reasoning. Two types of norms may be used to do this, internal and external. A
norm can be understood as a truth uttering statement about how one “‘ought” to act or to
choose’(ibid., p.139). Whereas the external norms help to work out how the alternatives
available to a deliberator relate to his or her context, the internal norms refer to procedural
norms that assess the consistency or coherence of alternatives available to one as she/he
engages mentally.
In establishing how action may be considered appropriate or not, good or bad, often it is
evaluated against an external norm or truth. However, in deliberation on choosing an
option that would be judged rational or irrational, normally an assessment would be based
on an internal norm or truth with regard to the mental processes (beliefs, premises,
70
reasons) adopted and the alternatives thereof. Wedgwood (2002, p. 140) states this in the
following way:
For an option to be a “good thing to do” is for it to satisfy norms that evaluate options at least partly on the basis of how those options relate to the external world. For a choice to be “rational” is for it to satisfy norms that evaluate choices purely on the basis of how they relate to what is going on inside the agent’s mind. Thus, whether an option is a good thing to do may depend on the option’s objective extra-mental features, but whether a choice or process of practical reasoning is rational depends purely on what is going on inside the agent’s mind.
Therefore, the exercise of practical reasoning in the context of any social practice (activity)
implies the need to be appropriately resourced in terms of knowledge of the constituent
parts of the context in which we function (work) and also clear mechanisms (heuristic
device(s) by which to figure out what is the best thing to decide and do. Ordinarily the
requirements on an activity at the individual (private) level may not be as demanding as
would be the case if executing an official and public social undertaking.
In general, theorists who write about this form of reasoning have been associated with
perspectives that have been expressed by Aristotle on the attainment of happiness as virtue
that results from rational action; Hume on rational action as functionally associated with
the fulfilment of a task; and, Kant on rational action as normative and motivational in
nature (Audi, 1989 & Penlington, 2006).
Brinkmann (2007, p. 417) considers the Aristotelian approach to practical reasoning as the
‘substantive view’, in part because Aristotle was among the earliest writers on the subject.
Audi (1989) agrees with this and adds that the history of this topic and the frequency of
Aristotle’s appearance in discussions on practical reasoning requires that his work be given
due attention. Further, as Penlington (2006) argues, it is Aristotle’s emphasis on certain
salient features of practical reasoning that accord him centrality, and include: the
connection between practical reasoning and virtue; the place of contextual attentiveness in
relation to establishing what to do; and, the nurture of emotions.
In the following discussion, these modalities are examined to highlight the salient features
that distinguish them. The discussion is primarily limited by the scope of this study. It does
not go into a detailed and deep philosophical analysis but rather clarifies the constitutive
elements of each of these modalities in order to be able to probe the concept of curriculum
coherence that is the focus of this study.
71
5.2 ARISTOTLE ON THE ATTAINMENT OF HAPPINESS AS VIRTUE THAT
RESULTS FROM RATIONAL ACTION
Overall, the Aristotelian approach to practical reasoning emphasises a detailed evaluation
of context as a means for attaining a suitable decision. A decision on what to do in the face
of a task should be based on sufficient reasons (grounds). Audi (1989, p. 8) underscores
this aspect as follows: “Practical reasoning that concludes in favour of a specific action
seems to fill the bill perfectly: it is a process with both the right sorts of constituents to
motivate and direct the action, and the right kind of content and conscious manifestations
to trigger the action.” The process is rational in the sense that a decision can only be
reached upon a clear demonstration that there are sufficient reasons to back it.
The view prioritises three elements, namely, the attainment of virtue, sufficient
discernment of one’s context, and formation of ethical character. The elements are crucial
to a concept of practical reasoning that Audi (1989, pp. 186-187) describes as:
foundationalist: motivationally, behaviourally, and normatively: for every intentional action, there is a purposive chain connecting it with an intrinsic desire that is in some way directed towards happiness; and any complete justification of an intentional action will link it, through the agent’s beliefs, to some envisaged contribution to happiness.
Aristotle considered practical reasoning as a way to attain virtue (Oksenberg-Rorty, 1980)
as a disposition that does not produce action directly but through cognitive and
motivational processes that are connected to it, and it reflects the potential to realise
dispositions. Thus, practical reasoning is not purely about finding a means to an end. It is
also an opportunity to consider such means and ends in the light of the moral principles or
rules of life to which one is expected to adhere (Penlington, 2006). This is the idea that
Audi (1989, p. 179) reiterates:
Aristotle clearly takes happiness (flourishing, in a certain sense) to be both our actual final end and appropriate at least in fulfilling our proper function in the teleological order of nature. Happiness is, then, both the motivational and the normative foundation of our actions: any path from an intentional action to its ultimate motivation will reach an intrinsic desire which is, in the broad sense appropriate to happiness as an activity concept.
For Aristotle, the final destination in practical reasoning is obtained in virtue, which his
concept of ‘ergon’ captures, as it refers to “taking the proper action to the right end”
(Penlington, 2006, p. 59). In brief, it is through deliberation that we are afforded an
opportunity to demonstrate ability to discern the particularities of our context and an
appreciation of the higher human aspirations, i.e., virtues. Therefore, apart from the pursuit
of virtue, Aristotle’s model of practical reasoning gives significance to the appropriation of
72
information about the context. In this regard, information about one’s context is
systematically sourced as provided for in the syllogistic model. Syllogism proffers a
procedure for deliberation that begins with a main premise (a desire/ end) and culminates
in a conclusion (decision) on what to do or action to take. As an endeavour geared at
resolving a task, it provides a mechanism for systematic formulation and expression of the
particulars found in an entity (bounded). As a heuristic, it affords the articulation of one’s
belief about the possibilities in a given context (Sherman, 2001).
However, the articulation of the constituents of a context requires diligence. According to
Wiggins (1980), one needs to take into account as many concerns as possible that are
related to the task. It is out of a focus on detailing one’s context that Rescher (1966,
pp.135-136) views syllogism as an occasion when the “…comparative evaluation of
alternative courses of action” prompts a recourse to values as the requisite means for
effecting the necessary choice among alternatives that are “mutually exclusive in the
context of finite resources”. In other words, what is crucial to deliberation on the
constitutive elements of a context is both what there is available to people and the
experiential repertoire that can be drawn on. It is in this sense that it is necessary to regard
the comparative element that is emphasised in helping us obtain a sufficient representation
of the encountered context.
Aristotle’s view is that acting ethically is a ‘finer’/ ‘purer’ / ultimate goal that practical
reasoning could help bring out. It prompts the need to nurture character because it is
through its formation that our practices would attain ‘ethical goodness’. In particular, he
identified emotions as a “motivating force …” (Penlington, 2006, p. 62), that is, a human
state that encompasses desire, passion, and disposition, among others. As an inherent
human characteristic, emotion is acknowledged to provide a drive or a push towards one
taking action. However, emotions are not supposed to lead or guide someone into action,
rather they need to be shaped so as to refine a person’s sensitivities and propensity to be
perceptive on his/her context or environment (ibid.). According to Sherman (2001), the
shaping of emotions was conceived by Aristotle as a process of character formation. In this
regard, one is supposed to be guided gradually into attaining control of these inner
attributes.
Character formation is exemplified in the concept of ‘phronimos’, which according to
Dunne (1993) is someone able to demonstrate ‘ethical goodness’ and, inter alia, practical
wisdom, prudence, and moral discernment (see also Noel, 1999; and Orton, 1997).
73
Certainly, these qualities suggest the need for their formation and gradual development in
human thinking and action, hence their acquisition signifies a capacity for one to be able to
act well, sensibly and for the well-being of all people15.
However, as the next sections on Hume and Kant’s views of practical reasoning will show,
there is more than one way to understand the concept and its relationship to human action.
5.3 HUME ON RATIONAL ACTION AS FUNCTIONALLY ASSOCIATED
WITH THE FULFILMENT OF A TASK
Hume accords reason an important role (Audi, 1989; Penlington, 2006), regarding it as
playing an instrumental role in arousing and directing desires. In the Humean account,
one’s reaction is dependent on a recollection of relevant past experiences. Therefore, the
conception of a rational action can be viewed as desires originating from the understanding
that an individual considers what she/he wants on the basis of significant past experiences
and from that seeks appropriate means to direct desire. It is for this reason that Penlington
(2006) draws on the Humean view to define practical reasoning as a process in which a
person is required, in his or her environment, to understand the features of past experience
through deliberation in order to figure out what to do.
5.4 KANT ON RATIONAL ACTION AS NORMATIVE AND MOTIVATIONAL
IN NATURE
The Kantian perspective emphasises the centrality of reason as exemplified in individual
autonomy. It is an autonomy that is socially bound. People develop ways of discerning by
participation. They function according to imperatives associated with obligations of
multiple practical identities they are likely to have. The view also foregrounds dialogue as
a way of developing the needed sensitivities to discern the salient features that would be
central to fruitful rational deliberation of what to do or what choices to make.
At its centre is reason as the foundation on which a person would attain that which is
‘good’. Kant referred to it as follows:
Reason is given to us as a practical faculty, i.e., one which is meant to have an influence on the will. As nature has elsewhere distributed capacities to the functions they are to
15 According to Setiya (2002), this could be someone who demonstrates a perfect virtue of practical reasoning.
74
perform, reason’s proper function must be to produce a will good in itself and not one good merely as a means, for to the former reason is absolutely essential. This will must indeed not be the sole and complete good but the highest good and the condition of all others, even of the desire for happiness. (Quoted in Audi, 1989, p. 61).
In short, reasoning is held by Kant as the fulcrum around which conscious deliberation
allows one to discern the options that are suitable for action. In this regard, autonomy is an
important characteristic of practical reasoning (Penlington, 2006).
Human beings are assumed to have the capability of acting morally, which affords them
the will to do ‘good’ in the world. It is a will that originates from a drive within oneself
that enables the development of principles for action. By virtue of being human, people are
able to discern the ultimate good to which actions are supposed to lead, therefore, they
need to develop plans for action that express the moral principles held in order to decide
on what constitutes the best reason for acting as they do in their varied task-situations.
According to O’Neill (1989), autonomy for people does not mean engendering ‘chaos’,
with each person acting differently and thus raising the possibility of outright conflict. The
individual development of principles for acting is moderated by the normative standards
that are acceptable to a larger sphere, i.e., community (nation). Hence, only the widely
acceptable principles of acting are eventually accepted and thus applied. In turn, this idea
of collectiveness leads the discussion onto the second characteristic, that of social basis of
practical reasoning as a capacity that is learned.
Individuals learn how to make choices and act within their social units. One of the ways by
which this is done is through the varied forms of interaction within the social entities. At
these forums, for instance, people acquire the salient ways of valuing and noticing the
intricate features of their context (Penlington, 2006). Therefore, people are afforded
opportunities to develop on a gradual basis the essential features of practical reasoning.
The collective learning espoused in the Kantian model sheds light on the importance of
individual autonomy in practical reasoning, and can be further clarified by drawing on the
third characteristic, namely, practical identity in actual contexts (Penlington, 2006). Often
people are called upon to make decisions in practical situations that may require their
reference to multiple identities (see also Korsgaard, 1996). Thus, autonomy would require
that one responds to the issue of who he/she is and what is it that one is required to do,
considering the practical identity that obtains from the imperatives of a situation.
75
Certainly, the multiple identities will invoke different strengths of possible obligations that
may influence the decisions that one would make. Penlington (2006, p. 74) captures this
situation thus: “In this way, our practical identity obligates us. Some of the obligations run
deeper than others, depending on the centrality of the identity in question”. In other words,
contexts or practical reasoning impose a responsibility that may invoke different
requirements on the task at hand depending on the weight of obligation that a particular
identity will have implied.
MacIntyre (1985) would refer to such requirements as what constitutes ‘virtue in practice’,
defined by him as “an acquired human quality the possession and exercise of which tends
to enable us to achieve those goods which are internal to practices and the lack of which
effectively prevents us from achieving any such goods” (p.191). This conception seems to
speak directly to what Hirst (1974) views as the most appropriate mode of teaching a
subject that educators ought to be prepared to adopt. If we adopt the conception of subject
teaching as a virtuous practice, what would it require of teachers?
5.5 MACINTYRE ON VIRTUOUS PRACTICE
MacIntyre (1985:187) defines practice as
… any coherent and complex form of socially established cooperative human activity through which goods internal to that form of activity are realized in the course of trying to achieve those standards of excellence which are appropriate to, and partially definitive of, that form of activity, with the result that human powers to achieve excellence, and human conceptions of the ends and goods involved, are systematically extended.
In this regard, a practice that is virtuous can be understood as concerned with the
attainment of internal goods. It is an exercise that targets the excellence of the products of
one’s work. They are referred to as internal goods because the benefits accrue to practice
and not the individual (see also, Moore, 2002). Therefore, the exercise of virtue inheres
with an aspiration for excellence that is achievable through meeting standards for it and
obeying the rules associated with such standards. Therefore, in MacIntyre’s terms “to enter
a practice is to accept the authority of those standards and the inadequacy of …
performance as judged by them” (MacIntyre, 1985, p.25). As regards practice, the
importance of goods and standards is emphasised as necessary to avoid subjectivity and
emotions.
76
There is a distinction between goods that are internal and external. The former have to do
with achievement that is good for the whole community that participates in the practice,
whereas the latter are mainly objects of competition in which there would be losers and
winners. Virtue is thus “an acquired human quality the possession and exercise of which
tends to enable … goods that are internal to practices and the lack of which effectively
prevents … achieving such goods” (p.26).
A conclusion that can be drawn from the distinction drawn here is that for teaching to be
virtuous there must be professional commitment to developing people’s knowledge and
skills commensurate with what would be deemed as promoting the internal goods within
disciplinary practice. For subject teachers, therefore, a clear comprehension and
demonstration of this commitment would be illustrated by adherence to standards of
excellence within a discipline and obeying the rules associated with these standards. Those
with such commitment should recognise the authority of what Hirst (1974), in turn,
describes as the logical structure of a subject. To prepare teachers who are virtuous in their
practice ought thus to be an exercise deliberately directed at enabling them to seek and
apply the subject’s logical grammar.
Teaching a subject virtuously, therefore, will be an endeavour that reflects thought forms
and processes that reflect courage to resist institutional practices. The latter are primarily
related to power, competition and other forms of rewards, that is external goods. If their
corrupting power can be resisted, then practice is likely to promote the enjoyment of
achievement about which Aristotle wrote. However this enjoyment is not synonymous
with pleasure, but striving for excellence that is taken for granted as ‘good of a whole
human life’.
Such goodness is difficult to acquire without proper implementation of what Bernstein
refers to as a ‘pedagogic device’ necessary to transmit a curriculum or educational content
knowledge.
5.6 BERNSTEIN ON THE PEDAGOGIC DEVICE
According to Bernstein’s (2000) pedagogic device, communication is influenced by the
distributive, recontextualising and evaluative rules in a number of ways. The distributive
rules “… mark and distribute who may transmit what to whom and under what conditions
and they attempt to set the outer limits of legitimate discourse” (Bernstein, op. cit., p.31).
77
They regulate the nature of relationships that exist between “… power, social groups,
forms of consciousness and practice” (ibid. p. 28). The role of the distributive rules, hence,
is to create structures that distribute the potential meaning of the available knowledge in
order to construct both forms of practices and consciousness (Apple, 2002). At school
level, these rules apportion both the roles and nature of relationships therein by clearly
demarcating the teacher, learner and the conditions under which teaching and learning take
place. The recontextualising rules are concerned with the formation of specific pedagogic
discourses, and are used for “… delocating a discourse, for relocating it, for refocusing it
…” (Bernstein, 1996, p.47). For instance, in the context of the school, this means that a
subject is taught according to the school rules or principles of subjects’ order, such as
those relating to selection, relation, sequence, and pacing16 (Daniels, 1995; Singh, 1993).
In this sense, therefore, these rules not only “… select the what but also the how of the
theory of instruction” (Bernstein, op. cit., p.35; emphasis in the original reference). The
evaluative rules constitute the essence of a pedagogic practice, and are concerned with
recognising what counts as valid acquisition of instructional and regulative texts. Whereas
the instructional texts refer to the subjects or curricular content, the regulative texts entail
the various aspects of social order, such as the conduct, character, manner and posture of
the learners (Singh et al., 2001). The purpose of the evaluative rules, overall, is to give
meaning and purpose to the pedagogic practice.
There is a logical relationship between the three sets of pedagogic rules, one that is
hierarchical and facilitates the fruition of a pedagogic communication (Daniels, 1995;
Hasan, 2002). Whereas the recontextualisation rules draw from the distributive rules the
functional logic of what to select and how it should be transmitted, the evaluative rules are
guided by the ‘outcomes’ or ‘products’ of the recontextualising principles (content and
how it is transmitted) to influence the components of the activities of knowledge validation
in a pedagogic practice. This implies that the pedagogic rules are an indispensable
component of any pedagogic communication (Edwards, 1991).
It is thus reasonable to conclude that in the context of this study, for teacher preparation to
develop the capacity for practical reasoning, it requires, inter alia, rational action that is
normative and motivational in nature, functionally associated with the fulfilment of a task,
and, leads to the attainment of virtuous practice. This would be a rationality that takes into
16 These characteristics are the same as what Deng (2009) refers to as the ‘theory of content’ of a school subject.
78
account the requirements of the H&G curriculum as provided for in the objectives. The
subsequent provision of course content, methods and evaluation practices have to create
goodness of fit or virtuous practice in teaching H&G. This is crucial to how the HTM
course plans and implements its content, processes of knowledge acquisition and the
evaluation practices thereof. Related to this is the importance of pedagogic communication
between the teacher-educators and the student-teachers. How the knowledge for teaching
H&G is communicated to the student teachers has to evoke critical episodic features that
need attention as they singly and collectively exemplify the ultimate form of knowledge
for teaching that student teachers will carry along with them. The role of the teacher-
educators in the HTM course is thus crucial in this regard. How they put into practice the
pedagogic rules will exemplify their interpretation of the syllabus and the pedagogic
communication they use will reflect their understanding of practical reasoning that is
implied in general History as a form of knowledge and, in particular, the objectives of
H&G. In short, it is within the HTM course that the pre-service teacher education
programme has to provide a clear context wherefrom knowledge appropriate for teaching
H &G needs to be modelled and acquired. Hence, conceived as a message system for
practical reasoning, for its pedagogic communication to be virtuous, the context of the
HTM course should clarify the reasoning required for teaching school history - H&G
competently.
Bailin (1998) distinguishes competence in terms of skills and knowledge. For her, skills
are mainly descriptive competencies that focus on the proficiency of certain mental
processes. They are different from knowledge, which is mainly normative and concerned
with principles, reasons and arguments. Normative knowledge thus underscores processes
such as respect for reasons, an inquiring attitude, open-mindedness and fair-mindedness as
mental abilities that are logical, criteria based and pragmatic, that is, reasonable reflective
thinking that focuses on decision-making.
Normative knowledge as used in this sense has to do with mastering certain traditions of
inquiry regarding types of reason, principle and argument. It depends on a mode of inquiry
that is important to reasoned judgement in particular contexts (cf., Bailin, 1998). Acquiring
knowledge is thus not a skill but a way of accounting for what is entailed in something.
The concepts, principles, and criteria that constitute it can be seen, therefore, as inherent in
the traditions and practices that make it. They cannot be isolated or seen as arbitrary and
inexplicable.
79
According to Bailin (1998, p. 216), as part of the enterprise of knowledge creation and
evaluation, they are “constituted by the offering and assessing of reasons”. Implied here is
the concept of practical reasoning as a process of deliberation in order to arrive at a
conclusion, that is, an action. Orton (1997) calls it ‘reasoning’, by which a teacher is able
to reach a decision on what to do with regard to instruction (what to teach and how to
teach it). Specifically, practical reasoning has been looked at as a strategy of student
teacher learning that can be used to clarify the kind of knowledge operative in good
teaching (Dunne & Pendelbury, 2003). Waghid (2006) describes it as an approach to
teaching that promotes deliberation and problem-solving capacities between students and
their teachers. It is a rational process by which teachers are able to derive ways of acting
(teaching) that are “... good, sensible and conducive...” (Orton, 1997, p. 570), and thereby
considered as worthwhile for learners. It is about a normative vision that is contemplative
and focused on subject matter, learners and the educational purposes and contexts. It thus
contains “a moral concept [that] invokes intrinsic ends and ideas of perfection [which are
its] constitutive fidelities ... [that may be only accessible through] contemplation...”
(Buchmann, 1988, p. 205).
Therefore, teaching ought not to be viewed as “a life of action tempered by occasional fits
of abstraction” but rather as an activity that “proceeds from the fullness of contemplation”
(ibid.). It obtains from one’s perception that “involves a personal application that does not
so much affect its object as the person concentrating her gaze up it” (ibid. p.206). Teacher
reasoning about means and ends of teaching needs to be understood as involving an
activity that is contemplative and may not be necessarily leading to action in the
observable outward sense. As a result, Dunne and Pendelbury (2003, p. 204) see it as
demanding “what might be called constituents-of-end reasoning rather than mere means-
to-end reasoning”. This is what makes teaching a moral practice that “depends crucially on
constituents-of-end reasoning, situational appreciation, and the capacity to respond to a
range of cognitive uncertainties that arise from related features of the world of practice,
namely mutability, indeterminacy, and particularity” (ibid. p.210). Therefore, practical
reasoning in teaching does not require a teacher to adhere judiciously to a prescribed
format of deriving the most appropriate decision on what to do, but rather there is a need
for flexibility. In order for practical reasoning in teaching to be effective, the counsel by
Dunne and Pendelbury provides useful direction:
80
… a wise and competent teacher is surely one who has a rich understanding of the internal goods and definitive ends of the practice and a realistic, clear-sighted perception of what is possible and fitting under different circumstances. If practical argument elicitation can help teachers to see the richness and complexity of practical deliberation in their practice, then perhaps, and only then, can it serve as a device for appraising and improving teaching (ibid. pp.210-211).
This is what Wiggins (1980) referred to as ‘hard cases’ that emphasise appropriate ends
rather than how to get to them.
This notion of teaching competence is useful to draw on when examining the way student
teachers were being prepared to teach the H&G syllabus. It is on the basis of this
understanding of the pedagogic communication that needs to undergird teacher-educators’
work in the HTM course that the next chapter provides a detailed discussion of the
research design and methods used in the study to study it.
5.7 SUMMARY
This chapter’s discussion has drawn on the notion of practical reasoning to emphasise the
importance of teaching practical reasoning in teacher education. Among other
requirements, teachers ought to have knowledge of the context and clear mechanisms on
which to base their judgment.
The chapter also highlights the implications for the planning, design and teaching the
HTM course to facilitate the teaching of H&G. To be deemed as promoting virtuous
practice, it has to promote the development of practical reasoning for H&G by
encouraging student teachers to exercise flexibility and promote creativity when teaching
the subject.
It is against this understanding of what ought to constitute the essence of teaching H&G
competently that the study reported here-in adopted a research methodology that would
facilitate an in-depth examination of the activities of the HTM course at the selected
university, It is discussed in detail in the next chapter.
81
CHAPTER SIX
RESEARCH DESIGN
6.1 INTRODUCTION
The aim of this study was to examine critically the BEd History teacher preparation
programme offered at a Kenyan university to find out how it provided for curriculum
coherence, if any, between it and the H&G syllabus taught at secondary schools.
Specifically, it looked at the ‘pedagogic devise’ used in the HTM course lectures to
establish if or how it dealt with the requirements of the objectives set for teaching H&G.
Aspects of interest in the HTM course included its curricular organisation; how historical
knowledge (subject matter - substantive and procedural) was communicated; the nature of
the external language of description used to clarify the internal language of H&G; and the
forms of assessment drawn on to help students develop their understanding of ways to
design tasks and activities that would enable the teacher-educators to establish whether or
not there is mastery of H&G learning
Researchers who seek to understand a phenomenon are best placed to achieve their goal by
employing an approach that emphasises how a phenomenon is socially constructed and
believed by those who constitute it (see Blaikie, 2000; McEvoy & Richards, 2006; Yin,
1994). The HTM course could thus be best understood within the natural and unique
context (Bogden & Biklen, 2003; Denzin & Lincoln, 2005; McMillan & Schumacher,
2006) in which it was taught and understood. Practically, it had to be experienced as it
unfolded in lectures in order to understand how it reconciled the essence of the objective of
H&G and how the teacher-educators and students as individuals, made sense of this
essence and discursively represented it, respectively, in teaching the HTM course and
demonstrating how such teaching has been received. I expected such representation to take
different forms that at times would be in conflict and thus in need of being syncretised (cf.,
Shaw, 2001). A close examination of the teacher-educators’ professional lived experiences
and meaning making of the H&G objectives and the students’ understanding of what they
were taught and how they related it to what the syllabus of H&G required as knowledge
and skills of teaching was thus of interest.
Since the study assumed that there should be, amongst others, a link between the teachers-
educators’ curriculum design expertise and students’ ability to teach HG, the formers’
82
roles in the HTM course needed to be those of curriculum leaders who facilitated the
fulfilment of the requirements of the HG syllabus. This defined the unique conditions
which needed to be created in H&G lessons for such lessons to be considered effective and
meaningful to Kenyan secondary school students.
The importance of understanding the ways in which teacher-educators translated the key
principles of the HG syllabus into practice in their lessons, as well as their ability to
explain these principles in the light of what students needed to know, could not be
overlooked or underplayed. Their practices in lectures and how they accounted for or
explained them had to be viewed in relation to the actual ways in which they themselves
understood their professional responsibilities and gave meaning to them. This could not be
captured without first experiencing such understanding in practice during the HTM course
lectures; second, considering my reading of it in relation to that of the teacher-educators;
and finally, students’ translation into practice of what they were taught and their views of
the content/theories and what they thought about such exposure In short, methodologically
the study isolated lived professional experience (Lincoln & Guba, 2002; Nieuwenhuis,
2010) and perceptions (Morse, 2002) as crucial aspects that needed examining to establish
the existence of coherence between the HTM course and H&G objectives.
Understanding the HTM course on its own terms by allowing those who had designed and
were teaching it to reflect on it helped me to understand it on their own terms. Providing
them with opportunities for (1) demonstrating their planning, teaching and assessment of
the course; (2) reflecting on how they created a framework of criteria or standards for
gauging coherence to the H&G objectives; (3) seeing how they facilitated students’
conscious reflection on professional performance; and (4) giving critical consideration to
the formulated theories of such performance, as well as scrutiny of practice through a
process of dialogue, was useful in developing insights into the critical relationship between
professional histories and practice (Goodson & Numan, 2003) that, in particular, the
teacher-educators were not likely to be aware of. However, their views on such
professional performance could not be without controversy because they had to be
understood from commonly but also differently placed other voices within the Kenyan
teacher education system in a relationship to the teachers. In the case of this study,
students’ practices and views on the HTM course were invaluable. As a result,
methodologically I had to capture practices during lectures and explanations and
discussions about them between the teacher-educators and myself, and students practices
83
and views about the HTM course, so as to identify epistemological (History-bound) and
curriculum design issues that were emphasised in the HTM course and needed to be
probed on the basis of the objectives of teaching H&G.
Epistemologically, this required exploration of how the teacher-educators and students
perceived the HTM course and the implications and significance of such perceptions to
what was required to teach HG competently (Morse, 2002). It is in this sense that the study
required both a recording of the teacher-educators’ and students’ practices directed at the
teaching of HG and an interactive relationship with them through which my understanding
of how they constructed preparation and learning for HG as a reality could be deepened.
This construction and learning, though subjective, needed to be depended on as media
through which curriculum coherence between the HTM course and HG could be
understood. Thus, preparation and learning for HG could be created not only by those who
sought to facilitate pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for H&G as professional
knowledge but also by those who had to know it. This made the focus of the study an
emphasis of both the subjective and contextual (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007) aspects
within which this preparation for and learning for H&G occurred. The adoption of
Merriam’s (2002) interpretive case study proved useful in studying these aspects in a
specific university context and their implications for curriculum coherence in a history
methods programme.
6.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
A single case study design (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007; Merriam, 1998) was
chosen for this studyin one university teacher education programme to enable me to
inductively describe, interpret and theorise how the forms of communication used to teach
it, the consciousness it aimed to raise and develop, and the meaning-making interactions
and artefacts used, were or were not promoting coherence with the H&G objectives. As a
bounded unit (case), the course provided a natural context, involving teacher-educators and
student teachers, wherein views about the course could be reconciled/syncretised and deep
insights developed on how it afforded the students’ requisite knowledge for teaching
H&G.
84
The epistemological and other crucial aspects usually associated with an approach through
which such insights could be developed are reflected upon below to highlight their
relevance to the study.
6.3 RESEARCH APPROACH
Drawing on Bernstein’s (1996 & 2000) concepts of external and internal language of
description, the HTM course was considered as providing an external language of
description through which the H&G curriculum requirements (syllabus) - as the internal
language that needed to be understood - could be clarified. As an external language of
description, the course had to illustrate to student teachers how historical knowledge
(subject matter / content) could be suitably recontextualised (de-located) to fulfil the H&G
syllabus objectives. Being constructers of the external language of description, teacher-
educators needed to engage the implied knowledge and skills, the internal language of
description and other curricular requirements for H&G that had to be taught and learnt
through an appropriate pedagogic device. Their practices and views about such practices
could thus only be subjective/partial and representative of professional realities (cf.,
Coffey, Holbrook & Atkinson, 1996) that were contextually and culturally bound and
historical. These factors were characteristic of what occurred in the course in as far as
actions and viewpoints/perceptions were concerned. They highlighted the importance of
the culture that was promoted in terms of both context and time. The insights developed
from studying these aspects from what the teacher-educators, students and myself did and
thought as regards the course held up to critical scrutiny had to provide evidence on which
conclusions drawn could be dependable.
The teacher-educators were considered as understanding what was required to teach H&G
on the basis of what their lived professional expertise and experiences signalled as
important to prepare students. Therefore, how they conceptualised what it meant in
practice to teach H&G competently positioned them as ‘meaning-makers’ whose expertise
and experiences (cf., Nieuwenhuis, 2010) informed the choices of pedagogic devises used
in the lectures. These aspects could be captured through none other but exploring their
practices, views and attitudes towards teaching History as a school subject. As manifested
within the HTM course these aspects needed to be investigated in terms of the meanings
they attached to, in general, history as a secondary school subject and, specifically, H&G.
85
Also the teacher-educators’ views had to be corroborated by the students (Phillips &
Burbules, 2000). This did not imply a negation of these views as insiders’ perspectives
(cf., Geertz, 1973) to the HTM course. I had to engage critically with them to make sense
of them in relation to those of students and mine.
Through participating in the research rather than being objects of research, students were
expected to reflect upon the teacher-educators’ curriculum and practices during lectures
and express their views on them. Special attention was paid to the ways in which they were
taught and explanations of the curriculum content were presented during the HTM course.
Therefore, the emphasis on the lived experiences, both contextual, cultural and historical,
required an interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA).
6.3.1 The Interpretive Phenomenological Approach (IPA) as research paradigm
Interpretive research is hinged on the assumption that “knowledge is gained through social
construction such as language, consciousness, shared meanings, documents, tools and
other artefacts…” (Klein and Myers, 1999:69) The approach characteristic of this research
is invaluable for capturing usually inductively insights that are culturally bound and
historical. For example, Smith and Osborne (2003) argue that IPA has its theoretical
origins in phenomenology and hermeneutics. Its inductive, holistic, emic and subjective
process-oriented way of describing, interpreting and understanding phenomena in their
natural settings (Lincoln & Guba, 2002) focus on participants’ lived experiences or what
Heidegger (cited by Hofstander, 1988) describes as “Being in the World”. It is in this sense
that its other advocates, for example, Reid, Flowers and Larkin (2005); Larkin, Watts,
Clifton, (2006); and, Smith, Flowers and Larkin (2009) see it as reliable to draw on the
accounts of small groups of participants. Its strength lies in the manner in which it
encourages open–ended dialogue or conversations between the researcher and the research
population that facilitates close inquiry of practices and views in relation to the lived
experiences and context of participants. Data obtained in this way, both reflective of the
cultural and historical aspects, is thus useful in developing insights into peoples’ practices
and how they think about them and the reasons for it. It is for these reasons that the
approach was invaluable in sensitising me to the importance of viewing the HTM course
as it unfolded in lectures and micro-teaching lessons offered by student teachers and then
capturing views about what informed practices in the separate contexts and not impose my
86
own on it. The hope was that the data would help illuminate how the objective of the H&G
syllabus were or not considered important in the design of lectures and micro-teaching
lessons. These objectives were crucial to the promotion of coherence between the
requirements of the HTM course and H&G. I expected them to be given due consideration
by the participants.
Underlying this was an understanding that student learning was a social construction that
depended on the interaction with the course content and the social context (Fairclough &
Wodak, 1997) in which it was taught. The assumption was that the designers of the
programme did not select in an arbitrary way the material they used for teacher
preparation, but rather they made their choices in a considered manner. These choices were
rooted in what was viewed as valuable in education in the specific social context for which
students were being prepared to teach. Therefore, how curriculum practices took
cognisance of the school syllabus and the attributes of the student-teachers who were being
prepared for implementing this policy was significant.
Following Fairclough (1992), as researcher I hoped that the activities, interactions and
language chosen to explain and discussion (discourse) of HTM content chosen by teacher-
educators would reflect their understanding of the principles underpinning the H&G
objectives for which they had to prepare students. In addition, their interaction with
students would demonstrate how they understood what practices were appropriate to the
objectives and how they had to be adapted to suit them, whilst also meeting the
requirements of the H&G approach prioritised by the syllabus. Also, according to Cazden
(1988) and Wetherell and Potter (1988), when using classroom discourse to unravel
teachers’ practices, the focus is on both the form and content of classroom interaction. The
form focuses on the characteristics or features of the discourse, whilst content is employed
to look at the relevance of what is engaged with. Drawing on this insight, the study
concentrated on three specific aspects relevant to the research question, namely, the nature
of the actions and interactions during lectures, that is, tasks chosen, their relevance to the
H&G objectives, what was done and how it shaped the teaching and learning process.
6.4 RESEARCH PROCESS
In this sub-section I discuss the research process that was informed by the approach and
methods used to understand the discourse in the HTM course. There are two parts to this
87
discussion, the first describing the pilot study and the second the main study. While the
pilot study section provides snapshots of the preliminary research procedures that were
employed, the latter section provides a detailed account of how data was sourced,
organised, analysed and synthesised in order to provide insights about the HTM course as
a site that afforded pre-service teachers a particular model of knowledge for teaching H&G
as a secondary school subject.
6.4.1 The Pilot Study
The pilot study was conducted between November and December 2007, at a public
university located in the Rift Valley province. It offers degree programmes across the arts,
science, education, engineering and medicine fields, with students selected into these
programmes through two modes, national and institutional (local). In the former selection,
students are identified from a common nationally determined pool by stakeholders from all
public universities. The local (institutional) selection involves identification of qualified
students from a pool that may not have been selected in the national model. Each public
university in the country has adopted both modes of student selection. This mode is also
referred to as a ‘parallel degree programme’.
The BEd programme, the focus of this study, is housed in the Faculty of education, which
enrols about 1000 students annually. However, those who study History as one of the
teaching subjects are not normally many, on average about 60. Unlike other programmes,
the BEd programme profiles almost a balanced female-to-male student population. In
terms of teaching staff, their number is not as large. Using the History Methods course as
an example, there are only two members of staff who teach the course, a figure repeated
for all courses. It is in this context that I conducted my pilot study, its general purpose
being to help me acquire real-world experiential evidence that would inform the fieldwork
for the study (see also Kezar, 2000). In particular, however, I had three reasons for
undertaking it. First, it was hoped that it would help me refine the initial research
instruments selected for the study, namely, the lecture observations and interviews with
teacher-educators. Second, employing it would highlight the possible gaps and oversights
in data collection. Third, it was viewed as a means that would help highlight the ethical
issues that needed to be considered to make the study credible.
88
Sampling
Sampling was both purposive and convenient (Yin, 2011). As a teacher-educator, it was
convenient for me to try out my research design in a university in which I was likely to be
supported. I therefore chose an institution in which I was able to interact with teacher-
educators who were colleagues and their students. Due to the study’s focus on the BEd
History group, I had to select purposively a particular group of teacher-educators and
students. There were two teacher-educators for the course.
The university offered the HTM course in two campuses. One teacher-educator was
assigned students on one campus and the other one in another. This meant that they did not
teach across the campuses. For convenience, because of an urban centre in which I had
secured accommodation and the availability of reliable means of transport, I selected one
of the campuses as my site for the pilot study. The teacher-educator I dealt with was a
long-serving member of staff at the university, with about 20 years of experience teaching.
For the selection of students, however, I did not use any other criterion except for their
being members of the group who was taught by this teacher-educator. The group had 15
students, comprising seven males and eight females. Their selection into the BEd
programme was through the privately sponsored students’ alternative17.
At the onset, I sought permission from the dean of the Faculty, my discussion with whom
involved explaining the purpose of the study and the role that the teacher-educators and
student teachers were to play. In part, I did this through my presentation of a letter of
introduction that detailed what the study intended to do (see Appendix A). According to
Flick (1998), the conduct of research at an institution is bound to raise ethical issues.
Subsequently, it is inevitable that a researcher’s request and the research question, methods
and time needed have to undergo official examination because of the effects research
might have on the particular institution. Therefore, I aimed at not distorting the culture or
ways of doing things at the selected institution, and so not running the risk of incurring
distrust from the teacher-educators, who would have viewed me as someone monitoring
their activities on behalf of the university authorities. It was important for me to be
sensitive to the culture of the research participants (Fetterman, 1989; Geertz, 1973;
Wolcott, 1988) if I was to understand it in detail. 17
There are two modes of entry into university programmes at public universities in Kenya. The government sponsored and the private sponsored. Students who are admitted through the government sponsorship are competitively selected at national level. The privately sponsored students are admitted separately by individual institutions.
89
The next step in the fieldwork procedures was to meet the teacher-educators and students
before I could begin the observations and interviews. The Dean of the Faculty of education
had reiterated the need to have their consent before proceeding with fieldwork. My status
as a lecturer in a department within the Faculty meant I did not have to require
introductions. In the discussion I had with the course lecturers, they wanted to know about
what they were expected to do and how the data collected would be used. I explained that
this was a trial of research methods and instruments, and their identification and final
selection for the study was to be shaped by what emerged from their lectures. I also
pointed that the pilot work was planned in such a manner that the time spent with each of
them would be more or less the same. This was to ensure that the amount of time spent
with each one did not affect the nature and depth of the data collected. In addition, I
presented consent forms for participation in the study and requested the teacher-educators
and student teachers to sign them as confirmation of consent to be involved in the study.
The forms were willingly signed (see Appendix 2 for a copy of the consent form).
Willingness to participate had two advantages. Firstly, it facilitated the cooperation I
needed; therefore, teacher-educators assured me that they would be available for both
observations and interviews. Such cooperation willingly given was needed for the intense
observations and conversations that they were to be involved in for the whole month.
Secondly, the pledged cooperation created the confidence that reliable data would be
collected. As Delamont (1992) warns, often when people are persuaded to take part in
research they perform for research rather than be natural. This did not apply in the case of
the pilot study.
Furthermore, the study was conducted after the relevant institutional research ethics
committee (at the Faculty of Education, University of Johannesburg) accepted my
proposed procedures for field research. This included my undertaking to disclose fully to
the participants the purpose and conduct of the study; assuring them of confidentiality and
their discretion for voluntary participation and withdrawal.
Data Collection
Data collection was primarily through observations of each individual teacher-educator
during lectures. The central focus of the observations was on the teaching and learning
90
process, interactions during lectures, the subtle exchanges and discursive details important
to the ways in which the students were involved and positioned in lectures.
The pilot study was planned as follows:
Lectures were observed. The observations were to be followed by discussions and
interviews.
Teacher-educators were to take part in discussions about the lectures. They were aimed at
gaining the educators’ perspectives on what was observed, and to explore their reasons for
going about the lectures. How they perceived and experienced the students’ reactions
served to validate my interpretation of the observed data. My hope was that from these
discussions, I would pick up cues about how they understood the H&G objectives without
unduly influencing them to perform for the research. They were also to participate in
discussions of the official secondary school curriculum guidance documents they were
expected to take into account when making decisions about and planning their lectures.
The intention was to find out how seriously the issues that were emphasised in the
documents were considered important for preparing students to teach the H&G syllabus.
With a reflective process, I hoped that it would be possible to determine their commitment
to these expectations.
Van Manen (1995, p.46) argues that constructs of meaning and explanations for practices
in the classroom can be studied “in order to determine what are the knowledge forms or
ideas that underlie their practices” (see also Bilmes, 1986). In addition, Gillham (2008, p.
1) contends that observing “has one overpowering claim to validity: it deals not with what
people say they do but [what] they actually do...” Therefore, on the basis of this
understanding, the observation of lectures was crucial to what was done in the lectures
during the pilot study.
In order to do this, an observational schedule was prepared that focused on the following
aspects: PCK for teaching H&G; features of the H&G curriculum; conceptions of
historical knowledge implied in the H&G syllabus; procedures and activities of teaching
H&G; and, the nature of interaction between teacher-educator and student teachers (see
Appendix 3). I adopted these features from Turner-Bisset (2001), who indicates that
knowledge for teaching is broad-based and in trying to locate its aspects it is necessary to
truncate what may transpire in a classroom in this manner (see also Grossman, 1990 &
Wilson, 1988). In line with Bailin’s (1998) construal of mental dispositions that
91
encouraged normative critical thinking, it became necessary to examine the nature of
interactions in the lectures as a process of teacher learning.
In addition, what the teacher-educators did had to be in support of course documents they
used for teaching. The sets of data had to complement the observational data. With the two
sets of data, it was thus possible to attain a level of convergence in terms of deriving what
was viewed as intended and the actual lecturing (Stenhouse, 1976). The observational data
and course document analysis were further to be clarified by informal discussions or
interviews in which teacher-educators were to explain the ideas and strategies they
employed. The procedures adopted for the pilot study are shown in the Table 6.1 below.
Table 6.4.1.1: Procedures for Data Collection in the Pilot Study
Method Question 1 Question 2 Question 3
How is the HTM course organised as knowledge for teaching H&G?
How does the HTM course ensure that students acquire the knowledge and skills required for teaching H&G?
How are students assessed in order to establish that they have acquired the expected teaching competence?
Interview (Questionnaire – pilot study)
How does the HTM course address the curricular require-ments for H&G?
How does the HTM course ensure that students acquire the knowledge and skills required for teaching H&G?
How are students assessed in order to establish that they have acquired the expected teaching competence?
Observation What knowledge for teaching H&G is presented?
What procedures or activities are taking place?
How are students guided to develop / acquire the appropriate knowledge for teaching H&G? How do students get feedback?
Documentary Analysis
What content for teaching H&G do the course documents contain?
What information do the documents have in relation to procedures for students’ acquisition of knowledge and skills for teaching?
What information do the documents have in relation to the assessment of students’ acquisition of teaching competence?
Observation of Lectures
As a teacher-educator, I was familiar with the syllabus of H&G, content that was taught
92
and theories on the importance of curriculum coherence in teacher education but had no
sense of how the individual teacher-educators understood or addressed the objectives of
H&G in their lectures. The HTM course was allocated three hours per week, two of which
were utilised for a lecture and the remainder spent as individual students’ library study
time. In order to allow teacher-educators to remain as natural as possible in their teaching,
I did not disclose to them which lectures would be discussed. In this way, I hoped that their
behaviour and interactions were to “continue as they would without the presence of a
researcher, uninterrupted by intrusion” (Flick, 1998:137). Following Flick’s guidance,
even though aware that it might be ethically contestable not to make the teacher-educators
aware of my intentions as an observer, especially because they willingly allowed me to
observe their lectures and I experienced no difficulty obtaining consent, I still felt that it
was necessary for them not to be provided with the minute details of the focus of the study
to prevent what is generally referred to as ‘Pygmalion effect’, wherein teacher-educators
would have acted for the researcher instead of enacting what would have been their normal
lecture practices (cf., Wineburg, 1987).
The details of the schedule for the observation of lectures I carried out are shown in Table
6.2 (below). Contrary to my initial plan, in which I intended to observe one lecture per
week over a period of four weeks, a number of circumstances beyond my control forced
me to only have two. According to the timetable, I would have had my first on 7th
November, however the teacher-educator could not make it for personal reasons. Again, a
lecture scheduled for the 28th November was cancelled. I only got to learn of this after I
had travelled a journey of close to two hundred kilometres to observe the lecture. Due to
the congested semester schedule, overall, it proved impossible for the two lectures
(missed) to be rescheduled. Students were to begin end-of-semester examinations in early
December of that year, therefore I had to work with the data I had obtained from the two
lectures I observed (shown in Table 6.2). Even though this was the case, the data was
adequate for the pilot study since it provided me with a resource that teacher-educators
could reflect upon in relation to the H&G syllabus. I required them to point out how what
they taught cohered with the syllabus requirements.
93
Table 6.4.1.2: Lecture Observation Time Table
Dat
e
7-11-
2007
14-11-
2007
21-11-
2007
28-11-
2007
- * * -
Key: - Lecture was not observed
* Lecture was observed
The first lecture covered two sub-topics, i.e., the History Syllabus and the scheme of work.
According to the course outline, these were contents under the main topic, History Content
in the Secondary School. The second lecture was on the sub-topic of lesson planning. I
made detailed notes on what was happening in the lectures, in both of which teacher-
educators were the main interlocutors. Student teachers were largely positioned as listeners
who had to take down notes on the prescribed content of the lecture. I made a transcript of
the lectures as is presented in Appendix 4.
Observations were held in a lecture/seminar room, the entrance to which was located in the
middle (see Figure .1 below). To get to the front the lecturer had to move through students’
desks, where was placed next to the chalkboard a table that served as an instructional
resource for the lecturer. I sat at the back of the room and observed. The lectures were in
the afternoon between 1pm and 2.30pm.
94
Figure 6.4.1.1: Layout for Lecture Venue
Front
Lecturer
S s s s s S
S s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
S
S E
S s s s s S
S s s s s S
Researcher
Back
Key: S – student; E - Entrance
Even though the pilot study was conducted to maximise effective data collection through
observations, the interpretation of what happened during lectures would not be adequate
explanation if solely relied upon. It was also crucial to allow the teacher-educators and
students free expression to clarify what they thought of what happened and how it was
experienced.
Questionnaire for the pilot study
Although the lecture observations were to be followed by an interview session with the
teacher-educators, circumstances beyond the control of both the researcher and teacher-
educator led to the use of a questionnaire as an alternative research instrument. There were
political upheavals in Kenya following the disputes that related to the national elections
held in the country at the end of 2007, a situation that made it unsafe to travel. I resorted to
using electronic communication after a number of aborted attempts to conduct telephonic
interview with the teacher-educators, which meant that I had to adapt the interview to a
questionnaire addressing issues pertinent of the study. It was particularly important as
substitute for the interview’s face-to-face interaction would have provided a context for
95
probing. The mailed questionnaire thus had to ensure that the participant individually
responded to the items in great detail (see Appendix 5).
The discussions were to provide clarity on the analysis of the course documents and the
observed lectures. The interview questions that were prepared as a guide were intended to
keep the conversations focused on the HTM course and seek clarification, particularly on
how what took place in the lectures could be considered as a deliberate effort to help
students develop pedagogical knowledge and skills for implementing the curricular
requirements for H&G at the secondary school classroom level. For instance, it was
necessary to establish from teacher-educators how they helped student teachers use lesson
objectives to attain the overall objectives (ends) set for H&G as a secondary school
subject. This focus was of interest to the study as it would help provide a clear guide on
how the HTM course attempted to forge curriculum coherence between what was offered
at the pre-service teacher preparation level and what was expected at the secondary school
classroom level. The responses of the teacher-educators are provided in Appendix 5.
On the whole, even though I changed from use of an interview to a questionnaire, this did
not compromise the data collected because the questions asked were precise and focused.
They compelled the teacher-educators to reflect and think about what they taught and how
they did it. In this way the questionnaire allowed for more detailed explanations and
provided ample space for responses and elaboration.
Documents Analysed in the Pilot Study
During the pilot study, the documents that were analysed included course outlines, course
descriptions, the university calendar (prospectus) and the secondary school H&G syllabus.
They were examined for their content and how it was expressed in order to establish, inter
alia, the following: the thrust of the HTM course with regard to knowledge for teaching,
procedures of acquiring such knowledge, the different references that were used, and the
inherent values that such content manifested. I have included specific examples of these
documents in Appendix F.
Reflections on Pilot Study
Since the pilot study was meant to test the suitability of the research tools selected for the
96
study, the nature of the data collected helped to refine the methods and tools that were
selected to better persuade the teacher-educators to clarify the basis of their actions
(Titscher et al., 2000). Data was transcribed and analysed to enable me to identify issues
that needed to be given attention in the main study. It guided me on what was important to
focus on when looking for coherence between teacher-educators’ actions and the
objectives of H&G. It was not important to carry out a detailed analysis of the lectures and
explanations they provided, for as Modiba (1996, p.124) has argued, “…looking at their
nature was sufficient to serve the purpose of the pilot work”.
Consequences of the findings of the pilot study
Observation data made it clear that I could not establish how student teachers were guided
in practice to develop the PCK for teaching H&G without collecting data in a situation
wherein they were guided to teach lessons based on the H&G syllabus. To do this, the
main study had to adopt a two-pronged approach, the first of which was to understand how
the conceptual and practical support teacher-educators provided in lectures was useful to
students. I thus decided to include the observation of micro-teaching lessons in the main
study to capture their understanding of the H&G syllabus as reflected in the lessons they
practised teaching. They had to demonstrate competence to translate into activities and
tasks what was essential to the concepts underpinning the content they taught. Their
lessons had to reveal the value of the received professional support and guidance in
practice. As I’anson et al. (2003) argue, microteaching in a pre-service teacher preparation
programme is useful in presenting a secure, controlled and enabling context for students to
try out skills of teaching and getting considered feedback from peers and teacher-educators
(see also, Bell, 2007; Higgins & Nicholl, 2003). Ideally, it would have been more
insightful to observe the students in the schools but this was not possible because to the
time constraints I faced as a PhD student. Waiting for the practice teaching practice time in
the university programme meant waiting for over six months to finalise my field-work.
This was difficult to accommodate considering the period within which my studies needed
to be completed and I had to return to my full-time employment. I was a PhD student on
study leave from my job as teacher –educator in a university in Kenya.
The second prong was consequently to observe both the ‘what and how’ that student
teachers demonstrated as their PCK in the microteaching sessions. How they taught was
97
considered as reflecting in some way how the HTM course addressed the H & G syllabus
requirements. The subject knowledge and teaching skills of the students were crucial to
understanding this, and central to providing a context for a more reflective analysis of what
had been learnt in the lectures. Impressions gained from these observations were validated
through discussions held with both the teacher-educators and students after the micro-
teaching lessons (Flick, 1998; Patton, 2002).
Microteaching sessions as a context in which student teachers practiced what they had
been taught in the lectures were a feature central to this study. Following the experience of
the pilot study it became apparent that data from the lectures observed could not be
corroborated by the responses provided in the questionnaires. I needed to establish how
students were drawing on the knowledge for teaching that they had been exposed to in the
lectures. In turn, this meant that student teachers needed to have a context in which I
would observe them demonstrate their developing knowledge for teaching. This
opportunity was afforded in a second semester course in the BEd programme that covered
microteaching and educational media practical sessions, otherwise referred to as
‘microteaching’. In this course, as evidenced in the main study, students were provided
with opportunity to demonstrate their ability in developing knowledge and skills for
teaching H&G. As a methods course, it provided students with both theory and practical
knowledge and skills for teaching and allowed them to practice what is espoused by
theory. This was a valuable opportunity for them to demonstrate their capacity to translate
subject matter into appropriate instructional activities (see also, Kinach, 2002; Stenhouse,
1976). I believed that with such an opportunity I would be exposed to what Bailin (1998)
refers to as ‘reasoned judgement’, and expected this form of judgement in a course of
learning to teach.
Beginning from an initiating premise provided by the H &G objectives, I assumed students
would be able to use reasoned judgement to select and devise the most appropriate
teaching strategies that enabled them to address the question of ‘what do I do?’ when
teaching this content for this objective (see also, Buchmann, 1988; Fenstermacher, 1976).
For instance, student teachers in the case of teaching H&G needed to go beyond a simple
presentation of information. As a task that is hinged in ‘reasoned judgement’ (Bailin,
1998), teaching needed to be construed as an exercise that translated subject matter
(content) into representations (transformations) that guided learners towards the attainment
of educational ends stipulated in the objectives of H & G.
98
Primarily, I became aware that I needed to delve deeper into the notion of normative
critical thinking (Bailin, 1998) to better understand what could not be compromised in the
curriculum coherence that I expected. The realisation necessitated deeper and more
focused attention on issues associated with practical reasoning (Audi, 1989, 2004; Noel,
2005; Orton, 1997), a conceptual stance from which it was possible for me to identify
more precise principles to anchor the main study. For instance, beginning from the
understanding that teaching ought to be conceived as driven by practical reasoning, it
became necessary to look at how students were guided to use deliberation which
instantiated sensitivity to situational particularities and enabled them to make appropriate
decisions for the attainment of H&G objectives. The relevance of the HTM course could
not be established without experiencing how the knowledge and skills it taught were
addressing the objectives and promoting coherence between it and H&G. However, since
the main study was conducted at a time when students would not be in schools, I resorted
to microteaching lessons as an avenue of practice teaching. Observing these lessons in the
presence of the teacher-educators provided data on the basis of which coherence between
the HTM course and H&G could be discussed. This was particularly useful because when
students are in schools they are not always assessed by the teacher-educators themselves.
Had it been necessary to go to schools to observe students teaching, it would not have been
possible in all instances to have common experience of student teaching with their subject
methods teacher-educators. As regards teacher-educators, from the pilot study it was clear
that the questionnaire responses needed probing, which was impossible. Interviews proved
invaluable to such probing.
6.5 THE MAIN STUDY
The main study was conducted in the months of January, February and March 2009.
Unlike the pilot study phase, the course of which was dominated by lectures, during the
main study there was a blend of lectures and practical sessions for the student teachers. As
with the pilot study, I ensured that participants were fully apprised of the research. In
addition to seeking their consent for participation I made it clear to them that they were at
liberty to withdraw from the study whenever they would have felt aggrieved by its
conduct. Furthermore, I guaranteed them that the information I would collect would be
used solely for academic purposes and that their identity would be kept confidential. It was
only after obtaining their permission that I began the data collection (see Appendix 2).
99
Sampling
The study was conducted in the same university as for the pilot study, a selection based on
convenient of access as proximity to my place of residence. The closest university was
over two hundred kilometres away and this would have been costly for my undertaking as
a postgraduate student. Also, I believed that since the study was concerned not with
comparing HTM courses across Kenyan universities but with exploring whether or not the
HTM course promoted curriculum coherence with the H&G subject, the insights were
likely to be useful to other institutions, which in my view seemed to employ similar
teaching methods to those where the study was conducted. The latter became evident
through the practice of external examination that tends to standardise practices across
institutions. For teacher-educators, the study involved the same lecturers as during the pilot
study, and I ensured their participation would provide useful data by employing a strategy
advocated by Wolff (2004), that entailed not sharing or disclosing many of the preliminary
findings to them or the student teachers. Students who participated in the study were those
already studying the HTM course, making the sample both convenient and purposive.
Since they were divided into two groups, each comprising 30 students across two
campuses, I decided to work with them. They were evenly mixed in terms of male-female
representation. On one campus, for instance, there were 17 male students and 13 female,
with an age range of 20 – 27 years. Similarly, on the second campus there were 14 female
students and 16 males, with the same age range as the other group. Before actual access to
their classes I met them with their lecturers (one for each groups as had been the case with
the pilot study), a time at which I briefed them on the purpose of the study and gave them
introductory letters and consent forms for their participation (see Appendix 2).
Tools and data collection
A blend of the selected tools and methods of data collection were used in the study to
attain an encompassing description of the activities of the HTM course as a context of pre-
service teachers’ acquisition of knowledge for teaching H&G. As a study that focused on
the enactment of practice, it became necessary not only to observe the ‘goings-on’ but also
to seek clarification from participants. Thus, lectures on methods of teaching as well as
student teachers’ practice of teaching skills during microteaching served as important
100
contexts for data collection. Whereas the observation of lectures provided an opportunity
to capture the content presented to students and how they were expected to engage with it
(this preceded the microteaching observation sessions), observations had to help identify
the ways students tried out the teaching skills they had had been taught. This situation
provided opportunities to follow through the process of knowledge translation by student
teachers from the lectures (context for theory presentation) through to sites of enactment
(practice) where they were able to demonstrate their understanding of what teaching the
subject required. These lectures were held in a large room with approximately 350 students
(all third year BEd students offering different teaching subject combinations) in
attendance. I observed six lectures over six weeks. Moving from the lectures to
microteaching lessons provided contexts in which I was able to delineate students’
internalisation of curriculum policy requirements for H&G and what their methods of
teaching espoused. To attend to detail, I used both the audio and visual recorders to capture
data.
Data was collected in three ways. Apart from the observation of lectures and students’
microteaching lessons, I also conducted interviews with students and teacher-educators.
The lectures I observed were plenary sessions that involved all student teachers (all third
year BEd students who were studying different subjects spanning the entire secondary
school subject curriculum, except for Physics, Biology and Chemistry).18 These lectures
introduced specific teaching skills that students were expected to use when preparing mini-
lessons for micro-teaching (10 minutes duration), to demonstrate their competence in the
use of these skills. They had to teach their peers. The schedule, as shown in Table 6.3
(below), displays the specific dates on which observations of lectures, micro-teaching and
interviews were made.
As timetabled lectures, I did not have to select when or where the lectures would be
conducted or held. The dates and venue were pre-determined, which was also true for the
microteaching classes. The microteaching class had an average of 30 students.
18 The said school subjects were not offered at the campus where this study was conducted. In that case, student teachers who offered these subjects were based (located) at a different campus of the university, which did not constitute any of the groups for this research. The H&G student teachers were based at the campus site on which this research was conducted.
101
Table 6.5.1: Lectures, Observation and Interview Schedule
Lecture Dates
10-2-09 17-2-09 24-2-09
3-3-09
10-3-09
17-3-09
Microteaching
Observation - Campus A
11-2-09 18-2-09 25-2-09
4-3-09
11-3-09
18-3-09
21-3-09
Microteaching
Observation - Campus B
12-2-09 19-2-09 26-2-09
5-3-09
12-3-09
19-3-09
Interviews Students
10-3-09
12-03-09
Campus B
13-3-09
Campus A
Educator
21-3-09
While lectures covered various skills of teaching (e.g., use of chalkboard and lettering;
graphics; two- and three-dimensional figures), the microteaching lessons involved
students’ presentations of mini-lessons that were self-selected from the H&G secondary
school syllabus (content), with specific attention paid to how to demonstrate the teaching
skills that had been taught during the lectures. The multiple ways of collecting what went
on in the HTM course are described in greater detail below.
The observations were held on different dates in two venues (as shown in Table 6.3,
above). For the interviews, with students and a teacher-educator, the discussion covered
several issues related to preparation to teach H&G. Ten students were interviewed.
Observation of Lectures
My role as participant observer (Angrosino, 2005) assisted me in establishing rapport with
colleagues, thus making them participate willingly. It also enabled me to maintain a level
of detachment in order to observe and analyse (Merriam, 1998). In so doing, however, I
did not lose sight of the fact that my conduct would instantiate their involvement as being
one of a ‘captured audience’ that would attempt to read me as much as I would be doing
about them. This notwithstanding, I strongly believed that being a member of staff in the
102
same institution would reduce significantly what has been commonly referred to as the
‘Pygmalion effect’ on my research population, that is, their becoming victims of a self-
fulfilling prophecy (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968). To do this, I tried as much as possible
to ensure that the micro-politics often associated with collaboration and collegiality in
teacher development was addressed through an initiation of a voluntary and development-
oriented culture (Hargreaves, 1994) between myself (as a researcher) and colleagues. In
this way it became necessary that I participate in their lectures for some time so that they
relaxed and took my involvement in their lectures as ordinary.
Lectures were meant to introduce students to the knowledge and skills that they were
expected to try out during the microteaching lessons. These lectures were meant for all
student teachers in the BEd programme in their third year, irrespective of their teaching
subjects. The secondary school subjects that these students studied spread from English,
Literature in English, Kiswahili, Business Studies, Geography, History, to Christian
Religious Education and Mathematics. The data that had been collected from the pilot
study indicated clearly that it would be useful to design a more tightly focused observation
schedule. I drew on it and course documents to develop a protocol that isolated what I
expected to be taught as History in the HTM course to address the requirements of the
H&G syllabus. This data was captured through the use of both audio and video recorders.
In particular, the audio recorder enabled me to have time to concentrate on what actually
transpired in the lectures by following the activities without having to worry whether or
not I would be able to systematically capture what was said. This data could be re-visited
several times during its transcription, management, analysis and interpretation (Patton,
1990).
The lectures were used to introduce specific skills that student teachers had to practice
during the microteaching sessions. On a weekly basis, for six weeks, students were
introduced to different but related skills that they were expected to try-out during their
peer-teaching (microteaching). I sat in on all the lectures, otherwise referred to as the
‘plenary lectures’, and tape-recorded the presentations by lecturers. The lecturers were
drawn from the relevant department. Among the topics taught were the following: How to
use the Chalk Board; Graphics – diagrams and illustrations; Construction of 3-dimensional
aids; and, Operation of Audio visual Equipment (see Appendix 8 for a complete list of the
topics/skills that were presented to students). During the observations I took note of the
teaching skills that were presented and how these were resources from which student
103
teachers would develop their own micro-teaching lessons.
The venue was a large hall in which about 350 students would attend lectures, arranged as
shown in the illustration below.
FRO
NT
Lec
ture
r
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s
BA
CK
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s
s s s s s s s s Re
s s s s s s s s
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s
s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s
Key: Res – researcher; s- student
Figure 6.5.1: Layout for the Plenary Lectures Venue
In short, as I sat in the lectures to carry out my observation, I sought answers to the
question: ‘What knowledge for teaching is presented?’ Shulman (1986, 1987)
distinguishes types of knowledge that he considers central to teaching, broadly grouping
them under the construct of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). PCK is a blend of
content (subject matter) and pedagogy (instructional knowledge) in a form that enables a
teacher to present information to learners in ways that take cognisance not only of their
uniqueness (as individuals) but also of the contextual factors. In short, PCK is knowledge
that is unique to teachers (what they know about their subject matter, educational aims,
curricula materials, their learners, and the contextual dictates of the environment (school
and classroom). Thus, on the basis of this conception, I was able to identify and describe in
my notebook the knowledge types referred to in the lectures.
104
I observed seven lectures over a period of seven weeks, each lasting two hours and making
a total of 14 hours. They were organised to cover specific topics related to the skills of
teaching, and as shown in Appendix 8 covered content that would largely be classified as
falling into the curricular materials and how they had to be translated into instructional
activities. Specifically, though, a number of types of knowledge for teaching were
identified. For example, in the lecture on the topic of “Graphics and Illustrations”
emphasis was laid on the category of knowledge distinguished as curricular materials.
Defining these materials as ‘devices that enhance classroom instruction’, the teacher-
educator underscored the use of such channels of communication as they guaranteed
learner interest and potency to foster imagination and evocation of emotions. The excerpt
below captures what the teacher-educator said:
We can say that, graphics are supplementary devices by which the teacher through more than one sensory channel helps to clarify, establish and correlate concepts, interpretations and associations. The same devices increase knowledge, arouse interest and even evoke worthy emotions and enriches the imagination of learners. That is a very powerful statement because our task as teachers is to ensure that we pass across knowledge or information or content in the most effective way and in a manner that the learners will appreciate our presentation...
Graphs, posters, pie charts (with their attendant illustrations) were presented in the lectures
as examples that student teachers could use during their microteaching classes.
Generally, the focus was on teaching students the basic skills for lesson presentation.
There seemed to have been an assumption that they already had been exposed to the
knowledge on the preparation of lessons (this was offered in the first semester of the third
year19) and therefore, in the latter phase (second semester) attention was directed at the
ways in which student teachers could practice the general knowledge and skills. At the end
of each of the plenary lectures that preceded the weekly specialised microteaching
presentations, a seemingly standardised question for preparation of student mini-lessons
would be stated in the following way: “Prepare a ten minutes lesson in your subject area in
which you will also demonstrate the teaching skills you have learnt in today’s lecture”. It
was left to the student teacher to make a connection between what there was as content for
the subject, the objectives set for it, and how the two would be integrated during lesson
presentation.
19 The pilot study had been conducted in the first semester of third year where the HTM course was offered. Predominantly, the lectures then had covered content on preparation of scheme of work, lesson plan and lesson objectives without any express (guaranteed and guided) opportunity for student practice as part of course requirement.
105
Observation of Micro- teaching Lessons
In observing the micro-teaching lessons by students, I largely adhered to the arrangement
put in place by the teacher-educator for student presentations on the two university
campuses. This meant that I did not use any other criteria to select those who could be
observed except for the preference I had made, i.e., focussing on H&G lessons. All
students were offering H&G as one of their teaching subjects and therefore, except for the
three presentations that involved other subjects (Christian Religious Education (2) and
Business Studies (1), all the other lessons, from a total of the 33 I observed, were in H&G.
These lessons were presented at the two campus sites over a period of seven weeks. One
venue had 16 lessons and the other 17. In the latter case, the number of lessons was higher
because one of the observation dates was held on a Saturday (a weekend), a time when
there was no pressure for time as no other classes were scheduled. Therefore, there was
ample time that gave more students a chance to present their lessons, unlike on a week-
day.
Although the two sites had similar conditions in terms of venue layout, at one site there
were two venues from which I collected data. This was particularly the case when I
employed the video recording device. At the said site there was a room dedicated to
educational media practical activities that the lecturers found suitable for the exercise.
The following three figures, shown below, 6.5.1, 6.5.2 and 6.5.3, provide a visual
(diagrammatic) depiction of the venues at the two research sites (Campuses A & B).
106
Figure 6.5.2: Venue Layout for Campus A Used for Video Recording
FRONT
Student Presenter Video Camera
L L T. Educator
Researcher L L
S S S
S S S S S S
S S S S S S
S S S S S S
BACK
Key: L – Learners (i.e. student teachers randomly selected by Teacher-educator for
purposes of playing the role of those to be taught by their peers; S – Student teachers who
served as audience (general) during the microteaching.
Figure 6.5.3: Venue 1 Layout
BACK
Researcher Teacher-educator
S S S S S S
S S S S S S
S S S S S S
S S S S S S
Student Presenter
FRONT
Key: S – Student teachers
107
Figure 6.5.4: Venue 2 Layout
FRONT
Student Presenter
S S S S S S S
S S S S S S S
S S S S S S S
S S S S S S S
Researcher Teacher-educator
BACK OF THE ROOM
Key: S – Student teachers
Specifically, data collection in the observation of the micro-teaching sessions involved the
use of two devices, namely, an audio-recorder and a video-recorder. Following my
experience during the pilot study, it had become apparent that reliance on a single method
of data collection by observation was not sufficient. During the pilot study, I relied on note
taking in the course of observation, and I would also note down some of the reflections
immediately after these sessions. However, this mode of data collection did not allow me
sufficient time to observe without distraction, i.e., note writing, therefore, following this
experience it became clear that a detailed portrayal of what took place in a lecture required
more modes of data collection that complemented each other. I used both audio and video
recorders, devices to foster reciprocity in the process of data collection. This is an
orientation to data collection in a qualitative research setting that is supported by Tobin
and Begley (2004). In their view, apart from having a number of data collection sources,
research through triangulation of data collection methods attains ‘completeness’ and
demonstrates confirmation of the phenomenon under investigation.
The use of the two devices, though, did not receive outright approval from some of the
participants. In particular, students were worried that the video clips could be used by their
lecturers to mark them down. However, after assuring them that I would be the only person
to use the tapes for research purposes they allowed me to use the recording devices. I was
cautious only to record sessions in which the participating students felt comfortable with
108
the presence of the gadgetry. As a result, at the end of the exercise, out of a total of 30
microteaching lessons observed, only 15 were video-recorded. Although the duration of
the microteaching sessions was initially determined by the teacher-educator’s criterion,
that each student would be allowed an average of ten minutes, this fluctuated depending on
the scope that each had allocated his/her presentation. For some, the time restriction was
adhered to and therefore more students would present lessons. Conversely, some would
take more time and subsequently only a few would be able to present their lessons.
From a research point of view, the unequal use of time by student teachers presented
episodic events that I would later use to seek clarification both from teacher-educator and
the students during the interviews (see also Flick, 1997). In particular, such moments
became useful, especially to seek clarification on why student teachers had overstretched
the time limit, and to find out the cause of such an occurrence. In one of the interviews
with students I posed a question on why some presented their lessons in more than the
stipulated time of 10 minutes. A student responded as follows:
Sir, you see the time we are given to present a lesson is too short. In fact, I think we need more time because this is history. It is not like other subjects. History is about lengthy explanations about events. So like it was in my case, I was teaching about a parliamentary process … eh I mean the procedures of raising a bill in parliament. So for me I did not know how I could stop halfway before I complete explaining the processes involved. Maybe the lecturer was only looking at the time. But me I think we need more time. ... Thank you.
In this account I was able to pick out the notion of history that this particular student had
developed. History was not only a subject with ‘lengthy explanations’ but also one that
depended on a teacher’s sole presentation. In short, the field provided opportunities that
required attentiveness in order to collect as much data as practically possible.
The observation of the microteaching lessons was guided by the arrangement that course
lecturers had put in place, in line with Gillham’s (2008) suggestion that in order for a
researcher to be able to capture participants’ natural setting one ought to retain features of
the environment that they often function in as natural and unaltered manner as possible. In
this way, participants can be helped to remain truthful to their ordinary ways of operation.
Therefore, adhering to the circumstances of the research setting meant that no specific
criterion generated by the researcher was used. All students had an equal chance to be
observed and, as a result, I observed all students who presented lessons in the timetabled
microteaching period.
109
The two microteaching groups in the two campuses had 30 students (15 each). I had
established from the teacher-educator that students would be given a chance to present
during the scheduled sessions on condition that none could present twice before each one
of them had had a chance to make his/her first presentation. This approach proved useful
as it helped students to participate in the exercise in a manner suitable to each (ibid.). I was
able to retain the ‘naturalness’ of the usual (‘normal’) class/lecture atmosphere as much as
possible by adopting what the teacher-educator had devised as a structure for the students’
presentation. My observation was guided by the following questions:
What knowledge for teaching H&G do student teachers and their lecturers
demonstrate and talk about, respectively?
What procedures or activities do student teachers use in their teaching?
What guidance do student teachers get from their lecturers with regard to
knowledge for teaching H&G?
How do students get feedback?
Progressively, during the period of observation and reflection thereafter, I jotted down
notes on the possible answers to these questions, but more importantly, after collating the
transcripts of the audio and video recordings I had made. This information was enriched
further by the information I collected from the interviews, as I discuss in the next sub-
section.
Interviews
Interviews were used in the study to complement what had been sourced through
observation of lectures, micro-teaching lessons, and analysis of course documents.
Specifically, interviews were used to seek clarity from participants on issues that emerged
from the lectures, microteaching lessons and course documents. Broadly, answers were
sought to the three main research questions: How does the HTM course address the
curricular requirements for H&G? How does the HTM course ensure that students acquire
the knowledge and skills required for teaching H&G? How are students assessed in order
to establish that they have acquired the expected teaching competence? As a data
collection strategy that was deployed towards the end of the study, these questions
required participants (especially the students) to reflect on what their course afforded them
110
as knowledge and skills for teaching H&G at secondary school. Following Tietel (2000),
the interviews were conducted in a way that fostered a ‘research relation’ that required the
researcher to be sensitive to the participants interests and positioning in the study so as to
create an enabling context for free conversation. According to Tietel (2000), the notion of
‘research relation’ emphasises the need for both the researcher and the interviewee to
foster cordiality between them. This creates an environment conducive to openness.
I conducted the interviews at a time of the fieldwork when there had been sufficient
interaction between me and the participants. For the students, interviews were held after
three weeks of observation, within which time, through informal conversations, I had
developed an element of confidence in the students. As a result, through convenient
sampling I had identified with the assistance of class representatives and teacher-
educators, students from the two campuses who would be interviewed (McMillan &
Schumacher, 2006; Patton, 2002). Each campus had five interviewees, mainly students
who either lived on the campus or nearby. This was particularly important as it had to be
convenient for them to be interviewed at the end of the day’s lectures. In venue 1, students
(n = 5) were interviewed as a group. I opted for this mode of data collection for two
reasons. First, the interviews were held late in the day and thus all of the students were free
and had time to spare for the interview. Second, the group interview promised an
important setting in which I would get multiple views at the same time. In this case, an
element of confirmation of information would prevail as the different participants would
thrash out possible points of incorrect information, seen by Mertens (1998:174) as:
“…interaction between participants is designed to elicit more participants’ points of view
than it would be evidenced in more researcher-dominated interviewing”. Thus, the group
interview provided an opportunity for an ‘on-the-spot’ verification of what students were
acquiring as knowledge for teaching H&G. Through the convergence and divergence of
views it was therefore possible for the researcher to draw appropriate meaning.
Group dynamics necessitated adherence to certain procedural routines in the conduct of the
two-hour interview with students. For instance, in order to have each participant
comfortable and free to participate I indicated at the onset that every group member would
be given a chance to make his/her response on every question that I asked. Though this led
to instances in which some responses were reiterations of what preceding speakers would
have said, the approach seemed the most appropriate in guaranteeing each student an
opportunity to contribute. Further, in instances of repetition, I would rephrase some of the
111
statements that had been made in order to get clarification. For example, when I asked
students to describe how the HTM course may have changed their ways of thinking about
what was involved in the teaching of H&G, they had responded by simply reiterating
affirmations of having gained confidence to teach. This prompted me to seek clarification
by restating my question. I asked: Why were you not confident before? What has given
you confidence? A student’s response was as follows:
Before this course, I was disorganised. I remember even before I joined the university I had taught as an untrained teacher. My teaching was very bad. I never used to write objectives or even plan as it is required. I actually used a textbook to teach. But as I go along now, I have skills for lesson planning. I now know that it is not the coverage of content which is important… What I can say is that my confidence is building up from the knowledge and skills I am getting…
Hence, the strategy helped me attain on-the-spot confirmation of the information presented
and thereby enhanced its trustworthiness or dependability (Lincoln & Guba, 1981).
Interestingly, the interview also had instances of students holding divergent views on a
single issue. For example, I asked them the following question: “What can you tell me of
the preparation you receive here?” to which one responded:
Ok for me, I think what we are learning at our level is mostly about sources, scholars…but if we are to become professional teachers, this is not important to us. On my part, I would wish that we were only taught what is relevant to what we are going to teach out there… not about the scholars. These are things we are not going to use anywhere at school.
Another answered:
I do not quite agree with him. Maybe what I can say is that we have so much information that we get from here at the university only that when we get to school we do not know how to give it out. I think we are like giving a small country a nuclear weapon. This could dangerous for the neighbours. Since you have a lot of information, you tend to overlook certain things. So, I think what we need to be taught is how to know in which dosages we need to give this information to students.
This was useful during the interviews for obtaining rich data informed by these individual
inclinations. It helped to indicate how each student attempted to develop a nuanced
understanding of what they were exposed to in the course.
The conduct of interviews with students at the second venue was slightly different from
that at the first venue. Here I held two group interviews, and although five students were
selected conveniently for the group interview, as was the case in the first venue, two
female students were interviewed separately from the male students. On the day of the
interview the two students (female) reported punctually and were interviewed, but the
three male students arrived long after the scheduled time and requested a new date. This
situation confirmed Tietel’s (2000) advice that there is flexibility on the part of researchers
112
as they enter the field. One has to adopt a stance that forges cordial relations in the context
of the field, and accommodate some of the interviewees’ circumstances.
On the whole, the conduct of the interview with students at the second venue presented
field challenges for the researcher’s time. The male students were interviewed on a
different date that was convenient (See Table 6.5.1, page 99). The conversation with these
latter (two) groups also took on a turn-taking approach to encourage each student to
participate. On average, each of the two groups’ interviews lasted for an hour. In collecting
information from the interviews, I relied solely on audio recording, later transcribed by the
researcher as the first step in the analysis process. I was guided by what MacLean, Meyer
and Estable (2004) regard as central to authenticating the reliability, validity and
trustworthiness of qualitative research, namely striving to capture verbatim texts and
balancing these with conversational fillers (non-verbal behaviour) of the interviewees, as I
was the one who conducted the interviews. In this way, I was able to construct and develop
an account that addressed the information sought (see also LeCompte, 2000).
The interviews with teacher-educators also reflected a different dimension to the study.
Although initially I had intended to interview both teacher-educators, it became apparent
with time that one of them would decline participation. This was an experienced member
of the faculty who had argued that since he had played a significant role in the
development of the HTM course over the years, and had introduced the second teacher-
educator in the recent curriculum improvements, he did not see the need for both of them
to be interviewed. Since this was said to me in the presence of the other colleague I had no
choice but to accept the terms they were putting forward for the interview. In essence,
what I was dealing with here were the politics of research underpinned by what seemed to
be power dynamics. It may have been possible that an experienced colleague seemed
uncomfortable with what appeared to him as being asked to account for his work by a less
experienced colleague (see also Wolff, 2004). Against this field dynamic I thus settled for
an interview with one teacher-educator.
Unlike the logistical circumstances experienced during the interview with students, the one
held with the teacher-educator went according to schedule. The date for the interview had
been pre-arranged, a Saturday late-morning beginning from about 11.30am. I settled down
with the lecturer for a conversation after a microteaching class that the researcher had also
attended as part of the fieldwork. Having served at the University for over six years as a
lecturer for the HTM course, he was sufficiently experienced with the subject. Prior to
113
joining the university he had taught both at high school and a teachers’ training college.
His age was in the 40-48 range. The entire transcript for the interview is contained in
Appendix 7. As with the other interviews, I employed a mixture of informal discussions
(stimulated interviews) based on an interview protocol developed to make the session
cordial and focused. I used the informal conversation to initiate discussion on the issues
picked up during observations. For example, as we had come from a microteaching lesson,
I decided to begin with a general comment: “Weekends have a way in which they make us
relaxed. I found the students rather up to the task”. His response set us off into the
interview. I used the interview guide questions to retain focus on specific information that
I needed in order to clarify the various aspects of the HTM course (see also, Fontana &
Frey, 2005; McMillan & Schumacher, 2006). This approach allowed me an opportunity to
appear not to be putting a colleague on the spot with a highly formulated set of pre-
arranged questions. This made him relaxed and readily responsive to my questions.
Overall, the interviews provided valuable supporting data on a number of issues that had
not been made explicit during the analysis of documents and observational data. Interviews
with students helped to shed light on, among other issues, their perception of the courses
studied from the academic department of History. The conversation with the teacher-
educator helped to bring out data that could not be obtained through the questionnaire
items they had responded to in the piloting phase of the study. With the interview the
teacher-educator was relaxed and willingly provided responses that could ordinarily not be
stated by those who prepared teachers. He responded in the following way: “Honestly, I
don’t know why that is the case. Maybe, we need to investigate this phenomenon. We have
talked about it so many times and yet they still go ahead and make the same mistake”.
Hence, in this way the teacher-educator was able to provide additional information that
may have not been obtained had this method not been used. Therefore, as Tietel (2000)
advises, it was through such conversations with research participants that I developed a
deep understanding of a phenomenon.
6.6 DATA MANAGEMENT AND ANALYSIS
According to Froggart (2001), data analysis in qualitative research begins with managing
(preparing data for analysis), describing through coding by way of data simplification and
reduction, digging deeper (for different types of meaning), and presentation (that may
114
include verbatim quotations of participants and visualisations). Factors inferred from
theory drawn on as heuristic were used to identify what was emphasised as PCK. Bailin’s
(1998) construct of normative critical thinking and Audi’s (2004) construct of practical
reasoning provided useful guidance that made me focus on the importance that was placed
on: : teaching historical knowledge; knowledge of learners; knowledge of the H&G
objectives and their translation into practice and, knowledge of designing contextually and
culturally relevant or responsive forms of teaching (Turner-Bisset, 2001). Hsieh and
Shannon’s (2005) views that underscore the need to allow the context to reflect the state of
affairs on the ground whilst ensuring that reliance on it does not lead to a failure to provide
an actual representation of the case were invaluable in this regard too.
In order to identify what I needed to draw from the data, I thus relied also on the construal
by Brent and Pawel (2003) that coding in qualitative research is critical to analysis and
interpretation because, unless this is done with a bent on identifying the details of
phenomenon, it will not be possible to attain significant levels of the underlying patterns in
one’s data. One way to attain this was to use leads from the research questions (LeCompte,
2000), in addition to the guidance that the PCK for H&G had to include to promote
curriculum coherence between the HTM as a pre-service course and the syllabus
requirements of H&G. The notion of curriculum coherence necessitated an examination of
the HTM course in terms of identifying how the lived experiences of the teacher-educators
influenced or informed the manner in which they engaged the underlying principles of
H&G. In this regard, the characteristics of normative critical thinking by Bailin (1998) and
Audi’s (2004) construct of practical reasoning served as an important heuristics for
looking for how an inquiring aptitude, open-mindedness and fair-mindedness were
developed during lectures. These are mental attributes that had to help students make
rational curriculum decisions for the successful teaching of the H&G syllabus. In
particular, there was special attention paid to the ways in which the HTM course translated
the objective of fostering national unity in terms of historical content knowledge and
taught strategies that could be used to encourage democratic discussions when teaching
such content. Words, sentences or utterance used and interactions that occurred in lectures
amongst teacher-educators and students and students and students to develop the
knowledge and skills to teach H&G (cf., Mouton, 2001) were highlighted.
Discourse analysis enabled me to focus on the words, phrases and use of context in the
course. By looking beyond the actions, sentences or utterances and how teacher-educators
115
communicated in general and focusing on the interactive nature of the communication and
how the forms of communication positioned students, that is, what Mouton (2001)
describes as the relationship between language and society, I was able to focus closely on
the translation of pedagogic rules into pedagogic codes. As examples of mediating and
translating concepts implied in the objectives of the H&G syllabus, they complemented
and clarified what was in the course readings and hand-out supplements used to develop
teaching competences.
This view resonates with Deng’s (2009) construal of ‘theory of content’ for school
subjects. It is a conception that requires teachers to orientate their teaching in ways that
address what learners at school have to attain (as determined by the objectives for such
subjects) upon exposure to the relevant subject. This means that students needed clear
guidance on how they were supposed to blend both the methods of teaching and the
content of H&G as a pedagogical construction (Hashweh, 2005) for realising the
educational ends anticipated by the subject’s objectives. Therefore, it was against this
understanding that the knowledge for teaching that was sought in the data had to be
systematically separated (coded) in order to identify what component appeared to be given
emphasis in the HTM course.
The process of separation of knowledge for teaching required a systematic procedure.
Guided by the existing literature (see also Shulman, 1987; Turner-Bissett, 1999 & 2001), I
distinguished the data into units such as ‘knowledge of curriculum’, ‘knowledge of subject
matter’ and ‘knowledge of educational objectives’. For example, I developed codes for the
data on the lesson plans by systematically separating information into segments such as
topic, lesson objectives, learner activities and teacher activities (see Table 6.7). After this
level, I would move to further distinguish the segments by apportioning them into
knowledge of content (subject matter), knowledge of curricular material, knowledge of
learners, and knowledge of educational objectives. This classification is corroborated by
LeCompte’s (2000) idea that creating patterns in one’s data may entail the use of
conceptual or theoretical guidance that obtains from existing literature. Thus, the process
of moving through data from conception of codes to the derivation of themes involves a
mixture of strategies that a researcher has to allow in order to attain a creative and dynamic
understanding of it (Graneheim & Lundman, 2004).
With regard to the specific procedures adopted in the study for the analysis of data, I
provide two illustrations as shown in Tables 6.6.1. In this table an example of how data
116
from the lectures was used to derive meaning is presented. This began with the
identification of the minimal unit of data, before moving on to a category (for such unit)
that climaxed in the derivation of a theme within which such category would be located.
For instance, in the case of scheme of work as a minimal unit of data the category for this
was identified as knowledge of curriculum material. This derivation was borrowed from
Turner-Bisset (2001), in whose view knowledge of curriculum entails an understanding of
what is possible to use in order to communicate knowledge, skills and understanding to
learners. Thus, curriculum materials or a teacher’s ‘tools of the trade’, that include scheme
of work, lesson plan, textbooks, and charts, fall into this category.
Table 6.6.1: Illustrative summary of Analysis – Data from Lectures I
Minimal Unit Category Theme
Scheme of work
Lesson plan
Syllabus
Knowledge of curriculum
material
Teaching as mechanical –
procedural
National educational
objectives
Lesson (instructional)
objectives
Knowledge of educational
objectives
Teaching as lesson-
objectives based
In addition, teacher and learner activities were identified as minimal units of data that
developed into knowledge of curriculum and knowledge of learner, respectively. Thus,
teacher activities mainly involved examples of what teachers did, such as: ‘…explain the
reasons for…’ or ‘…allow students to ask questions; …ask students question; On the part
of learner activities, some of the items included were as follows: ‘…observe the flow
chart……take notes…..….participate in a discussion…’ In turn, themes of knowledge of
teaching as ‘lesson-oriented’ or ‘lesson-restricted’ and knowledge of teaching as
procedural/mechanical were obtained. In line with Taylor’s (2008) guidance on how to
derive themes from data, as indicated above, through an examination of how such
knowledge was portrayed in the course it became apparent that emphasis had been placed
on knowledge of teaching as lesson-focused or lesson-restricted. In other words, to learn to
117
teach involved acquiring the skill of lesson presentation, thus procedural knowledge on
how to present information was what a student needed to master.
From the illustrations, however, it is important to note that while data generated many
minimal units this was not the case at the level of themes, as those identified tended to
accommodate the diverse groups of the minimal units. In other words, following the
approach that this study had adopted as a means for deriving a theme, an encompassing
description of what the separate minimal units that had been distinguished had to be
obtained in order to give a broader picture of what the HTM course portrayed as
knowledge for teaching H&G by drawing on micro-teaching lessons offered by the
students. Table 6.6.2 (below) below illustrates how this was done.
Ma (1999) corroborates this orientation to school subject teaching, arguing that school
subjects have a different epistemological and pedagogical orientation, and until this is
ascertained by teachers no fundamental understanding can be reached for the benefit of the
learners. In the case of this research, therefore, it was necessary to examine how the HTM
course was used as a facility that helped pre-service teachers forge links between subject
objectives and the content through appropriate methods of instruction. This was the only
way that could be used to establish how it and the school subject, H&G, bore convergence
and was thereby indicative of what and how student teachers could engage learners in the
attainment of the objectives set for the subject at secondary school.
118
Table 6.6.2: Illustrative summary of Analysis – Data from Microteaching
Minimal Unit Category Theme
Lesson topic Knowledge of subject matter
Knowledge of teaching as procedural/ mechanical
Knowledge of teaching as delivery of content
Knowledge for teaching as lesson-oriented/ lesson-restricted
Lesson objectives Curriculum knowledge/
Knowledge of educational goals
Teacher activities
Learner activities
Curriculum knowledge/
knowledge of subject matter/ knowledge of learner
Media/teaching aid
Knowledge of curriculum materials/
Knowledge of educational context/
Knowledge of learner
Reference (books etc)
Knowledge of subject matter/
Knowledge of curriculum
Generally, a similar approach was used in the analysis of interview data. Thus, minimal
units were identified that were further distinguished into categories and themes and it was
from this detail of data analysis for all the four modes of data, i.e., lectures, documents,
interviews and microteaching lessons, that the discussion depicted in the subsequent
chapters of this report show. Likewise, as shown in Table 6.6.3, the process of analysis
from the minimal unit of data to the development of a theme from the microteaching
lessons’ data engendered a number of scenarios. For example, beginning from the lesson
topic as a minimal unit of data, the analysis progressed into knowledge of subject matter as
a category and subsequently ended with knowledge of teaching as presentation of content
as a theme.
119
Table 6.6.3: Illustrative summary of Analysis – Data from Interviews
Minimal Unit Category Theme
Developed from ‘how is teaching talked about?’
What matters most, to me, is how you deliver the content… In fact, for me I wish we were just taught how to deliver content. That is what I think the schools out there regard as important… [emphasis added]
Curriculum knowledge Teaching as content delivery/ teacher as conveyor
In order to derive themes from the data I followed Taylor’s (2008) advice that themes are
developed from data by addressing the issue of ‘how’ in view of the data one is working
with. Similarly, Graneheim and Lundman (2004) regard a theme as an aspect that
describes the structure of experience. It is therefore not an object but a thread of an
underlying meaning. For instance, in order to derive themes, after analysing the transcripts
of the lectures through coding the information (data) into minimal units of meaning, I
would ask myself the question: ‘how is knowledge for teaching presented by the teacher-
educator?’ The data would, in turn, show the teacher as ‘knowledge deliverer/presenter’.
The format of the analysis procedure is presented in the Table 6.6.4 below.
Table 6.6.4: Illustrative summary of Analysis – Data from Lectures II
Minimal Unit Category Theme
Developed from ‘how is teaching talked about?’/How is teaching presented by teacher-educator?
(transcripts of whole Lectures as provided in Appendix 4 )
Knowledge for teaching
Curriculum knowledge
Teaching as content delivery/ teacher as conveyor
120
It was on the basis of this mode of examining the data and deriving the themes that I would
then reflect on what would be the underlying meaning of the discourse of the HTM course.
Thus, further interrogation of the mode of communication used in the course enabled me to
identify the teacher-educators as the main interlocutors, while students had to adopt a
passive stance. In the lecture transcripts (see Appendix 4), for instance, almost all the time
was taken up by the teacher-educator’s lecturing. Students hardly participated in either
teacher-educator initiated conversation or student’s own initiative to seek clarification.
More so, my analysis would have more questions for reflection in order to develop themes
as guided by Taylor’s (2008) construal on how to develop themes from data. For instance,
following the same data in the lectures, I would then ask: what role does the student
teacher play in the lecture? What does the role taken up by the student mean in terms of
knowledge for teaching? From these questions, I would move on to develop themes. For
instance, in this particular case, the teaching of H&G was presented by the teacher-
educator as an encounter that only privileged learners’ familiarity or mastery of content
subject content. In other words, from the modelling provided in the HTM course, student
teachers were expected to adopt an approach to teaching that encouraged learners to
merely ‘receive’ or ‘imbibe’ what the teacher presented20. From the analysis of the
discourse of the lectures, therefore, it became apparent that there was a clear preference for
knowledge of teaching that seemed to concentrate on the construction of lesson objectives
and the systematic progression of lesson activities through phases that began with lesson
introduction, followed by lesson development, and ended with lesson conclusion. This
phenomenon was sufficiently corroborated by student teachers’ microteaching lessons. For
example, all the thirty lessons observed had lesson plans that were structured according to
a pre-determined format. As shown in Table 6.6.5 (below), the main components of the
format for the lesson plans were: introduction, lesson development and conclusion.
As a result, all lessons emphasised presentation skills, and hence the students’
microteaching lessons could be appropriately described as examples of ‘how to introduce,
develop and conclude a lesson’ without any reference to the specific school subject.
Inadvertently, this demonstrates that students had been led to view teaching as the ability
to present information to learners (see Appendix 9 for copies of lesson plans that detail the
procedural aspects of lesson presentation). 20 This is what their own lectures had implicitly required them to do – quietly take down notes from the educator. That this is noted in the lesson plans the student teachers prepared seems to confirm my supposition.
121
Table 6.6.5: Sample Summary Illustration of Student Teachers’ Lesson Plans
Topic: European Invasion of Africa & the Process of Colonisation.
Subtopic: The Process of Partition.
Class: Form Three
Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to:
Describe the process of partition.
Explain after the scramble.
Learning Aid(s): Map.
Reference(s): Hist. & Govt. pp. 148-9 by Kivuitu, W.
Stage 1 (3 minutes)
Introduction
Teacher Activity: Previewing the previous lesson; Previewing new words for terminologies; Define scramble.
Learner Activity: Taking notes; Observing; Answering questions.
Stage 2 (3 minutes)
Lesson Development
Teacher Activity: To state ways through which European powers acquired colonies; The consequence of the process of partition.
Learner Activity: Writing notes; Answering questions; Taking notes.
Stage 3 (1 minute)
Conclusion
Teacher Activity: Summarise the lesson and give an assignment.
Learner Activity: Asking questions; Taking down the assignment.
6.7 VALIDATION STRATEGIES
Creswell (2007) argues that qualitative research inheres with multiple types of or
approaches to validation, a process that attempts “to assess the ‘accuracy’ of the findings”
(p.206). Consequently, it is the responsibility of the researcher to employ an acceptable
strategy that sufficiently reflects the means adopted to attain an accurate representation of
the phenomenon that has been studied (see also Koro-Ljungberg, 2010). Broadly,
validation strategies focus on issues of trustworthiness, and variedly it has been referred to
as “authenticity, credibility, confirmability, internal coherence, transferability, reliability,
122
and significance” (Koro-Ljungberg, 2010, p. 603). In particular, Creswell and Miller
(2000) construe validity as the procedures a researcher adopts in order accurately to
represent research participants’ realities. Thus, in order for findings to reflect genuineness
of ‘the world out there’, there is need for certain procedures to be adopted (see also, Guba
& Lincoln, 1985; Maxwell, 1996; Merriam, 1998). It is on this account of how validation
can be enhanced that I employed strategies of methodological triangulation (Smit, 2000)
and audit trail (Creswell & Miller, 2000).
Methodological triangulation refers to a strategy that employs multiple methods, such as
observations, interviews, and documents about a phenomenon being investigated. Ideally,
what obtains from the multiple sources of data is an account that may be considered
validated as the different sources would have provided corroborating evidence. As has
been pointed out, the observation of lectures and microteaching lessons alongside the
questionnaire, document examination and interviews (with both teacher-educator and
students) combined to give a broad, deep and balanced description of the experience that
the HTM course provided for those who were being prepared to teach H&G at secondary
school. Progressively, the complimentary use of these methods (beginning with document
analysis and observation, through to questionnaires and back to observations and ending
with interviews), seemed to create a methodological pathway by which, from the pilot
study to the main study, there was opportunity to interrogate aspects of the HTM course
experience (in a succeeding phase) that may have instantiated the need for clarification
given a preceding phase of the study. In short, the doubts that may have been cast
following the examination of documents received attention during the observation of
lectures observations and microteaching lessons. In the same way, interviews provided an
opportunity for clarification to be sought about aspects that were not fully understood in
the lectures and microteaching lessons that were observed.
The second validation strategy employed in this study is what Creswell & Miller (2000)
refer to as audit trail, and which entails the provision of all research decisions and
activities as a way of making the exercise open to scrutiny. In this way, an audit trail is a
mechanism for ensuring that both the process and product of research adheres to
acceptable threshold criteria of trustworthiness (validity) in a researcher’s chosen research
paradigm (Guba & Lincoln, 1985). Therefore, as portions of the present chapter and
subsequent chapter of this report illustrate, a deliberate attempt has been made to
intersperse (in relevant sections) some of the decisions and activities that exemplify the
123
entire research process in terms of preparation, enactment and consolidation of the
findings. In addition, as a significant aspect of the auditing procedure, my supervisor has
played the role of an external auditor in guiding aspects of the descriptive, interpretive and
theoretical validity (see also Maxwell, 1996). These forms of validation attend to the
description of the social phenomenon studied in ways that reflect its lived realities (as
much as possible)21, the interpretation of the lived realities as constructed by its
participants (teacher-educators and students of the HTM course), and an explication of
existing literature that has been reviewed on the topic under study in ways that illustrate its
contextual status. In a way, this dimension to validating research procedures resulted in
another strategy, namely thick/rich description.
According to Denzin (1987), thick description entails accounts of phenomenon that are
deep, dense and detailed. Their purpose is to help the reader ‘get into an event’, gaining a
verisimilitude of what may have occurred. As the transcripts of the lectures and
microteaching lessons show, an attempt was made to transcribe what transpired during the
observations as closely as possible. In part, this approach to the study was instantiated by
its purpose to establish what went on in a teaching methods course (HTM course, in this
case). Therefore, in order to obtain such data and to have it represented in a way that
illustrated its lived experience (as encountered by students and teacher-educators), it was
necessary that it was captured in ways that were as close as possible to the original. The
tape recorder and video recording helped to achieve this. It is from this data resource that
the thick description employed in presenting the findings was realised. In the employment
of the thick description, therefore, an attempt to validate the product of the research was
made. In the chapters that follow, the themes that have been identified are discussed in
greater detail in relation to the collected data. They are ‘HTM course as telling’ (Chapter
7); and ‘HTM course as a practical act’ (Chapter 8).
6.8 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
On the whole, as a study that involved human subjects, I obtained clearance from the
Faculty of Education Higher degrees Ethics Committee of the University of Johannesburg.
I used this documentation to seek further permission from the relevant Dean of the School
21In part, this was made possible by the methods used to collect data such as tape recording and video-recording. This data was thereafter transcribed with an intention to represent the phenomenon as close as possible to what was experienced (see also Patton, 2002).
124
at the selected university in Kenya - I conducted my research. Further permission was
sought from the individual participants (teacher-educators and students). These
participants signed consent forms as proof of their voluntary involvement in the study
signed. This was after they had been assured of their liberty to withdraw at any point of the
research should they have felt compelled to do so by the circumstances of the study. They
were also assured of confidentiality. As a result, this research report does not in any way
depict anything that may be construed to directly implicate an identity of any participant.
Thus, the names used to refer to participants, where necessary, are imaginary. The audio
data collected during the fieldwork continue to be safely stored by the researcher.
6.9 SUMMARY
The focus of this chapter has been to provide a detailed elaboration of the research
methodology adopted in the study. Apart from an explication of the qualitative research
paradigm within which the study was located, there was also a discussion on the
ontological and epistemological tenets that undergird this orientation to conducting
research. In addition, there was a description of the research process that straddled from
the pilot phase through to the main study. How the data was collected, collated, arranged
and analysed was also presented. This was important in order to provide an audit trail that
is considered critical in studies that adopt the interpretative orientation (Yin, 2011). The
concluding section of the chapter presented the ethical issues that were considered during
the conduct of the study as well as in preparing the research report. In the reminder of this
report, chapters (Seven and Eight) in particular, I continue to discuss additional facets of
the data obtained.
125
CHAPTER SEVEN
HISTORY TEACHING METHODS COURSE AS TELLING
7.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents evidence from lectures on methods of teaching H&G, and
demonstrates how the History Teaching Methods (HTM) course communicated knowledge
that could be drawn on to teach it. The argument is that communication in lectures
reflected an emphasis on procedural aspects of teaching. Rather than support student
teachers’ understanding of the connection between the nature and scope of the objectives
for H&G, its content and the historical model and approach it promoted within the broader
discipline of History indicates that priority was largely placed on teaching how to prepare
a scheme of work, lesson plan, construct lesson objectives, present a lesson and evaluate
own performance. Student teachers were mainly helped to acquire some of the
foundational skills for teaching. The importance of an understanding that needs to
undergird what is crucial to learning how to teach History as a secondary school subject
seemed to be underplayed.
The HTM course had a relatively small number of students aged between 18 and 25,
mixed in terms of females and males. The venue was a small lecture or seminar room,
furnished with desks to accommodate double the number present during the observations.
Structurally, the entrance was located in the middle of the room. To get to the front, the
lecturer had to navigate through students’ desks to a table placed next to the chalkboard, as
the main instructional resource for the lecturer. It is in this setting that I sat at the back of
the room and recorded the lectures (see Figure 7.1 below.).
126
Figure 7.1.1: Sketch Illustration of Lecture Venue
Key: S – Student
The lectures were scheduled in the afternoon, beginning at 1pm and ending at about 2.30
pm. They focused on what would help students understand what to do when teaching
H&G. Topics discussed included: factors that influence the improvement of teaching and
learning; reasons for the review/revision of the H&G curriculum; factors to consider in the
development of a syllabus; and the criteria to use in evaluating a syllabus. According to the
lecturer, some of this information was supposed to have been presented in a different
course, namely on general methods of teaching22. The importance of the teacher’s ability
to, inter alia, analyse and interpret the syllabus, understand the conception and nature of a
subject, and discern how one would facilitate the achievement of the objectives for H&G,
was given special attention.
The lecture seemed to overlook helping the prospective teachers to engage critically with
these issues that were generally important when teaching History. Except for a few
instances, the lecturer expected prospective teachers to interpret and analyse the syllabus
(possibly at a later time) on their own.
7.2 DAY ONE OF OBSERVATION – 14/11/07 (1.00 pm - 3.00 pm)
In the lecture for the day, the focus was on two curricular documents, the syllabus and
scheme of work.
The following is a transcript of what happened in the lecture.
22 This is a course offered in the second year of the programme.
Lecturer
s s s s s s
s s s s s s
s s s s s s
s s s s s s
Researcher
127
Lecturer: Good afternoon? [Lecturer paused, for a while. Students took their
seats. He then continued.] Today we are privileged to have a visitor who is also a
colleague. He is here to learn with us. [Lecturer turned and faced me and said:]
Mwalimu [teacher] you are most welcome to our class.
Researcher: [From where I sat, at the back of the room, I rose from my seat and
responded:] ‘Asante sana’. [Thank you very much]. [I then sat down and the
lecturer began his lesson.]
Lecturer: Our lesson today is a continuation of what we began last week. We will
begin by looking at the Secondary School History Syllabus. Thereafter, we will
address the preparation of a Scheme of Work. These are subtopics of the main topic
on History in the Secondary School. [He wrote both the main topic and sub-topic
on the chalkboard.]
Let us begin by noting that the revised secondary school History syllabus was
introduced in schools from the beginning of 2003. The aim of the revised syllabus
is to improve the quality of teaching and learning of History. What, then, are some
of the factors that influence the improvement of teaching and learning? [There was
momentary silence. Lecturer then went on.]
A number of factors directly influence the improvement of teaching and learning.
For instance, teachers need to have the ability to analyse and interpret the syllabus.
[Silence.] From the analysis of a syllabus, teachers will be able to identify
characteristics unique to certain topics. I am talking about characteristics such as
some topics being linked to one another in some form of sequence. Do you know
about the spiral nature of content in a syllabus? Am I right? This must have been
covered in your second year in the general methods of teaching. [There was some
moment of silence followed by murmurs from students.]
Teaching can also be improved by teachers who creatively plan and execute their
tasks. What I mean here is that, teachers need to select appropriate methods of
teaching as well as employ effective learning resources or aids. [He slowed down
as if to respond to students’ earlier murmurs. Nothing happened and he
continued:]
Lastly, let us say that teachers can also improve teaching and learning by being
resourceful in their evaluation techniques. It is important that a variety of
128
assessment methods are used in teaching. Such a variety will go a long way in
helping teachers determine the extent and nature of learning attained by learners.
[Some silence as he shuffled through his notes].
Before we discuss the factors that are considered in the development of syllabus, I
want us to quickly look at what reasons contributed to the revision of the old
secondary school History syllabus. [There was a brief interlude of silence.]
There were four most noticeable drawbacks in the old History syllabus. [He paused
briefly before he went on. Students were busy writing.]
The first limitation...some topics in the old syllabus were difficult for learners. For
example, topics on the Growth of Parliamentary Systems in France and Britain;
International Trade Agreements, were not readily understood by the learners. [He
paused for a moment and glanced at what the students who were seated next to him
were writing in their note books.]
The second limitation…. There was an overlap of some topics both within and
across some subjects. A good example was the topic on World Religions. This
topic was taught in both Form 1 and 2. Interestingly, this topic was also taught in
another subject - CRE (Christian Religious Education). Other topics such as
Statutory Bodies and International Trade Agreements were also taught in
Geography and Business Studies.
Student: Sir, could you please repeat the last point?
Lecturer: Which point are you talking about? [There was laughter among
students. He then said:] I have said that some topics were found to overlap both
within and across subjects. For instance, the topic on World Religions was covered
in both Form 1 and 2. The same was also taught in CRE. Then I also said, topics
like Statutory Bodies and International Trade Agreements were also repeated in
other subjects such as Geography and Business Studies. Is that clear?
Student: Yes.
Lecturer: Let us look at the third limitation. The scope of the old syllabus was too
wide. This meant that it could not be covered within the prescribed time. [Lecturer
stopped reading his notes for a while in what appeared to be an opportunity to
allow students to take down notes.]
129
Lastly, the old syllabus was found not to have taken into consideration both the
contemporary and emerging issues in society. [Silence.]
Class, could someone tell us what are some of the contemporary issues in society
that you think had been excluded from the syllabus? [Students murmured before
one of them raised his hand to respond].
Yes!
Student: Sir, I am not so sure but could it be issues such as the HIV and AIDS
scourge [inaudible]... Drug Abuse and Corruption?
Lecturer: Yes. That is correct... We can then say that the old syllabus had failed to
include contemporary issues such as drug abuse, corruption and the HIV and AIDS
health epidemic. [Brief silence] Let us then turn to the factors that are critical in the
development of a syllabus.
What are some of the factors that must be considered in the development of a
History syllabus? [Silence.]
The first factor to consider is the nature and concept of History as a secondary
school subject. [Student raised his hand up]
Yes please! [Moved towards the student]
Student: Excuse me sir, could you repeat?
Lecturer: Ok. What I mean is that for you to develop a syllabus, you must
consider both the nature and concept of the subject. In other words you have to be
clear on what the subject covers as well as how it should be defined and taught. [He
paused for a while before he continued.]
The second factor to consider is the deliberate inclusion of specific topics in order
to achieve the desired objectives. For example, it is expected that through the study
of History, national unity will be realised. To achieve this objective, among other
topics, you will definitely have one on citizenship. What other topics would you
add? [Students were writing down notes. None responded to the question. There
was momentary silence before the lecturer proceeded.]
130
The third factor to consider in the development of a History syllabus is the
periodisation of historical events with reference to both their importance and
occurrence of events. [There was some pause as students continued to write.]
The fourth factor is a consideration of the abilities and potential of learners to
master the content under study. This factor is dependent on a teacher’s knowledge
of psychology and the context within which the syllabus is being implemented. [He
paused for a while to give students time to write the notes].
The fifth factor to consider is the teacher’s academic status and ability. In other
words, you need to have an answer to the question: what qualifications do the
teachers have? [Brief silence]
Another factor for consideration in the development of a syllabus is the general
methodology of teaching that is in use. For example, History has certain methods
of teaching that are considered useful. [Brief silence].
Textbooks and collateral material are also an important factor to consider. These
resources have an influence on the way a syllabus is implemented.
Certainly, school textbooks can influence how a subject is taught and learnt. [He
paused for a while to give students time to write the notes].
Last but not least, the nature of questions in the national examination also plays an
important role in the development of a syllabus.
Students: [Murmuring with some of them stretching their hands.]
Lecturer: I hope no one is tired as yet.
Students: [Laughter]
Lecturer: There is still some ground to cover. [He moved across the room looking
at some of the students’ notebooks. This took about a minute before he continued.]
At this juncture, I would like us to look at the qualities of a good syllabus. What
characteristics make a syllabus good for teaching and learning? [The question was
not directed to any specific student.]
A History syllabus can be considered good if it fulfils the following criteria:
[lecturer enumerated the criteria] One, it facilitates the achievement of the
131
objectives of teaching and learning History. [He paused for a while to give students
time to write notes].
Two, it is well planned, consistent and orderly. [He paused for a while to give
students time to write notes].
Three, it is flexible to allow for review and revision (where possible). [He paused
for a while to give students time to write notes].
Four, it contributes to a full life of the learner by catering for the cognitive,
affective and psychomotor development. [He paused for a while to give students
time to write notes].
Five, it is both appropriate and convenient to the locality wherein it is being
implemented. [He paused for a while to give students time to write notes].
Lastly, it allows learners to handle a wide range of historical evidence as well as
maintaining a balance between the local, regional, national, international and
contemporary history. [He moved close to a student seated next to the door and
talked to him. The student then walked out of the room. Lecturer went on:]
According to Shulman (1987), pedagogical reasoning is central to teaching. Specifically,
the components of this reasoning are the following: comprehension, transformation,
instruction, evaluation and reflection. As an iterative process, one begins with a particular
understanding of educational objectives, one’s learners, oneself, context and content
(subject). This is then transformed in ways that address the educational ends targeted and
the group of learners in question. The instruction phase is constituted by the actual
classroom activities that one would have planned for to encourage learners to engage with
the content. The evaluation phase is about finding out whether and how what was intended
was attained. Of importance, though, is the idea that evaluation does not have to wait until
one has completed instruction, rather it is on-going. The phase naturally leads to reflecting
on what has been done with questions of what else could be done to make the experiences
more amenable to the learners. Often, Shulman (1987) argues, this phase results in another
level of comprehension. In short, the exercise of pedagogical reasoning is onerous, and
therefore requires systematic attention.
However, in this lecture, especially the explanation on the syllabus objectives, there was
little student engagement with the content being taught. Information was passed on without
consideration or interrogation of what it implied for History teaching or subsequently
132
H&G. This was the case, irrespective of Meuwissen’s (2005,p. 254) view on the role of
teacher-educators as “…to illuminate the connections between purpose and practice and
push … students to conceptualize … instruction as a process of acting on broader
educational aims …” Therefore, teaching that aims at fostering an understanding of the
syllabus and role in specifically History teaching at school level ought to have encouraged
an inquiry and reflection on issues that constituted the content of lectures. That there was
very little attention given to the objectives in this syllabus, in the light of Seixas (2006)
construal of the role History plays, is likely to have failed to make the students aware of
the importance of the conceptual stance that needed to be taught in H&G as a school
subject and its place within the discipline. As the next excerpt of the same lecture will
show, the teacher-educator seemed to assume that student teachers did not have to engage
critically with key organising principles of teaching school history. The lecture continued
as follows:
Lecturer: So far, we have looked at a number of aspects related to the syllabus in
general and the secondary school History syllabus in particular. I now wish to look
at a document which is also very important to a teacher.
This is the Scheme of Work. ... Who can define for us what a scheme of work is?
.... What is a scheme of work? [A Student raises a hand.] Yes please. [He moves
close to the student.]
Student: I think it can be defined as a teacher’s plan for teaching that shows what
is to be taught, [……] why it should be taught […..] and how it should be taught.
Lecturer: Correct. That is good. In addition to what John has said, we could add
that, a scheme of work is a professional document detailing with what will be
covered within a specified frame of school calendar. It is subject to regular review
for purposes of updating. [Lecturer pauses for a while.]
In the preparation of a scheme of work, a History teacher is supposed to
scrutinise the syllabus and interpret the nature of relationship that needs to be
developed among a set of three interrelated goals. These are the national goals
of education, the objectives of secondary school education and the general
objectives of teaching and learning History…[Own emphasis]
The teacher is also supposed to focus on the following components:
133
The specific objectives for each topic and sub-topic (where applicable); The
teaching and learning activities; The references that are recommended for teaching;
The teaching and learning resources; The mode or modes of assessment;
A teacher should also attend to making prompt remarks immediately he or she
completes teaching a lesson...
Let us add that, a scheme of work estimates the length of time each topic may take
as influenced by the unique characteristics of the class, complexity of the topic and
methods to be used...
In the preparation of a scheme of work, a teacher is also supposed to consider the
time that will be lost to public holidays, school half-term breaks, school and other
official functions such as school fundraising, school tests, lengthy assemblies,
sports or games, school guests, and other incidental occurrences....
Now...it is important for you to realise that this is the format [of the scheme of
work] you will be expected to use during your teaching practice. [He sketched the
format of the scheme of work on the chalkboard.]
The columns are nine. They are for the following items:
Date; Topic; Objectives; Teacher’s Activities; Learner’s Activities; Assessment;
Teaching and Learning Resources; References; and Remarks.
[The illustration below is what students had to take down in their note books.]
Table 7.1.1: Scheme of Work Format Illustration
Date
Topic
Objectives
Teacher activities
Learner A
ctivities
Teaching /Learning R
esources
Assessm
ent
References
Rem
arks
Lecturer: Lastly, I would like you to take down this assignment. Design a scheme
for one week for any secondary school class of your choice for History. Otherwise,
have a good afternoon. [Emphasis added.]
134
For pre-service teachers, the methods course served as a site or context for engagement. It
had to guide them on how to integrate subject matter and instructional approaches that
promote students’ access to the grammar and logic that had to be used for teaching
History. Specifically, the objectives for H&G implied that content (subject matter/ topics)
was not an end in itself but had to be used to develop critical competences for
understanding historical content, and students needed to be helped to develop to help their
learners’ explanations required by history. However, as the example of the excerpt from
the lecture shows, there was no engagement aimed at developing what Hirst (1974) refers
to as the forms of thought required by, at least, the objectives of H&G. Teaching H&G
required an understanding of how its content had to be dealt with by teachers in order to
realise deliberation and problem-solving (Waghid, 2006) in History, yet the teacher-
educator seemed unaware of this or of its implications for putting together a scheme of
work. Even though he had mentioned the goals that needed consideration when preparing a
scheme of work, the third as the objectives of teaching and learning History, there was no
engagement that clarified the significance of these goals in relation to History as a form of
knowledge that needed to be dealt with in particular ways (see Hirst, 1974).
He also presented a format of the lesson plan that students would use during their teaching
practice without due consideration of these purposes of teaching history at school level,
and specifically H&G, as follows:
Lecturer: I want us to look at the main features of a lesson plan.... The features we
are going to discuss are drawn from the teaching practice format. ...I want to focus
on the instructional objectives. [He pauses then asks:] What is an instructional
objective? [After a brief span of time, he goes on.] Say that, it is a learning
objective that clearly describes or specifies what a learner would do as a result of
having learnt what was taught. [He pauses for a while.] It is what an observer can
see the learner doing in order to judge whether or not learning has been
achieved...Let us reflect on the following example. Listen carefully. [He then reads
out.] The learners should be know the three reasons why the Portuguese came to
the East African Coast? [There is laughter among the students. As this fizzles down,
he asks:]
How will an observer see that the learners’ know? [There is more laughter by
students.] ...
135
I want to emphasise … state objectives for a history lesson. [He paused.]
...Listening is not considered as an activity in History lessons. It is important for
you to note that an instructional objective is a forecast of what a teacher intends
learners to do by the end of a lesson.... Why are instructional objectives important?
[rhetorical question. Teacher-educator went on to say:]
Let us look at the following reasons:
One, instructional objectives provide guidance on the selection of subject
content. For example, in stating that ‘By the end of the lesson learners should be
able to identify five or more causes of food shortages…’, the teacher will have
been able to select the content of his or her lesson that will make this possible. [He
paused for a while. Students continued to write.]
... Second, instructional objectives help a teacher to sequence content. ... by stating
objectives in parts, a certain order of ‘content delivery’ will be followed by the
teacher. For example, when you state your objectives in the following way, ‘By the
end of the lesson, learners should be able to: (i) Explain three meanings of the term
history; and (ii) explain the types or branches of History, you will have provided an
order by which you will present your content during lesson ‘delivery’. [He paused
before he continued.]
... Another reason for the importance of an instructional objective is that it helps in
the allocation of teaching time. [He kept quiet for a moment.] For example, the
teacher is able to distinguish the content that is either more demanding or less
demanding and thereby allocate time accordingly... Finally, you can also say that
instructional objectives provide feedback to the teacher about the targeted or
observed behaviour. For instance, in a lesson where the teacher intends to have
learners locate, at least, six pre-historic sites on the map of Kenya, it will be
necessary to have a map of Kenya available so that this objective is attained. [He
paused. He then went on to say:]
... Having looked at the uses of instructional objectives, I now wish to concentrate
on the specific characteristics of an instructional objective. In other words, what
guides you in the construction of an instructional objective? [There was a short
moment of silence.]
136
There are three main characteristics that must be considered in the construction of
an instructional objective. They are:
Terminal behaviour: An objective should be stated in measurable and observable
terms. The teacher clearly describes the learning outcome by the use of action
verbs. For example, words like select, describe, state, trace, identify, explain,
discuss, compare, name, list, analyse, etc.
Avoid the use of vague terms or implicit verbs such as know, appreciate, grasp,
think, understand, and learn. [He paused for a while. Students continued to write.]
Test conditions: This characteristic refers to the limitations or restrictions that are
placed on learners so as to clearly indicate under which conditions the sought after
experience should occur.
For instance, an objective gives a test condition as: By the end of the lesson… or
Using a map, the learner should be able to locate six pre-historic sites… [He
paused for a while. Students continued to write.]
Level of performance: An instructional objective should clearly indicate a
standard of performance that is acceptable as proof of learning. For example, (a)
the learner should be able to state at least five rights of a child…; (b) By the end of
the lesson, the learner should be able to:
(i) describe the causes of the Maji Maji uprising.
(ii) State at least six results of the Maji Maji uprising...
This section of the lecture was intended to clarify the concept of instructional objective.
The teacher-educator had to indicate how students were supposed to develop instructional
objectives for their lessons. Examples from the H&G syllabus (topics) were used.
However, it was not clear how students were supposed to link the construction of lesson
objectives to the broader (over-arching) objectives for H&G that the instructional activities
needed to anticipate. It is thus reasonable to argue that the lecture did not clarify what
MacArthur (2004) regards as the role of a school subject’s objectives in a methods course.
It was from these objectives that strategies appropriate to creating instructional activities
ought to have been analysed. In this particular instance, it was necessary for the student
teachers to be shown how the construction of instructional objectives for a lesson would
137
reflect consideration of the behaviour suggested by the H&G objectives and thereafter
determine their implications for developing an understanding of History as a discipline.
Methods courses are supposed to raise awareness of, amongst other things, the teacher in
relation to the school subject curriculum (Thornton, 2001). They have to guide student
teachers on how lessons can promote a logic and curricular orientation that serves
particular goals (cf., Deng, 2009; John, 1996; Ma, 1999). Although the teacher-educator
appreciated that the objectives for H&G had a role to play in the HTM course, evidence
from the lecture shows that little direct attention was given to these aspects. Thus, even
though the lecture addressed how one could plan to teach, this focus sidestepped what
should have been crucial for prospective H&G teachers to be sensitised to. The lecture
seemed to underplay modelling how the objectives could be translated into teaching
materials and tasks. Shulman (1987, p. 9) explains this phenomenon in the following way:
“if a teacher is to know the territory of teaching, then it is the landscape of such
materials... with which he or she must be familiar” (emphasis added). Prospective teachers
needed to understand the syllabus they were supposed to implement in ways that would
help them know how to translate subject matter through procedures of simplification and
reduction, or what Ball and Bass (2000) refer to as ‘granularity’. Such an understanding
would help develop insights about how they were expected to translate subject matter into
instructional activities commensurate with the requirements of the subject objectives and
History as a discipline.
The H&G objectives require learners to critically engage with historical knowledge in
order to understand the essence of being Kenyan in the context of multi-ethnicity, among
other educational ends. Such objectives, hence, approximate to the understanding Skemp
(1978) refers to as ‘relational’. Therefore, for meaningful teaching, it was important that
student teachers not only understood why the topic was included in the syllabus but also
how it needed to be taught to reflect what the objective implied and would fulfil as the
purpose of History as a school subject. Students needed more guidance. According to
Adler and Goodman (1986), failure by methods courses to be critical about teaching has
led some critics simply to regard them as inconsequential in teacher preparation. Thus, to
address such deep-seated criticism the lectures needed to transcend the literal and deal with
the behavioural assumptions in the syllabus (cf., Schneider & Ingram, 1990).
As a policy tool, the syllabus needed to be used as a context for prospective teachers to
learn how content could be used to facilitate the attainment of the H&G objectives and
138
teaching history as a school subject. This was necessary, as Harley and Wedekind (2003)
have argued, to make teacher education meaningful. Therefore, the secondary school H&G
curriculum (syllabus) as a policy tool ought to have been examined in ways that would
give the prospective teachers an opportunity to identify the professional knowledge and
skills they needed to develop, and to be competent history teachers. However, except for
intermittent references to brief sections of the H&G syllabus during the lectures, no clear
attention was evident on the role of the objectives for H&G with history that were
supposed to be the core thrust of the methods course, if student teachers were to gain from
it (cf., John, 1996; Thornton, 2001). The teacher-educator seemed to have operated with a
tacit understanding and, largely, an uncritical awareness of what teaching H&G required.
Thus, it was highly unlikely that he would have critically examined the syllabus (content)
as a policy tool in order to help student teachers gain useful insights on what they needed
to teach history effectively. Consequently, it is reasonable to argue that the HTM course
was unable to provide prospective teachers with sufficient opportunity to engage
meaningfully with the syllabus as a policy tool that was crucial for the attainment of the
curriculum policy for H&G.
In particular, the objectives of H&G presuppose the adoption of alternative history
teaching approaches that value learner participation. According to Biddulph and Addey
(2004), history teaching that allows this is preferred to that in which they sit back and
passively listen to a teacher’s narration. Barton and Levstik (1997) equate the former to
‘doing history’, unlike the latter which could be referred to as listening to or reading about
history. This alternative conception of history teaching could only have been tried out with
the student teachers had there been the critical engagement with curriculum policy. As the
evidence from the lecture shows, this was not the case. Instead, there seemed to have been
more attention given to the ‘how to’ (procedures of teaching) to the exclusion of the ‘what
to’ (subject matter and its concomitant features). This aspect of the lecture confirms Bain
and Mirel’s (2006, p. 213) criticism that methods courses have tended to “render
disciplinary knowledge almost irrelevant to teaching...” This is a setback for teaching, as
understanding that should have been central to the student teachers’ education. The next
lecture further confirms the point.
139
7.3 DAY TWO OF OBSERVATION OF LECTURES – 21/11/07 (1.00-3.00 pm)
The second class observation was held a week after the first. The following is a transcript
of how the lecture began:
Lecturer: Good afternoon? We will continue with what we began last week. We
are still looking at the topic on History in the Secondary School Curriculum.
However, while last week we discussed the syllabus and scheme of work, today I
want us to look at Lesson Planning. [He writes the topic on the chalkboard and
continues:]
I am sure you covered this topic during your second year in CET 102. What is a
lesson plan? [Two students raise their hands. The lecturer allows one of them to
respond.]
Student 1: I can say that […] a lesson plan involves all […] the activities that a
teacher implements in class.
Lecturer: Yes. [After a pause, he allows the second student to respond]. Yes
please.
Student 2: I think that […] a lesson plan […] is an outline of what a teacher guides
learners to do during a lesson.
Lecturer: That is a good trial... Is there anyone else with a different idea? [There is
silence. He then goes on:]
From your responses, it is clear that you have a good idea of what a lesson plan is.
However, let us note the following. [Reads from his lecture notes.]
A lesson plan is a formulated approach to teaching and learning showing clearly all
activities that take place during the lesson...
Take note, I am emphasising both the teacher’s and learners’ activities. [Silence.]
A lesson plan spells out the order and structure in which activities are going to
occur and follow one another.
It can also be viewed as a systematic sequence of instructional activities which are
designed to lead to the achievement of a given set of instructional objectives.
[Repeats what he had read out.]
140
It is a teacher’s instructional firm plan of action although not rigidly followed.
[There is a brief interlude of silence. Students are writing. Lecturer then goes on.]
Lecturer: From this explanation, it is clear that as student teachers you must
consider a lesson plan as an important component of your work. [Pauses.] Can we
then look at the importance of a lesson plan? [Writes the sub-heading on the
chalkboard.]
Let us begin by noting that a lesson plan serves as evidence of careful pre-
instructional thinking and preparation by the teacher. [He repeats this
statement.]
First, a lesson plan serves as evidence of a careful pre-instructional thinking and
preparation by the teacher... [After some interlude of silence, he continues to
enumerate.]
Secondly, a lesson plan enables familiarity with content. The teacher is able to
visualise some of the most appropriate ways of delivering content and the sequence
of its flow. [This is read out from the notes steadily, like a dictation script.]
The third point to consider is that, a lesson plan helps to clarify the rationale
behind covering a particular topic. Normally, this is exemplified in the specific
objectives that a teacher sets for his or her lesson. Let me give an example. [Walks
towards the chalkboard.]
In Form One, you have a topic on - The Meaning of History. Is it not? [After
writing the topic on the chalkboard, pauses for a while.]
...For your lesson of the day, the objective would have been stated as: by the end
of the lesson, the learner should be able to present three different meanings of the
term – history. [He pauses and looks at what he has written on the chalkboard. He
then poses a question:]
Do you then see how this objective attempts to give a rationale for the lesson? [No
responses from students who seem pre-occupied with writing].
Let us go on and say that, a lesson plan also serves as a guide or a roadmap for
the teacher on the content and strategies to adopt when teaching... With a
lesson plan, therefore, a teacher is able to avoid vagueness and irrelevancies...
141
The plan guides a teacher on how much time to spend on an activity in the course
of the duration of a lesson... Hence, we can say, the teacher becomes very
systematic in his or her conduct. [He looks around the room. Majority of the
students are writing. Lecturer goes on to read from his notes.]
A lesson plan also serves as a memory bank for the teacher. [He pauses for a
while. Students continue to write.]
It reminds the teacher of the main ideas and facts that need to be focused on during
instruction. [He takes another break from talking.]
It is also an important guide to the teacher over the actions to take at every
stage of the lesson. In this way, it helps the teacher to ensure orderliness,
thoroughness and logical flow of the content in a lesson. [He writes the words
‘orderliness’, ‘thoroughness’ and ‘logical flow’ on the chalkboard.]
In addition, it helps a teacher to map out all methods and resources that he or
she proposes to use in the classroom. [Pauses]
Last but not least, the lesson plan gives security and confidence to the teacher.
As a result, it helps one to improve performance over and above being the basis for
future planning of subsequent lessons. [He pauses for a while.]
7.3.1 Sub-topic: Introducing a Lesson: ‘what should be considered?’
This session of the lecture started off with a question. The teacher-educator sought the
indulgence of students when he said the following:
Lecturer: After looking at what you must incorporate in your instructional
objective, let us then move on to lesson introduction. What should you put into
consideration as you introduce a lesson? [He pauses for a while before he says:]
From the knowledge you acquired in the course CTE 012, how do you introduce a
lesson? How would you introduce a lesson on symbols of national unity? [A
student raises a hand up to respond.] Yes please! [He had triggered their memory.
A number of them raised their hands up, ready to respond. Two of them were given
a chance].
This is how the activity went on:
142
Student 1: I would use the national flag.
Lecturer: Yes. He would use a flag. How else can one introduce a lesson on
symbols of national unity? [A student raises a hand up to respond.] Yes!
Student 2: I will introduce my lesson by singing one of the patriotic songs.
Lecturer: Interesting! Hoping that you are good at singing! [There is laughter
among students.]
Ok. A lesson introduction is important because it provides for the organisation of a
favourable learning atmosphere.
An introduction should be creatively developed so that it stimulates learner interest,
captures and sustains learners focus towards new material that is soon to be
delivered. [He pauses for a while.]
After this brief preliminary interaction between the students and the teacher-educator on
how to introduce a lesson, it was time for the details to be provided. The educator’s
presentation is provided below:
Lecturer: Ok. A lesson introduction is important because it provides for the
organisation of a favourable learning atmosphere.
An introduction should be creatively developed so that it stimulates learner
interest, captures and sustains learners focus towards new material that is
soon to be delivered.
The introduction component of a lesson is very important because it opens up the
context for learning.
A well thought introduction helps to stimulate learner interest, capture and sustain
their focus toward new content.
A good lesson introduction, therefore, requires imagination and creativity from
the teacher. How, then, does a teacher make his or her introduction
captivating? [There is silence. Lecturer then goes on.]
I have a number of examples that can be used to introduce your lessons depending
on the topic you will be teaching.
For example, you can have a brief review of the previous lesson that aims at
linking that content to the new one.
143
When you intend to use this approach, make sure both the previous and the
present content have a clear relationship.
Do not try to force linkages where there are none. [He temporarily stops talking as
students continue writing. He then goes on.]
Your lesson can also be introduced by asking a question that draws upon the
learners’ experiences in a given setting.
An introduction can also involve a review of new words or terms from either a
previous lesson or a completely new context. [He pauses for a while.] Are we
together?
Students: Yes.
Lecturer: Right. Lesson introduction can also involve the use of a narrative or
say a short story.
It is important that you pick on an interesting and captivating story that has a
bearing on what will be taught.
Keep your narrative as simple as possible.
Do not create a complex story that is difficult to understand.
Use simple language and base it on the learners’ experiences.
Are there any other ways in which you can introduce your History lessons?
Student: Yes. A teacher could use a song to introduce a lesson. [There is laughter.]
Lecturer: That is correct. Songs are good in capturing learner attention.
However, you must be very selective and relevant.
Can we have another different way in which we can introduce a lesson? [There is
momentary silence.]
Finally, let us also add that we can introduce our lessons by role-playing or
dramatisation.
Add that, an introduction of a lesson can be an outline that shows what will be
learnt. [A student takes a duster placed next to the chalkboard and cleans it.
Teacher-educator moves away from the chalkboard. He remains quiet as he looks
at his notes.] Thank you.
144
7.3.2 Sub-topic: Teaching how to present the main body of a lesson: ‘lesson
development’
The lesson moved on to another phase when the teacher-educator introduced the section he
referred to as ‘lesson development’. Alongside an illustration of the lesson plan’s format,
students were taken through a step-wise procedure in the enactment of a lesson. The
following is an extract from the lesson:
Lecturer: Let us then look at the next section of the lesson plan.
This is the lesson development or the main body. It is the part of your lesson that
focuses on the presentation of content.
In this section you give details of the content and sequence of activities.
It is therefore a section of the lesson that takes up almost all the time.
In the format we require you to use during your teaching practice, there are
two parallel columns.
These are the teacher and learner activity columns.
The educator sketched the format of the chalkboard as illustrated below.
Table 7.3.1: Chalkboard Illustration by Teacher-educator
Teacher Activity Column
Learner Activity Column
After the illustration, he went on to give the following details about the two columns.
Lecturer: As you can see, [pointing to the illustration of a lesson plan on the
chalkboard], you divide your plan into two main parts. What are these parts or
sections?
Students: [About four or five students, almost simultaneously, respond by reading
from the chalkboard illustration]. Teacher’s Activity [….. ] Learner’s Activity.
145
Lecturer: Correct. Both the teacher and learner activity columns are very
important.
As a teacher, you will be expected to do something or initiate some activity.
At the same time, learners on their part will also have to respond or react to
what you initiate for them.
In this part of the lesson [pointing at the chalkboard illustration], you now address
the key points. What is the topic of our sample lesson for form one?
Student 1: [Reading from his notes]. The topic is - The meaning of History.
Student 2: Sir, I think the topic is introduction to History and Government. But for
this particular lesson, it is a subtopic on the meaning of History.
Lecturer: Yes. That is an interesting observation. [….] You are correct.
Class, what your colleague has observed is quite correct.
The distinction he has made is also shown in the syllabus.
Our lesson is on the meaning of History and Government. So, in this part of the
lesson [pointing at the chalkboard illustration], which we have allocated fifteen
minutes, your focus is to get the learners define the two concepts: History and
Government.
This was a section of the lesson that preceded the conclusion. The lecture then moved onto
lesson conclusion, as demonstrated below.
7.3.3 Sub-topic: Teaching how to conclude a lesson: ‘tying up the loose ends of a
Lesson’
In this section of his lecture, the teacher-educator emphasised the importance of a teacher
consolidating what he or she would have covered in the lesson’s main body section as
follows:
Lecturer: It is important for you to know that a lesson’s conclusion is critical in
teaching.
Why do I say so?” [Stops talking for a moment, there is silence in the room, after
which proceeds to say that:]
146
A lesson’s conclusion is a moment of tying up the loose ends. It is a moment
that I could refer to as a time for consolidation.
The teacher is interested in bringing together different parts of the lesson. [Takes
another brief break from talking, looks at the students and asks:]
Using your knowledge from TCE 012, how would you conclude a lesson?
[However, does not wait for a response from the students and reads on from the
notes:]
There are a number of ways through which a teacher can conclude a lesson. For
example, you can use a recapitulation of the main points of a lesson to wind up
what you have taught.
Student: [Raises a hand up.] Sir, could you repeat that?
Lecturer: [Pauses for a while, looks at students and then continues to say:] What I
mean here is that you conclude your lesson by restating the main points. [Facing
the student who had asked the question, he asks:] Is it clear?
Student: Yes. [Nods the head.]
Lecturer: You can also conclude a lesson by allowing learners to ask questions
about what they may have failed to understand. [Silence.]
Under normal circumstances, there will be at least one or two learners who will
need some clarification on what would have been presented during a lesson.
As a keen observer, a teacher should be able to figure out these learners.
If they are not ready to ask, pose some questions, probe them.
Teacher questions are also important, particularly, when they are focused on
instructional objectives. Ask students questions that help you to ascertain
whether or not you have achieved your objectives.
Remember, you will have stated your objectives in the format of: By the end of the
lesson learners should be able to state or explain or describe ….
In your conclusion of the lesson, therefore, you should pose specific questions that
help you establish how your teaching was successful or not.
147
A lesson can also be concluded by way of an assignment. Depending on what
you figure out as useful in helping learners get a better understanding of the topic
you will have covered, you could give them work to do during their free or study
time.
Assignments are an important component of the teaching and learning process.
They reinforce the learning activity.
Finally, you could also conclude your lesson by mentioning the topic of the next
session you will be meeting them. For example, you could say: Class, in our next
lesson, we will look at the topic: The Development of Agriculture in Kenya during
the Colonial Period (Emphasis added.)
At this point of the lecture, students were beginning to show signs of fatigue from lengthy
moments of writing notes, but the educator only acknowledged this and was not about to
end the lecture. In getting his way, he commented: “Eh, I can see signs of fatigue. [Some
students laugh.] We are about to finish today’s work. Just bear it for a few more minutes.
Let us then look at the self – evaluation component.” This made him have his way. He
posed a question as had become his manner of presenting: “What does self-evaluation
require from a teacher?” There was no response from the students and therefore he
continued to explain as indicated below.
Lecturer: The purpose of self-evaluation is to provide a balanced critical
analysis of a teacher’s lesson. [….] This requires self-interrogation.
You need to ask yourself questions such as: Have I achieved my lesson’s
objectives?
Why have I failed to attain my objectives?
Have I been able to attain the quality and depth of subject content?
Have I used suitable methods of instruction? [Lecturer pauses for a short while
then asks:]
Are you all following? [There is Silence. Students are busy writing.] Can we
continue?
Students: [Responding in unison.]. Yes.
148
Lecturer: Ask yourself: Have I availed and used suitable quality resources and
tools to assess learner achievement?
Remember, [….] this is a professional interrogation that is supposed to help you to
establish both the successes and mishaps of a lesson.
Most importantly, these are questions that you pose to yourself immediately after a
lesson.
From the answers, you should be able to improve on the planning and
implementation of your subsequent lessons (Emphasis added).
7.3.4 Sub-topic: Teaching about a sample lesson plan: ‘watch-out, soon it will be
your turn’
In the final section of the lecture, the teacher-educator guided students through a sample
lesson plan he had prepared. As indicated in the extract that follows, this example was
supposed to be useful for students when they prepared for both microteaching and teaching
practice perhaps, inadvertently, the teacher-educator appeared to be encouraging students
to adopt it as a guide for their own future work.
Lecturer: Ok, let us have an example of a lesson plan.
I want us to use a history lesson of a Form One class.
I am giving this example because soon I will expect you to practice this during
your micro-teaching and teaching practice.
149
Table 7.3.4.1: Teacher-educator Illustration
Stage Time Teacher Activity Learner Activity
I - Introduction 5 Highlight the demands and expectations of the course (i.e. more of like course outline).
Draw on learners’ primary school experiences on learning History.
Learners take note of course requirements.
Generate information about History’s definition and aims.
Linking this to the meaning of History.
II – Lesson Development
III
15
15
Study of Man’s Past; Record of past events; It’s a form of inquiry; It deals with the relation of cause and effect
Ask pupils to explain meaning of Government.
Guide pupils towards different types of government.
Identify different aspects of meaning of History.
Make notes.
List branches of History
Explain characteristics/features of History, e.g. History as a way of thinking; History as ideas, etc.
Provide answers e.g. It refers to ruling, controlling.
Identify different types of government, e.g. democratic, aristocratic, monarchical.
IV 5 Highlight main points of lesson
Allow pupils to ask questions
Ask (teacher) questions
Give an assignment
Mention the next lesson on Sources of Information in History
Answering teacher questions on meaning of History and Government
Seek clarification on areas of the lesson that they failed to understand
Take down assignment
Lecturer: Is there anyone with a question concerning the lesson plan? [There is
silence in the room with some students looking at their notes and some of them
looking at the illustration on the chalkboard. Lecturer then moves close to a
student and asks:]
150
My friend, will you be able to develop a lesson plan like the one we have here on
the chalkboard? [Student looks at the illustration for a few seconds and then
replies:]
Student: Yes sir. (….) I will.
Lecturer: Good. (….) Is there anyone with a question on what we have covered
today? [He looks round the room before he continues:]
Ok, if there is no one with a question...let us then end our lecture for today. Thank
you.
In this part of the lecture, planning for teaching was driven by the teacher-educator’s
metaphor of a ‘road-map’, which prioritised procedures for planning for teaching.
Integrating the substantive and procedural knowledge components of H&G ought not to
have been overlooked. According to John (2006), pre-service teachers need to be exposed
to alternative lesson planning models to highlight the reality of teaching as a multifaceted
activity. Variables that impact on it stem from a host of elements, inter alia, teacher,
learner, content, context, and resources. However, the lectures in this study ignored what
would have been a useful opportunity for student teachers to reflect critically on the
content and determine how it cohered and helped them understand what to do when
teaching History and, in particular, for the objectives of H&G. Instead, as the lectures
showed, they underplayed the key principles related to developing knowledge and skills in
History. Therefore, it can be assumed that the methods of teaching in the HTM course
seemed to be underpinned by an understanding that the objectives of H&G would be
attained through the generic instructional theory that it had employed. Students were not
made aware of how what had to be taught required adaptation dependent on the essentials
of History and variables encountered in the context of teaching. The multifaceted nature of
this context was crucial to acknowledge.
Drawing on Shulman (1987), it is thus reasonable to argue that this methods course needed
to serve as an important context for raising prospective teachers’ sensitivity to the context-
bound nature of pedagogical content knowledge. The reasons for the procedures of how to
plan and teach lessons ought to have been clarified on the basis of History and the H&G
objectives and context. This is the essence of Shulman’s (1987) construct of pedagogical
content knowledge as an amalgam of subject content and other factors. However, from the
topics taught it was not possible to discern the raison d’être of the methods course.
151
In general, from the lectures, it is evident that student teachers were expected to learn how
to teach through a direct (simple) ‘tapping’ into ‘a bag of tricks’ for teaching (cf., Doyle,
1983; Thornton, 2001). While the importance of structural features of a lesson such as
lesson introduction, development and conclusion should not be underplayed, it is still
reasonable to argue that this methods course also ought to have attended deliberately to the
reasons for teaching History and H&G. Leinhardt’s (1994) orientation to teaching that
emphasises that the subject begins with interrogating what constitutes explanation in
History, such as an event, an institution, a system and an idea, is invaluable in this regard
for the explanatory pathways that may be generated to enhance effective teaching. It
requires the teacher to segment instructional tasks in progressive forms as necessitated by
the content’s inherent logic. This orientation to teaching history is also underscored in a
number of studies (Barton & Levstik, 1997 - ‘doing history’; Lee, 2005 – multiple
perspectives as basis of understanding; Seixas, 2006 – benchmarks for historical
understanding; and, van Boxtel & van Driel, 2008 – historical reasoning).
Zumwalt’s (1989) description of traditional teacher preparation programmes captures
clearly what the HTM course offered student teachers. It helps us to identify the possible
source of discrepancy in the teaching preparation process and explain the dissonance
amongst the disciplines, school curriculum requirements and teacher preparation. The
focus of the lectures tended to be on the micro-level rather than a macro-level conception
of teaching. Rather than locating individual sub-topics in the broader context of History
and the H&G objectives, they were microscopic in outlook, thus failing to raise students’
awareness of the importance of the curricular requirements of H&G in relation to History.
This is an approach that overlooked the coherence with H&G objectives that were not a
simple aggregation of the lessons that would lead to the realisation of these objectives, but
teaching that was undergirded by a clear conception of what should inform instructional
tools within History as a form of knowledge (see Hirst, 1974).
7.4 SUMMARY
This chapter presents an overview of the communicative aspect of teaching the HTM
course. The argument brought forth is that; during the process of lecturing student-
teachers, emphasis is laid on the procedural aspects of teaching rather than enhance their
understanding of the connection between the objectives, contents and models of teaching
152
H&G. Therefore, a gap exists in the process of preparing student-teachers during their
lectures. Further, pedagogical reasoning, a core aspect of learning how to teach seems to
be overlooked in the process of preparing student-teachers. The chapter propagates the
idea that the lecturing process of the HTM course is, to an extent, flawed. At the end of the
course, student- teachers fail to realise the importance of the conceptual stance needed to
be taught in the school subject and their role within the discipline. This is explained
through the illustrations presented in the chapter of data collected through observation of
lectures.
In essence, it is clear that in a context wherein student-teachers were expected to learn how
to teach H&G to develop a particular consciousness, there was little attention given to,
inter alia, a critical engagement with what ought to have been central to nurturing such a
consciousness in of the teaching tools and procedures that had to be relied upon for
teaching the subject both as part of History as a form of knowledge and school subject in
particular. A restricted orientation to teaching that the HTM course afforded student
teachers is clarified further in the next chapter by examining micro-lessons that served as
students’ reflection of learning. These lessons seem to highlight this orientation to learning
to teach H&G among student teachers in the HTM course.
153
CHAPTER EIGHT
HISTORY TEACHING METHODS COURSE AS A PRACTICAL ACT
8.1 INTRODUCTION
In this chapter student teachers’ microteaching lessons are examined to establish the
knowledge and skills they have developed to teach H&G. The discussion draws on the
lessons and feedback given to identify the nature of their PCK. The discussion is supported
by data drawn from interviews conducted with a teacher-educator and student teachers
involved in the HTM course. How students used charts, maps and models as additional
media that could support their communication of educational content was important. The
use of media included the use of chalkboard. It was a requirement that an outline (sketch)
of chalkboard use be included. As shown in Table 8.1 (below), all lesson plans bore the
same chalkboard outline:
Table 8.1.1: Chalkboard Plan
Rough Work Form/Class: Date:
Subject: History and Government
Illustrations
Topic:
Subtopic:
Lesson main points:
The micro-teaching sessions were interspersed with scheduled lectures that introduced
students to the skills they were expected to acquire and practice. With this curriculum
organisation, the entire group of third year students in the BEd programme attended a
general lecture (one per week) that introduced them to a specified skill required to be
practiced during the microteaching session. According to the schedule, the skills ranged
from lettering and chalkboard use, graphics and illustrations, set induction and closure
through to stimulus variation, questioning and reinforcement (see Appendix 8). The
154
lectures on skills were presented by different lecturers who taught the different method
courses, namely, History and Government (H&G), Mathematics, Geography, Business
Studies, Religious Studies, English, and Kiswahili, offered in the teacher preparation
programme. On average, there were 350 students who attended the lectures drawn from all
the courses. Lectures were held a day or two prior to the day when microteaching lessons
would be conducted. The sessions were supervised by the subject methods lecturers.
The lectures that introduced skills were characterised by expository teaching strategy. The
lecturer would introduce a skill and detail (by way of dictating notes) what students were
expected to do in order to demonstrate such a skill in practice. Often, it would be indicated
that students would receive further guidance on how to use the skills in their smaller,
subject-specific groups, led by subject-specific methods lecturers. The main lectures,
therefore, used the broad-brush approach to introduce skills of teaching with the
chalkboard as the main medium.
In the lesson plans, objectives were phrased as follows: “By the end of the lesson, the
learner should be able to...” and learner performance of activities as evidence of learning
was emphasised. The lesson plans also clearly indicated teacher and learner activity.
Instructional activities largely concentrated on the explanation of the lesson’s content and
learner activities, such as taking notes, observing and responding to teachers’ questions.
Teaching took the form of an instructional episode in which the teacher explained or
narrated to learners what they were expected to learn. Students’ lesson plans also bore
sections on self-evaluation. At the end of lessons teacher-educators would give general
comments and/or criticism of what had been presented.
Many students began their lessons with a review of a previous lesson and
acknowledgement of learners’ prior knowledge and experiences. They also seemed to
apply a single instructional strategy of direct instruction with the teacher as the main
interlocutor. Similarly, they tended to conclude their lessons by either mentioning the next
lesson’s topic or reading out an assignment as additional learning opportunity following
what would have been taught. Generally, their performance was indicative of adherence to
a prescribed format.
The teacher-educator began the first session of microteaching by guiding students on the
organisation of the presentations. This is how he stated it:
155
Good afternoon students? We are privileged to have a visitor in our midst. He will
be with us for as long as it will be possible on his part. He is a colleague and would
like to learn with us. Please feel free and carry on your business as usual. Where
necessary, you may ask him questions after class about your work. … Now, can I
have names of those who are ready to present? ...We will have either four or five of
you to present their lessons one after the other. At the end the presentations, we
will give feedback. So, for those who are presenting, please give us a copy of your
lesson plan before you begin. For the accompanying teaching aid, let me have each
of them at the end of every presentation. As you are aware, your lessons should not
exceed ten minutes.
Although the first session observed in the study involved four lessons, for purposes of this
discussion an example of a lesson from each session is presented for analysis. Before each
session, students had been given guidance on what they needed to prepare. This was done
during weekly plenary lectures that introduced students to specific skills of lesson design
and presentation.
8.2 MICROTEACHING LESSONS – EXAMPLE FROM FIRST SESSION
For this first session students were given the following instruction as their microteaching
assignment: “Design an attractive graphic for use in illustrating a concept or idea in one of
your teaching subjects. Prepare a lesson plan and indicate when this graphic will come into
use.” Students had the autonomy to design a graphic of their choice. It was up to them,
given the content of H&G they had to teach and their acquired PCK, to interpret the
prescribed objectives, prepare and present a lesson. One of these lessons is presented
below as an example of what a student was able to do when translating the objectives of of
a lesson on the “Process of law making” to practise the skill of using a graphic to clarify a
concept.
8.2.1 Skill practised: Using a Graphic to Clarify a Concept
8.2.1.1 Lesson: The Process of Law Making
The lesson is located in the broader topic: ‘The Government of Kenya’. According to the
lesson plan, the topic is studied in Form Three. The lesson plan appeared as follows:
Topic: The Government of Kenya Sub-topic: The Process of Law Making Class: F
3
156
Objectives: By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to:
a) Define the term bill. b) State the types of bills. c) Explain the process of law
making. d) Describe the six main stages of law making.
Learning Aid: A process chart that depicts the various stages of law making.
References: 1). History & Government, Form Three, KLB. Pp 153-154. 2).
Milestone in History & Government, F3. pp. 103-104. 3). Explore History &
Government, F3. Pp. 194-195.
Stage 1 Introduction (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Preview the last lesson on legislature; Draw upon learners
experience on law making process.
Learner Activity: Generate information about what they know on the law making
process.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (3 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Link the process of law making with the last lesson, e.g. one of
the functions of legislature (Independent); Guide students on process of law
making. e.g. drafting of bill, first reading, second reading…; Show students a flow
chart/ process chart depicting process of law making.
Learner Activity: Seek clarifications on different functions of the legislature
specifically law making like- how can ordinary citizen participate?; Make notes;
Observe the flow chart; Draw/write summary of the process of law making.
Stage 3 Conclusion (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Summarise main aspects of lesson; Mention next lesson on
executive.
Learner Activity: Take notes (Summary); Ask relevant questions.
The student teacher taught the lesson as shown in the transcript below:
Student Teacher (ST): Class last time we looked at the legislature. This was about
the Government of Kenya. We discussed at length about the topic. For today, I
want us to look at the process of bill writing. But before that, who can remind us
157
some of the functions of the Legislature? [He looks at the learners in anticipation
for a response] Yes?
Learner (L): Making laws.
ST: Good! Yes? Who can give us another function? [of the legislature]
L: Amending laws.
ST: Amending the constitution. Yes! Any other? [function]
ST: Very good! Those are some of the functions of the legislature. So today class, I
am not going to take you back … let us continue. So, we are continuing with the
same sub-topic on the Legislature but under the constitutional process. So let us see
[look at] some of these functions of the legislature. We said that the legislature is
responsible for making laws. I want us to confine ourselves to the major function of
the legislature. A single function that is foremost to the nation for its success. So,
we also said that the legislature is responsible for allocating funds. I know class
you have heard of this CDF - Constituency Development Fund. Are you aware of
this?
Class: Yes
ST: What is CDF? Yes? Let’s see. What is CDF? Yes?
L: Community Development Fund.
ST: Very good! Community Development Fund [Instead of Community it should
be Constituency]. As you have seen this is money for development projects
allocated to every constituency.
So let us now go back to the process of law making. A law as you know is
something that guides or directs our conduct. So let us see what is this process?
When we say that the legislature is responsible for law making, you have to begin
from somewhere. So, for this process to continue, it is either beginning from the
executive or parliament.
So, a law can be made by amending an existing law or you really have a totally
new law. So, you just begin from the start or amend the existing law. So, for this
process to begin, I know, you know this process takes place in the legislature or in
the parliament. So, for this process to begin, the speaker of National Assembly
158
must be present. Or rather if not the speaker, he has the deputy speaker. And the
quorum for this process to begin must be thirty members.
So with the presence of thirty members and the speaker of national assembly, the
process [of law making] can kick off.
So let us look at some of the terminologies before making the law [that are used in
the law making process]. The process of law-making begins from a bill. A bill is a
proposal of legislation. A bill can be proposed by an individual, a group of people
or a representative of people. Such a proposal would then have to be taken to
parliament where the MPs or members of parliament can discuss. Therefore, any
citizen with such a need, under the law has a right to propose a bill. Whether one is
ordinary ‘mwananchi’ [citizen] or MP [Member of Parliament] he or she is allowed
to propose a bill. That is why a bill can either be private or public. So we have the
types of bill. It can either be a private bill or a public bill.
When we talk of a private bill, this is a bill which is not confined to the private
issues but it is private only in such a way that it is about the welfare of an
organisation or association. So it is a bill that caters for their needs. When it comes
to a public bill, it is a bill which affects the public in general. So we have the public
which is the nation-Kenya.
Normally, in parliament public bills are moved by the ministers or MPs. MPs can
come up with a bill or ministers. And then they propose that they want it to be
made into law. A private bill is the bill which is proposed or moved by a private or
individual or rather if it is moved by a minister you can see it is by us Kenyans.
So, look at the types of bills, the private and the public. So, once the bill has been
made ... it can now ... go through some process. For the process to be complete,
there are some stages. So this bill can be proposed in the national assembly and …
thereafter passed on to the Attorney General’s Chamber for drafting. It is only after
the drafting stage that the public can have a chance to ascertain the validity of the
bill. So the public are supposed to ascertain the validity. If it is wrong or if there are
some sections which need to be reviewed. They can have some opposition on....
On the other hand, the cabinet ... can be looking at the same bill. So the cabinet can
go and discuss the draft or the bill itself and then after discussion if the cabinet
159
recommends it ... it is published in the Kenya Gazette, fourteen days before it is
taken to parliament.
So, after fourteen days ... elapse, the bill is taken to parliament. What happens now
in parliament to that bill? So we now have the stages of the bill. The first stage of
the bill in parliament involves what is referred to as the first reading... [Teacher
writes ‘first reading’ on the chalkboard].
The Clerk to the national assembly reads the bill and then the minister on whose
portfolio it is concerned with stands and moves a motion. Normally, it happens that
after moving a motion, another minister is supposed to second the minister. In the
first stage, there is no motion or debating. It is just reading that bill.
And then after seven days, the parliamentary committee now which is elected in
that session or the parliamentary committee is given a chance to go and look at the
same bill. That is, after seven days, they are supposed to come and report on the
same. So, for the second time, the bill [cleans the chalkboard] the bill goes for the
second reading. That is, after the first reading, then the committee, the
parliamentary committee can be given seven days they can go and look into the
same bill then they come for the second reading.
The second reading is a very crucial stage in bill making process. This is whereby
the MPs now are allowed to air their views. So, you are given now a time or a
chance to have your input. You can either support the bill or you don’t support.
And when you support the bill you must give reasons. In the second stage, if it
passes after voting ... it goes to the third stage.
This is the committee stage. And in this stage, we have the committee stage, a
committee which is appointed by parliament can go and scrutinise the bill in detail
and amend a clause. They can go clause by clause and amend what has been given
in the second stage.
So, you can see class, the second stage is very crucial. This is because every
member who can have a view he can include it at committee stage. So the
committee now can have detailed information and then they revise the bill and then
they come up with a revised or something better than the first. And then after the
committee stage, the bill goes to the report stage. [Teacher writes ‘report stage’ on
160
the chalkboard]. Class, what is a report stage? [Seems rhetorical as the teacher
goes on to answer his own question]
This is the stage where the Committee through its chairman can come to parliament
and report about the refined bill. This could be somehow a baptised bill. Are you
getting me? [However, appears not intended for soliciting any response for he goes
on to explain:]
So ... the next stage… they are allowed to vote. They either vote the bill in or out.
And then, that is the report stage. Once the bill has reached this stage, this is the
report stage. It is a very crucial stage. It is very difficult for somebody to make any
objection. Who can tell us why it is very difficult at this stage? Yes. Who can try?
[No response. Teacher then goes ahead to explain]
Class, let us look at this...let us assume you are a member of parliament and then
you can, after the bill has been drafted, so now the public have been given time,
they can see the bill, they really know what has passed, si ndio? [Is it true?]. And
then the MP goes collecting information from his constituency, and then comes
back with views so that during the second reading, he/she may have a position of
either supporting or opposing the bill. So, that is why now it is difficult for it to be
changed at that stage.
So the last stage, normally there is the third reading and then voting on the bill.
After voting for the bill, if it is voted out like in 1973, there was a pension bill
during the Kenyatta regime that was defeated in the third stage...it was rejected.
Then we have the presidential assent. ... [This is] the ... consent of the president [on
a bill that has been passed by parliament]. So, the clerk to the national assembly,
through the Attorney General, can write a bill in full and then with a covering
certificate of the clerk passes it on to the President. That is to ascertain or confirm
to the president that the bill he will get to sign is a true bill. So that makes it
possible for the president to sign the bill. If the president declines to sign or denies
his signature to the bill and yet two thirds of the MPs or two thirds of the national
assembly supported the bill, that president is likely to be impeached. They can also
have a vote of no confidence. This is because he will be declining something that
the majority in parliament will have supported. Well, yes, we can go to the last
stage. After the presidential assent, what happens to the bill?
161
Class: [inaudible murmurs]
ST: It becomes now what we call a…
Class: A law.
Teacher-educator: [Taps at his desk severally to indicate to the student that he
needs to complete his lesson].
ST: Law. So it becomes an Act of parliament. Or rather we call it a law…an Act of
parliament or a law. So, now what was initially a bill is now transformed into a
law. It is now used to govern this nation. So, class what we have been looking at is
what we refer to as the law making process. Where does the process begin?
Drafting of what?
Class: A bill
ST: And what is a bill class? Can somebody tell us what a bill is? [Does not wait
for an answer. He rolls out a chart illustration and pins it on a section of the
chalkboard as shown in the lesson plan]. Ok, what you see in the chart is an
illustration of the stages a bill goes through before it becomes a law [pointing at the
chart illustration]. So, that is it. The next lesson we shall come and look at the
executive. [End of lesson].
8.2.2 Teacher-educator’s Feedback
After the presentations, the teacher-educator gave feedback, which also marked the end of
the session. Broadly, comments focused on modes of presentation for the lessons. There
was concern expressed on challenges in selecting content, failure to use varied types of
media resources, and lack of strict adherence to the KIE stipulations in the syllabus.
Although he asked students to comment on the presentations, none of them volunteered.
His general comments are presented below.
Teacher-educator (TE): Ok, I would like first of all to commend the students who
have presented today. This is our first microteaching presentation. Therefore,
whatever weaknesses I will point out, they still have room for improvement. Before
I make my comments, do we have any comments from the class members? [No
response].
162
All right, I have a number of comments to make. The first one is about the need for
you to scale down on content. I realised that unless asked to end their lessons, some
presenters would have continued endlessly. You need to note that no one can
exhaust all the points on an issue in a lesson, especially in the case of
microteaching. Ten minutes is not a long time at all! So, I want you to practice
scaling down the content. For example, look at the syllabus carefully and see what
items you could reduce. For instance, take the case of the topic on the process of
law making, where the focus is on procedures. One should have simply picked a
single procedure to exemplify the whole process. By explaining this single process
and a graphic illustration you would have comfortably made your presentation
within the time limit you were given.
Another comment I would like to make is on the use of the teaching and learning
resources. Use the secondary school History and Government syllabus book to
guide you in planning for the lessons. In addition, refer to what you studied in
second year during your general methods and last term during the subject methods
course. When you combine information from these sources it will be much easier
to develop teaching and learning resources that are both sufficient and effective for
your purposes. I do not find it appropriate that only two types of media are used. It
is either the map or the chart. We need you to have a variety.
The other issue that I need to mention concerns the use of KIE [Kenya Institute of
Education] approved syllabus. This is very important. The topics and sub-topics
provided in the syllabus are the ones that you need to work with. Do not depend on
textbooks. They are products of editors and writers who simply interpret what has
been recommended. Maybe I should sound a warning here. Failure to adhere to the
KIE syllabus will lead to re-writing of schemes of work during your teaching
practice. From my experience, the use of sub-topics stems from a reliance on
textbooks. I think it is a mistake on our part. We should have told you much earlier.
Lastly, I noted that some of you were challenged on the use of the various sections
of the chalkboard. You need to remember that the chalkboard is your primary
medium of communication with the learners. Therefore, how you use it influences
what is learnt either directly or indirectly. Although your lesson plans show clearly
that you will use the chalkboard as recommended, a number of you blocked what
they had written on the chalkboard from being seen by the learners. Also, take note
163
of non-verbal communication cues. Avoid repetition. Some of you were going over
points over and over again. Otherwise, as I said earlier, this is just the beginning.
With practice, I am sure that by the end of the semester you will have improved a
great deal. Let us meet next week.
Of interest in the student’s presentation was how it clarified a concept through a graphic.
Stenhouse’s (1976) notion of effective translation of subject matter into appropriate
instructional activities was important to understand this clarification. The instructional
activities that were used to engage learners in the lesson were thus understood as
anchoring, through this graphic, the concept underpinning the topic.
History as a discipline is a “product of evidence-based investigation, rational dialogue, and
dispassionate scholarship” (Seixas, Fromowitz & Hill, 2002, p. 44), and fruitful
engagement in this discipline requires ‘questioning, inquiry and critique’ (ibid.). Even
though school history does not necessarily need to take on the same discipline-based
approach, it is still important that learners are sufficiently exposed to the above procedural
knowledge as important scaffolding in developing understanding of the substantive
knowledge (explanation) that History has as its content. Therefore, in establishing how
teaching may be considered appropriate or not, good or bad, it has to be evaluated against
elements that are considered appropriate for this knowledge or explanations. These
elements constitute its external norm or truth.
In the case of the H&G lesson on law making, the objective given for this topic constituted
its internal norm or truth that had to be clarified through teaching material, that is, a
graphic and activities that would help develop the forms of thought implied in the
objective. As Wedgwood (2002, p. 140) would argue, for this material and these activities
to be seen as a “good thing to do” they needed to satisfy the external norm or truth, that is,
what is essential to the thoughts or explanations required by the objective prescribed for
the topic of law. To be deemed appropriate or rational for this objective, forms of
communication used to teach the topic had to be satisfactory in terms of how they related
to the forms of thoughts/explanations they had to nurture for those taught. Therefore,
teaching H&G effectively in the secondary schools in Kenya implied being appropriately
equipped in terms of the professional knowledge and skills (PCK) by which to determine
how best to teach H&G objectives.
164
In general, this view has been associated with the notion of practical reasoning for which,
amongst other ideas, Aristotle is well-known (cf., Audi, 1989; Penlington, 2006). This is a
view that underscores the importance of context for attaining a suitable decision. A
decision can thus be appropriate or rational if it brings about the ‘right end’ in a particular
context (Penlington, 2006, p. 59). In this regard, the lesson presented here can be
understood within the possibilities provided by the HTM course as a site for professional
education in teaching (cf., Sherman, 2001). It could not be understood without taking into
account the purpose of the course. Drawing on Penlington, it is reasonable to conclude that
the latter reflected elements that constituted its external norm or truth. What was presented
in the course determined its value in terms of the constitutive elements of History that were
made available to the student teachers and the experiential repertoire likely to be drawn
from these elements when practising to teach. Penlington’s view is that, for Aristotle,
action would be ethical if it nurtured character that made it possible to attain ‘ethical
goodness’.
Specifically, the lesson on the process of law making had to promote an understanding of a
democratic ideal that Kenya is cherishing for its citizens, namely, “…a sense of awareness
and need for a functional democracy of the Kenyan people …” (Ministry of Education,
2006, p. 6). Therefore, the lesson needed to use a graphic that modelled how procedures
for law making in the country could raise awareness, what Aristotle described as the ‘right
end’. However, from how it was enacted, it is evident that the student had a descriptive
rather than critica;l interpretation (cf., Bailin, 1998) of what was appropriate to do with the
objective. While the procedures of law making that s/he taught were important to be
familiar with, they ought to have been dealt with in a manner that enabled a critical
understanding of what they implied for a functional democracy for the people of Kenya.
According to Bailin (1998), such critical understanding results from thinking that is
normative and affords people mental dispositions that contribute to the attainment of
reasoned judgement in whatever they do. It involves a balanced decision-making process
that requires one to weigh sufficiently all available options on an issue. That this was not
highlighted in the teacher-educator’s feedback may have inadvertently undermined an
important moment for history learning.
Bailin (1998) distinguishes between mental dispositions as either skills or knowledge-
focused. For her, skills are mainly descriptive competencies that focus on the proficiency
of certain mental processes. They are different from knowledge, which is mainly
165
normative and concerned with mental abilities that are logical, criteria-based and
pragmatic. Acquiring knowledge is thus not a skill but a way of accounting for it. The
abilities associated with it can thus not be taken for granted as isolated, arbitrary and
inexplicable. Applied to the lesson studied here, they emphasise the importance of the
deliberation that ought to have taken place to arrive at an understanding of functional
democracy. For Orton (1997), such deliberation is reasoning by which a teacher is able to
arrive at a decision that concerns instruction. This is the reasoning that Dunne and
Pendlebury (2003) believe can be used to clarify the kind of knowledge that can be
attained through good teaching, while Waghid (2006) describes it as deliberation that is
aimed problem-solving capacities. It is about a normative vision that is contemplative and
focused on subject matter, learners, educational purposes and contexts. It thus contains “a
moral concept [that] invokes intrinsic ends …” (Buchmann, 1988, p. 205). It is in this
sense that teacher action has to be understood as involving reasoning about means and
ends. This is what makes it a moral practice. Therefore, even though the episodic
(brief/short) teaching of this microteaching lessons cannot be used to ascertain
conclusively the nature of the knowledge and skills that the student was demonstrating, it
is useful to indicate the direction that such teaching point towards. It is evident that, more
than anything else, it prioritised familiarity with content by learners.
The lesson was supposed to have provided a safe and unintimidating context or
environment to demonstrate deliberate engagement with its content (cf., Wilkinson (1996)
in order for learners to grasp what was involved in, for example, promoting “a sense of
awareness and need for a functional democracy of the Kenyan people and other nations”
(Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 6). The objective requires the acquisition of what Little et
al. (2007, p.274) refer to as a habit of mind that enables learners to develop, amongst
attributes, understanding of how the actions of others influence their lives and society. This
habit of mind reflects the spirit of the objective that is set by the KIE for the topic of ‘law
making’.
Kneller (1949) has also argued that history lessons ought to relate events and their
significance to learners’ own experiences so that they are able to understand the age (era)
in which they live. Exposure to historical content is insufficient until it is used to expose
the link between itself and the learners’ current context or reality. The student missed an
opportunity in this regard, and the lesson simply provided descriptive detail with no
attempt to use the graphic to illustrate the meaning of the procedures s/he explained. The
166
graphic would have encouraged learners to reflect on what was represented, and capturing
how it manifested itself in reality would have contributed to an understanding of how
democracy functioned and affected living in Kenya. However, the oversight in this lesson
seemed to be common in the other lessons that were presented in the second session, an
example of which follows.
8.3 MICRO-TEACHING AND EXAMPLE FROM SECOND SESSIONS:
LESSONS AS PROVIDING DESCRIPTIVE DETAIL
The lesson dealt with a Form One sub-topic on the migration of African communities into
present-day Kenya in the period prior to the 19th Century to practise how to introduce and
conclude a lesson.
8.3.1 Skill practised: Set induction and closure of a lesson
8.3.1.1 Lesson: Migration of Kenyan Peoples
This is how the lesson plan was structured:
Topic: Kenyan Societies in the 19th Century: Social, Economic & Political
Organisation.
Subtopic: Migration of Kenyan Peoples. Class: Form 1
Objectives: By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to: a) State the origin
of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites. b) Trace and describe the migration and
settlement of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites.
Learning Aid: Map on Origin and Settlement of Kenyan people.
Reference: History & Government. Students’ Book. Form One by Assa Okoth.
Stage 1 - Introduction (3 minutes)
Teacher Activities: Cite regions in the map where they settled; Define migration.
Learner Activities: Observe the map; Take notes on definition of terms.
Stage 2 - Lesson Development (6 minutes)
167
Teacher Activities: Explain to the learner the reasons that led to the migration from
their homeland; Explain the causes of their settlement in areas they settled; Ask
questions.
Learner Activities: Take notes; Identify the various selections of African societies;
Answer questions.
Stage 3 - Conclusion (1 minute)
Teacher Activities: Summarise; Allow learners to ask questions; Give assignment
on the specific objectives; Mention the next lesson.
Learner Activities: Take summary notes on migration; Write the assignment.
The enactment of the lesson is presented below:
Student Teacher (ST): What is migration?
Learner (L): Migration is the movement of people from one place to another.
ST: I think many of you here are migrating. Am I correct? It is the movement of
people from one place to another. That is what we call migration. So, having
defined the term migration, I now want us to look at the people who migrated. Who
are these people who migrated? Which groups of people migrated? I would like
you to tell me any group of people who migrated to Kenya. [Seems rhetorical.
Goes on to say:]
We have Nilotes, Bantu and Cushites. These are people who moved from their
original homeland to come and settle in other areas.
Ok, for the Nilotes, they are a group of people who came from around the River
Nile. They came into Kenya and stayed around the lake region, like around Lake
Victoria.
For the Bantu, their original homeland was Cameroon. They migrated into Kenya
and therefore settled mostly in the Western part of Kenya. Ok? Are you getting
me?
On their part, the Cushites migrated from eastern part of Africa and therefore they
came and settled around the eastern part of Kenya.
168
Now the next thing we want to look at is the reasons why these people migrated. If
I may ask, why do you migrate in the first place? There must be a reason for
migrating. Can any one of you just tell us the reasons why they migrated?
L: Over-population.
ST: Ok. How? [He does not wait for an explanation and goes on to say:] That there
was a big population where they lived originally? They were pastoralists. Most of
them were pastoralists and therefore they were forced to go and search for water
and pasture for their livestock. Yes! ... another one [reason]?
L: Insecurity
ST: Yes! Security
Class: [Laughter.]
ST: Security. We had internal conflict and external conflict. Therefore in the
external conflict most of them were being attacked by the external neighbours. And
therefore most some of them felt insecure and moved to other places. That was
external and internal conflict.
Class: [laughter.]
Teacher-educator: Now, can you just take us through how you are going to use
the chart? We don’t want to take a lot of time. Just go directly to how you meant to
use the chart you have prepared.
ST: Now, I am going to present to you a map that shows the places where these
groups settled. Ok, there is a key for the map or on the chart. These people here,
these ones here were the Nilotes [pointing at the illustration]. And these ones here
were the Cushites. Among the Cushites are the Somali and the Galla. Then at the
end here, these are now the Bantu. That is groups like the Taita, Taveta and
Kamba. We also have got the Nilotes. Who are the riverine Nilotes? [Rhetorical].
Therefore, I am going to give you an assignment. I require you to get the effects of
their migration. Thank you. [End of lesson].
The lesson needed to go beyond a simple presentation of information; however, it was
simply a descriptive account of Kenyan people’s origin and where they settled. Its
introduction and closure failed to highlight what was critical to the migration and
settlement of the Kenyans. For example, concepts such as nationalism, patriotism and
169
national unity that were supposed to be critically examined by means of this concept were
not used to signpost what is critical to the migratory trends that occurred. In particular, this
is important, given the multi-ethnic composition of Kenyan society and the unity that is
yearned for as a way of ameliorating ethnic tensions often witnessed in the country.
There follows discussion of how the teacher-educator commented on this lesson and others
presented in the session.
8.3.1 Teacher-educator’s Feedback
The teacher-educator’s comments covered a number of issues, including reference to
chalkboard usage. He asked students to adhere to the recommended subdivision of the
chalkboard and reminded them that coloured chalk was supposed to be used only for
illustrations. Students were also asked to scale down the content of their lessons as
follows:
The major thing which we have been talking about every now and again is on
scaling down content. You need to improve on your time management ability
before you go out for teaching practice. Try to domesticate [adapt] the content to
fit into the specified time. Think about what there is to be taught and estimate how
much time each of the items can take to present it to learners. All the same, I was
impressed today that some of you were able to teach within the specified time.
Don’t let me tap on my desk for you to know that you have exceeded the time
limit.
The teacher-educator also commented on the teaching-learning aids that students used. In
particular, he noted that:
On the use of the charts, I want to emphasise that you improve on the legibility of
the script. Please make sure that the letters you write on the chart can be visible by
all your learners. Don’t make them tiny so much so that one cannot read what you
hoped will assist you communicate. In such a case, your teaching aid will have
failed to achieve its intended purpose.
When teaching the topic on the migration of Kenyan people, two objectives for H&G are
important in this regard. They are: “… to promote a sense of nationalism, patriotism and
national unity…” and, to “… identify, assess and appreciate the rich and varied cultures of
170
the Kenyan people…” (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 6). However, what was prioritised
was the providing of information, which undermined the essence of the objectives set for
this topic. That the lesson included a discussion on tribalism and how it was a hindrance to
national unity was indicative of the student’s interpretation of the objectives associated
with the topic. The educator seemed to have overlooked this in his feedback and instead
underplayed the importance of such content for the objectives. While he may have been
correct in insisting on the skill, it is of equal importance that the objectives needed to be
emphasised as a basis from which the student ought to have accounted for the objective
with his/her teaching. Bailin (1998) would describe such an oversight as failure to attend to
good thinking. These comments marked the end of the second session as there was no
student who sought clarification on any issue. More evidence is presented to demonstrate
how the significance of critical normative thinking in history learning continued to be
undermined in the students’ lessons and the feedback provided by the educator.
8.4 MICRO-TEACHING AND EXAMPLE FROM THIRD SESSION: LESSON
AS UNDERPLAYING NORMATIVE CRITICAL THINKING
In this session students had to practise asking questions that promoted critical thinking.
The sessions also included an aspect that had not been raised in the two previous sessions.
They were asked to make written comments on the lessons. These comments were to be
collected at the end of the session. In the section on feedback that follows the lesson
transcript below, I include excerpts from these comments to highlight students’ developing
knowledge for teaching H&G. The lesson based on a Form One topic on ‘National
Integration’.
8.4.1 Skill practised: Posing questions to learners
8.4.1.1 Lesson on ‘National Integration’
The lesson plan had the following information:
Topic: National Integration. Subtopic: Factors that Hinder National Unity. Class:
Form One.
Objectives: By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to: (i) State at least
two factors that hinder national unity. (ii) Explain how one of the factors in ‘a’ do
not promote national unity.
171
Learning Aid: Chalkboard & Chart.
References: Milestone in History and Government Form One pp 101-102; History
and Government Form One KLB pp 104-105; Explore History and Government
Form One pp 121-122.
Stage 1 Introduction (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Link last lesson with the subtopic at hand by asking learners to
give some of the factors that promote national unity. Introduce day’s lesson on
factors that hinder unity.
Learner Activity: Respond to questions by teacher on factors that promote national
unity.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (3 minutes): Teacher Activity: Explain some of the
factors that hinder national unity such as tribalism and nepotism; display chart.
Learner Activity: Make notes; seek clarification; observe the displayed chart.
Stage 3 Conclusion (2 minute): Teacher Activity: Give conclusive remarks on
lesson; Give an assignment.
Learner Activity: Take down assignment.
The following is a transcript of what took place during the lesson:
Student Teacher (ST): Good afternoon class?
Class: Good afternoon to you.
ST: It is time for History and Government. Can you take out your History books?
[Teacher cleans the chalkboard and writes the administrative details: date, subject
and sub-divides the board into three sections]. Do you now have your History
exercise books?
Class: Yes.
ST: During our last lesson that we discussed factors that promote national unity,
we mentioned and explained quite a number of factors. So, let me now ask you.
What are some of the factors that promote national unity?
Learner (L): The presidency.
ST: Yes! The presidency, very good! Give me another factor?
172
L: Education.
ST: Education. Very good class! And today’s lesson we are going to discuss
factors that limit national unity. [Teacher writes the topic of the lesson on the
board.] Have you finished writing the title?
Class: Yes.
ST: So, our topic is ‘factors limiting national unity’. Last time we discussed factors
such as the presidency and education as factors that promote national unity. But
now we want to look at factors that limit or do not promote national unity. Class,
there are some factors which limit national unity. Class, to limit national unity is to
hinder. That is to hamper national unity. Are you getting me?
Class: Yes.
ST: Ok, so let me just ask you some of the factors that limit national unity. Who
can try? [Three students raise their hands]. Yes.
L: Poverty.
ST: Poverty. [Teacher writes this answer on the board]. We have poverty. Give me
another factor class? Yes, Shola!
L: Tribalism.
ST: Yes, tribalism. [Teacher writes this response on the board.] Who can tell us
one more? Yes Naka!
L: [inaudible].
ST: Very good! [Writes the answer on the board]. You have said nepotism. And I
can add another one which is in contrast to what we said last time, it is ignorance.
[Writes this on the board]. I Hope you are making some notes.
Class: Yes.
ST: Ok, so these are some of the factors that limit national unity. So let us look at
how each of these factors can limit national unity. Let us begin with poverty. Class,
what is poverty? Yes, can you try? [pointing at a student].
L: I think poverty is a situation where one cannot be able to meet his/her basic
needs.
173
ST: Yes! Very good Naka! So, poverty is a state or condition whereby somebody
does not have enough. He is having a deficiency of something, especially for
catering for day to day life. So that is it! If you have a need and then that need has
not been catered for... For such a person because he is poor, he is likely to use
unjust means to get what he wants/ requires. For example, when we talk of unjust
means, when you don’t have a pen and you happen to see one lying down
somewhere unattended, you will definitely pick it. Several of such incidences are
likely to lead to a habit. In short, poverty causes crime. There will be robbery.
Therefore, this will cause disunity. There will be no cohesion among the people.
Let us see [look at] another factor. Class, we have tribalism. How does tribalism
limit national unity?
L: Somebody can use his office to employ people from his own tribe and exclude
the rest.
ST: Very good! Class, let us clap for him... [a brief moment of clapping]. That is a
very good trial! With tribal inclinations people are bound to employ practices that
will exclude those who do not belong to their group so much so that some
organisations can be turned into tribal or family organisations. This will cause
disunity. Ok, who can give another example?
Teacher-educator: [Alerts student teacher of time by tapping his pen on the desk].
ST: So class, tribalism is that feeling of ‘it is ours. It belongs to our tribe’. Are you
getting this class? So you employ people from your tribe and isolate the rest. And
then people will have to see that there is a problem there. Are you getting it?
So let us have a summary of today’s lesson. [He rolls out a chart illustration that
bears the writings: Factors limiting national unity.] So class, we have factors
limiting national unity. One of them is poverty. Another one is tribalism, then
ignorance and nepotism. So there are a number of factors that limit national unity.
[Teacher folds the chart]. And class, we have discussed factors that limit national
unity. How many did we discuss? We discussed two factors. I want you in groups
of three to go and discuss how ignorance and nepotism limit national unity. We
shall discuss those two in our next lesson before we look at conflict resolution.
Thank you. [End of lesson].
174
8.4.2 Feedback by Teacher-educator
At the end of the presentations the teacher-educator made the following comments:
Teacher-educator: I should begin by saying that a number of you are making
progress towards grasping what is crucial in lesson presentation. Learning how to
teach is very slow process that requires you to attend meticulously to a number of
specific items. For example, be careful not to use words carelessly. What does the
word preview mean? Is it the same as review? I noted one of you had used the
word preview when actually what he did mean was to review. I also noted the use
of the verb ‘listen’ in some of your lesson plans. How does one measure the
behaviour of listening? Would you tell that a learner is listening by looking at
them? May I emphasise that you need to avoid its use as a learner activity.
ST: Excuse me sir, please help us on what exactly we need to indicate as learner
activity.
TE: […Takes a short while before responding…..] If I got you right, you are
inquiring about what specific activities do learners need to be involved in. Am I
right?
C: [most students respond to the question]. Yes!
TE: Ideally, learner activity is mirrored by what the teacher does. For instance,
when you display a map or a chart your activity will be to illustrate or show by
explaining the relationship of the items displayed. While you do this, what should
the learner do as an observable activity that demonstrates learning? …. You get the
idea? Logically, learner activity should be an undertaking that someone can readily
observe. When appropriately planned, this activity should be one that contributes
towards the attainment of the objectives for the lesson. …. My friend [referring to
the student who had asked the question], have you understood?
ST: Yes sir.
TE: The other thing that I want to comment on is the focus that you need to give
your presentations. Ideally, the concern should be the particular skill that has been
introduced to you earlier in the week. For example, if it is set induction and closure
that is what you should focus on and not necessarily the content. Let the
175
demonstration of the skill be your main idea in the lesson. What these presentations
are supposed to do is help you step by step develop one skill at a time. Don’t forget
that teaching results from a combination of skills. It is not achieved in a single
presentation. I would like you to focus more on the skills next time you present. Let
us meet next week. Do you know the skill that will be presented next week? [No
response.]
The lesson was topical in a number of ways and would have helped the student to pose
interesting and thought-provoking questions, but the teacher-educator focussed solely on
how to improve the nature and phrasing of questions. There was no reference to how what
he said would contribute to clarifying the concept of national integration that was studied.
The reaction points out what needs further interrogation, especially with regard to views
about the exposure to knowledge and skills for teaching the students could also identify.
The following are some of their comments about the micro-teaching lessons in which they
participated. They are verbatim and were expressed by the 18 students in the group.
8.4.3 Students’ Feedback on microteaching lessons
Lesson 9
Teacher was very nervous.
Did not bring out set induction correctly.
Good chalkboard use on the illustration part; no utilisation of rough-work
section of the board.
Good learner involvement; Teacher needs to motivate learners.
Voice projection was not good; Lesson was dull.
Teacher said the Nandi were part of the Cushites.
Teacher should have redirected question to the students.
Closure not used; Closure was brought out well; did not mention the next
lesson.
176
Lesson 10
Never wrote the subject title i.e. History and Government.
Good chalkboard use; Proper chalkboard use; teacher did not use all the 3
sections of the board; Teacher forgot to rub the chalkboard after the lesson.
Good introduction of the lesson; Set induction well used / Set induction was
not well developed. The teacher did not prepare the students for the song.
Contrast of flashcard colours not well used.
A lot of content; content not scaled down; Teacher used more time than
planned for; Overloaded lesson plan; Time management.
Good student participation / Good involvement of learners.
Some student responses were not audible / Pupils were not audible when
answering questions.
Closure well implied.
Lesson 11
The teacher introduced the lesson clearly / The teacher was nervous during
lesson introduction / Set induction and closure was brought out.
Not picking on non-volunteer learners / Teacher not keen on non-
volunteers.
The teacher perfectly used the reinforcement cues.
Used the word preview instead of review.
Not all factors he had asked for in the previous lesson were given yet he
was so eager to move to the next level without indicating the reason why.
Good chalkboard use; Used fingers to clean the board instead of duster /
Failed to clean the board / Poor style of rubbing the board / over-utilising
one section of the board.
Too much emphasis on content / scaling down the content was a problem.
177
Lesson 12
Too much teacher-centred / teacher dominated the lesson - it was only in
the introduction that she involved the students; Student involvement was
low/ didn’t draw upon learners experiences.
Some words in the chart were not visible; Lettering on the chart was not
visible.
Emphasised on one side of the chalkboard / Teacher was supposed to have
utilised all sections of the board / Teacher was supposed to write initial
details like date, class immediately after engaging the students to have their
exercise books.
Development and conclusion was done well/good.
Excellent use of learning aid.
Closure was not clear because teacher rushed through it fast / Teacher was
anxious to complete lesson / Teacher was nervous and therefore rushed to
complete lesson.
Broadly, the comments made about the lessons involved what Norsworthy (2008) refers to
as ‘techniques of teaching’. Students indicated the lesson did not include or capture a skill
or its appropriate use. The HTM course as a context for learning how to teach concentrated
primarily on skills for lesson design and presentation, and not the open-mindedness that
would have been useful for developing the PCK that is essential to learning H&G. There
follows another lesson from the fourth session that once again reflected concern with
skills, with no due consideration to the cognitive elements that were important to develop
with the lesson.
178
8.5 MICRO TEACHING AND EXAMPLE FROM FOURTH SESSION-
LESSON AS LINKING CONCEPT TO A TEACHING AIDS
This lesson had to help students practise integrating teaching aids into lessons. It was
crucial for them to understand the moment that would help make the lesson clear and more
meaningful by introducing a teaching aid. The skill was referred to as diorama.
8.5.1 Skill practised: Diorama
8.5.1.1 Lesson: Early Agriculture in Mesopotamia
The lesson was based on a Form One topic. The following is a transcript for the lesson:
Topic: Development of Agriculture Sub-topic: Early Agriculture in Mesopotamia
Class: Form 1.
Objectives: By the end of the lesson a learner should be able to: a) state and explain
at least two techniques of agriculture in Mesopotamia. b) Give two effects of
agriculture in Mesopotamia.
Learning aid: A map illustration showing location of Mesopotamia. Reference:
K.I.E History and Government Book 1. Pg. 30-33, KLB History and Government
Book 1. Pg. 32-34.
Stage 1 Introduction (3 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Review the previous on early agriculture – domestication of
plants and animals; Ask questions learners questions about any knowledge of
Mesopotamia.
Learner Activity: Take note of explanation; Answer teacher’s question.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (5 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Explain to the learner origin of agriculture in Mesopotamia; Give
example of effects of agriculture; Show the map of Mesopotamia.
Learner Activity: Take notes; Answer questions on effects of agriculture in
Mesopotamia; observe the map.
Stage 3 Conclusion (2 minutes)
179
Teacher Activity: Summarise lesson by asking learners question on techniques and
effects of agriculture in Mesopotamia.
Learner Activity: Answer questions on techniques and effects of agriculture.
The student teacher presented the lesson as shown below:
Student Teacher (ST): Last week we discussed about the origin of agriculture.
And we talked about how people came up to domesticate plants and animals. We
also talked about the reasons for the development of agriculture. For example, we
saw that change of climate and maybe experimentation where man realised that
some crops grew very fast led to important developments.
And so today we are going to talk about early agriculture in Mesopotamia.
[Teacher writes the topic of the lesson on the chalkboard in the appropriate
section].
Can someone tell me what he or she knows about early agriculture in
Mesopotamia? Or, what do you know about Mesopotamia [in general]?
Learner (L): Mesopotamia is known as the land between two rivers.
ST: [Teacher writes this response on the chalkboard] Good! Which two rivers are
these?
L: Tigris and Euphrates.
ST: Yes! [Teacher writes the names of the two rivers on the chalkboard.]
…Tigris and Euphrates. And so today we are going to talk about techniques and
methods used by the people of Mesopotamia in agriculture. And before that, I want
to introduce you to the origin of agriculture in Mesopotamia.
It is stated that the people who brought agriculture to Mesopotamia were people
from the Iranian Islands. And so, agriculture developed there. And there are some
factors that facilitated development...no ... not factors but techniques. Who can tell
me the techniques used by these people in Mesopotamia?
L: Canal irrigation.
ST: Yes, the use of canals. What other technique did they use?
L: The shadoof method of irrigation.
180
ST: And also, the digging of dykes. And so, I would like to go through the effects
of agriculture on the people of Mesopotamia. Can someone tell us the effects?
L: Food production.
ST: Is it population or production? What other effect of agriculture can you think
of? Is there someone on this side [moves the right side of the class]?
L: High population.
ST: Ok, I want you to go and find out more effects of agriculture after this class
and write them down in your books. There are many more effects we have not
covered. [Rolls out a chart.]
I have a chart to illustrate the location of the two rivers of Mesopotamia. Can you
all see the map?
Class: [Looks at the illustration and most laugh aloud]
ST: [Teacher ignores students and goes onto say:] In the present day, what is Iraq
is believed to have been the ancient Mesopotamia. [Pointing at the chart
illustration]
Here is river Tigris and this other one is Euphrates. This is why it is referred to as
the land between two rivers. So, they got their water for irrigation from the two
rivers.
And so, I want to give you an assignment. Ok, no... class before that, is there
someone with a question? Who has a question concerning our topic for today? [No
response].
There is no question? So, I want to give you an assignment. Can you take it down?
Write...state the effect that made....state and explain the effect that led to...state and
explain the effect of early agriculture in Mesopotamia? I will collect your books for
marking when I come in next time.
So, our next lesson will be on early agriculture in Egypt. And so I want you to go
and read about it in the library so that you familiarise yourself with it. Let us meet
next time. [End of lesson.]
181
8.5.2 Feedback by Teacher-educator
After the presentation of lessons, the teacher-educator referred to the distortion of focus
through inappropriate naming of lesson topics that signified a lack of sensitivity to what
the syllabus proposed in order to attain the objectives of H&G. He emphasised that the
objectives for H&G could only be realised through tasks that were properly
conceptualised. Students seemed unaware of this and it was necessary that their attention
be drawn to it. The following is a transcript of what he said:
Please be keen to ensure that the materials you have modelled are seen by all learners in class. Remember, your presentation of the material in class is to assist learners gain a better understanding through visuals of what the concepts of the topic entail. You can only succeed in such facilitation by ensuring that all learners are not only attentive but also view the material on display. Your explanation should be aimed at making learners develop a connection between the topic and the material displayed. Make the link explicit or clear. It should not be implied. I was actually impressed by the lesson on transport because the presenter made a good attempt to link the concept to the teaching aid.
I also need to emphasise that you refer to the syllabus when you select the topics that you plan to teach. Textbooks, as I said last time, are interpretations of the syllabus by authors. They are likely to mislead you in identifying the correct topic and content for your lessons. You should also use the recommended KIE textbooks as your references. I am sure you all noticed, in one of the lessons, that one of you used content that was way above what the secondary school History syllabus recommends. Do you remember the lesson? [No response though students laugh].
There was a lesson that appeared to replicate the content of a university course. I do not want to mention whoever did that but please don’t reproduce university content in your lessons. Refer to the recommended documents for guidance on what you need to give consideration. The syllabus for secondary school is clear on what should be covered.
I also noticed that a number of you still have to tone down emotions so that you are able to teach clearly and coherently. Why do you panic? Some of you did and thus became disorientated. You cannot teach in such an emotional state. For your information, microteaching is supposed to help you develop confidence. In fact that is why you present your lesson to a small group. These are also your classmates…. So, prepare your lessons well in advance and go over them so that by the time you come to present you are ready. Adequate preparation helps to boost your confidence... Unless there is someone with an issue that needs to be clarified, let us then meet next week for another session.
During my conversation with the teacher-educator, when I asked him:’ What is the aim of
your course’? He emphasised the importance of the syllabus and content to be covered in
each of the four grade levels and how students were prepared to teach the H&G syllabus.
Of interest was the point that students appeared to have easily ‘forgotten’23 about the H&G
syllabus.
23 According to Zeichner and Tabachnick (1985), schools’ experiences have a tendency to ‘wash out’ all that teachers would have learnt in their pre-service programmes. In the case of the present study, though, students would have either ‘forgotten’ or taken on such school practices as the best opportunity for learning how to teach as required in the actual classroom.
182
During training in the teaching methods course, we actually expose students to a copy of the latest syllabus. Surprisingly, when we covered the section of the content of H&G students seemed not to have known that they will need the very information now. Therefore, as it is now clear, they can’t remember that when we were being trained in the teaching methods, these are some of the things we were looking at. They were taken through the History syllabus from Form 1 to the last topic in Form 4; how to prepare the scheme of work; what are some of the weaknesses in the syllabus; and all that. They have simply forgotten! It is unfortunate! However, the organisation in the course is to enable the teacher trainee to interact with the secondary school curriculum. For example, in the last semester the course on methods took them through the entire History and Government curriculum at the secondary school level. Then, presently, they have had a chance to freely select any of the topics from that syllabus where they have prepared the lesson; they have gone and investigated; they have even looked at the evaluation procedures; and every other thing that is required for that particular topic. So that, eventually, when they come and present it in class, it is something that they have put in their best. (Interview with Teacher-educator, 21st March 2009).
I sought clarity on the view in the following manner: “I have observed that student
teachers introduce their lessons by reviewing a ‘previous’ lesson’. Often, this is through
questions posed to learners or teachers presenting a brief review. In response he said:
We have actually taught them many ways of introducing a lesson. But as you noted they only concentrated on those two. For example, we have told them that they can also introduce their lesson by presenting a teaching and learning resource and thereby making it the basis of a lesson introduction. We have also told them that one can just ask a learner to highlight or briefly say something about a topic that the teacher wants to present. This can be a good way of introducing a lesson. So, what I can say is that we have given them many ways by which they could introduce their lessons but it appears that the two you noted are commonly used.
He continued:
I don’t know why they are doing that. We have taught them very many ways of ending a lesson. But maybe the assignment strategy is an easier option. And this is not only a problem in History it is also evident in the other subjects. But as you may remember, most of our students don’t manage their time very well. Therefore, when they realise that they are running short of time, the easiest way to conclude a lesson is through giving an assignment.
The educator seemed to agree with students’ explanation of their choice of certain types of
media during their lessons. They were candid on why they used charts and map
illustrations more than any other media. The preparation of such media was not only
straightforward for the students; it also guaranteed them better grades. In this regard the
teacher-educator remarked:
I don’t know because when we trained them, we actually told them that the media material can be introduced at any stage of the instructional process. During these presentations we have had a tendency of the media resources being introduced towards the end. Often, at this point of the lesson, they would be in a hurry to end the presentation. Therefore, this makes their use in the lesson highly inappropriate. Honestly, I don’t know why that is the case. Maybe, we need to investigate this phenomenon. We have talked about it so many
183
times and yet they still go ahead and make the same mistake. Even today, apart from a few, some students still presented their media resource towards the end of the lesson.
When I expressed interest in the content presentation approach, he simply retorted:
When we train them, we tell them that learners at secondary school level require teaching approaches that are learner-centred. But maybe for one reason or another one might over-use the teacher-centred approach. Maybe this could be because of students’ failure to put into consideration what they were taught during training. But we also told them during training that we don’t entirely object the use of the teacher-centred approaches as certain situations may demand its use. In principle, however, we wanted them to emphasise the learner-centred approach. But I think, maybe, it could be because some students believe that learners at secondary school do not know what they are being taught. And therefore the teacher should be a kind of mountain [source] of knowledge (Interview with educator, 21st March 2009).
The concerns on students’ teaching approach perhaps can be explained by drawing on
Lortie’s (1975) notion of apprenticeship of observation. He asserts that teachers tend to
teach how they were taught (during their long period in school as learners) more than how
they would have been guided to teach (during teacher preparation, as is the case here). A
number of students during the interviews confirmed having inadvertently functioned
within Lortie’s (1975) notion of apprenticeship of observation.24 One of them said: “I think
that partly we draw from our high school experience as students. What you can remember
about how your teachers taught. Personally, I am studying History because of my high
school teacher. She inspired to me.”
In the educator’s view, the unavailability of reference resources (text books and school
syllabus) impacted negatively on students’ ability to plan and present lessons that matched
conventional expectations. He explained the challenge of resources, particularly reference
texts, as shown below:
I also think it could be a consequence of students’ lack of adequate preparation for the lessons. As you know, the learner-centred approaches require ample preparation unlike the one they prefer where as they have demonstrated, one can easily go and churn out the content he or she has read with little attention to the learners. And because there is no provision for the learners’ participation, the teacher merely lectures all through the lesson... We have a serious problem with regard to reference material. Apart from the textbooks, even the current H&G syllabus is not readily available to students. As a matter of fact, I can actually say that students are grappling in the dark. If they are lucky, they may get somebody with a syllabus and another with say a text-book that might have become out-dated. In their circumstance, they may still have to use such a textbook. In fact, I want to think that is the reason ... presented out-dated content. And, I think that is a failure on our part but we are now doing something about it (Interview with educator, 21st March 2009).
24 In one of the plenary lectures, where skills were introduced, a teacher-educator seemed to have anticipated the effect of apprenticeship of observation when he asked students to adhere to the following dictum: ‘do what I tell you to do but do not do what I do’.
184
When I probed further about the relation between the course content for H&G and that of
the department of history which offers content knowledge, the educator indicated:
Our sister-department in the Faculty of Arts deals with content [subject matter]. They give our students the content they require in all these topics at the secondary school level. And actually, we always advise them on the topics or the courses from History which should be taken by our students. (Interview with educator, 21st March 2009)
According to Shulman (1987), the essence of teacher planning for teaching is manifested
in the pedagogical reasoning that one undertakes. It is an iterative process that requires a
systematic deliberation on what one will do in order to attain the set objectives. This model
which grounds Shulman’s notion of PCK – what he regards as an amalgam of content
knowledge and pedagogical knowledge, is what distinguishes teachers’ work from any
other type. It is a conception that resonates with other notions, such as practical reasoning
(Audi, 2004; Orton, 1997) and critical normative thinking (Bailin, 1998). These notions
underscore the importance of systematic deliberation on what one is supposed to do when
teaching. Applied to the microteaching lessons, especially the feedback that was given to
students, a number of issues can be noted. For instance, the focus of the comments was on
skills that needed attention, with no mention of the significance of having to know about
agricultural practices of the past on their own. This objective for H&G is likely to have,
perhaps, inadvertently been compromised and students were once again denied an
opportunity for appropriate engagement with the implications of the objective for lesson
design and how the skill that was to be rehearsed, that is, modelling, could be used to
clarify influences between agricultural practices. This is a skill that is invaluable to
effective curriculum design if utilised appropriately. Therefore, students had to be given
cues that raised awareness of its importance. These cues would enable them to identify
how modelling could be used to capture what MacIntyre (1985, p. 191) describes as the
internal goods of a practice. In short, for students to learn to teach H&G effectively, there
was a need for professional commitment from their educator to help them acquire qualities
that would enable them to achieve standards of teaching that are acceptable to, in general,
history as a school subject and, specifically, the objectives of H&G.
The educator seemed to be valorising institutional practices that are taken for granted as
worthwhile rather than teach ways of resisting them. In this context the latter are primarily
related to general teaching practices in the schools and the forms of rewards, that is,
external goods that are provided for such practices in the education system; namely good
examination results. I am here referring to the power of institutional practices and the
185
implications for the lack of guidance for students to acquire the forms of pedagogic
communication (Bernstein, 2000) that would have been appropriate for teaching history at
school level. Students also expressed concern about oversight when they were invited to
reflect on the HTM course. Their reflections are presented below.
8.6 STUDENTS’ VIEWS ON THE HTM COURSE
Specifically when asked about the contribution of the HTM course to their knowledge for
teaching H&G, students shared the following views:
Student 1: Personally, I find the course to be good and interesting. This is because we are being prepared for the real [actual] classroom teaching. I do not think that anyone in my class would have been in a good position to teach without taking this course. I should actually say that the methods of teaching H&G are very important so much so that without them one would not be able to go to class and teach the subject confidently. It is necessary that one is exposed to the subject methods course before going out to teach in schools.
Student 2: The subject teaching methods course comes close to exposing us to secondary school content. At least, during microteaching, we are asked to prepare and teach a topic of our choice from the secondary school History and Government syllabus.
Another simply retorted: “Ok, I think the main learning about teaching occurs when we go
to the field [schools]. You start learning from the teachers you cooperate with”.
This reaction underscored a generally held view about the importance of the site
whereupon student teachers need to learn how to teach.25 Grossman et al. (2005) argue
that, while the practice site in schools is important, the university’s contribution towards
teaching knowledge cannot be ignored or dismissed as was the case in this student’s
response.
8.7 DISCUSSION
The teacher-educator’s responses to the situation seemed informed by a behaviourist
process-product approach to teaching (cf., Tomlinson, 1999). The knowledge and skills
presented to students (as novices) were considered sufficient to teach the H&G curriculum.
Shortcomings in their teaching skills were attributed to their own ‘weaknesses, i.e.,
25 Presently, some countries have instituted teacher education policies that require most of the previously university-based courses to be relocated to school sites. Teacher certification requirements are pegged to percentages of time covered in school settings, and often higher time is spent in schools than universities (cf.,Taylor, 2008).
186
forgetfulness. Hence, to the teacher-educator, it was not necessary for the HTM course to
do any more than what it had offered.
Thornton (2001) has argued that such a micro-level conception of teaching fosters an
overly technical/mechanical approach because teaching is largely viewed as an application
of techniques in lesson presentation. How to get through the lesson becomes more
important than the bigger picture of what the totality of lessons contributes towards the
subject’s curriculum objectives (cf., Zumwalt, 1989). The view is supported by what Ball
(2000) sees as the weakness of programmes that leave the onus of integration of
knowledge and skills to students who by themselves are not so clear on what, how and
why such an integration is foundational to the effective implementation of classroom
instructional practices. As theorists in teacher development have noted, the beginning
years compel most of novice teachers to focus not on learners but on their own personality
and classroom management issues (Berliner, 2001; Feiman-Nemser, 2001). As a result,
their cognitive processing of whatever is learnt needs to be backed up with, amongst other
actions, incessant reviews, testing, discussions and application activities. In the context of
this study, the over-reliance on techniques of teaching in a methods course is thus likely to
lead to the production of teachers with practices that only help them go through a day
(Zumwalt, 1989), despite teaching being an intellectual activity that requires finesse in
one’s grasp of content knowledge as it breaks it into granules to make sense to the learners.
According to Darling-Hammond et al. (2005), Grossman (1990), Ball (2000) and Thornton
(2001), a deep grasp of subject matter knowledge is a critical component of an ability to
break it up into meaningful instructional activities for learners. In the case of the HTM
course, the teacher-educator thought this was a preserve of the relevant academic
department (History). The course, hence, only concentrated on the skills of lesson
presentation and contributed a weak link between the objectives of H&G and what
students were able to learn as knowledge for teaching. It is in this light, therefore, that
Doyle (1986, p. 376) observes that:
Most teachers, even many of those considered to be quite effective, do not have a rich semantic grasp of their content. This situation is not surprising as most content domains are not taught semantically even in college and university classrooms. Furthermore, little of the content of standard teacher education programmes is directed to the issue of how teachers might design academic tasks to represent the curriculum adequately to students.
This is the view that Darling-Hammond and Richardson (2009) also espouse in their
critique of teacher development programmes that fail to focus on affording teachers
187
opportunities to learn the specific ways of handling particular content areas for the benefit
of learners in school classrooms. Thus, as a course that is aimed at helping students acquire
appropriate knowledge and skills to teach history at school level and fulfil the objectives of
H&G, the HTM course requires a reorientation. As it stands, it does not readily provide the
pedagogical knowledge appropriate for successful implementation of H&G in schools.
Shulman’s (1986) notion of ‘pedagogical content knowledge’ as the ‘province of teachers’
was not modelled for the student teachers. In turn, they were not assisted to comprehend
how they required enacting this form of teachers’ knowledge on their own. That such a
significant curricular undertaking was left to the devices of novice teachers is an issue that
raises concerns about the role played by HTM course in teacher preparation26 for H&G.
The next chapter, summaries these findings, reflects on the appropriateness of the
conceptual tools on which the study has drawn and the research design that has been used.
This is followed by reflections on the value of these findings. In conclusion,
recommendations are made for the kind of research that is required in Kenya to encourage
teacher-educators, educationists and official curriculum policy developers (KIE) in the
country to understand the importance of curriculum coherence for the effective education
of teachers meant for the schooling sector.
8.8 SUMMARY
The discussion of this chapter focused on presenting an analysis of student-teachers
microteaching lessons in order to determine the knowledge and skills the course may have
proffered them for teaching H&G. Thus, it was deliberate that the class activities that take
place in the HTM course and their role in shaping the student-teacher to prepare this
individual for the actual teaching be emphasised. The chapter vividly presents illustrations
on microteaching lessons, how these lessons provide descriptive details of a topic for the
students, how the lessons underplay normative critical thinking and how they act as the
linking concept to the teaching aid.
On the whole, the HTM course is viewed as one that emphasised knowledge and skills for
teaching as a practical act. Teaching is largely viewed as an application of techniques in
lesson presentation thus the mechanical approach is emphasised. On the flip side however, 26 From interviews with teacher-educator and students, it was further indicated that HTM course was under-resourced as syllabus and relevant H&G textbooks were not readily available. This compounds, even further, both the ‘what and how’ that may have been appropriated by students as knowledge of teaching H&G.
188
the HTM course as a practical act may lead to the production of teachers who focus on
short term goals only and fail to realise the essence of teaching as an intellectual activity
that require mastery of the content, since it lays emphasis on the techniques of teaching.
This orientation may have adverse effects on teaching H&G as provided in its objectives.
In this way, hence, the course is short of forging the appropriate curricular coherence that
ought to be readily discerned between it and the secondary school H&G subject.
189
CHAPTER NINE
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
9.1 SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS
This study addressed the following research question: How does the History Teaching
Methods course promote coherence with the requirements of the secondary school History
and Government curriculum? Further, three subsidiary questions were used to interrogate
the HTM course. They were the following: How is the BEd History programme organised
at the selected university? How does the programme prepare students to understand
historical knowledge and forms of pedagogic communication that they can draw on to
teach H&G at secondary school? How is assessment for teaching drawn on to improve
student teachers’ understanding of historical knowledge and how it ought to be
communicated?
These questions were addressed through a phenomenological interpretive inquiry that
adopted a case study design. Through multiple data collection methods – observation,
stimulated interviews and documents examination, as presented in chapters particularly -
Three, Seven and Eight, the following are assertions obtaining from the analysed data.
The notion of ‘engagement with subject knowledge’ is central to what H&G teachers are
expected to do in their teaching in order to attain the subject’s objectives (see also Seixas,
1999; Barton & Levstik, 1997). The objectives of H&G as discussed in Chapter Three
emphasise the inculcation of citizenship characteristics in the learners. Therefore, within
the HTM course, students are supposed to be guided on how to engage with the
substantive and procedural historical knowledge (Betram, 2009; Lee, 2005) in order to
foster the desired citizenship characteristics (see also, Little et al., 2007). However, from
the evidence presented, especially in chapters Seven and Eight, there is no clear indication
that either the teacher-educators or student teachers had critically examined the objectives
for H&G as the starting point (initiating premise) from where knowledge for teaching
H&G at secondary school would have to be developed. Instead, both the lectures and the
student teachers’ microteaching lessons emphasised procedures of teaching. In the
190
lectures, teaching H&G was presented as an activity of telling student teachers about what
they should do in order to teach. There was no direct or deliberate attempt by teacher-
educators to demonstrate how such instructional knowledge required integrating or
blending with subject content knowledge (which students studied from the academic or
teaching subject area) as affordances of knowledge engagement crucial for teaching a
school subject.
The Organisation of the HTM Course
Evidence for this aspect of the study was mainly presented in Chapter Three. From the
examination of the HTM course it became clear that the academic and the professional
education courses are offered at the same time. However, this structural concurrence
(organisation) did not mean that the two components of the curriculum were jointly
developed to provide a coherence that promotes a clear and integrated organisation of
courses and activities in the learning and practice of teaching for students (Roberts, 1998).
In the first semester, students are offered what may be considered as the ‘theory of
teaching H&G’ as students only attend lectures with no practical work. Practical work is
offered in the second semester. Although lectures are also presented in this period,
emphasis is laid on the practice that students undertake in their microteaching classes.
They present mini-lessons that focus on specified skills – lesson introduction, set-
induction, questioning, reinforcement, inter alia. They also prepare instructional materials
that accompany the different skills practiced. Overall, structurally, student teachers at the
end of the third year of the programme would have covered close to 75 per cent of courses
expected in the whole programme. Although this coverage implies that the HTM course is
offered at a point when students would have been exposed to appreciable levels of both the
teaching subjects’ content knowledge and professional education knowledge, the study did
not obtain clear evidence that showed how this organisational aspect of the curriculum had
been utilised as pointers of the curricular coherence that Coleman et al. (1982), Fuhrman,
(1993), Newmann et al. (2001), Schmidt et al. (2005) and Smith and O’Day (1991) regard
as crucial between teacher education and the secondary school curriculum.
Thus, the organisational aspects of the HTM course (and the BEd programme in general)
seem to contradict what Roberts (1998) conceives as ways useful in forging curriculum
coherence in a teacher education programme. As a result, the HTM course seemed
191
unresponsive to developing the knowledge and skills that students needed for the
classroom. In particular, as evidence of Chapter Seven showed, the lectures tended to lean
more on the practical skills at the expense of helping students integrate content knowledge
and the attendant knowledge types -pedagogical, educational, curricular, learner(s), context
and self (teacher) requisite for developing pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman,
1987; Turner-Bisset, 1999). In short, the structural organisation of the HTM course within
the BEd programme in general, did not foster the coherence (links) that needed to be
adopted for it to help student teachers develop knowledge for teaching H&G.
Engagement with Historical Knowledge
The evidence presented in Chapter Seven exemplifies the initial mismatch between the
course and the H&G. Although methods of teaching courses have to be a bridge in a pre-
service teacher education programme and a school subject, evidence showed the contrary.
According to Thornton (2001), it is necessary that the aims, content, processes and
evaluation practices in such courses be deliberately developed to reflect the attainment of
the school subject’s objectives. The initiating premise for those who develop courses is
supposed to include the objectives of the school subject. Thus, deliberation in the HTM
course needed to reflect a situational analysis of the objectives of the H&G so as to decide
on the content, methods of teaching and learning as well as how such learning would be
safeguarded through assessment practices that were commensurate with the processes of
History as a discipline within which H&G was taught. If this had been addressed, lectures
and microteaching lessons would have used approaches to subject knowledge that
Bernstein (2000 & 1999); Hirst (1974); Ma (1999); Deng (2009); and, Anderson et al.
(2001), among others, write have to make the essence of such knowledge accessible.
However, in practice, there was no evidence of the course making any direct reference to
the H&G objectives in the lectures, the course outline and other documents of the teacher
educators. It appeared rather to serve a seemingly ‘add-on’ role, guiding students to
acquire the procedures of teaching. Teacher-educators gave the impression that they
treated the H&G syllabus as doctrine, as though it should not to be tampered with (cf.,
Nsibande, 2005). In the lectures, the process of learning how to teach had been reduced to
an exercise of students taking down notes.
192
Evidence in Chapter Eight showed that student teachers seemed to have developed an
understanding that knowledge and skills for teaching H&G simply involved an acquisition
of tools and techniques to be applied in a classroom. Thus, the curriculum coherence was
compromised. The argument in the study is that a programme for educating students for,
amongst other factors, to teach H&G, the HTM course ought to have critically examined
the objectives of H&G in order to make appropriate decisions on what was crucial to its
teaching and subsequently for those learning how to teach it in Kenyan secondary schools.
The chapter focused on student teachers’ microteaching lessons to capture the knowledge
and skills student teachers had acquired for teaching H&G. Special attention was paid to
the lessons and the feedback given to students about their teaching. Drawing on this
evidence it became possible to argue for the nature of PCK the students demonstrated to
the essence of the objectives of H&G. This PCK was further examined to establish its
coherence to the objectives. The discussion also drew on interviews with a teacher-
educator and student teachers involved in the HTM course to further make sense of what
was experienced during the micro-teaching lessons.
The scheme of work, lesson plan, lesson objectives, amongst other instructional activities
prepared and used by students, were of particular significance. Evidence from the lessons
indicated that even though they were to form a context for students to begin to show how
they were attempting to integrate and apply the knowledge and skills to which they had
been exposed, they had developed or were developing a conception of teaching H&G that
showed little regard for the objectives for H&G. Rather, they focused on instructional
activities. Instead of pinpointing what each lesson required as cognitive competence,
emphasis was placed on how to improve generic skills such as managing time. The
feedback reflected an apprenticeship and craft model of teacher education (Eraut, 2000).
There was no critical engagement with the students’ emergent ways of understanding or
teaching practices.
Although, according to the teacher-educators, the HTM course had put mechanisms in
place to forge links with H&G, by taking students through the H&G syllabus document
and the academic department offering History courses and being advised about the content
they required, it was notable that students seemed not to appreciate these resources. The
discussion in Chapter Three indicated the centrality of a subject’s philosophy in the
knowledge for teaching (Scheffler, 2007) that the HTM course had to address. However,
from the evidence presented here it is clear there was no forum through which the
193
restricted conception it was promoting could be looked at critically. The teacher-educators
seemed unaware of the mismatch between their course and the H&G.
Assessment for teaching
Evidence obtained in the study indicated that the HTM course utilised two common
university-wide methods of ascertaining student teachers’ knowledge and skills uptake –
these are the continuous assessment tests (CATs) and the end of semester examination.
Specifically, during the ‘theory-based’ or non-practice oriented session of the HTM course
in the first semester of the third year, students were given two (CAT) assignments.
Teacher-educators would assess the students’ essays and hand back feedback to students.
In addition, there was one examination taken at the end of the semester which was part of
the university-wide requirement. In general, these modes of ascertaining knowledge and
skills acquisition were modelled on a common format prescribed by the university-wide
examination regulations. This adherence to laid down procedures, though, did not
necessarily guarantee any additional mechanisms for assessing student teacher uptake of
the knowledge and skills. This scenario played itself more clearly during the second
semester microteaching lessons. There was no end of semester examination except for the
undisclosed teacher-educators’ grading of student teachers’ performance during the
individual student lesson presentations. The actual assessment of teaching with an award
of marks would take place during the school teaching practice in schools that was not part
of the study reported here. In that case, the nature of assessment in the microteaching
sessions was subjectively determined by the teacher-educators. Bearing the notion of
curriculum coherence that ought to have been promoted between the HTM course and the
secondary school H&G, it is appropriate to conclude that this form of assessment in the
HTM course did not provide students with appropriate and adequate contexts and content
of exposure for practice of what was crucial to teaching H&G before they went out into
schools.
In general, therefore, a combination of these aspects of the HTM course – the organisation,
knowledge engagement (both the teaching subject and professional education components)
and the assessment of students’ uptake of teaching knowledge and skills reflect an
orientation to teacher education that skews the focus needed to attain curriculum coherence
between what pre-service teachers acquire and what they are expected to implement as
194
school curriculum upon graduation. As discussed in the subsequent sub-section, this
realisation obtained from the study’s adoption of a particular set of analytical tools and
methodology. The significance of these aspects to the study are reflected upon below.
9.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH AND
ANALYTICAL TOOLS USED IN CONDUCTING THE STUDY
The methodological approach and analytical tools used in the study helped to highlight
learning to teach history as a school subject, and in particular H&G, as a complex
professional endeavour that required multiple gazes to understand it. For instance, when
viewed as a social practice that ought to lead to the attainment of ethical goodness, this
orientation to teaching required the positioning of the teacher-educators as agents of
practical reasoning who had to deliberately undertake to guide their students’ thinking to
enable them to develop a critical disposition when teaching. The design, approach and
multiple analytical tools that the study adopted, therefore made it possible to mark out the
ways in which the HTM course could be examined and its real purpose be understood from
reconciling and syncretising the actions and views of teacher-educators, students and
myself as subjects who were positioned both culturally and historically. More importantly,
how the course reflected and promoted coherence with the H&G curriculum could not be
understood simply from my position as researchers. Rather the insights in this study
resulted from my efforts to look at the teacher educators and students actions views as
constituting 1st order constructs that had to be looked at in relation to mine as 2nd order
constructs in order to develop the 3rd order ones presented as findings.
It could have been possible to study curriculum coherence between the HTM course and
objectives of H&G as simply having to do with curriculum design procedures in terms of,
for example, Stenhouse’s (1976) suggestion that using objectives as educational proposals
should be translated according to the concepts and principles underpinning them. He
considers concepts of curriculum that are informed by educational proposals as primarily
involving a translation process that has to make activities and tasks designed meaningful in
a particular context. Even though this view was necessary to understand what was
important to translate H&G objectives in practice, viewing coherence as simply a design
issue would have narrowed its understanding and essentialised what Bernstein defines as a
‘pedagogic devise’. It could have resulted in underplaying the importance of the literature
195
on curriculum coherence and how it was underpinned by specifically, Aristotle’s (in Orton,
1997) notion of practical reasoning as a rational endeavour towards ethical goodness.
Paying special attention to the concept of practical reasoning was useful in considering the
various aspects that are important for the rational pursuit of appropriate action to the
objectives of H&G. As a conceptual lens it highlighted the importance of agency in
employing or taking advantage of context in seeking practical responses to an issue at
hand, in this particular case the H&G objectives (cf., O’Neill, 2008). The HTM course
could not be examined and sense made of it only on the basis of methods or procedures of
planning and teaching history lessons. How these methods or strategies were chosen,
devised and implemented had to indicate or reflect “rational deliberation leading up to and
providing the reasoned grounds of acting” (Rescher, 1966, p.121). It is in this sense that
the concept of practical reasoning used in this study positioned me in the study and made it
possible for me to make sense of the actions and explanations of teacher-educators and
students as subjects projecting their lived experiences within the HTM course. They drew
on these experiences to make sense of what they were required to do. Such experience
could thus be understood as what enabled them to weigh the pros and cons of teaching and
learning for H&G as a particular course of action (Buchmann, 1988). The HTM course
needed to be a mediating/external language of description that had to facilitate the H&G
objectives of what Kenya wished for itself as a particular course of action as external
norms of practical action. Wedgwood (2002) describes these norms as helping us to
determine how the resources available can be utilised to establish the appropriateness of
one’s practical reasoning. Objectives could thus be viewed as presenting the benchmarks
from which curriculum coherence could be examined, and one may conclude that the
course seemed to place more emphasis on knowledge to teaching procedures and,
therefore, what Wedgewood see as the internal norms.
With the help of this concept I was able to argue that emphasis on the consistency or
coherence of methods or strategies taught, for example, through lesson planning in a
context wherein the objectives of H&G had to inform social practice (activity), implied an
inability to equip students with appropriate knowledge of the essential aspects of
objectives in which they were being prepared to function (work). Nor did it clear
mechanisms (heuristic device(s) by which to figure out what was the best action to take
and implement.
196
The conclusions drawn in the study provided confirmation of, amongst others, Audi,
(1989), Penlington (2006) and Brinkmann (2007) on the value of practical reasoning. They
have highlighted a view of curriculum coherence as epistemological and requiring,
amongst others, what Bernstein’s (2000 & 1999) refers to as a ‘pedagogic device’, Hirst’s
(1974) form of knowledge as having a particular logic and ways of working with them,
Deng’s (2009) theory of content as a basis for understanding the nature of a school subject
and Shulman’s (1987) pedagogical content knowledge.
This conceptualisation directed me to a research design that proved valuable in developing
the insights provided in Chapters 7 and 8. Specifically, drawing on Nieuwenhuis (2010),
and Lincoln and Guba’s (2002) notions of lived professional experience, and Morse’s
(2002) notions of perceptions, and placing significance on the subject as acting within a
context and history on the basis of lived experience, I privileged the study to collect data
from which it was possible to understand the teacher-educators’ lectures and views on
them as well as students’ actions in micro-teaching lessons and their own views on how
they were prepared to teach H&G. It would not have been possible to make sense of how
the HTM course was promoting coherence with the H&G objectives without such an
interpretive phenomenological approach. How the data is presented, reflected upon and
conclusions drawn in Chapters 7 and 8 testifies to the phenomenological and interpretive
dimensions that directed the study.
9.3 LIMITATIONS
Research studies are impacted on by many factors. This being an academic study, it had
restrictions of time and budget. Though, their effect has not skewed the possible depth and
breadth that may have ordinarily been achieved. The design, approach and methods
employed in the study enabled me to conduct an in-depth study of the HTM course and
obtain data that has made it possible to provide rich insights. Also as indicated in Chapter
Six, the design approach and methods used facilitated the credibility of the data obtained.
As a result, despite the limited time and budget in this study, its design is dependable and
sets the foundations upon which teacher-educators in Kenya can better understand what is
essential to meaningful teacher education. The in-depth inquiry that was conducted over
the three months I spent for the field-work, the role played by my supervisor, as an
external auditor, who has witnessed the lectures and lessons I studied on the audio-video
197
recordings has subjected the study to critical scrutiny that helped to ensure that both the
research process and descriptions and interpretations of data are theoretically valid and a
resource for further research.
9.4 CONCLUDING REMARKS AND IMPLICATIONS
The findings in this study show that courses on methods of teaching have to include as
their priorities the school subject objectives for which students have to teach. They ought
to shape the aims, content, processes and evaluation practices in teacher education in such
a manner that the knowledge for learning how to teach school subjects and associated
skills include a focus on curriculum coherence as an important element to promote
amongst others, the successful implementation of the official curriculum policy. However,
to develop such PCK depends on how teacher-educators interpret the policy that has partly
to inform such courses. In the case of the HTM course, knowledge for teaching H&G, and
by implication the curriculum coherence it promoted, required a conception of teaching
knowledge and ways of teacher learning that were beyond emphasising internal norms or
procedures that needed to be mastered when performing specific or general tasks related to
teaching. There is therefore need for action and perception-focused research studies that
can help re-orient the HTM programme to a new and different conceptual stance that
draws on current literature related to teacher development and that gives prominence to
curriculum coherence as teacher-thinking about practice that is focused on the essentials of
subject-knowledge in the context in which it is taught. I hope the study contributes ideas
on what such studies can focus on to provide insights that can further and improve the
capacity that novice teachers have as graduates of Kenyan universities.
198
LIST OF REFERENCES
Adler, S., & Goodman, J. (1986). Critical Theory as a Foundation for Methods Courses.
Journal of Teacher Education, 37 (2), 1-7.
Anderson, L. W., & Burns, B. R. (1987). The Activity Structure of Lesson Segments.
Curriculum Inquiry, 17 (1), 31-53.
Anderson, L.W. (Ed.), Krathwohl, D.R. (Ed.), Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer,
R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J., & Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A taxonomy for learning,
teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives (Complete edition). New York: Longman.
Angrosino, V. M. (2005). “Recontextualizing Observation”. In K. N. Denzin & Y. S.
Lincoln (eds.). The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, 3rd ed. Thousand
Oaks (CA): Sage Publications.
Apple, M. W. (2002). Does Education Have Independent Power? Bernstein and the
Question of Relative Autonomy. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23, (4),
607-616.
Ariza, R.P., del Poso, R.M., & Toscano, J.M (2002). Conceptions of school-based teacher
education concerning On- going teacher education. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 18, 305-321.
Arnot, M. & Reay, D. (2004). The framing of pedagogical encounters: regulating the
social order in the classroom. In J. Muller, B. Davies, & A. Morais. Reading
Bernstein, Researching Bernstein. (pp.137 - 150). London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Audi, R. (1989). Practical Reasoning. London and New York: Routledge.
Audi, R. (2004). Reasons, practical reason, and practical reasoning. Ratio (new series)
XVII 2, 119-149.
Bailin, S. (1998) Education, Knowledge & Critical Thinking (pp. 204-220). In: D. Carr
(Ed). Education, Knowledge & Truth: Beyond The Postmodern Impasse. London:
Routledge.
Bain, R. B. (2000). Into the breach: Using research and theory to shape history instruction
199
(pp. 331-352). In P. Stearns, P. Seixas, & S. Wineburg (Eds.) Knowing, teaching,
and learning history: National and international perspectives. New York: New
York University Press.
Beyer, B. (2008). How to Teach Thinking Skills in Social Studies and History. The Social
Studies, 196-201.
Ball, D. L. (2000). Bridging Practices: Intertwining Content and Pedagogy in Teaching
and Learning to Teach. Journal of Teacher Education, 51: 241-247.
Bell, N. D. (2007). Microteaching: What is it that is going on here? Teaching and
Teacher Education, 18, 24-40.
Berg, B. L. (2001). Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. Boston: Allyn
and Bacon.
Berliner, D. C. (2001). Learning about and learning from expert teachers. International
Journal of Educational Research, 35, (5), 463-482.
Bernstein, B. (1990). Class, Codes and Control, Vol. IV: The Structuring of Pedagogic
Discourse. London: Routledge.
Bernstein, B. (1996). Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research and
Critique. London: Taylor & Francis.
Bernstein, B. (1999). Vertical and horizontal discourse: an essay. British Journal of
Sociology of Education, 20 (2), 157-173.
Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research and
Critique. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Betram, C. (2009). Procedural and substantive knowledge: Some implications of an
outcomes-based history curriculum in South Africa. Southern African Review of
Education, 15 (1), 45-62.
Biddulph, M & Adey, K. (2001). The Influence of Pupil perceptions on Subject Choice at
14+ in Geography and History. Educational Studies, 27 (4), 439-450.
Bilmes, J. (1986) Discourse and behavior. New York: Plenum Press.
200
Black, A.L. & Halliwell, G. (2000). Accessing practical knowledge: how? Why?
Teaching and Teacher Education 16, 103-115.
Blaikie, N. W. H. (2000). Designing social research: The logic of anticipation.
Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Bogden, R.C and Biklen, S.K (2003). Qualitative research in Education: An Introduction
to theory and methods. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Group Inc.
Bonnet, G. (1996). The reform of initial teacher training in France. Journal of Education
For Teaching, 22, 249- 269.
Brent, E., & Slusarz P. (2003). "Feeling the Beat": Intelligent Coding Advice from
Metaknowledge in Qualitative Research. Social Science Computer Review, 21; 281
Brinkmann, S. (2007). Practical reason and positioning. Journal of Moral Education, 36
(4), 415–432.
Brophy, J. & Vansledright, B. (1997). Teaching and learning history in elementary
schools. New York: Teachers College Press.
Brown, S. D. (2009). History Circles: The Doing of History Teaching. The History
Teacher, 42 (2), 191- 203.
Bruner, J. S. (2007). In search of pedagogy: the selected works of Jerome S. Bruner.
London: Routledge.
Bruno- Jofre, R. & Schiralli, M. (2002). Teaching history: A discussion of contemporary
challenges. Encounters on Education, 3, 117 - 127
Buchmann, M. 1988). Argument and Contemplation in Teaching. Oxford Review of
Education, 14, (2), 201-214.
Buchmann, M., & Floden, R. E. (1992). Coherence, the Rebel Angel. Educational
Researcher, 21 (9), 4-9.
Calderhead, J., & Shorrock, S. B. (1997). Understanding Teacher Education: Case Studies
201
in the Professional Development of Beginning Teachers. London:
RoutledgeFalmer.
Callejo-Perez, D. M. (2005). Curriculum Reform and Teacher Education: The Loss of
Innocence. Taboo, 73-80. Summer/Spring.
Cameron, M & Baker, R. (2004). Research on initial teacher education in New Zealand:
1993–2004. Literature review and annotated bibliography. Wellington: New
Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Carter, K., & Anders, D. (1996) Program pedagogy. In F. B. Murray (Ed.), The teacher
educator’s handbook: Building a knowledge base for the preparation of teachers
(pp. 557-592). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Castle, S., Fox, R. K., & Souder, K. O. (2006). Do Professional Development Schools
(PDSs) Make a Difference? A Comparative Study of PDS and Non-PDS Teacher
Candidates. Journal of Teacher Education, 57; 65
Cazden, C. (1988). Classroom Discourse: The Language of Teaching and Learning.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Clark, A. (2008). The challenge of teaching Australian history, pp. 33-48. In: J. Butcher.
(Ed.). Australia under construction: nation-building – past, present and future.
Source: http://epress.anu.edu.au/anzsog/auc/pdf/whole_book.pdf#page=49
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. (1993). Inside outside: Teacher research and knowledge.
New York: Teachers College Press.
Cochran-Smith, M., & Zeichner, K. M. (Eds.). (2005). Studying Teacher Education: The
Report of the AERA panel on research and teacher education. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum.
Coffey, A., Holbrook, B., & Atkinson, P. (1996). Qualitative Data Analysis: Technologies
and Representations, Sociological Research Online, 1:1.
Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research Methods in Education (6th ed.).
London: Routledge.
202
Coleman, J. S., Hoffer, T. and Kilgore, S. (1982). High School Achievement: Public,
Catholic, and Private Schools Compared. New York: Basic Books.
Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry.
Educational Researcher, 19(5), 2-14.
Cope, P. & Stephen, C. (2001). A role for practicing teachers in initial teacher education.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 17, 913-924.
Corcoran, T. B., (2007). Teaching Matters: How State and Local Policymakers can
improve the quality of teachers and teaching. CPRE Policy Briefs, Graduate School
of Education, University of Pennyslvania: Philadelphia. Accessed on: 22/02/2008.
[http\\:www.edu/cpre/]
Cornbleth, C. (1990). Curriculum in context. London : Falmer Press.
Canadian Education Statistics Council, CESC. (2002). Teacher Education /Educator
Training: Current Trends and Future Directions, Symposium Report. Ontario:
Author.
Counsell, C. (2000) ‘Historical knowledge and historical skills: a distracting dichotomy’,
in Arthur, J. and Phillips, R. (Eds.) (2000) Issues in History Teaching. London:
Routledge.
Creswell, J. W., & Miller, D. L. (2000) Determining Validity in Qualitative Inquiry.
Theory into Practice, 39, (3), 124-130.
Cruickshank, D. R., & Metcalf, K. K. (1993). Improving Preservice Teacher Assessment
Through On-Campus Laboratory Experiences. Theory into Practice, 32, (2), 86-92.
Daniels, H. (1995). Pedagogic Practices, Tacit Knowledge and Discursive Discrimination:
Bernstein and post- Vygotskian research. British Journal of Sociology of
Education, 16 (4), 517 – 548.
Darling-Hammond, L. & Bransford, J., LePage, P., Hammerness, K., Duffy, H (Eds.).
(2005). Preparing teachers for a changing world: what teachers should learn and
be able to do (pp. 201-231). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
203
Darling-Hammond, L. (2005). Educating the New Educator: Teacher Education and the
Future of Democracy. The New Educator, 1, 1–18.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2006). Constructing 21st Century Teacher Education. Journal of
Teacher Education. 57, (3), 300-314
Darling-Hammond, L. & Richardson, S. (2009). Research Review / Teacher Learning:
What Matters? Educational Leadership, 66 (5), 46- 53.
Day, C. (1999). Developing Teachers: The Challenges of Lifelong Learning.
Philadelphia: Falmer Press.
De Wever, B., Schellens, T., Valcke, M., & Van Keer, H. (2006). Content analysis
schemes to analyze transcripts of online asynchronous discussion groups: A
review. Computer & Education, 46, 6-28.
Delamont, S. (1992). Fieldwork in Educational Settings: Methods, Pitfalls and
Perspectives. London: The Falmer Press.
Deng, Z (2009). The formation of school subject and the nature of curriculum content: an
analysis of liberal studies in Hong Kong. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 41, (5)
585–604.
Deng, Z., & Gopinathan, S. (2003). Continuity and Change in Conceptual Orientations for
Teacher Preparation in Singapore: challenging teacher preparation as training.
Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 31 (1), 51-65
Denzin, N. (1989). The Research Act. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Doyle, W. (1983). Academic Work. Review of Educational Research, 53, (2), 159-199.
Doyle, W. (1986). Content Representation in Teachers’ Definitions of Academic Work.
Journal of Curriculum Studies, 18 (4), 365-379.
Drakenberg, M. (2001). The Professional Development of Teachers in Sweden. European
Journal of Teacher Education, 24, (2), 195-204.
Dunne, J. (1993) Back to the Rough Ground: `Phronesis’ and `Techne’ in Modern
Philosophy and in Aristotle. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
204
Edwards, T. (1991). Review of the structuring of pedagogic discourse: volume IV, class,
codes & control by Basil Bernstein. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 12
(2), 269 – 273.
Dunne, J. & Pendlebury, S. (2003). Practical Reason. In N. Blake, P. Smeyers, R. Smith, &
P. Standish (Eds.) The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education. Oxford
(UK): Blackwell Publishing.
Eilam, B., & Poyas, Y. (2009). Learning to teach: enhancing pre-service teachers'
awareness of the complexity of teaching-learning processes. Teachers and
Teaching: Theory and Practice, 15, 87-107.
Elbaz, F. L. (1983). Teacher thinking: A study of practical knowledge. London: Croom
Helm.
Ensor, P. (1999). A study of the recontextualising of pedagogic practices from a South
African university preservice mathematics teacher education course by seven
beginning secondary mathematics teachers. Ph. D thesis submitted to University of
London.
Eshiwani, G.S. (1993). Education in Kenya since Independence. Nairobi: East African
Educational Publishers.
Eraut, M. (2000). Teacher Education designed or Framed. International Journal of
educational research, 33, (5), 557-574.
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Fairclough, N. & Wodak, R. (1997: 258-284:). Critical discourse analysis. In T. van Dijk
(Ed.) Discourse as Social Interaction. London: Sage.
Farnham-Diggory, 1994). Paradigms of Knowledge and Instruction. Review of
Educational Research, 64, (3), 463-477.
Feiman-Nemser, S. (2001). From preparation to practice: Designing a continuum to
strengthen and sustain teaching. Teachers College Record, 103(6), 1013-1055.
Feiman-Nemser, S. (1990). Teacher preparation: structural and conceptual alternatives. In:
205
W. R. Houston (Ed.). Handbook of research for Teacher Education, (pp. 212-233).
New York: Macmillan.
Fenstermacher, G. D. (1986). Philosophy of research on teaching: Three aspects. In M. C.
Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (3rd ed.) (pp. 37-49). NY, NY:
Macmillan.
Fetterman, D.M. (1989). Ethnography: Step by step. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Fleet, A. (1993). Early childhood student teacher/cooperating teacher interaction during
final semester practice teaching. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Sydney.
Flick, U. (1998) An Introduction to Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Floden, R., & Meniketti, M. (2005). Research on the effects of coursework in the arts and
sciences and in the foundations of education. In M. Cochran-Smith & K. M.
Zeichner (Eds.), Studying teacher education: The report of the AERA Panel on
Research and Teacher Education (pp. 261-308). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Fontana, A., & Frey, J.H. (2005). The Interview: From Neutral Stance to Political
Involvement (pp. 695-728). In K. N. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (eds.). The Sage
Handbook of Qualitative Research, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks (CA): Sage
Publications.
Foster, R. (1999) School-based Initial Teacher Training in England and France: trainee
teachers’ perspectives compared, Mentoring and Tutoring, 7 (2), 131- 142.
Foucault, M. (1966). The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences.
London: Tavistock Publications Limited.
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish. New York: Random House.
Foucault, M. (1980). Two Lectures, Power/Knowledge, Selected Writings and Other
Interviews 1972 – 1977. New York: Pantheon.
Froggatt, K. A. (2001). The analysis of qualitative data: processes and pitfalls. Palliative
Medicine, 15: 433–438.
Fuhrman, S. H. (ed.) (1993). Designing Coherent Educational Policy: Improving the
206
System. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Gillham, B. (2008). Observation techniques: structured to unstructured. London:
Continuum International Publications.
Goodson, I. (2006). The rise of life narrative. Teacher Education Quarterly, 7-21.
Goodson, I. & Numan, U. (2003) Life History and Professional Development: Stories of
Teachers’ lives and Work, Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Gore, J.M., Griffiths, T., & Ladwig, J.G. (2004). Towards better teaching: productive
pedagogy as a framework for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education,
20, 375-387.
Graneheim, U. H., & Lundman, B. (2004). Qualitative content analysis in nursing
research: concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse
Education Today 24, 105–112.
Grossman, P., Hammerness, K., McDonald, M. (2009). Redefining teacher: Re-imagining
teacher education. Teachers and teaching: Theory and practice, 15(2), 273-290.
Grossman, P. & McDonald, M. (2008) Back to the Future: Directions for Research in
Teaching and Teacher Education. American Educational Research Journal, 45, (1),
184 –205.
Grossman, P. (1990). The making of a teacher: Teacher knowledge and teacher education.
New York: Teachers College Press.
Grossman, P., Schoenfeld, A., & Lee, C. (2005). Teaching subject matter. In L. Darling-
Hammond & J. Bransford, P. LePage, K. Hammerness, H. Duffy (Eds.). Preparing
teachers for a changing world: what teachers should learn and be able to do (pp.
201-231). San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Grossman, P., & Thompson, C. (2004). District Policy and Beginning Teachers: A Lens on
Teacher Learning. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 26, (4), 281–301.
Guba, E., & Lincoln, Y. (1981). Effective Evaluation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
207
Hammerness, K. (2006). From Coherence in Theory to Coherence in Practice. Teachers
College Record, 108, (7), 1241 – 1265.
Hargreaves, A. (1994). Changing Teacher, Changing Times: Teachers’ Work and Culture
in Postmodern Age. London: Cassell.
Harley, K., & Wedekind, V. (2003). A time for discipline: disciplinary displacement and
mythological truths, Journal of Education, 31, 25-46.
Harrison, J., Dymoke, S., & Pell, T. (2006). Mentoring beginning teachers in secondary
schools: An analysis of practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22, 1055–1067.
Hasan, R. (2002). Ways of Meaning, Ways of Learning: Code as an Explanatory Concept.
British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23 (4), 537 – 548.
Hasan, R. (2004). “The concept of semiotic mediation: perspectives from Bernstein’s
sociology” (pp. 30-43). In J. Muller, B. Davies., & A. Morais (eds.). (2004).
Reading Bernstein: Researching Bernstein. London : RoutledgeFalmer.
Hashweh, M. Z. (2005) Teacher pedagogical constructions: a reconfiguration of
pedagogical content knowledge, Teachers and Teaching, 11(3), 273- 292.
Hirst, P. H. (1974). Knowledge and the curriculum: A collection of philosophical papers.
London: Routeledge & Kegan Paul.
Hoban, G. (2004). Seeking quality in teacher education design: A four-dimensional
approach. Australian Journal of Education, 48, (2), 117-133.
Hollins, E. R. (2011). Teacher Preparation for Quality Teaching. Journal of Teacher,
Education, 62 (4), 395–407.
Hofstander, A. (1988). The Basic Problems of Phenomenology: Translation, Introduction
and Lexicon, revised edition, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Howey, K. (1996). Designing coherent and effective teacher education programs. In J.
Sikula, T. Buttery, & E. Guyton (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher
education (2nd Ed). (pp. 143-170). New York: Macmillan.
Howey, K. R., & Zimpher, N. L. (1989). Profiles of pre-service teacher education: Inquiry
208
into the nature of programs. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Hsieh, H.-F., & Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis.
Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277-1288.
Hugo, W., Betram, C., Green, W., & Naidoo, D. (2008). Bernstein, Bloom and the
analysis of pedagogy in South African Schools. Journal of Education, 43, 31-56
Huntly, H. (2008). Teachers’ Work: Beginning Teachers’ Conceptions of Competence.
The Australian Educational Researcher, 35 (1), 125-145.
I’Anson, J. & Wilson, G. (2006). Reframing the practicum: Constructing performative
space in initial teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22 353-361.
Jacklin, H. (2004). Repetition and Difference: A Rythmanalysis of Pedagogic Practice. Ph.
D Thesis submitted to University of the Witwatersrand.
Jardine, M. G. 2005). Foucault and Education. New York: Peter Lang.
Jimenez-Aleixandre, M. P., Rodriguez, A. B., & Duschl, R. A. (2000). “Doing the Lesson”
or “Doing Science”: Argument in High School Genetics. Science Education, 84(6),
757-792.
John, P. D. (2006). Lesson planning and the student teacher: re-thinking the dominant
model. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38 (4), 483 - 498.
John, P.D. (1996). Understanding the apprenticeship of observation in initial teacher
education: Exploring student teachers’ implicit theories of teaching and learning
(pp. 90-107). In G. Claxton, T. Atkinson, M. Osborn & M Wallace (Eds.).
Liberating the Learner: Lessons for Professional Development in Education.
London: Routledge.
Johnson, D.K. & Ratcliff, J.L. (2004). Creating Coherence: The Unfinished Agenda. New
Directions for Higher Education, 25, 85 - 95.
Karmon, A., (2007). “Institutional Organization of Knowledge”: The Missing Link in
Educational Discourse. Teachers College Record, 109: 603 - 634.
Karugu, A. M., (2005). “Challenges of Graduate Teacher Education in the Twenty - First
209
Century”. Paper presented at Moi University’s First Annual Conference, 14th-16th
February, Sirikwa Hotel - Eldoret, Kenya.
Kelly, A. V. (2004). The Curriculum: Theory and Practice. 5th ed. London: Sage
Publications.
Kennedy, M. M. (1999). The Role of Preservice Teacher Education. In L. Darling-
Hammond, & G. Sykes. (eds.). Teaching as the Learning Profession: Handbook of
Teaching and Policy. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Kenya Institute of Education, (2006). Secondary Education Syllabus, Vol. 3. Nairobi:
Kezar, A. (2000). The Importance of Pilot Studies: Beginning the Hermeneutic Circle.
Research in Higher Education, 41 (3), pp. 385-400
Kinach, B. M. (2002). A Cognitive strategy for developing pedagogical content knowledge
in the secondary mathematics methods course: toward a model of effective
practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18 (1), 51 – 71.
Kincheloe, J. (2001). Getting Beyond the Facts: Teaching Social Studies/Social Science in
the Twenty-First Century (2nd edition). New York: Peter Lang.
Kincheloe, J. (2003). Teachers as Researchers: Qualitative Paths to Empowerment. New
York: Falmer.
Kinchloe, J. L. (2004). The Knowledges of Teacher Education: Developing a Critical
Complex Epistemology. Teacher Education Quarterly, 31 (1), 49-66.
Klein, H. K. and Michael D. Myers (1999). A Set of Principles for Conducting and
Evaluating Interpretive Field Studies in Information Systems. MIS Quarterly,
Special Issue on Intensive Research, 23(1), pp. 67-93.
Kneller, G. F. (1949). Vitalizing History-Teaching. The School Review, 57 (9), 467-475.
Koeppen, K. E. (1998). The experiences of a secondary social studies student teacher:
seeking security by planning for self. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14 (4),
401- 411.
Koro-Ljungberg, M. (2010) Validity, Responsibility, and Aporia. Qualitative Inquiry16:
603 – 611.
210
Korsgaard, C. (1996:90-130). The Authority of Reflection. In. O. O’Neill. (ed.). The
Sources of Normativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kenya Institute of Education – KIE (2002). Secondary Education Syllabus, Vol. 3.
Nairobi: Government Printers.
Koech Report (2000): Totally Integrated Quality Education and Training (TIQET).
Nairobi: Government Printers.
Korthagen, F. A. J. (1993). Two modes of reflection. Teaching and Teacher Education,
9(3), 317-326.
Korthagen, F.A.J., Loughran, J, & Russell, T. (2006). “Developing Fundamental Principles
of teacher Education Programmes and Practices”. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 28 (8), 1020-1041.
Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: An Overview. Theory into
Practice, 41, (4), 212-218.
Kuzmic, J. (1994). A beginning teacher's search for meaning: Teacher socialization,
organizational literacy, and empowerment. Teaching and Teacher Education, 10,
(1) 15-27.
Kvale, S. (1996). Interviews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kyriacou, C. (1997). Effective teaching in schools: Theory and practice. Cheltenham,
England: Stanley Thornes.
Lamnias, C., (2002). The Contemporary Pedagogic Device: Functional Impositions and
Limitations. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 10 (1), 21-38.
Larkin, M., Watts, S., Clifton, E. (2006). Giving voice and making sense in Interpretative
Phenomenological Analysis. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3:2, 102-120.
LeCompte, M. (2000). Analyzing Qualitative Data. Theory into Practice, Vol. 39, (3),
146-154.
Lederman, N. G. & Gess-Newsome, J. (1999). Reconceptualising secondary science
211
teacher education. In J. Gess-Newsome & N. G. Lederman (Eds.). Examining
Pedagogical Content Knowledge: The Construct and its implications for Science
education (pp.199-214) Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Lee, P. J. (2005). Putting Principles into Practice: Understanding History. In M.S.
Donovan & J.D. Bransford (Eds.) How students learn: History in the classroom
(pp. 31-77). Washington DC: The National Academies Press.
Lee, P., & Shemilt, D. (2003). A Scaffold not a cage: Progression and progression models
in history. Teaching History, 113, 13-24.
Leinhardt, G. (1993). Weaving instructional explanations in history. British Journal of
Educational Psychology, 63, 46–74.
Leinhardt, G. (1994). History: A time to be mindful. In G. Leinhardt, I. L. Beck, & C.
Stainton (Eds.), Teaching and learning in history (pp. 209–255). Hillsdale, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum.
Leinhardt, G., & Smith, D. A. (1985). Expertise in Mathematics Instruction: Subject
Matter. Journal of Educational Psychology, 77 (3), 247-271.
Leinhardt, G., Stainton, C., & Virji, S. M. (1994). A sense of history. Educational
Psychologist, 29 (2), 79–88.
Levine, M. (1996). Educating teachers for restructured schools (pp-62—647). In F. B.
Murray (ed.) The Teacher-educator’s Handbook. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Levstik, L., & Barton, K. (1997). Doing history: Investigating with children in elementary
and middle schools. Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE
Publications.
Little, C. A., Feng, X. A., Van Tassel-Baska, J., Rogers, K. B., & Avery, L. D. (2007). A
Study of Curriculum Effectiveness in Social Studies, Gifted Child Quarterly, 51
(3), 272-284.
Lortie, D.C. (1975). Schoolteacher: a sociological study. Chicago: University of Chicago
212
Press.
Loughran, J. (2006). Developing a Pedagogy of Teacher Education: Understanding
teaching and learning about teaching. London: Routledge.
Loughran, J. J. 2002. Effective reflective practice: In search of meaning in learning about
teaching. Journal of Teacher Education 53, no. 1: 33–43.
Lunenberg, M., Korthagen, F., & Swennen, A. (2007). The Teacher-educator as a Role
Model. Teaching & Teacher Education, 23: 586 – 601.
Lutta-Mukhebi, M. C. E. (1982). Discrepancies between Expressed Needs and the
Competencies Received in Teacher Education Programs for Bachelor of Education
English Teachers in Kenya. Doctor of Education Thesis submitted to State
University of New York, Albany.
Ma, L. (1999). Knowing and teaching elementary mathematics: Teachers’ understanding
of fundamental mathematics in China and the United States of America. Mahwah,
NJ: Erlbaum.
McIntyre, D. (Ed). 1997. Teacher education research in a new context: The Oxford
internship scheme. New BERA Dialogues series. London: Paul Chapman
Publishing.
MacIntyre, A. (1985). After virtue. A study in moral theory. Notre Dame, IN: University of
Notre Dame Press.
MacLean, L.M., Meyer, M. & Estable, A. (2004) Improving Accuracy of Transcripts in
Qualitative Research. Qualitative Health Research, 14 (1), 113-123.
Maclellan, E. (2008). Pedagogical literacy: what it means and what it allows. Teaching
and Teacher Education, 24 (8). pp. 1986-1992.
Maton, K. (2004). The wrong kind of knower: education, expansion and epistemic device
(pp. 218-231). In J. Muller, B. Davies., & A. Morais (eds.). (2004). Reading
Bernstein: Researching Bernstein. London : RoutledgeFalmer.
Maxwell, J.A. (1996). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach. Thousand
213
Oaks, CA: Sage.
May, T. & Powell, J. (2007). 'Michael Foucault', In: Cultural theory: classic and
contemporary positions, Sage, London, pp. 123-140.
Mayring, P. (2000). Qualitative Content Analysis. Qualitative Social Research: Theories,
Methods, Applications, 1(2), 1-10.
McArthur, J. (2004). Involving Preservice Teachers in Social Studies Content Standards:
Thoughts of a Methods Professor. Social Studies 95, 79-82.
McMillan, J. H. & Schumacher, S. (2006). Research in Education: Evidence-Based
Inquiry. Boston: Pearson – Allyn & Bacon.
Menter, I, Brisard, E & Smith, I. (2006). Convergence or Divergence? Initial Teacher
Education in Scotland and England. Edinburgh: Dunedin Press.
Merriam, S. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education
(Revised Edn.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Mertens, D. M. (1998). Research methods in education and psychology: Integrating
diversity with quantitative and qualitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Metcalf, K.K., Hammer, R. M. A., & Kahlich, P.A. (1996). Alternative to Field-Based
Experiences: The Comparative Effect of On-Campus Laboratories. Teaching &
Teacher Education, Vol. 12 (3), 271-283.
Meuwissen, K. U. (2005). Maybe Someday the Twain Shall Meet: Exploring
Disconnections between Methods Instruction and "Life in the Classroom". Social
Studies, 96 (6), 253-258.
Miles, M., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications.
Minichiello, V., Aroni, R., Timewell, E., & Alexander, L. (1990). In-depth interviewing:
Researching people. Hong Kong: Longman Cheshire Pty Limited.
Ministry of Education, Science & Technology (2004). Primary Teacher Education
Syllabus, Vol 1. Nairobi: Kenya Institute of Education.
214
Modiba, M. M. (1996). South African Black Teachers Perceptions of their Practice.
Perspectives in Education. 17 (1), 117-133.
Modiba, M. M. & Simwa, K. L. (2011). An Examination of Curriculum Coherence
between a University and School Programme: A Case in Kenya. The International
Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 11(5), 289-301.
Morse, J. M. (2002). Interviewing the ill. In J. Gubrium & J.A. Holstein (Eds.), Handbook
of interview research (pp. 317-330). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Moore, G. (2002). On the Implications of the Practice-Institution Distinction: MacIntyre
and the Application of Modern Virtue Ethics to Business. Business Ethics
Quarterly, 12, (1), 19-32.
Moreira, P.C., & David, M.M. (2008). Academic mathematics and mathematical
knowledge needed in school teaching practice: Some conflicting elements. Journal
for Mathematics Teacher Education, 11(1), 23-40.
Morrow, R.A. & Torres, C.A. (2000). The State, Globalization and Educational Policy, in
N. C. Burbules & C. A. Torres (Ed.) Globalization and Education. Critical
Perspectives. London: Routledge.
Mouton, J. (2001). How to succeed in your Masters and Doctoral studies: a South African
guide and resource book. Pretoria: Van Schaik.
Mueni, K. N. (1999). A critical study of methods and materials used to teach History and
Government in secondary schools in Kenya. Ph. D thesis submitted to Kenyatta
University.
Muller, J. (2006). On the shoulders of giants: verticality of knowledge and the school
curriculum. In R. Moore, M. Arnot, J. Beck and H. Daniels (Eds), Knowledge,
power and educational reform. New York and London: Routledge.
Munby, H., and T. Russell. 1993. Reflective teacher education: Technique or
epistemology? Teaching and Teacher Education 9: 431–8.
Nash, G., Crabtree, C., & Dunn, R. (1997). History on trial: Culture wars and the teaching
215
of the past. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Newmann, F. M., Smith, B., Allensworth, E. & Bryk, A. S. (2001). Instructional program
coherence: what it is and why it should guide school improvement policy.
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 23(4), 297–321.
Gess-Newsome, J. (1999). Pedagogical content knowledge: An introduction and
orientation. In J. Gess-Newsome & N.G. Lederman (Eds.), Examining pedagogical
content knowledge: PCK and science education (pp. 3–17). Dordrecht, The
Netherlands: Kluwer.
Nichol, J. with Dean, J. (1997). History 7 – 11. London: Routledge.
Nichol, J., & O’Connell, K. (2001). History Curricula from Around the World for the 21st
Century. International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research, 2
(1).
Nieuwenhuis, F. J. (2010). Social justice in education revisited. Paper presented at the
Oerebro-Unisa Conference, Pretoria, University of South Africa, 1-3 February.
Noel, J. (1999). Phronesis and Phantasia: Teaching with Wisdom and Imagination.
Journal of Philosophy of Education, 33, (2), 277-286.
Norsworthy, B. E. (2008). Being and Becoming Reflexive in Teacher Education. Ph. D
Thesis submitted to the University of Waikato, New Zealand.
O’Neill, O. (1989). Constructions of Reason: Explorations of Kant’s Practical
Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O’Neill, O. (2007). Normativity and Practical Judgement. Journal of Moral Philosophy, 4,
393.
Odeo, I.I. (2003). Oral Questioning in the Pedagogy of Kiswahili Grammar: A Study of
Teacher Practices in Selected Secondary Schools of Bungoma District, Kenya. Ph.
D Thesis submitted to Moi University, Eldoret-Kenya.
Oksenberg-Rorty, A. (1980). The Place of Contemplation in Aristotle’s Nicomachean
216
Ethics. In A. Oksenberg-Rorty (ed.). Essays on Aristotle’s Ethics. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Orton, R. E. (1997). Toward an Aristotelian model of teacher reasoning, Journal of
Curriculum Studies, 29 (5), 569-583.
Osoro, E. N. (2006). Attitudes of Students Toward Studying History and Government in
Some Selected Secondary Schools in Mosocho Division, Kisii Central District,
Kenya. M. A Thesis submitted to Kenyatta University.
Partington, G. (1997). Teacher Education and Training in New Zealand. Auckland:
Education Forum.
Patton, M. Q. (1987). How to use Qualitative Methods in Evaluation. Newbury Park
(CA): Sage Publications, Inc.
Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods (2nd ed.). Newbury
Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods. Thousand Oaks:
Sage Publications.
Penlington, C. A. (2006). Teachers reasoning practically: A philosophical analysis of how
teachers develop their practice through dialogue with others. Ph. D Thesis
submitted to University of Michigan.
Perlberg, A. (1976). Microteaching - Present and Future Directions. Educational Media
International, 13(2), 13-20.
Phillips, D., & Burbules, N. (2000). Postpositivism and educational research. Lanham,
MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Pickard, M. J. (2007). The new Bloom’s Taxonomy: An overview for Family and
Consumer Sciences. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Education, 25, (1),
45-55.
Putnam, R. & Borko, H. (1997). Teacher learning: Implications of new views of cognition.
217
In B. J. Biddle, T. L. Good, & I. F. Goodson (Eds.), The international handbook of
teachers and teaching (pp. 1223–1296). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.
Reid, K., Flowers, P. & Larkin, M. (2005) Exploring lived experience: An introduction to
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The Psychologist, 18:1, 20-23.
Republic of Kenya (ROK), (1998). Master Plan on Education and Training, 1997-2010.
Nairobi: Jomo Kenyatta Foundation.
Republic of Kenya (2004). Economic Survey. Nairobi: Central Bureau of Statistics.
Republic of Kenya, (2005). Kenya Education Sector Support Programme. Nairobi: Jomo
Kenyatta Foundation.
Republic of Kenya. (1964). Report of the Kenya education commission. Nairobi: English
Press Limited.
Rescher, N. (1966). Practical Reasoning and Values. The Philosophical Quarterly, 16,
(63), 121-136.
Reynolds, A. (1992). What Is Competent Beginning Teaching? A Review of the
Literature. Review of Educational Research 62 (1), 1-35.
Richter, D., Kunter, M., Klausman, U., Ludtke, O., & Baumert, J. (2010). Professional
development across the teaching career: Teachers’ uptake of formal and informal
learning opportunities. Teaching and Teacher Education xxx, 1-11.
Ridley, D., Hurwitz, S. & Davis-Hackett, R. (2005) Comparing PDS and campus-based
pre-service teacher preparation: is PDS-based preparation really better? Journal of
Teacher Education, 56(1), 46–56.
Roberts, J. (1998). Language Teacher Education. London: Arnold.
Rosenshine, B. (1995). Advances in research on instruction. The Journal of Educational
Research, 88(5), 262-268.
Rosenthal, R. & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom. New York: Holt,
Rinehart & Winston.
Rossman, G. B. & Rallis, S. F. (2003). Learning in the field: An Introduction to
218
Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Sandwell, R. (2005). School History versus the Historians. International Journal of Social
Education, 20, (1), 9-17.
Scannell, D. P. (2001). Models of Teacher Education: Report to the American Council on
Education Presidents’ Task Force on Teacher Education. American Council on
Education.
Scheffler, I. (1973). Science, morals, and educational policy. In Reason and teaching (pp.
97-115). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Scheffler, I. (2007). The teacher’s grasp of subject-matter. In: R. Curren (ed.). Philosophy
of Education: An Anthology. London: Blackwell Publishing.
Sifuna, D. N. (1990). Development of Education in Africa: The Kenyan Experience.
Nairobi: Initiatives Publishers.
Schelfout, W., Dochy, F., Janssens, S., Struyven, K., Gielen, S., & Sierens, E., (2006).
Educating for Learning-focused teaching in teacher training: The need to link
learning content with practice experiences within an inductive approach. Teaching
and Teacher Education, 22 (7), 874 – 897.
Schilling, J. (2006). On the pragmatics of qualitative assessment: Designing the process for
content analysis. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 22(1), 28-37.
Schimdt, W. H., Wang, C.H. & McKnight, C. C. (2005). Curriculum Coherence: an
examination of US mathematics and science content standards from an
international perspective. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 37 (5), 525 - 559.
Schneider, A., & Ingram, H. (1990). Behavioral Assumptions of Policy Tools. The
Journal of Politics, 52 (2), 510-529.
Schon, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books.
Schwab, J. J. (1964). Structure of the disciplines: Meanings and significance. In G. Ford
219
and L. Pugno (eds.). The Structure of Knowledge and the Curriculum (pp. 6 - 30).
Chicago: Rand McNally.
Schwab, J. J. (1969). The practical: A language for curriculum. School Review, 78,
Segall, A. (2004). Revisiting pedagogical content knowledge: the pedagogy of content/the
content of pedagogy. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 489-504.
Seixas, P., & Peck, C. (2008). Benchmarks of Historical Thinking: First Steps. Canadian
Journal of Education, 31 (4), 991-1012.
Seixas, Peter, (Ed). (2004). Theorizing historical consciousness. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press.
Seixas, P., Fromowitz , D., & Hill, P. (2002). History, memory and learning to teach.
Encounters on Education, 3, 4- 59.
Seixas, P. (2006). Benchmarks of Historical Thinking: A Framework for Assessment in
Canada. Centre for the study of Historical Consciousness, University of British
Columbia, Canada.
Setiya, K. (2004) Hume on Practical Reason. Philosophical Perspectives, 18, Ethics, 18:
365-389.
Shanguya, M. N. O. (1995). Factors Relevant to Teacher Training Improvement: A Case
Study of Instructional Technology in the Curriculum of the Teacher Education
Programme of Kenyatta University. Doctor of Education thesis submitted to
University of Toronto.
Shaw, R. L. (2001). Why use interpretative phenomenological analysis in Health
Psychology? Health Psychology Update, 10, 48-52.
Sherman, N. (2001). Is the Ghost of Aristotle Haunting Freud’s House? Proceedings of
the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, 16 (2000), 63-81.
Shulman, L. (1999: 61-77). Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of New Reform. In. J.
Leach & B. Monn (Es.). Learners and Pedagogy. London: Paul Chapman
Publishing.
220
Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard
Educational Review, 57(1), 1-22.
Sifuna, D. N. & Kaime, J. G. (2007). The effect of in-service education and training
(INSET) programmes in mathematics and science on classroom interaction: a case
study of primary and secondary schools in Kenya. Africa Education Review, 4 (1),
104-126.
Singh, P. (1993). Institutional Discourse and Practice: A Case Study of the Social
Construction of Technological Competence in the Primary Classroom. British
Journal of Sociology of Education, 14, (1), 39-58.
Singh, P. (2002). Pedagogising Knowledge: Bernstein's Theory of the Pedagogic Device.
British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23, (4), 571-582.
Singh, P., Dooley, K. & Freebody, P. (2001). Literacy pedagogies that may ‘make a
difference’. Asia – Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 29 (1), 49–71.
Sitima, T.M., (1995). Maintenance of Standards in Teacher Education. In Ministry of
Education, (1995). Report of the Proceedings of the Third Teacher Education
Conference (pp. 109-115). Nairobi: Jomo Kenyatta Foundation.
Skemp, R. R. (1978). Relational understanding and instrumental understanding. Arithmetic
Teacher, 26(3), 9-15.
Smit, B. (2001). Primary School Teachers’ Experience of Education Policy Change in
South Africa. Doctor of Philosophy thesis submitted to University of Pretoria.
Smith, M. S. & O'Day, J. (1991). Systemic school reform (pp.233-267). In S. H. Fuhrman
& B. Malen (Eds.). The Politics of Curriculum and Testing: The 1990 Yearbook of
the Politics of Education Association. London: Falmer.
Smith, J. A. & Osborn, M. (2003). Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. In J. A.
Smith (Ed) Qualitative Psychology: A practical Guide to Research Methods.
London: Sage.
Smith, J.A., Flowers, P. & Larkin, M. (2009). Interpretative phenomenological analysis:
221
theory, method and research. London: Sage.
Smyth, J., Dow, A., Hattam, R., Reid, A. & Shacklock, G. (2000). Teachers’ Work in a
Globalising Economy. London: Falmer Press.
Sperandeo-Mineo, R. M., Fazio, C. & Tarantino, G. (2005). Pedagogical Content
Knowledge Development and Pre-Service Physics. Teacher Education: A Case
Study. Research in Science Education .
Stark, J. S. (1986). On defining coherence and integrity in the curriculum. Research in
Higher Education, 24 (4), 433-436.
Stenhouse, L. (1976). An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development.
London: Heinemann.
Sumara, D. & Davis, B. (2000). Engaging Minds: Learning and Teaching in a Complex
World. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Tatto, M. T., & Stuart, J. S. (2000). Designs for initial teacher preparation programs: an
international view. International Journal of Educational Research, 33 (2000) 493-
514.
Tatto, M. T. (1996). Examining values and beliefs about teaching diverse students:
Understanding the challenges for teacher education. Educational Evaluation and
Policy Analysis, 18 (2), 155-180.
Taylor, A. (2008). Developing understanding about learning to teach in a university–
schools teachers’ perspectives compared, Mentoring & Tutoring, 7(2), 131–143.
Tesch, R. (1990). Qualitative research: Analysis types and software tools. London:
Falmer.
Thiessen, D. (2000) A Skillful start to a teaching career: a matter of developing impactful
behaviors, reflective practices, or professional knowledge? International Journal of
Educational Research, 33, 515-537.
Thornton, S. J. (2001a). Subject specific teaching methods: history. pp. 291-314. In: J.
222
Brophy, (Ed.). Subject-Specific Instructional Methods and Activities, Volume 8.
JAI:
Thornton, S. J. (2001b). Educating the Educators: Rethinking Subject Matter and
Methods. Theory into Practice, 40 (1), 72-78.
Tietel, E. (2000). The Interview as a Relational Space [20 paragraphs]. Forum
Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1(2), Art. 26,
Tisher, R. P., & Wideen, M. F. (1990: 255-268). ‘Review, reflections and
recommendations’. In R. P. Tisher, & M. F. Wideen, Research in Teacher
Education: International perspectives. Lewes: Falmer Press.
Titscher, S., Meyer, M., Wodak, R., & Vetter, E. (2000). Methods of text and discourse
analysis (Bryan Jenner, Trans.). London: Sage.
Tobin & Begley (2004). Methodological rigour within a qualitative framework. Journal of
Advanced Nursing 48(4), 388–396.
Tomlinson, P. (1999). Conscious reflection and implicit learning in teacher preparation: II
Implications for a balanced approach. Oxford Review of Education 25/4: 533–44.
Too, J.K (2004). Towards Effective Mathematics Instruction: A Classroom Study of
Questioning, Task Supervision and Learning Activity in Secondary Schools in
North Rift Valley Province, Kenya. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis submitted to Moi
University, Eldoret-Kenya.
Turner-Bisset, R. (2001) Expert Teaching. London: David Fulton Publishers.
University of Nairobi (1978). A Review of Graduate teacher Education in Kenya. Nairobi:
University of Nairobi.
Valli, L., & Rennert-Ariev, P. (2002). New Standards and Assessments? Curriculum
Transformation in Teacher Education. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 34, (2), 201-
225.
Van Boxtel, J. & van Drie, C (2008). Historical Reasoning: Towards a framework for
223
analyzing students’ reasoning about the past. Educational Psychology Review, 20,
87-110.
Van Hover, S., Hicks, D. & Irwin, W. (2007). Beginning Teachers Thinking Historically?
Negotiating the Context of Virginia’s High-Stakes Tests. International Journal of
Social Education, 22, (1), 85-114.
Van Maanen J. (ed.) (1995). Representation in Ethnography. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA.
VanSledright, B. A., & Frankes, L. (2000). Concept- and Strategic-Knowledge
Development in Historical Study: A Comparative Exploration in Two Fourth-
Grade Classrooms. Cognition and Instruction, 18 (2), 239–283
Volante, L. & Earl, L. (2002). Teacher Candidates’ Perceptions of Conceptual
Orientations in Their Preservice Program. Canadian Journal of Education, 27, 4
(2002): 419–438
Waghid, Y. (2006). University education and deliberation: In defence of practical
reasoning. Higher Education 51, 315–328.
Weber R.P. (1990) Basic Content Analysis. Newburry Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Wedgwood, R. (2002), Practical Reasoning as Figuring Out What is Best: Against
Constructivism. Topoi 21: 139–152,
Westhoff, L M. & Polman, J. L. (2007). Developing Preservice Teachers’ Pedagogical
Content Knowledge about Historical Thinking. International Journal of Social
Education 22, (2) 1-28
Wetherell, M., & Potter, J. (1988). Discourse Analysis and Identification of Interpretative
Repertoires. In C. Antaki (Ed.). Analysing Everyday Explanation: A Case Book.
London: Sage.
Wiggins, David (1980), Deliberation and practical reason. In: A. Rorty (ed.), Essays on
Aristotle's Ethics. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Wilkinson, D. (Ed.) (2000) The Researcher’s Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Practitioner
Research. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
224
Wilkinson, G. A. (1996). Enhancing Microteaching through additional Feedback from
Preservice Administrators. Teaching & Teacher Education, 12 (2), 211-221.
Wilson, S. M. & Wineburg, S. (1988). Peering at history from different lenses: The role of
disciplinary perspectives in the teaching of American history. Teachers College
Record, 89(4), 525 - 539.
Wilson, S. M. & Wineburg, S. (1993). Wrinkles in time and place: using performance
assessments to understand the knowledge of history teachers. American
Educational Research Journal, 30(4), 729 - 769.
Wilson, S. M. (1988). Understanding Historical Understanding: Subject Matter Knowledge
and the Teaching of U. S. History. Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University.
Wineburg, S. S. 1987). The Self-Fulfillment of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. Educational
Researcher, 16 (9), 28-37.
Wolcott, F. H. (1997:155-172). Ethnographic Research in Education. In R. M. Jaeger
(ed.). Complementary Methods for Research in Education. American Educational
Research Association.
Wolff, S. (2004). Ways into the Field and their Variants. In U. Flick, E. von Kardorff & I.
Steinke (eds.). A Companion to Qualitative Research. (pp. 195-202). New Delhi:
Sage Publications.
Yackulic, R. A. & Noonan, B.W. (2001). Quality indicators for teacher training in Canada.
Paper prepared for The 2001 Pan-Canadian Education Research Agenda
Symposium May 22-23, Lavel University Quebec City.
Yielder, J. (2001). Professional Expertise: A Model for Integration and Change. Ph. D
thesis submitted to University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Yilmaz, K. (2008). A Vision of History Teaching and Learning: Thoughts on History
Education in Secondary Schools. The High School Journal, 37-46. December
08/January 09.
Yin, R. K. (1994). Evaluation: A singular craft. New Directions for Program Evaluation,
225
61, 71–84.
Yin, R. K. (2011). Qualitative Research: from Start to Finish. New York: The Guilford
Press.
Zeichner, K. M. (1999). The new scholarship in teacher education, Educational
Researcher, 28 (9), 4-15.
Zeichner, K.M, & Tabachnik, B. R. (1981). Are the effects of university teacher education
washed out by school experiences? Journal of Teacher Education, 32, 7-11.
Zeichner, K.M. (1983). Alternative paradigms of teacher education, Journal of Teacher
Education, 34(3), 3-9.
Zeidler, D.L. (2002). Dancing with maggots and saints: Visions for subject matter
knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in science
teacher education reform. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 13(1), 27–42.
Zumwalt, K. (1989). Beginning Professional Teachers: The need for a curricular vision of
teaching. pp. 173-184. In M.C. Reynolds (Ed.). Knowledge Base for the Beginning
Teacher. Oxford: Pergamon.
226
APPENDIX 1: LETTER OF INTRODUCTION
KEFA LIDUNDU SIMWA
Department of Education Studies,
2nd October, 2007
The Dean, School of Education,
Moi University, P. O. Box 3900,
ELDORET.
Dear Sir,
RE: PERMISSION TO CONDUCT RESEARCH IN THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Pursuant to the requirements of my studies at the University of Johannesburg, I write to
request your permission to undertake research in the Department of Curriculum,
Instruction and Educational Media Studies of the School of Education. The title of my
research is: “The Bachelor of Education Programme at a Kenyan University: Coherence to
the Secondary School History Curriculum in the Preparation of Secondary School History
Teachers.”
The study sets to examine how the B Ed History programme prepares prospective teachers
to implement the secondary school History curriculum. Distinctively, the research will
involve teacher preparation activities of the course offering History subject teaching
methods. In order to obtain the required insights on how the teacher educators guide
student teachers to construct the required knowledge for teaching, I will participate in the
class-work activities (both theory and practice lessons), hold interviews with teacher
educators and analyse course documents (course outline, course readings and course
handouts). With the consent of the teacher educators, I will capture data through tape and
video recording and handwritten field-notes.
227
The research is in two phases. In the initial phase, I will pilot my research instruments.
This exercise will cover a period of seven weeks beginning on 29th October 2007 through
22nd December 2007. The second phase will be undertaken in between January and
March, 2009. In this phase I will conduct fieldwork for a whole semester. This will be
during the semester when the History teaching methods course is offered.
In accordance with the University of Johannesburg’s ethical requirements for the
protection of research participants’ rights, I wish to assure you of the safety and dignity of
all those who will participate in the study. In addition, I undertake to guarantee the
confidentiality of all the information that this research will generate. Neither the names
nor any other identifying information will appear in data transcripts and research report
prepared thereafter. Besides, I will ensure that all the raw data and research records are
kept under lock and only available to University of Johannesburg for academic purposes
related to this study. Thereafter, these data will be destroyed.
I look forward to your assistance.
Yours truly,
KEFA LIDUNDU SIMWA
228
APPENDIX 2: CONSENT FOR PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH
CONSENT FOR PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH
Dear ……………………………………………….
Introduction
I am a postgraduate student at University of Johannesburg. As part of the requirements of
my studies, I am to conduct a research project. The topic of this research is: “The
Bachelor of Education Programme at a Kenyan University: Coherence to the Secondary
School History Curriculum in the Preparation of Secondary School History Teachers.”
This is a study on the preparation of B Ed secondary school History teachers at a selected
Kenyan University. In particular, the study focuses on the course that offers student
teachers the History subject teaching methods.
You have been contacted as a key participant for this study because of your role as a
teacher educator who offers the subject methods for teaching History in your university’s
B Ed teacher education programme.
The teacher education policy in Kenya expects teacher preparation programmes to
emphasise a number of features considered central to the role of teachers. Among these
features are the development of develop communicative skills; professional attitudes and
values; knowledge and ability to identify and develop the educational needs of the child;
initiative, a sense of professional commitment and excellence in education; and, adaptation
to the environment and society (MoED-HRD & UNICEF, 1994:146-7). However, there has
been concern that teacher education programmes have not realised these policy
expectations. In conducting this study, therefore, I am exploring whether university
teacher education programmes do take these policy expectations into account or not. The
position taken in this study is that teaching History at university places different demands
on prospective teachers when compared to what subject-teachers have to offer at the
school level (Roberts, 1998; Liping, 1999). However, through the subject teaching
methods course, an important link between these differing demands is made in order to
prepare a teacher with suitable knowledge and skills for teaching at school level.
229
This study will specifically explore how you, as a teacher educator, responds to the
requirements of the secondary school History subject syllabus in the course of offering the
History teaching methods course to prospective B Ed secondary school teachers. My
interest is to gather data that will help me develop insights about how teacher educators
address the secondary school subject’s syllabus requirements.
Invitation for Participation
I am inviting you to voluntarily participate in my study. As a teacher educator involved in
the preparation of teachers, especially the secondary school History teachers, your
experience will serve as an important contribution to this research. Your involvement will
entail, in the main, interview conversations and video recording of lessons. Such
interviews and video recording will, strictly, be scheduled in advance so as to avoid any
unnecessary inconvenience. In addition, with your consent, I am ready to participate in
your course’s teaching activities during the research period.
Voluntary Participation
Your participation in the study is voluntary. This means that you may also choose to
withdraw from participation in the study at any time without penalty or loss of benefits to
which you may, as a participant, be otherwise entitled. If you agree to participate in this
study you understand that your participation is totally voluntary. You can choose to
answer a particular question or withdraw at any time. You understand that anything said
in the interviews as well as in the video clips will be strictly confidential and will only be
used for academic purposes that are related to my studies at University of Johannesburg.
Neither your employer nor immediate administrative departmental head will have access to
any such information.
Withdrawal - Termination of Interview - Observation
There are anticipated circumstances under which your participation may be terminated by
the investigator without regard to your consent. They include:
Where there is reluctance to provide data that you as a teacher educator might find
compromising to your interests.
230
Where it is your own personal decision to withdraw from the research
study/interview/observation activities. In such a case, a form will be availed for
you to append your signature as an indication of your unwillingness to continue
with the study. This document, in turn, will be produced (at the institution I am
currently studying) as evidence of non-response in the study.
Interest of the Study
Courses for subject teaching methods are highly regarded by student teachers in the
teacher preparation programmes. This is because subject teaching methods expose student
teachers to the knowledge and skills that they will eventually use in teaching at schools.
The role of teacher educators offering subject teaching methods course, therefore, is
pivotal in the teacher preparation process. Teacher educators are supposed to organise
their courses in ways that help teacher candidates blend the theoretical and practical
aspects of knowledge for teaching so that it is commensurate with what the specific school
subject’s syllabus require. The focus of this study is the History teaching methods course.
In order to obtain the required insights on how the teacher educators guide student teachers
construct the required knowledge for teaching, the researcher will participate in the class-
work activities (both theory and practice lessons), hold interviews with teacher educators
and analyse course documents (course outline, course readings and course handouts).
With the consent of the teacher educators, I will capture data through tape and video
recording and handwritten field-notes.
Benefits or Risks of Involvement in the Study
This study is designed for academic purposes only. As a result, it means that there will be
no other direct and immediate benefits to you. The benefits to you are indirect. Your
participation will enable a deeper exploration of the subject at hand and as a result more
insights will be gained with regard to the process of preparing History teachers in the
subject teaching methods course.
Compensation
There is no compensation for your participation in the study as such. However,
reimbursement for out of pocket expenses may be provided where necessary.
231
Confidentiality
Pursuant to ethical requirements for protection of participants’ involvement in research, I
wish to guarantee you of confidentiality of all the information that this research will
generate. Not your name or any other identifying information will appear in data
transcripts and reports prepared thereof. I will ensure that all the research records are kept
under lock and only available to University of Johannesburg for the academic purposes
related to this study. Thereafter, I will destroy the raw data collected during my fieldwork.
Contact details
For further information or if you have any questions about this study, or your rights as a
participant, you may contact:
Researcher:
Kefa Lidundu Simwa
Telephone numbers: +254 512214531 or +254 203552019
Email address: [email protected]
Supervisor:
Dr. Maropeng Modiba,
Department of Education Studies, University of Johannesburg
Telephone number: +27115592670
Email address: [email protected]
Thank you for your cooperation.
Kefa Lidundu Simwa
232
APPENDIX 3: OBSERVATION GUIDE
The purpose of the observation guide was assist the researcher, as a participant observer,
identify (locate), capture by noting field notes and later on, after observation sessions,
describe what occurred during the HTM course lectures.
My interest was in capturing the instructional delivery of History teaching knowledge as
constructed by the teacher educator. It was critical to capture what the teacher educator
presented as well as how s/he organised it for the student teachers.
Specifically, this observation needed to enable me obtain data on how teacher educators,
while preparing teachers, took decisions that contextualised both the curricular needs of
policy promulgated in the History curriculum for secondary school education and that of
the student teachers (who are being prepared for teaching History in secondary schools).
For example, how did teacher educators translate the requirements of the objectives for
H&G into the knowledge and skills needed for teaching it?
1. Look for the kind of information being presented. What is this information about?
(Describe what you see and hear about the lecture/lesson). How does the teacher educator
initiate, develop and sustain the process of learning how to teach secondary school history?
2. What knowledge for teaching secondary school history curriculum is being presented?
(How does the teacher educator seem to construe historical knowledge for secondary
school teaching?) – (Nature of the contents)
3. How does the teacher educator help student teachers gain this form of knowledge?
4. How does the teacher educator help students gain this knowledge? (Procedures /
activities taking place) – Recognition and realization rules (Bernstein)
5. What is the nature of interactions in the lesson between the teacher educator and the
student teachers?
6. What position does the teacher educator take during the lesson?
7. What does this positioning mean with regard to the structure of the knowledge for
teaching History at secondary school?
233
8. What position do student teachers take during the lesson? (What are the students’ main
tasks as learners during this session?)
9. How are the student teachers viewed by the teacher educator?
10. What exactly do they do?
11. How is knowledge for teaching secondary school History presented to student
teachers? (Is this knowledge presented as a fixed body of facts?)
12. What is the nature of the presentation witnessed in the lectures on the knowledge for
secondary school History teaching?
13. What does the presentation suggest? (Is it open to inquiry, argument, or criticism?
Closed, finished or final?)
14. What is the structure of the knowledge being presented to student teachers in terms of
classification and framing?
15. What are the positions of the teacher educators and student teachers in the pedagogic
relationship witnessed in the lectures?
Overall, I did not look for instances that each of the questions sought by they served as a
useful in the context of the study.
234
APPENDIX 4: TRANSCRIPT OF LECTURES 1 & 2 Date: 14th November 2007 Time: 1.00pm – 2.30pm Venue: Campus B Course: HISTORY TEACHING METHODS Number of students: 19 [We entered the venue where lessons for the History Education course were conducted at the exact stroke of the hour - 1.00pm. There are some students seated while others are standing.] Lecturer: Good afternoon? [Lecturer pauses, for a while. This moment appears to lead students into settling down. I am standing next to him, also facing the students. He then continues.] Lecturer: Today we are privileged to have a visitor. He is a colleague in the Faculty of Education. He is here to learn with us. [Lecturer turns and faces me and says:] Most welcome to our class. Researcher: Thank you very much. [After which, I walk to the back of the room and I take a seat]. Lecturer: Our lesson today is a continuation of what we began last week. We will begin by looking at the Secondary School History Syllabus. Thereafter, we will address the preparation of a Scheme of Work. These are subtopics of the topic on History in the Secondary School. [He writes both the main topic and sub-topic on the chalkboard.] Lecturer: Let us begin by noting the following remarks. The revised secondary school History syllabus was introduced in schools from the beginning of 2003. The aim of the revised syllabus is to improve the quality of teaching and learning of History. What, then, are some of the factors that influence the improvement of teaching and learning? [The question appears not to have been directed at any particular student. There is momentary silence. Lecturer then goes on to talk.] Lecturer: A number of factors directly influence the improvement of teacher and learning. For instance, teachers need to have the ability to analyse and interpret the syllabus. [Silence.] From the analysis of a syllabus, teachers will be able to identify characteristics unique to certain topics. I am talking about characteristics such as some topics being linked to one another in some form of sequence. You know about the spiral nature of content in a syllabus. Am I right? [There is some moment of silence before some murmurs from students.] Lecturer: Teaching can also be improved by teachers who creatively plan and execute their tasks. What I mean here is that, teachers need to select appropriate methods of teaching as well as employ effective learning resources or aids. [He slows down the pace of his talk as if to give students time to write the information in their notebooks.] Lecturer: Lastly, let us say that teachers can also improve teaching and learning by being resourceful in their evaluation techniques. It is important that a variety of assessment methods are used in teaching. Such a variety will go a long way in helping teachers determine the extent and nature of learning attained by learners.
235
Lecturer: Before we discuss the factors that are considered in the development of syllabus, I want us to quickly look at what reasons contributed to the revision of the old secondary school History syllabus. [There is a brief interlude of silence.] There were four most noticeable drawbacks in the old History syllabus. [He pauses for a few seconds before he goes on to explain each of the four limitations. Students are busy writing notes.] Lecturer: The first limitation. Some topics in the old syllabus were too difficult for learners. For example, topics on the Growth of Parliamentary Systems in France and Britain; International Trade Agreements, were not readily understood by the learners. [He poses for a few seconds looking at the students seated in the desks next to him before he proceeds.] Lecturer: The second limitation. There was an overlap of some topics both within and across some subjects. A good example was the topic on World Religions. This topic was taught in both Form 1 and 2. Interestingly, this topic was also taught in another subject - Christian Religious Education (CRE). Other topics such as Statutory Bodies and International Trade Agreements were also taught in Geography and Business Studies. Student: Sir, could you please repeat the last point? Lecturer: Which point are you talking about? [There is laughter among students. He then says:] I have said that some topics were found to overlapping both within and across subjects. For instance, the topic on World Religions was covered in both Form 1 and 2 but also taught in CRE. Then I also said, topics like Statutory Bodies and International Trade Agreements were also repeated in other subjects such as Geography and Business Studies. Is that clear? Student: [who had asked for lecturer to repeat] Yes sir. Lecturer: Let us the look at the third limitation. Just say that the old syllabus was too wide in scope. This meant that it could not be covered within the prescribed time. [There is silence for a few seconds.] Lecturer: Lastly, the old syllabus was found not to have taken into consideration both the contemporary and emerging issues in society. [There is a short spell of silence.] Lecturer: Class could someone tell us what are some of the contemporary issues in society that you think had been excluded from the syllabus? [Students begin to murmur before one of them says:] Student: Sir, I am not so sure but could it be issues such as the HIV and AIDS scourge [some utterance not audible enough] Drug Abuse and Corruption? Lecturer: Yes. That is correct. There are many different issues. We can then say that the old syllabus had failed to include contemporary issues such as drug abuse, corruption and the HIV and AIDS health epidemic. Lecturer: Let us then turn to the factors that are critical in the development of a syllabus. What are some of the factors that must be considered in the development of a History syllabus? [This question appears not to have been directed at any particular student. After some brief silence, the lecturer goes on.]
236
Lecturer: The first factor to consider is the nature and concept of History as a secondary school subject. Student: Excuse me sir, could you repeat? Lecturer: Ok. What I mean is that for you to develop a syllabus, you must consider both the nature and concept of the subject. In other words you have to be clear on what the subject covers as well as how it should be defined and taught. [He pauses for a short while before he continues.] Lecturer: The second factor to consider is the deliberate inclusion of specific topics in order to achieve the desired objectives. For example, it is expected that through the study of History national unity will be realised. To achieve this objective, among other topics, you will definitely have one on citizenship. What other topics would you add? [This question is not directed at any particular student. Students appear to be occupied with writing down notes. None responds to the question. [There is momentary silence before the lecturer proceeds.] The third factor to consider in the development of a History syllabus is the periodization of historical events with reference to both their importance and occurrence of events. [There is some pose as students continue to write.] The fourth factor is a consideration of the abilities and potential of learners to master the content under study. This factor is dependent on a teacher’s knowledge of psychology and the context within which the syllabus is being implemented. The fifth point to consider is the teacher’s academic status and ability. In other words, you need to have an answer to the question: what qualifications do the teachers have? Another factor for consideration in the development of a syllabus is the general methodology of teaching that is in use. For example, History has certain methods of teaching that are considered useful. Textbooks and collateral material are also an important factor to consider. These resources have an influence on the way a syllabus is implemented. Certainly, school textbooks can influence how a subject is taught and learnt. Lastly but not least, the nature of questions in the national examination also plays an important role in the development of a syllabus. Students: [Murmuring with some of them stretching their hands up in the air.] Lecturer: I hope no one is tired as yet. There is still some ground to cover. [He moves across the room looking at some of the students’ notebooks. This takes about a minute before he continues.] Lecturer: At this juncture, I would like us to look at the qualities of a good syllabus. What characteristics make a syllabus good for teaching and learning? [The question seems not to be directed to any specific student.] Lecturer: A History syllabus can be considered as good if it fulfils the following criteria. One, it facilitates the achievement of the objectives of teaching and learning History. Two, it is well planned, consistent and orderly. Three, it is flexible to allow for review and revision (where possible). Four, it contributes to a full life of the learner by catering for the cognitive, affective and psychomotor development. Five, it is both appropriate and convenient to the locality wherein it is being implemented. Lastly, it allows learners to handle a wide range of historical evidence as well as maintaining a balance between the local, regional, national, international and contemporary history.
237
Lecturer: [He moved close to a student who was seated next to the door and talked to him. The student then stood up and went out of the room.] Lecturer: So far, we have looked at a number of aspects related to the syllabus in general and the secondary school History syllabus in particular. I now wish to look at document which is also very important to a teacher. This is the Scheme of Work. Right, who can define for us what a scheme of work is? [For a while, there is silence in the room. No student is writing. The student whom the lecturer had talked to enters the room. He walks towards the lecturer and hands him pieces of chalk and takes his seat.] Lecturer: Thank you very much. Good. Let us continue. What is a scheme of work? [Student raises a hand.] Lecturer: Yes please. [He walks towards student.] Student: I think it can be defined as a teacher’s plan for teaching that shows what is to be taught, [……] why it should be taught […..] and how it should be taught. Lecturer: Correct. That is good. In addition to what John has said, we could add that, a scheme of work is a professional document detailing what will be covered within a specified frame of school calendar. It is subject to regular review for purposes of updating. [Lecturer pauses for a while. He then turns and faces the chalkboard before he goes on to read from his notes.] Lecturer: In the preparation of a scheme of work, a History teacher is supposed to scrutinise the syllabus and interpret the nature of relationship that needs to be developed among a set of three interrelated goals. These are the national goals of education, the objectives of secondary school education and the general objectives of teaching and learning History. The teacher is also supposed to focus on the following items: one, the specific objectives for each topic and sub-topic (where applicable). Two, the teaching and learning activities. Three, the references that are recommended for teaching. Four, the teaching and learning resources. Five, the mode or modes of assessment. Six, a teacher should also attend to making prompt remarks immediately he or she completes teaching a lesson. Lecturer: Let us add that, a scheme of work estimates the length of time each topic may take as influenced by the unique characteristics of the class, complexity of the topic and methods to be used. In the preparation of a scheme of work, a teacher is also supposed to consider the time that will be lost to public holidays, school half-term breaks, school and other official functions such as school fundraising, school tests, lengthy assemblies, sports or games, school guests, and other incidental occurrences. Lecturer: Now, we need to note this format of a scheme of work. It is important for you to realise that this is the format you will be expected to use during your teaching practice. [He sketches the format of the scheme of work on the chalkboard.]
238
Lecturer: The columns are nine. They are for the following items: Date, Topic, Objectives, Teacher’s Activities, Learner’s Activities, Assessment, Teaching and Learning Resources, References, and Remarks. [The illustration below is drawn from what students had to sketch down in their note books.] Date Topic Objectives Teacher
activities Learner Activities
Teaching /Learning Resources
Assessment References Remarks
Lecturer: Lastly, I would like you to take down this assignment. Design a scheme for one week for any secondary school class of your choice for History. Otherwise, have a good afternoon. [It is at this point that the lecturer gestured that we could walk out. I obliged and we went out.]
239
TRANSCRIPT FOR LECTURE 2 Date: 21 – 11 – 2007 Time: 1.00 pm - 3.00 pm Venue: Campus B Course: HISTORY TEACHING METHODS Number of students: 20 Lecturer: Good afternoon? We will continue with what we began last week. We are still looking at the topic on History in the Secondary School Curriculum. However, while last week we discussed the syllabus and scheme of work, today I want us to look at Lesson Planning. [He writes the topic on the chalkboard and continues:] Lecturer: I am sure you covered this topic during your second year in ECT 210. What is a lesson plan? [Two students raise their hands. The lecturer allows one of them to respond.] Student 1: I can say that […] a lesson plan involves all […] the activities that a teacher implements in class. Lecturer: Yes. [He utters this with a drag. After a pause, he allows the second student to respond]. Student 2: I think that […] a lesson plan […] is an outline of what a teacher guides learners within a lesson. Lecturer: Good. [He pauses.] Is there anyone else with a different idea? [There is silence as students appear to be engrossed in thought]. Lecturer: Ok, from your responses, it is clear that you have a good idea of what a lesson plan is. However, let us note the following. [He reads from his notes.] A lesson plan is a formulated approach to teaching and learning showing clearly all activities that take place during the lesson. Take note, I am emphasising both the teacher’s and learners’ activities. [Some silence. Lecturer then goes on.] Lecturer: A lesson plan spells out the order and structure in which activities are going to occur and follow one another. It can also be viewed as a systematic sequence of instructional activities which are designed to lead to the achievement of a given set of instructional objectives. [He repeats the two statements.] Lecturer: It is a teacher’s instructional firm plan of action although not rigidly followed. [There is a brief interlude of silence. Students are writing. Lecturer then goes on.] Lecturer: From this explanation, it is must be clear that you consider a lesson plan as an important component of your work. [He pauses for a while.] Can we then look at the importance of a lesson plan? [He writes the sub-heading on the chalkboard.] Lecturer: Let us begin by noting that a lesson plan serves as evidence of careful pre-instructional thinking and preparation by the teacher. [He repeats this statement.] First, a lesson plan serves as evidence of a careful pre-instructional thinking and preparation by the teacher. Is that clear? [This seems not to be a question that needed an answer. After some hesitation, he then continues to enumerate.]
240
Lecturer: Secondly, a lesson plan enables familiarity with content. The teacher is able to visualize some of the most appropriate ways of delivering content and the sequence of its flow. [This is read out from his notes steadily, almost like a dictation script.] Lecturer: The third point to consider is that, a lesson plan helps to clarify the rationale behind covering a particular topic. Normally, this is exemplified in the specific objectives that a sets for his or her lesson. Let me give an example. [He walks towards the chalkboard.] Lecturer: In Form One, you have a topic on The Meaning of History. [He pauses for a while after writing the topic on the chalkboard.] For your lesson of the day, the objective would have been be stated as: By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to define three different meanings of the term – history. [He pauses and looks at what he has written on the chalkboard. He then poses a question.] Lecturer: Can you then see how this objective attempts to give a rationale for the lesson? Students: [They respond in unison but in low tones.] Yes. Lecturer: Let us go on and say that, a lesson plan also serves as a guide or a roadmap for the teacher on the content and strategies to adopt when teaching. With a lesson plan, therefore, a teacher is able to avoid vagueness and irrelevancies. The plan guides a teacher on how much time to spend on an activity in the course of the duration for the lesson. Hence, we can say, the teacher becomes very systematic in his or her conduct. [He looks around the room as if to note if there is any student who is in doubt. He asks:] Are we all together? Students: [Most of them are writing. A few of them gesture to him in the affirmative. He then goes on.] Lecturer: A lesson plan also serves as a memory bank for the teacher. [He pauses apparently to give students time to note down what he has read out to them.] Lecturer: It reminds the teacher of the main ideas and facts that need to be focused on during instruction. [He momentarily discontinues his talk. This appears to be his way of allowing students time to write down the information.] Lecturer: It is also an important guide to the teacher over the actions to take at every stage of the lesson. In this way, it helps the teacher to ensure orderliness, thoroughness and logical flow of the content in a lesson. [He writes the words ‘orderliness’, ‘thoroughness’ and ‘logical flow’ on the chalkboard.] Lecturer: In addition, it helps a teacher to map out all methods and resources that he or she proposes to use in the classroom. Lecturer: Last but not least, the lesson plan gives security and confidence to the teacher. As a result, it helps one to improve performance over and above being the basis for future planning of subsequent lessons. Lecturer: Right. You can then see that great importance must be attached to the lesson plan. However, these are still general ideas. I now want us to go into the details of what a
241
lesson plan entails. I want us to look at the main features of a lesson plan. The features we are going to discuss are drawn from the format used during your teaching practice. [At this point, he asks a student to assist him clean the chalkboard.] Lecturer: [He sketches the lesson plan format on the chalkboard before he says:] I am not going to give the details of the administrative information that is required in the lesson plan document. Basically this is information that is obvious. You will simply fill in name of school and other details as shown in the respective sections. I want to focus on the instructional objectives. [He pauses then asks:] Lecturer: What is an instructional objective? [He seems not to expect an answer. He then goes on.] Lecturer: Say that, it is a learning objective that […] clearly describes or specifies […] what a learner would do […] as a result of having learnt what was taught. [He pauses for a while.] Lecturer: It is what an observer can see the learner doing in order to judge whether or not learning has been achieved. Let us reflect on the following example. Listen carefully. [He then reads out, aloud, an example of an objective for a lesson.] Lecturer: The learners should be able to listen to the three reasons as to why the Portuguese came to the East African Coast? [There is laughter among the students. As this fizzles down, he asks:] Lecturer: How will an observer see the learners’ behaviour of listening? [There is more laughter by students.] Lecturer: Let me emphasise that, you should never use the word listen in stating your history lessons’ objectives. [He pauses.] Listening is not considered as an activity in History lessons. Lecturer: It is important for you to note that an instructional objective is a forecast of what a teacher intends learners to do by the end of a lesson. [He pauses again before he goes on.] Lecturer: There is some controversy among educators on the way objectives are stated. Some feel it should be: by the end of the lesson. Others see it as being better when phrased as: at the end of the lesson. However, let us note that, ideally, learning is a process. As such, the use of by the end of the lesson is debatable. We shall, however continue to use it as it is. [He keeps quiet for a moment. He then says:] Lecturer: Why are instructional objectives important? Lecturer: Say that instructional objectives have an important role to play in a lesson. Among these roles are the following: Instructional objectives provide guidance for selecting subject content. For example, in stating that ‘By the end of the lesson learners should be able to identify five or more causes of food shortages…’, the teacher will have been able to select the content of his or her lesson.
242
Lecturer: Instructional objectives also help in sequencing of content. For example, in stating objectives in parts, a certain order of content delivery will be followed by the teacher. i.e. ‘By the end of the lesson, learners should be able to: (i) Explain three meanings of the term history; and (ii) explain the types or branches of History. Lecturer: Instructional objectives also help in the allocation of teaching time. For example, the teacher is able to distinguish the content that is either more demanding or less demanding and thereby allocate time accordingly. Lecturer: These objectives provide feedback to the teacher about the targeted or observed behaviour. For instance, in a lesson where the teacher sets to have learners locate, at least, six pre-historic sites on the map of Kenya. It will be necessary to have a map of Kenya available so that this objective is attained. [He takes a momentary pause. He then goes on to say:] Lecturer: Having looked at the uses of instructional objectives, I now wish to concentrate on the specific characteristics of an instructional objective. In other words, what guides you in the construction of an instructional objective? [There is a short moment of silence.] Lecturer: There are three main characteristics that must be considered in the construction of an instructional objective. They are: 1. Terminal behaviour. An objective should be stated in measurable and observable terms. The teacher clearly describes the learning outcome by the use of action verbs. For example, words like select, describe, state, trace, identify, explain, discuss, compare, name, list, analyse, etc. Avoid the use of vague terms or implicit verbs such as know, appreciate, grasp, think, understand, learn, etc. 2. Test conditions. This characteristic refers to the limitations or restrictions that are placed on learners so as to clearly indicate under which conditions the sought after experience should occur. For instance, an objective gives a test condition as: By the end of the lesson… or Using a map, the learner should be able to locate six pre-historic sites… 3. Level of performance. An instructional objective should clearly indicate a standard of performance that is acceptable as proof of learning. For example, the learner should be able to state at least five rights of a child…; By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to: (i) describe the causes of the Mau Mau independence movement. (ii) State at least six results of the Mau Mau … [Lecturer then takes a while before he says:] Lecturer: After looking at what you must incorporate in your instructional objective, let us then move on to lesson introduction. What should you put into consideration as you introduce a lesson? [He pauses for a while before he appears to re-state his question:] Lecturer: From the knowledge you acquired in the course ECT 210, how do you introduce a lesson? How would you introduce a lesson on symbols of national unity? Student 1: I would use the national flag. Lecturer: Yes. He would use a flag. How else can one introduce a lesson on symbols of national unity? Student 2: I will introduce my lesson by singing one of the patriotic songs.
243
Lecturer: Interesting! Hoping that you are good at singing! [There is laughter by students.] Lecturer: Ok. A lesson introduction is important because it provides for the organisation of a favourable learning atmosphere. An introduction should be creatively developed so that it stimulates learner interest, captures and sustains learners focus towards new material that is soon to be delivered. Lecturer: The introduction component of a lesson is very important because it opens up the context for learning. A well thought introduction helps to stimulate learner interest, capture and sustain their focus toward new content. A good lesson introduction, therefore, requires imagination and creativity from the teacher. How, then, does a teacher make his or her introduction captivating? [The question appears not to be directed at any student. Lecturer therefore goes on with his explanation.] Lecturer: I have a number of examples that can be used to introduce your lessons depending on the topic you will be teaching. For example, you can have a brief review of the previous lesson that aims at linking that content to the new one. When you purpose to use this approach, make sure both the previous and the present content have a clear relationship. Do not try to force linkages where there are none. [He temporarily stops talking as students continue writing in their note books. After about a minute of silence, he then goes on.] Lecturer: Your lesson can also be introduced by asking a question that draws upon the learners’ experiences in a given setting. An introduction can also involve a review of new words or terms from either a previous lesson or a completely new context. [He pauses for a while.] Are we together? Students: Yes. Lecturer: Right. Lesson introduction can also involve by use of a narrative. It is important that you pick on an interesting and captivating story that has a bearing on what will be taught. Keep your narrative as simple as possible. Do not create a complex story that is difficult to understand. Use simple language and base it on the learners’ experiences. Lecturer: Are there any other ways in which you can introduce your History lessons? Student: Yes. A teacher could use a song to introduce a lesson. [There is laughter.] Lecturer: That is correct. Songs are good in capturing learner attention. However, you must be very selective and relevant. Can we have another different way in which we can introduce a lesson? [There is silence. He then continues and says:] Lecturer: Finally, let us also add that we can introduce our lessons by role-playing or dramatisation. Add that, an introduction can be an outline that shows what will be learnt. Lecturer: The lesson development or the main body of a lesson plan focuses on the presentation of content. It is a section of the lesson that details the content and sequence of activities. It is therefore a section of the lesson that takes up almost all the time. In the format you will be required to use during your teaching practice in schools, there are two
244
parallel columns. These are the teacher and learner activity columns. [The format used in the lecture is illustrated below]. Lecturer: After this introduction of the lesson, you then move onto the main part, that is lesson development. As you can see, (pointing to the illustration of a lesson plan on the chalkboard), you divide your plan into two main parts. What are these parts or sections? Students: [About four or five students, almost simultaneously, respond by reading from the chalkboard illustration]. Teacher’s Activity [….. ] Learner’s Activity. Lecturer: Correct. Both the teacher and learner activity columns are very important. As a teacher, you will be expected to do something or initiate some activity. Learners will also have to respond or react to what you initiate for them. In this part of the lesson, you now address the key of points. What is the topic of our sample lesson for form one? Student 1: [Reading from his notes]. The topic is - The meaning of History. Student 2: Sir, I think the topic is introduction to History and Government. But for this particular lesson, it is a subtopic on the meaning of History. Lecturer: Yes. That is an interesting observation. [….] You are correct. Class, what your colleague has observed is quite correct. The distinction he has made is also shown in the syllabus document. Our lesson is on the meaning of History and Government. So, in this part of the lesson, which we have allocated 15 minutes, your focus is to get the learners define the two concepts: History and Government.
Teacher Activity Column
Learner Activity Column
Explains what is intended to be done by the teacher through a highlight of the principal points. For example, if questions will be asked, they should be stated alongside the expected responses. He gives the following example: Question: What do you understand by the term story? Answer: It is a description of an event. Or It is a description of the activities that have taken place. Teacher displays a map that shows the Bantu migration routes into Kenya.
It displays the key to the success of all history teaching and learning experiences. It should be an enriched, learner participatory column. This is because it saves learners from boredom and enables them to think and be creative. Some of the activities that need to be included in this column are: discussion (both written and verbal), answering teacher questions and generating learner questions, writing or generating notes. At this point, students were cautioned against phrasing a statement such as ‘Taking down notes’. This was discouraged because such was not an activity that fostered active learning. Drawing Interpreting or observing maps, pictures, photographs. An example was given where such learner activities could be used. When teaching about Bantu Migration, a teacher would display a map that locates the movement of the Bantu from their cradle land to where they are currently settled. Reading important historical episodes Role – playing and debating Dramatising historical scenes Taking assignments Visiting sites of historical interest Taking note of presentations by resource persons e.g. clerk to a local town council
Lecturer: It is important for you to know that a lesson’s conclusion is critical in the teaching exercise. Why do I say so?” [He stops talking for a brief moment. There is silence in the room. He then proceeds to say that:]
245
Lecturer: A lesson’s conclusion is a moment of tying up the loose ends of a lesson. It is a moment that I could refer to one of consolidation. The teacher is interested in bringing together different parts of the lesson. [He takes another brief break from talking. He looks at the students and enquires:] Lecturer: Using your knowledge from ECT 210, how would you conclude a lesson? [Lecturer, however, does not wait for a response from the students. Reading from his notes, he goes on: Lecturer: There are a number of ways in which a teacher can conclude a lesson. For example, you can use a recapitulation of the main points of a lesson to wind up what you have taught. Student: [Raises his hand up.] Sir, could you repeat that? Lecturer: [He pauses for a while, looks at students and then continues to say:] What I mean here is that you conclude your lesson by restating the main points. [Facing the student who had asked the question, he asks:] Is it clear? Student: Yes. [He also nods his head.] Lecturer: You can also conclude a lesson by allowing learners to ask questions about what they may have failed to understand. [Silence.] Under normal circumstances, there will be at least one or two learners who will need some clarification on what is presented during the lesson. As a keen observer, a teacher should be able to figure out these learners. If they are not ready to ask, pose some questions, probe them. Lecturer: Teacher questions are also important, particularly, when they are focussed on instructional objectives. Ask students questions that help you to ascertain whether or not you have achieved your objectives. Remember, you will have stated your objectives in the format of: By the end of the lesson learners should be able to state or explain or describe …. In your conclusion of the lesson, therefore, you will ask that help you establish the extent to which your teaching was successful or not. Lecturer: A lesson can also be concluded by way of an assignment. Depending on what you find as useful in helping learners get a better understanding of the topic you will have covered, you could give them work to do during their free or study time. Assignments are an important component of the teaching and learning process. They reinforce the learning activity. Lecturer: Finally, you could also conclude your lesson by mentioning the topic of the next session you will be meeting them. For example, you could say: Class, in our next lesson, we will look at the topic: The Development of Agriculture in Kenya during the Colonial Period. [There is some momentary silence. Lecturer then goes on.] Lecturer: [Momentarily, he does not speak. Looks at his notes and then continues with the lecture.] Eh, I can see signs of fatigue. [Some students laugh.] We are about to finish today’s work. Just bear it for a few more minutes. Let us then look at the self – evaluation component. [….] What does this section require?
246
Lecturer: The purpose of self-evaluation is to provide a balanced critical analysis of a teacher’s lesson. [….] This requires self-interrogation. You need to ask yourself questions such as: Have I achieved my lesson’s objectives? Why have I failed to attain my objectives? Have I been able to attain the quality and depth of subject content? Have I used suitable methods of instruction? [Lecturer pauses for a short while. He then asks:] Lecturer: Are you all following? [Silence. Students are busy scribbling in their notebooks.] Can we continue? Students: [chorus response]. Yes. Lecturer: Let us finish up on the questions you need to ask yourself during the self-evaluation exercise. […] Asks yourself: Have I availed and used suitable quality resources and tools to assess learner achievement? Remember, [….] this is a professional interrogation that is supposed to help you to establish both the successes and mishaps of a lesson. Most importantly, these are questions that you pause to yourself immediately after a lesson. Lecturer: Ok, let us have an example of a lesson plan. I want us to use a history lesson of a Form One class. Mmh [….] I am giving this example because I will soon expect you to practice this during your micro-teaching and teaching practice. [Lecturer then sketches an illustration of a lesson plan on the chalkboard as shown below.]
Stage Time Teacher Activity Learner Activity I - Introduction
5 Minutes Highlight the demands and expectations of the course (i.e. more of like course outline). Draw on learners’ primary school experiences on learning History.
Learners take note of course requirements. Generate information about History’s definition and aims. Linking this to the meaning of History.
II – Lesson Development III
15 Minutes 15 Minutes
Study of Man’s Past Record of past events It’s a form of inquiry It deals with the relation of cause and effect Ask pupils to explain meaning of Government. Guide pupils towards different types of government.
Identify different aspects of meaning of History. Make notes. List branches of History Explain characteristics/features of History, e.g. History as a way of thinking; History as ideas, etc. Provide answers e.g. It refers to ruling, controlling. Identify different types of government, e.g. democratic, aristocratic, monarchical.
IV 5 Minutes Highlight main points of lesson Allow pupils to ask questions Ask (teacher) questions Give an assignment Mention the next lesson on Sources of Information in History
Answering teacher questions on meaning of History and Government Seek clarification on areas of the lesson that they failed to understand Take down assignment
Lecturer: Is there anyone with a question concerning the lesson plan? [There is silence in the room with some students looking at their notes and some of them looking at the illustration on the chalkboard. Lecturer then moves close to a student and asks:] Lecturer: My friend, will you be able to develop a lesson plan like the one we have here on the chalkboard? [Student looks at her illustration for a few seconds and then replies:] Student: Yes sir. [….] I will. Lecturer: Good. [….] Is there anyone with a question over what we have covered today? [He looks round the room] Ok. If there is none, let us then stop there. Thank you. [At
247
that point, I also stood up and walked to the door to join the lecturer and we walked out of the room.] Lecturer: Let us then turn to the factors that are critical in the development of a syllabus. What are some of the factors that must be considered in the development of a History syllabus? [This question appears not to have been directed at any particular student. After some brief silence, the lecturer goes on.] Lecturer: The first factor to consider is the nature and concept of History as a secondary school subject. Student: Excuse me sir, could you repeat? Lecturer: Ok. What I mean is that for you to develop a syllabus, you must consider both the nature and concept of the subject. In other words you have to be clear on what the subject covers as well as how it should be defined and taught. [He pauses for a short while before he continues.] Lecturer: The second factor to consider is the deliberate inclusion of specific topics in order to achieve the desired objectives. For example, it is expected that through the study of History national unity will be realised. To achieve this objective, among other topics, you will definitely have one on citizenship. What other topics would you add? [This question is not directed at any particular student. Students appear to be occupied with writing down notes. None responds to the question. There is momentary silence before the lecturer proceeds.] Lecturer: The third factor to consider in the development of a History syllabus is the periodization of historical events with reference to both their importance and occurrence of events. [There is some pause as students continue to write.] Lecturer: The fourth factor is a consideration of the abilities and potential of learners to master the content under study. This factor is dependent on a teacher’s knowledge of psychology and the context within which the syllabus is being implemented. Lecturer: The fifth point to consider is the teacher’s academic status and ability. In other words, you need to have an answer to the question: what qualifications do the teachers have? Lecturer: Another factor for consideration in the development of a syllabus is the general methodology of teaching that is in use. For example, History has certain methods of teaching that are considered useful. Lecturer: Textbooks and collateral material are also an important factor to consider. These resources have an influence on the way a syllabus is implemented. Certainly, school textbooks can influence how a subject is taught and learnt. Lecturer: Lastly but not least, the nature of national examination question items also plays an important role on the development of a syllabus.
248
Lecturer: Using what you have gained from today’s lecture, prepare a detailed scheme of work for History for any class at secondary school that covers a period of one week.
249
APPENDIX 5: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHER EDUCATORS
TEACHER EDUCATOR ONE 1. What would you like your students to leave /acquire/ attain/ achieve from
studying the course on/for History Methods?
Explain the essence of History and Government instruction in Kenyan schools.
Analyse the content of the Kenyan secondary school History and Government
syllabus.
Be able to plan for History and Government instruction.
Select and apply the appropriate instructional methods and techniques in History and
Government instruction.
Prepare, select and use a variety of instructional resources in History and Government.
Select and use appropriate assessment and evaluation procedures in History and
Government.
Discuss some aspects of field work and research in History and Government.
Determine both the participants of the learner and instructors’ role as an educator and
historian in History instruction.
2. In view of your response in item 1, please provide specific examples that
illustrate how you ensure that student teachers attain what this course aims at.
Learners are taken through both theoretical and practical tasks in achieving the said
objectives.
3. What do you prioritize when trying to achieve the aims of the course?
Learner-friendly techniques and approaches are paid attention to in the light of the
Kenyan secondary school curriculum.
4. In order for the History teacher preparation you provide, through your course
on History Methods, to be
successful there is need for congruence between your priorities and those of
secondary school History curriculum.
(i). What are the priorities for the secondary school History curriculum?
Recognize and appreciate the importance of studying History and Government.
Acquire knowledge, ability and show appreciation for critical historical analysis of
socio-economic and political organization of African societies.
Understand and show appreciation of the rights, privileges and obligations of oneself
250
and others for promotion of a just and peaceful society.
Promote a sense of nationalism, patriotism and national unity.
Encourage and sustain moral and mutual social responsibility.
Identify, assess and appreciate the rich and varied cultures of the Kenyan people and
other peoples.
Promote a sense of awareness and need for a functional democracy of the Kenyan
people and other nations.
Promote an understanding and appreciation of intra-national and international
consciousness and relationships.
Derive through the study of History and Government an interest in further learning.
(ii) What would you say about the secondary school’s History curriculum
priorities in relation to your course’s? Please explain.
Our culture is tailored to specifically meeting the demands of the secondary school
curriculum. The two are based on our national goals of education and the objectives
of the secondary school education.
However, our course has additional aspects – the field work plus research, learner role
as a participant in History instruction and the instructors’ role as an educator and
historian in History and Government instruction. All these prepare them for
academic/scholarly responsibilities thus going above the secondary schools.
5. (i) How do the requirements of the secondary school History curriculum
influence, through your
course on History Methods, the preparation of the B Ed History teacher?
Generally the trainees are trained to teach in secondary schools. This makes us to
keep abreast with any development at the secondary school to enable them to be
competent in handling that curriculum.
(ii). What do you do through the History Methods course, specifically, to meet the
secondary school History curriculum requirements?
Tailoring the curriculum to the secondary schools’ exposing the trainees to the content
offered in the secondary syllabus and finally using the schools for teaching practicum.
6. Why do you think the activities you undertake in your course serve as the
most suitable or appropriate way of addressing what the secondary school History
syllabus proposes?
We expose the trainees to virtually what K.I.E demands for competent handling of the
251
subject. Coupled with the teaching practicum, the trainees in my view are well
prepared for the task. (End)
Thank you for your cooperation, time and contribution.
252
TEACHER EDUCATOR TWO
1. What would you like your students to leave /acquire/ attain/ achieve from
studying the course on/for History Methods?
Analyse the meaning, nature and scope of History as articulated in the secondary
school syllabus.
Identify various components of the secondary school curriculum i.e. syllabus, schemes
of work, lesson planning, lesson notes.
Develop and sharpen skills in selecting, classifying, preparing and using learning
resources in History.
Developing skills in assessing learner achievement and performance in History …
Link this to the continuous assessment demands and requirements of K.C.S.E.
Assist and guide student teachers toward sourcing for information in History.
Familiarise with various methods of teaching History.
Promote an understanding and application of theories of learning in History.
2. In view of your response in item 1, please provide specific examples that
illustrate how you ensure that student teachers attain what this course aims at.
Guide students toward using various references to define History, determine its nature
and scope.
Analyse the relevant K.C.S.E syllabus.
Review selected and designed schemes of work and lesson plans.
Encourage and supervise students when preparing schemes of work, lesson plans and
lesson notes.
Relate theory to practice when using learning resources during micro-teaching, peer
teaching and media practicals.
3. What do you prioritize when trying to achieve the aims of the course?
Ensure adequate and thorough preparation of lessons/lectures.
Encourage, organise and manage student participation during lectures.
Arrange for peer teaching, media use and peer evaluation.
Ensure completion of the course as planned.
4. In order for the History teacher preparation you provide, through your course
on
History Methods, to be successful there is need for congruence between your
253
priorities and those of secondary school History curriculum.
(i). What are the priorities for the secondary school History curriculum?
The priorities of secondary school curriculum are articulated in the objectives as outlined
in the K.C.S.E syllabus i.e.:
History should enable the learner to:
Recognise and appreciate the importance of studying History.
Acquire knowledge, ability and show appreciation for critical historical analysis for
social-economic and political organisation of African societies.
Understand and show appreciation of the rights, privileges and obligations of oneself
and others for promotion of a just and peaceful society.
Promote a sense of nationalism, patriotism and national unity.
Encourage and sustain moral and mutual social responsibility.
Identify, assess and appreciate the rich and varied cultures of the Kenyan people and
other peoples.
Promote a sense of awareness and need for a functional democracy of the Kenyan
people and other nations.
Promote an understanding and appreciation of intra-national and international
consciousness and relationship.
Derive through the study of History an interest in further learning.
(ii) What would you say about the secondary school’s History curriculum
priorities in relation to your course’s? Please explain.
Deliberate effort has been made to harmonise the various aspects of the History
Methods and the requirement and expectations of the secondary school syllabus.
The secondary syllabus specific objectives, content, suggested methods, resources and
evaluation strategies are focused upon during the special History Methods course.
5. (i). How do the requirements of the secondary school History curriculum
influence, through your course on History Methods, the preparation of the B Ed
History teacher?
Selection of themes to teach.
Preparation and use of various methods.
Sensitization of student teachers through mentorism and guidance toward appreciation
of History.
(ii) What do you do through the History Methods course, specifically, to
254
meet
the secondary school History curriculum requirements?
Familiarise each student teacher with the demands and components of the secondary
school syllabus.
Encourage students to look at and prepare sample schemes of work, lesson plans and
lesson notes.
Student teachers are guided toward selection of relevant textbooks, reading and
reference materials. This includes the use of various Teachers’ Guide (TGS).
6. Why do you think the activities you undertake in your course serve as the
most suitable or appropriate way of addressing what the secondary school History
syllabus proposes?
It may not be possible to be certain without follow-up reach research.
However, these activities have been recommended in various studies, books and
references.
They are recommended by the Kenya Institute of Education.
Observations made by students on Teaching Practice have shown appreciation of the
same.
Comments by cooperating Teachers and supervisors during Teaching Practice have
been relatively encouraging. (End)
Thank you for your cooperation, time and contribution.
255
APPENDIX 6: COURSE OUTLINE AND DESCRIPTION FOR HISTORY TEACHING METHODS
Course Outline
Introduction
Information on the course – the course objectives.
The meaning and essence of History: Objectivity in History.
The place of oral tradition within the broad issue of evidence in History.
History content in the secondary school.
Some thoughts on the methods of teaching History.
Teaching aids in History.
Tests, measurement and evaluation in History.
Field work and Research in History.
The participant in History.
COURSE CONTENT
Introduction: Background information on the course and course objectives. The meaning and essence of History: Definition; History as a secondary school
subject (aims and objectives); Relation to other school subjects; Objectivity in History.
Sources and Uses of History: Written and unwritten sources of history; the place of oral traditions; various types of documents in history; history as an indicator of the future; laws and explanation; elements of a historical process; research tools and evidence in history; the relationship of history with other selected disciplines.
History in the Secondary School: To include a close study and evaluation of the curriculum, syllabus, schemes of work and lesson plans, importance of the micro-lesson to the student-teacher.
Some thoughts on the methods of teaching History: This will include a quick survey of the lecture, discussion, questioning, debate, project methods, etc.
Learning Resources in History: A discussion on the effectiveness of teaching aids in history; Community resources and the history teacher; Criteria for selecting media in History; The place of media learning and teaching.
Measurement and evaluation in History: Evaluation of learner performance in history and government; language usage in history; pros and cons on types of tests in history (True – false; pictorial, objective type items, filling in gaps, tests, essays). The place of the examination in history i.e. formative, summative evaluation, Hints on preparing for examinations.
The field-work and Research in History: The museums, the archives and the libraries and their importance in research; field trips and historical societies.
The participant in History: The role of the student in history learning with a special emphasis to his interests, abilities, activities and problems. Role of instructor in teaching and learning - educator and historian.
256
REFERENCES: Ayot, H. O., (1979). New approach in History Teaching in schools.Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau. Buston, W.H. (1972). Handbook for History Teachers. London: Methuen. Collingwood, R.G. (1946). The Idea of History. London: Oxford University Press. Crookall, R.E. (1969). Handbook for History Teachers in West Africa. London: Evans Brothers. Dance, E.H. (1970). The Place of History in secondary Teaching. London: G. Harrap and Co. Ltd. Gustava, C. G.A. (1955). A Preface to History. New York: McGraw- Hill Book Company. Inc. Kochar, S.K. (1990). Teaching of History. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Ltd. Muyanda - Mutebi, P & Matovu, L., (1981). A New approach to history as a Social Study in Secondary Schools. Nairobi: Kenya Literature Bureau. Nasbit B. (1971). Towards a Better Understanding of History. London: University of Notre Dame Press. Portal, C. (Ed). (1987). Towards a Better Understanding of History. Basingtoke: The Falmer Press. Steele, I., (1983). Development in History Teaching: Open Book. Exeter: Wheatton and Co. Ltd. Stern, F., (ed.). (1956). The Varieties of History: From Voltaire to the Present. New York: The World Publishing Company. Tholfsen, T. R.., (1967) Historical Thinking: an Introduction. New York: Harper and Row. Thyne, J.W., (1970). The Psychology of Learning and Techniques of Teaching. London: University of London Press.
257
APPENDIX 7: PRACTICAL IN EDUCATIONAL MEDIA This unit is divided into two parts, both of which are practical activities for the students in teaching and production of learning aids and resources. 1. Educational Media Practical: A practical activity in which students prepare teaching aids and media using given guidelines. The activity will include:
How to use the Chalk Board Graphics – diagrams and illustrations Construction of 3-dimensional aids Operation of Audio visual Equipment Study of a Model School Educational Media Centre Preparation of Sound Recorded programmes.
2. Mini-Lesson Teaching: A practical activity in planning, preparation and presentation of a lesson. Skills highlighted include:
Lesson Preparation Preparation of Audio Visual Media for the Lesson Lesson presentation: set induction, lecturing, reinforcement, stimulus variation,
questioning, providing for learner participation, feedback and closure. Each student will prepare and deliver several lessons. Each lesson will be discussed, for immediate feedback to the learner, before the next lesson is prepared and presented.
258
APPENDIX 8: INTERVIEW WITH TEACHER EDUCATOR ON 21 -
03- 2009
Researcher: The purpose of this interview is to seek clarification from you on a number
of issues that I have noticed in the observation of microteaching lessons we have had so
far. To begin with, I am saying that, a number of patterns can be noticed from the lesson
presentations we have observed. For example, it appears that students introduce the lesson
topic by reviewing a previous/last lesson, e.g. through questions posed to learners, or give/
present a brief review of what their last lesson covered. Then my question is, do I take it
that this is how you have guided them to begin their lessons?
Educator: Partly yes and no! We have actually told them ways of introducing the lesson.
But you can see those are just two. But we have given them other ways that they could
use. For example, we have told them that they can also introduce their lesson by... by...
by... presenting a teaching and learning resource and making it to be the basis of the lesson
introduction. We have also told them that one can just ask a learner to highlight or briefly
say something about a topic that the teacher wants to present. This can be a good way of
introducing a lesson. So, what I can say is that we have given them many ways by which
they could introduce their lessons but it appears that the two you noted are commonly
used.
Researcher: Ok, I also realised that some students tended to take on the teacher-centred
approach, a few more were their opposite by taking on the learner-centred approach. My
question then is: why should there be a disparity and yet these are students we teach the
same thing?
Educator: When we trained them, we tell them that for learners that are at secondary
school level, that they are going to go to, they should use more of the leaner-centred
approach. But maybe for one reason or another one might over-using the teacher-centred
approach. Maybe this could be because of some maybe lack of consideration on what they
were taught during training. But what we told them also in training is that we don’t say
that they should not use the teacher-centred approaches for learners at that level, there are
certain situations which will demand the use of the teacher-centred methods. But we want
them emphasise the use of the learner-centred approach. But I think maybe it could be
because some students believe that some student-trainers believe that these students do not
259
know what they are being taught. So the teacher should be a kind of mountain of
knowledge.
Researcher: Yes. You remember we saw it on Ombogo’s class, the one we have just
observed. Yes.
Educator: Even Baraza’s also had a situation where the teacher dominates. And yet we
have told them over and over again not to over-use teacher centred approaches.
Researcher: Might this approach to teaching be influenced by how student teacher regard
historical knowledge? Ok, what I mean is that student teachers assume, of course from the
example of how they were taught the subject that the role of a teacher is to present while
the learner sits there to receive! You get what I mean?
Educator: Ya! Even Baraza [referring to a particular student], I needed to caution him
about his excessive use of the teacher-centred approach. In fact, I was very surprised that
he even told his students that the topic he was teaching was difficult one! [laughter].
....But I also think it could be a consequence of students’ lack of adequate preparation for
the lessons. As you know, the learner-centred approaches require ample preparation
unlike the one they prefer where as they have demonstrated, one can easily go and churn
out the content he or she has read with little attention to the learners. And because there
will be no room for the learners to participate in the lesson, the teacher will have it easy.
Researcher: You have raised an interesting item mwalimu. This concerns preparation for
teaching by the students. Ok, let me wonder aloud, do students have appropriate or even
adequate resources that they use for preparation for teaching?
Educator: No! We have a serious problem of lack of resources. Apart from the
textbooks, even the current H&G syllabus is not readily available to students. As a matter
of fact, I can actually say that students are grappling in the dark. If they are lucky, they
may get somebody with a syllabus and another with say a text-book that might have
become out-dated. In their circumstance, they may still have to use such a textbook. In
fact, I want to think that is the reason as to why there were some students who presented
out-dated content. And, I think that is a failure on our part but we are now doing
something about it.
Researcher: Yes. I think challenges of resources cut across. Because I remember in one
of those conversations with students, they raised the same matter. In fact, one of them
said, they are currently using a book that they must always track the last person who used
it otherwise it could be lost and yet it is the only copy available. They claimed that that
particular text was borrowed from some high school teacher. On that note, may I then ask
260
how much interaction with the secondary school content does your course expose students
to?
Educator: During training, the special methods course, we actually gave them... we
exposed them to a copy of the latest syllabus. Of course, these were covered under
curriculum professional documents. But unfortunately, when we were doing that at that
time, they didn’t know that they will need the very materials now. They can’t remember
that when we were being trained in the special methods area, these are some of the things
we were looking at. We were taken through the syllabus from form one to the last topic in
form four; how to prepare it; what are some of the weaknesses in this syllabus; and all that.
Researcher: By the way mwalimu, that is interesting because of ... I mean, the
organisation of the course can either impact positively or negatively how the students learn
what is crucial. In fact, you remember there is somebody who has once argued that this
semester system has it weakness. Because the semester system is such that once one is
through, they can forget all that.
Educator: That is where they are now!
Researcher: Ok. Let us look at the use of media. I could conclude that the skills that
students needed to demonstrate through their microteaching were always placed at the end
of the lesson. Was this strategy a sanctioned format for History? It made the media look
like a mere add-on!
Educator: I ... I ... I ... don’t know because when we trained them, we actually told them
that the media material can be introduced at any stage of the instructional process. But a ...
I agree with you that during these presentations we have had a tradition of the media
resources coming towards the end. Often, at this point of the lesson, they would be in a
hurry to end the presentation. This makes their use inappropriate. Honestly, I don’t know
why that is the case. Maybe, we need to investigate this phenomenon. We have talked
about it so many times and yet they still go ahead and make the same mistake. Even
today, apart from a few, some were still coming at the end.
Researcher: Yes. But it goes back to what you said about preparation. Yes. Content-
wise and how much have you prepared, how much ... I mean whom ... I mean ... Have you
thought what this content is supposed to do to the learner and therefore how ...
[interruption]
Then, [interruption] student teachers ended their lessons in what one could describe as a
familiar format. In fact, a good number of them were always ending with giving an
261
assignment. Why does the assignment serve as an important concluding episode for a
history lesson?
Educator: It is not only in History. But I don’t know why they are doing that – Because
we have told them very many ways of ending a lesson. But it is like the assignment one is
the easier option. They have all... we have taught them all the ways of ending a lesson.
Not only does this affect History but even the other subjects as well. But as you can
maybe remember, from the observations you made, most of our students the problem they
have is that they don’t manage their time very well. Somewhere you realise that you are
running short of time, so the easiest way to conclude a lesson is through giving an
assignment.
Researcher: To what extent would you regard the student teachers’ work in this
microteaching sessions as being congruent with what the secondary school syllabus
requires?
Educator: Yes! Actually, what they have presented, if they will work on the areas we
have mentioned, they will actually fit well in the secondary school curriculum. By the
way, for most of the students, this was even the first experience to many of them. They are
still very inexperienced in teaching. They have actually done very well. So that we hope,
when they go out for teaching practice they will even improve on what we have seen.
Researcher: So, really, this means the students have done quite well! Ok, what would
you say is the level of engagement within this course or the two related courses we have
had on preparing teachers... what is the level of engagement with the secondary school
history syllabus?
Educator: In fact, it is, we have designed our two courses to actually make the teacher
trainee to really... really interact with the secondary school curriculum. In the last
semester, the course on methods actually took them through the entire History and
Government curriculum at the secondary school level. From form one to form four. Then
now they have had a chance to freely select any of the topics from that syllabus where they
have prepared the lesson; they have gone and investigated; they have even looked at the
evaluation procedures; and every other thing that is required for that particular topic. So
that, eventually, when they come and present it to class, it is something that they have put
in their best.
262
Researcher: Ok. I have also noticed that your guidance to students tends to focus on
lesson presentation more than the subject matter itself. In which case, there is an
assumption that students already have the subject matter. What you do is simply to give
them knowledge and skills for delivery. What is your view?
Educator: Ya! Why we have the focus that you have correctly observed is that our work
in education, more so in our department, is to train the student to become a good teacher of
History and Government at the secondary school level. Our sister-department in the
Faculty of Arts deals with content [subject matter]. They give our students the content
they require in all these topics at the secondary school level. And actually, we always
advise them on the topics or the courses from History which should be taken by our
students. That is why I am not so keen on the content. I want to see how the teacher
trainee is able to communicate that content to the learners so that they are able to make
meaning out of it.
Researcher: Ok. I am raising this issue simply because in a number of instances there
were clear indications that what students wanted to put across was not as clear to them as it
should be the case. In a number of cases you had to clarify for them. I was therefore
concerned about the level of content depth that the students have. Do they really have the
relevant content for teaching at school level?
Educator: But I think that is evident mainly because of lack of resources. They don’t
have enough sources to refer to when they prepare for these lessons. Even our colleagues
from the History department cannot give them everything considering the breadth of the
syllabus and other variables. So, it is upon the students, the teacher-trainee to investigate
further on those areas. But as you know, they have very limited resources. Maybe that is
why they cannot look beyond what is found in that textbook they are using ... they don’t
think outside the box.
Researcher: Ok. The preparation of a subject teacher is a challenging endeavour. The
more reason as to why we continue to have criticisms about the mismatch between what
teacher education institutions produce and what the schools expect such graduates to do.
What is your view?
Educator: I don’t agree with the criticism. To me, this is something that has been
peddled for a long time. But why I don’t agree is that when we design our curriculum, we
have in our focus what is wanted in the secondary school. And even now that they are
263
going out for teaching practice, they are able to interact with those learners and even with
History teachers in the field. And having been also products of the same schools, you find
that when one chooses to be a History teacher, he or she actually knows what is demanded
of the curriculum at the secondary school. And we have always reviewed our curriculum
to keep pace with changes in the society.
Researcher: In what ways would you single out what your student teachers have
presented as being characteristically unique to the teaching History at secondary school
level?
Educator: But I think, if we look at the presentations from when we started up to now,
there is some element of originality that we have seen in some students. Especially when
it comes to introducing a lesson, where we have had, for example you remember the case
of the other student who was very innovative.
Researcher: Yes! Are you referring to the student who presented a lesson on the
scramble and partition of Africa?
Educator: Yes! Then we have also had the same innovativeness being seen in preparation
of media resources like when they came up with dioramas even the models, there was a lot
of originality. From both my experience as a high school teacher and now as a teacher
trainer, whenever we go out for teaching practice the kind of presentations by our students
are not actually evident among the teachers serving in the field [schools]. So, we can say
that our students to some extent are trying to come up with innovative approaches on how
to present History lessons better than the teachers in the field.
Researcher: So far, I have attended both the plenary lectures and the subsequent
microteaching presentations. Now, if I make a claim that your teacher preparation ends up
being more of a separation than an integration of skills, how would you respond to this?
Educator: I think that is not true. We are just giving them these skills bit by bit as a
strategy that helps to learn developmentally. But finally, there will be a lecture that will
focus on integration of all these skills. For now, one is only keen on demonstrating the
skill that is being investigated and not maybe one that is to come. Because even for the
one that is to come, he might not know what he will learn next week. So, he doesn’t know.
Researcher: But, by the way, you have raised that issue-must the student teachers grapple
in the dark not knowing which skill will be studied next time round?
Educator: Actually, the skills are there. Those who are interested they can get them from
the HODs [Head of Department] office. They can be told these are the skills. But it is
264
only that the students are not ... You know they always expect the teacher to tell them. So
every other time, [laughter] ... we have not yet accustomed them to look at what is in the
syllabus. To say they want to be taught the topic. That is when they know so this is the
topic.
Researcher: Mwalimu, what is your comment about this idea that, schools at some time
used to prefer Diploma teachers more than the Bachelor of Education graduates.
Educator: I... Our students are well prepared for the task of teaching the secondary
school learners. I don’t want to say much about the comparison between the B.Ed and
Diploma. ‘This is because there has been a debate for many years in this country. As a
matter of fact, depending on one’s qualification, it will be either the B Ed or the Diploma
is better. But I believe that the person handling it at degree level has more grasp of the
subject than one who handles it at diploma level. The major problem is that the History is
poorly motivated. He/she is looked down upon. At times, people were saying they are
cheap options. So you know, all these things go down to make the teacher of History to
fell that he has no place in the modern society.
Researcher: Mwalimu, a very important point you have raised there! That, in our effort
even to prepare the history teacher, however professional we want to make the exercise to
be, if the wider society does not motivate the teacher to be, then what are we doing will
just go down the drain!
Educator: Like now you are lucky! In the previous years we have had very small classes
because History teachers were not being employed by the government – a major employer
of teachers. But at least from last year, they started employing History teachers that is why
you see our numbers have shot up all of a sudden. Because right now if you go to schools,
they are only asking for History teachers. Because of our poor planning for manpower.
We now don’t have them. A few years ago, we were saying they are a cheap option.
Researcher: Tell me, do you know if the student teachers are exposed to a course that
promotes how history knowledge is developed?
Educator: Yes! I think you are referring to Historiography. It is a core course that all
students who take History in the Department of History have to take. These students also
take a course on Philosophy of History.
Researcher: Ok, Mwalimu (Teacher) thank you very much for your time. You have
helped to clarify a number of issues for me. I wish you well in your work. Thank you.
265
APPENDIX 9: STUDENTS’ INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS
CAMPUS B, 10-03-09 - TWO STUDENTS 266
CAMPUS B, 12-03-09 - THREE STUDENTS 273
CAMPUS A, 12-03-09 - FIVE STUDENTS 276
266
CAMPUS B, 10-03-09: TWO STUDENTS
Researcher: How do you find the methods for teaching History?
Student 1: Personally, I find them interesting and useful. These methods prepare us for
real [actual] classroom practice. Therefore, I am sure that without this course none of us
would be able to teach H&G as may be required.
Researcher: Supposing I claimed that you can still use teaching methods from the other
subjects to teach History?
Student 2: For me, I tend to think that all these subjects are the same in some way.
Therefore, the teaching methods can apply across the different subjects. But it is also true
that when you teach history there are more demands than say a subject like Kiswahili. So,
me I feel that if it were possible, some of the methods should be done away with. Because,
actually, many of the schools that perform well in national examinations you find that they
are not even using the lesson plan. What matters most, to me, me I think is how you
deliver the content. And may be if you are taught how to deliver content, me I think that is
what is more important.
Researcher: Delivering content, implying that so long a teacher is able to acquire the
skills of lesson presentation such as an introduction, main lesson, and a conclusion. Is
that what you are referring to?
Student 1: To me, I don’t think that is enough. Because as a teacher we are told that we
should be creative and innovative. And in order to be that creative and innovative, you
have to learn all these methods of being able to import knowledge into the learners. And
the reason why we study the history methods, there are methods that you can use in
Religion but you cannot in History. In the same way, there are methods you use in History
that you cannot use in Religion. Even though there are others that are common to all of
them. For example, discussion is common to all of them. So, I think, it is necessary that
we have this course for History and also we have ours in the other part. Because if we
look, for example like Religion, you know we have some objectives. Like in Religion you
only have to have may be the knowledge and what you can achieve by the end of the
lesson. But in Religion, there is something called attitudinal objective that you have to
achieve by the end of the lesson. So that by the end of the lesson, the student or the learner
267
should be able to have changed behavior in certain ways. So, there are methods that you
will use in Religion that you will not use in History. Therefore, I also think it is very
necessary for us to learn this course so that it may impart knowledge to us that we will use
to assist our learners. Though as she said, you may go to some places where teachers don’t
use all those methods that we are being taught. And at the end of the day may be their
learners still perform well in national examinations. I think what may make a difference
there is the teaching and learning resources that such schools may have to their advantage.
Certainly, books and equipment contribute to the performance of schools. So, that the
environment and everything else is just conducive.
Researcher: Fine, I seem to get your idea that history methods need to be offered. Thank
you. Let move on to something else. Tell me, how does the course help you engage or
analyze the secondary school History and Government syllabus?
Student 2: Mmmh….. Most of the things that we learn here is not what we are going to
teach. That is a fact. Am I wrong? [directing the question to colleague]. So ok, if I
compare to the Primary Teachers College, whatever you are taught is mostly what you are
going to teach. But here we have some courses for example, we have mostly dealt with
scholars and yet nowhere in the syllabus of high school are we supposed to deal with such
content. So I think, the only course that comes close is the methods of teaching where now
you are told to teach - may be a certain topic. You choose a topic in High School. But in
other courses, whatever we have done… Ok may be in first year, the course on
Introduction to Civilization, at least such topics you find them in High School. But these
others, especially what we are doing right now, development of Historic thoughts… It is
only good for our own development. Maybe, it is for us to expand our knowledge. But
directly to the students no! It doesn’t link in any way with syllabus.
Researcher: I find that unsettling.
Student 1: Ok, may be by not going far, the other day we were presenting lessons using
the three dimensional teaching aids – the diorama. And the lecturer told us that when you
go to that school and you start telling them about diorama, many of them may not get
whatever you are talking about. So for me, what I tend to think is that the main teaching
for us begins when you go to the field. That is when you start learning. And you learn
from the other teachers. Otherwise, whatever we are learning here it is possibly for
meeting graduation requirements.
268
Student 2: It is true. Most of what we go through is not related to what is at school. Ok,
maybe for Psychology we learn about behavior changes, may be that one can help.
Measurement and evaluation is also helpful. Evaluation can be good because you can
know how the students are getting on. But may be the chances of you becoming a
Principal or may be being in the higher authorities are very limited to make use of some of
the information. So I tend to think, the main period for us to learn how to teach starts
when we go to the field. And this one you get from your colleagues. Otherwise, whatever
much we do here, it is only may be to get an A or a B. But it won’t help when you go to
the field.
Researcher: Well, that is quite revealing of your experiences. Now, tell me something
about how you got into choosing to be History teachers?
Student 1: Personally, I am doing History because of my high school teacher. She was
an inspiration to me.… So, I think, partly if the teacher was good, may be the teacher is
going to be the same way that person was good. And if the teacher was bad, bad luck. So
think, really what we learn here in university, I suggest, it needs some review so that
lecturers, whatever they impart to the students should be directly linked to the syllabus that
they will be going to teach…
Researcher: Do you remember any one time where the History syllabus, for example,
became a subject of discussion in class?
Student 2: No!
Researcher: That is strange! May be I should be as plain as asking – do you have copies
of the syllabus?
Students: No!
Student 1: Although I can remember we were given one copy during the by mwalimu.
That was during the special methods lectures, last semester. Ok, for the copy that we were
given, it is for form one to form four. But it was only meant for us to refer as we dealt
with the form one topic. I think the topic we talked about is History. It was about defining
history. We only tackled the first topic.
Student 2: Actually here, they don’t insist on the syllabus. They just give us a copy and
ask you to know what you are supposed to cover. They don’t insist. So, most of us just go
269
and relate the notes, lesson notes not knowing whether what one is giving is what is
required or not. So, there is that problem.
Researcher: Let us move to something else. I noticed that many of you presented lessons
from the Government section. Do you study any courses on Government here at the
university as a preparation for teaching?
Student 1: No! We don’t cover. And that is why I was saying, like in the case of
teaching about the constitution, the knowledge we have of the process of constitution
making and all that, is what we learnt in high school. It will even be worse for those who
did not study history at high school but now have to teach it. Whatever they are going to
teach is what they get from the textbook. Nothing else! So, we don’t go through what we
are going to do outside there.
Researcher: How much of the knowledge of the learner do you put into consideration as
do your lesson preparation?
Student 2: Ok, maybe when we were taught general methods of teaching in second year,
we were told that we must draw on the learners experience for any topic we teach.
Researcher: Do courses from educational psychology also play a role in your
considerations for teaching?
Student 1: Ok, partly I think, educational Psychology is helpful in that sense. Because
you are supposed to understand the students, you are supposed to your learners, their
reaction you know that stage is the stage of adolescence. There is a lot of curiosity. They
want to prepare whatever they are preparing. You are supposed to understand them…
Researcher: Looking at the lessons we have had, I can almost say there was agreement that people will talk about provincial administration etc. What would you attribute this trend to?
Student 2: Although I might know the exact reasons, but if I may speak on behalf of some
of my friends, we actually based our choices on topics that we would readily prepare
teaching aids. It so happened that most of these topics are in the Government section. For
example, the three arms of government are straight forward. You put the structure on a
manila paper very easily!
Researcher: Tell me more about the scheme of work and lesson plan. How much confidence do you have about their preparation?
270
Student 1: I think one cannot be so confident. Because may be you will tackle some three
or four topics comfortably but there are some topics such as urbanization in Europe, you
find that you need to go back to books and so some research. But when it comes to
transport and migration those ones you can tackle because it is something you encounter
everyday. It is something that you know. Even from other subjects.
Researcher: What is your view with regard to the connection between the courses you study here and what you will be expected to teach at secondary school that?
Student 1: I think there is a weakness. For example, me I thought a university was a place
where you get all the knowledge you would expect to get as a prospective teacher. For
example, the topic on Evolution of man I would have expected that there was some
arrangement for the students to go and see the development from this stage to the other.
Because this is a topic you will even teach the form ones. However, as you proceed with
studies you quickly most topics that we need to cover at secondary school are not dealt
with at all! It is ironical that you are not taught but you are supposed to go and teach those
kids that there was something like Ramapithecus that evolved into the modern man.
Student 2: There is nothing we are given here that we are supposed to give out there. And
as she said, that is what we expected to be taught here. I expect to be taught all those
things that I am supposed to go and teach at school. Ok, is it possible for me to go back to
a question you asked earlier?
Researcher: Yes! Go ahead!
Student 1: Yes, you had asked about schemes of work. She had also said we are not
prepared thoroughly because we are taught once. Ok, maybe let me not answer it from my
previous experience in a teachers training college. As for me I will find it easy because I
have written several schemes of work. But here, we are only taught once! You can
imagine how someone fresh from high school is supposed to learn about how to write a
schemes of work. And may be we were taught only in one lecture. And we used only one
topic. Do you know what happens? Next time you are told to write another scheme of
work, the only thing we do is put this one here and write [copy]. The only thing I change
is the topic I was given… You know, like in Teachers College, you learn schemes of work
for all the subjects … all the eight subjects or thirteen. And then, you do it almost every
term… so that by the time you are out there, it is just automatic. You just go there and
draw. But here you learn once second year, second semester and it is enough. And that is
271
supposed to prepare you to be a teacher. A good teacher who is supposed to go write
schemes of work and do a lesson plan. And yet you have just seen it once! You know,
people usually…. You find somebody saying haki niko na stress [I am really stressed].
….So, if you do more you understand more. So, what we should be given is at least more,
at least this time when we are doing microteaching, we should even have some schemes of
work. We should be told to write schemes of work and then develop a lesson plan. But
now, we are just going direct to the lesson plan. We have forgotten how we were writing
the schemes and then you ‘down load’. When the lecturers comes…. The supervisor, you
just give what you copied from someone else.
Researcher: You have raised a very important point. Thank you for that. Now, soon you will be going out for teaching practice. If you were to speak on behalf of your fellow students, what would you say of your level of preparation for the exercise?
Student 2: For one, I think there is lack of self-confidence. By the way, most of these
students can never stand in front of their own colleagues, what about the students in
secondary schools? So there is one problem. Confidence is the first thing. And then, I
also think that content, our preparedness for the subjects that we are supposed to teach.
Most of the students, I think they have a problem… And this problem of the schemes of
work, it is really a problem. It is really a problem writing schemes of work and lesson
plans. In fact right now, if you tell a student to write any of these, very few would do it
with confidence. They will want to copy from somewhere…
Researcher: Finally, tell me something about resources in the courses. I am referring to things like references books, school textbooks and the secondary school History and Government syllabus. What has been your experience with their utilization?
Student 1: Maybe we make our own arrangements. But like for now, we have some
teachers who are teaching in high schools. So, its only those who make personal
arrangements so that they get the books…..
Student 2: The are few.
Student 1: Otherwise, there are no books that are meant for the course…..
Student 2: And may be to add on what she has said, the issue of confidence here, it doesn’t come just like that. It comes in because you don’t have the content. So, you fear standing before the students. Otherwise, if you don’t have the content that makes students to shy off… And I think the main solution to most of these problems, if they were able, the administration to provide us with books… the resources in the library, so that when you are told to go and prepare a scheme of work, or a lesson plan, we go there get some
272
books and sit to prepare. You can imagine, maybe she [referring to her classmate whom I jointly interviewed] has arranged …. There is a teacher and she has borrowed a book from a school. That same book … it will be used by almost the whole class… Otherwise we don’t have the resources. We just go there and write… most of the time it is guesswork. Students will always have something to write……We have to say the truth…..
Researcher: I want to thank you for your time and wish you well in your teaching
practice.
273
CAMPUS B, 12-03-09: THREE STUDENTS
Researcher: How prepared are you with reference to preparation and use of the scheme
of work?
Student: Well, from what me I have just been hearing, of the scope outside, they have
been telling us that in some schools the schemes of work are provided. So, our role is just
to maybe to build on these particular as you cover the content as you move on.
Researcher: What about the lesson plan?
As far as lesson plans are concerned, I think I will develop it according to how my method
is going to suit my students. Maybe, I will put in some more effort so that I am able to
meet the expectations of my students.
Researcher: More specifically, let put it this way, here is a Form one syllabus for History,
can you develop a scheme of work with confidence given your exposure in the history
methods course?
Student: Sure! I can. This is because four months ago, last semester, we were guided
through the process of developing schemes. The lecturer took us through the procedure.
Researcher: What is your view on the claim that history is boring?
Actually, history teaching is not boring. It depends on how I am going to deliver content
to the students. I try to make my lessons as interesting as was the case for my high school
chemistry teacher. Every time he entered class for a lesson, everyone was excited and
active.
Researcher: That must have been interesting...Now, tell me, has the history methods
course prepared you to become as interesting as your chemistry teacher?
Actually, from the various methods we have been exposed to such as discussion and story-
telling, you just have to pick from this variety of methods what will work for you. I think
we will be able to teach without any problem.
Researcher: How confident are you in terms of being ready for school practice after this
semester?
Student: I think for me I am confident. I now know that before I go to class to teach, I
must master the content so that I may become more confident when teaching.
Student: To me, having taken History from form one, maybe even primary, it has become
like an area of specialisation. So, I am actually confident that I can be able to deliver what
I have to the students.
274
Researcher: Many students chose to teach lessons from the Government component of the
syllabus. In fact, such lessons were on either the provincial administration or the arms of
government. Is there any specific course that you study here at the university that offers
you exposure to a focus on issues/topics on matters of Government?
Student: No. Actually, we are not exposed. I remember sometime last week one of us
presented a lesson on the arms of government. In his explanation, however, he did not
include the position of prime minister and yet the current structure of the Kenya
government includes the prime minister as part of the executive. Actually, this person was
using knowledge which had been over-taken by events. We can actually say that there is
no course that exposes us to issues in civic education.
Researcher: Tell me, have you had an opportunity through any course to critically
analyze the secondary school History and Government syllabus that you are expected to
implement in schools?
Student: Actually, most student-teachers do not go to the library to look for the secondary
school textbooks. So some of us really don’t know what is entailed in the syllabus. As a
result, for some of the micro-lessons we have had, some people might have only developed
their lessons from imagination of what they thought or could remember about secondary
school history content.
Researcher: Give me an idea about the resources you have at the library or anywhere
else within the university that you use for the course on methods of teaching History and
Government as a secondary school subject.
Student: Actually I will agree with that because this will be able to put that mastery of
content in place. Being exposed to different textbooks will facilitate comparison which in
turn enriches one’s preparation for teaching.
Researcher: What guides you to determine how much content you need for a given
instructional unit?
Student: Actually, that is a challenge. Maybe, it could be how you are handling the
subject. But there is no clear guidance that I can remember which we were given.
Researcher: ... would we then say these courses are really transforming you? What I mean is that are becoming History teachers?
Student: What we can agree is that the methods of teaching a subject are quite similar. But the difference comes in when you are now in that particular classroom. Because the examples you are going to give like when you are story telling in History may not
275
necessarily be conducive if you are teaching Kiswahili [another subject] ... so, the difference comes in when ...
Researcher: What exactly do you learn from this course about the syllabus you are supposed to implement?
Student: I can say that, to some extent, the objectives that made us to come into this course are being achieved. Because, one of the objectives was that at the end of the day we become competent teachers of History and Government.
Ideally, we are seeing that the content which we are being imparted with some of the ideas and skills that we are being given, they tend to come out clearly despite the fact that we face some of the challenges here and there. But we can say that those objectives that are were to find then they are at a point of being met.
Researcher: You think they are being met. But maybe, let us go to specifics. For example, what would be like one of your objectives when you came in? I mean, as you came into this course that you are planning to be ... you are getting ready to be a History teacher. And now there was this course on Special methods. What did you wish to get from it?
Student: Before this course, I decided to attend it, I knew when I attend it, I will gain some confidence by standing infront of my fellow colleagues in class, trying to teach them. So, before I go to the field maybe in May I will be having some confidence that I will be able to stand infront of that class in that school where I will be taken. Then, the second objective was to see how to organize myself. Particularly, content-wise, so that, when I plan, lesson plan, I know I need some some content. I can’t take all of it. You know, before attending this course, I was just lesson planning everything. Let me say like in History introduction to History, I was just lesson planning the whole of the topic. And you know, where I attended this course, I realised that it doesn’t matter for you to lesson plan everything on that topic. But just content of it.
Researcher: Well, let me thank you for your time and regret though that you have to go than we had agreed. But I can see that your focus is pulled elsewhere. So thank you for your views. I hope to meet you some other time.
276
CAMPUS A, 13-03-09: FIVE STUDENTS
Researcher: The history methods course is supposed to offer you knowledge for teaching
History and Government at secondary school while the History department offers you
content. Give me an idea of how you are able to bring the two courses together in order to
teach high school learners?
Student 1: I think, when like we are having lessons here, the lecturer is presenting the
material as per the level of the learners. Now, when we go to the methods of teaching
History to the level of secondary schools students, we have now to put ourselves in the
level of those learners. Just like, I can’t go to class and start saying like “One scholar said
in a secondary school, I would look so irrelevant. But what I will need to do is to use
much simpler and maybe straightforward explanations with examples so that they are able
to understand. For example, when teaching about the migration of the different groups of
people in Africa, I will need to simplify for them by only giving reasons or factors for
migration. I will not take the approach used at the university where I would say something
like, ‘according to Collingwood the historical thought or something like that’. I won’t do
something like that since it is not appropriate at that level. I have to put myself to the level
of the secondary school learners. To me, that is the basic difference between the history
here [at university] and at school. And maybe at masters’ level, probably what they have
is quite higher from what is offered to us at undergraduate level.
Researcher: Thank for that contribution. But let me get more specific. How exactly do
you go about transforming the university history content into what your secondary school
learners will be able to engage with?
Student 2: Ok, we have the syllabus and the library. So, looking at certain topics, let’s
say like urbanisation, you know like in campus here, we look at urbanization from the
complex issue down to the simplest issues. But now, using the syllabus it guides us by
indicating the content that is supposed to be covered. Therefore, using that guidance, one
is able to scale down content to their level. I think this is how we are able to move
between the two levels. The syllabus is therefore the main source of guidance for us.
Researcher: Apart from the syllabus, do you have any other source of guidance?
Student 3: Well, maybe I can say it is textbooks. However, there are hardly any textbooks
in the library that cover the secondary school syllabus. If we must refer to such texts, then,
277
we have had to get them through other individual initiatives. Like buying or borrowing
from high school teachers. But at least we have the secondary school History and
Government syllabus that we can refer to.
Researcher: Tell me, more about the syllabus. How have you engaged with the syllabus?
Have you been able to examine what the syllabus covers?
Student 4: Ok, we just don’t read those copies of the syllabus. First of all, you have to
look for textbooks. And then, before we go to schools we have to read and know exactly
what the syllabus requires us to do. This is because what you are going to give those
students should be exactly what is in the book. And that one will prove you are competent.
So, first you must read the book, understand it. Go through the topics. Like now, we are
going to teach form one and two. So you must be conversant with the topics for the two
classes. In fact, it is very important that we refer to the textbooks by K.I.E.
Researcher: How much of your own experience as a student comes into this exercise? I
am talking about your experience as a secondary school teacher.
Student 5: Honestly speaking, most of us are just teaching because we are doing the
subject. But it is not because History is any unique from other subjects. So, I think we are
simply here because we are enrolled for the course.
Researcher: Now, that is a strong conviction. Is it not? But let me put it this way, now
that you are enrolled for the course on methods of teaching history, do you find it
facilitating your acquisition of knowledge for teaching History as secondary school
subject? Or, this is just like any other teaching methods course?
Student 2: What we can agree is that the methods of teaching these subjects are quite
similar. But the difference comes in when you are now in that particular classroom.
Because the examples you are going to give like when you are story- telling in History
may not necessarily be conducive if you are teaching Kiswahili.
Researcher: What exactly do you learn from the History methods course about the
secondary school syllabus you are supposed to implement?
Student 3: I can say that, to some extent, the objectives that made us to come into this
course are being achieved. Because, one of the objectives was that at the end of the day
we become competent teachers of History and Government.
278
Student 1: Ideally, we are seeing that the content which we are being imparted with some
of the ideas and skills that we are being given, they tend to come out clearly despite the
fact that we face some of the challenges here and there. But we can say that the objectives
for the course are being met.
Researcher: Alright, you think that those objectives are being met by the course. But
maybe, let us get into specifics. For example, what specific objective did you came in
with? How has the course helped you achieve it?
Student 1: Before I attended this course, I did not have self-confidence as a teacher. I was
not sure I could manage to stand before my fellow colleagues in class and try to teach
them. So far, after I have made a number of lesson presentations and also seen my
colleagues do the same, I am confident that come May I will be having more confidence to
stand in front of that class in that school where I will be posted for teaching practice.
Student 4: For me, in addition to what my colleague has said, I can say that my objective
was to see how I could get more organized as a teacher. Particularly, I was not so sure
how I could plan my lesson and how I could apportion content. You know, before
attending this course, I was just lesson planning everything. Let me say like in History, the
first topic is on the Introduction to History and Government. I would just plan the whole
topic for a single lesson. It is only after attending this course that I learnt that content
coverage is not the aim for teaching. One had better plan for a small section but ensure
learners have understood. So, for me I think that this course has helped me a lot.
Student 5: So, maybe to add to what my colleague said, I think that what we are being
taught is very appropriate. For me, I can say that to an extent it is helping us also achieve
our objectives. For instance, we are saying that in teacher education, the major issue that
normally comes into the minds of the people or the learners or student teachers is that we
are given general knowledge about given topics. This is because of the general view that a
teacher has all knowledge about the subject that one teaches. Therefore, from what we are
exposed to in this course and if we can relate it to what the other courses offer, then I think
it will help us to know better how to teach. For me, I then think it is a mixture of all that
we have been exposed to that will make us be in a position to judge whether the students
are understanding what we teach them or not.
279
Researcher: If I get you right, you are referring to the other professional education
courses that are also contribute to your overall knowledge as a teacher. I am correct?
Good, now tell me about History methods in particular, does the course have a specific
definition of History?
Student 4: No, we cannot say that we have a specific definition of history. But at the end
of the day, we normally come up with something that tends to generalize all those
definitions and come up with one particular definition.
Researcher: Correct, that means that each individual is left to develop his or her own
definition of the subject. That explains why so far I have roughly characterised two types
of history teachers in your group. I have a teacher who views history as a narrative to tell
learners, who must remain quiet and attentive, and another teacher who wants to
continuously ask learners to participate by responding to his questions. Tell me, why
should there be two types of teachers of history. Is this what you have been taught in the
methods course?
Student 2: Ok, I think, most teachers use different methods of teaching. There are many
methods of teaching like there is story-telling, there is discussion and others. So, I think,
History teachers base on those methods of teaching. That is why they end up providing a
lesson that has got different methods of teaching. Yes. That is my view.
Student 3: I think it depends with the content of that topic. Like for example, you want to
teach, maybe social organisation of a society and you want to narrate how that society
operates in the social context.
Researcher: Yes, you are right. It depends with the topic. But I am still wondering why
you will not take on an approach that would still involve the learner or use their
experience instead of narrating it to them.
Student 5: From my point of view, a teacher who keeps on narrating maybe has got that
imagination that learners don’t know anything about the topic. However, from what we
have been taught, we are supposed to let our teaching be learner-centred. We have been
told severally that we should start with what the learner knows and from there move on to
what they might not know.
Researcher: Yes, moving from the known to the unknown. Yes, continue.
Student 1: But most teachers, from my experience, seem to narrate. I don’t know if it is
because of lack of confidence or that they have been socialized to assume such a role so
280
much so that it is automatic. I actually don’t know why. Because they tend not to give
the students chances to participate at all.
Researcher: That is quite interesting. You have mentioned about teacher socialisation, a
good point indeed. Maybe, you could tell me a little more about yourself. What made you,
for example, like History?
Student 2: Ok, for me I have always chosen to study history. I remember in my
secondary school when we were asked to select subjects at the end of form two. Most of
my classmates shied away from history claiming there were many dates to memorise. I
stuck with my history all the same. So, somehow I can say that I have always enjoyed
studying history.
Researcher: That is good. You have remained faithful to your passion. But tell me, how
different is your teaching from that of your secondary school history teacher? Would you
see any influence?
Student 4: Ok, from the experience of my teacher in high school, he always used to ask us
to source for more information on our own after his lesson. We gave us questions to look
for answers that served as our notes. That was his method teaching. So, we had to do
research by getting to the library to fill up the notes.
Researcher: Having gone through the methods of teaching history, are you moving away
from your high school history teacher’s approach? Or you are still socialised into his
ways of teaching?
Student 5: I think, as a History teacher, I will try to shift from how my high school
teacher taught us. The only way I can be able to do this is to follow what I have been
taught in the course. For example, I have to set my lesson objectives clearly. I also have
to be systematic in how I present content. I think with this in mind, I will be a better
history teacher……
Researcher: I want to thank each one of you for finding time to participate in the
interview. I hope to meet some other time wwhen it possible. Thank you.
281
APPENDIX 10: MICROTEACHING LESSON PLANS - 29 LESSONS
Lesson 1 283
Lesson 2 287
Lesson 3 291
Lesson 4 294
Lesson 5 296
Lesson 6 299
Lesson 7 302
Lesson 8 305
Lesson 9 308
Lesson 10 310
Lesson 11 312
Lesson 12 315
Lesson 13 319
Lesson 14 320
Lesson 15 322
Lesson 16 323
Lesson 17 324
Lesson 18 325
Lesson 19 326
Lesson 20 327
Lesson 21 328
Lesson 22 329
Lesson 23 330
Lesson 24 331
Lesson 25 332
Lesson 26 333
Lesson 17 334
Lesson 28 335
282
Lesson 29 336
283
Lesson 1
The lesson plan appeared as follows on paper:
Topic: Contacts Between East African Coast and the Outside World up to the 19th Century.
Subtopic: Missionary Activities and Challenges in Kenya. Class: Form 1
Objectives: By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to:
a) Define the term missionary. b) State some missionary activities in Kenya. c) State some of the challenges faced by the missionaries during their mission in Kenya.
Learning Aid: Map of Kenya showing some stations where the missionaries carried out their activities.
Reference(s): KIE History and Government. Book 1.
Stage 1 Introduction (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Teacher gives a clear definition of the term missionary; Mention some of the missionaries who arrived in Kenya in the early 19th Century.
Learner Activity: Students listen carefully and note down the points in their exercise books.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (4 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Present to the students a map of Kenya showing the stations where missionaries first settled; The teacher then mentions some of the factors which favoured the missionary activities in Kenya; Finally, the teacher explains to the students some of the challenges the missionaries faced.
Learner Activity: The students study the map carefully; The students listen carefully as they note the points in their exercise books; Students take down the points in their exercise books.
Stage 3 Conclusion (1 minute)
Teacher Activity: The teacher summarises the lesson by asking the students questions.
Learner Activity: The students participate by answering the questions.
The student teacher enacted the lesson as follows:
Student Teacher (ST, hereafter): Ok, last time I introduced this topic by talking about the factors that led European Missionaries to come to East Africa. So today we are going to learn about the early missionaries in Kenya and the challenges they faced.
ST: Ok, first, we want to define the term – missionaries. Who can assist us? Who is a missionary?
284
Learner (L, hereafter): [inaudible]
ST: …I think that is correct... Missionaries are those people who came to Kenya to spread the Gospel. That is, Christianity, Commerce and Civilization. [Teacher writes on the chalkboard the definition].
Ok, you can define that as [pointing at the Chalkboard section with the definition] as the three Cs. These are Christianity, Commerce and Civilization. Ok, who can tell us some of the first missionaries who came to Kenya during the 19th century?
L: The Portuguese.
ST: Those are the early people who came to Kenya… to the East African coast during the nineteenth Century. I mean, the people, the early… the first missionaries who came to Kenya.
L: Ludwig Krapf.
ST: [writes the name on the chalkboard]. Yes! Another one?
L: John Rebmann.
ST: [writes the name on the board]. Ok, these are the first missionaries who came to Kenya. Ok, … let us say something about this man – Ludwig Krapf. He arrived in Zanzibar in … in eighteen forty-four [1844]. And then he was a German missionary sent by the church Missionary society. And this one, [Pointing at the second name on the chalkboard.] John Rebmann. He was again a German missionary and he started his work in Rabai near Mombasa in nineteen- forty-eight [1948]. No, sorry in eighteen forty-six [1846]. As you can see, Rabai acted as a base for these missionaries as they moved into the interior.
Ok… here I have a map of Kenya [rolls out an illustration of a map and sticks it on the board.] Those at the back, can you see the map? Here, I have labelled some of the early stations where the missionaries established there bases. Ok, you see first, from Zanzibar, ok, Zanzibar is a place from somewhere here [pointing at the location on the map using a chalkboard ruler].
So, from Zanzibar they moved to a station… I have labelled the station one as you can see – Mombasa. Station two, they moved up to Rabai. Station three they moved to Taveta. As you see all these are stations located within the current administrative area referred to as the Coast Province of Kenya.
Ok, they moved to a place called Ribe still in Mombasa…in the coastal region and then they moved up to Machakos, then to Kibwezi then they moved now to the Central part of Kenya, that is Kikuyu and then Nairobi. From Nairobi, they moved to Kijabe, then to Nyeri then after Nyeri they moved to the Western part of Kenya – that is Maseno. Yes! And Kisumu. So, as you can see here, Meru then they were here towards the Mount Kenya region. [As she named a station, the student teacher pointed them out on the map].
Ok, now let us look at some of the missionary activities. What did the missionaries do at these stations? Ok, in a place like Meru, they opened a station for Christianity. In 1913, they moved to Nyeri and they opened a station there. These were the Consolata Fathers. And then, as you can see, [pointing at the map placed on the chalkboard section marked
285
for illustration as shown in the lesson plan-] there are some …some of these factors which enabled the missionaries to do their work effectively. Who can mention some of the factors?
Class (C, hereafter): [Silence]
ST: What are some of the factors which favoured these missionaries?
L: Peace
ST: Another one?
L: Language.
ST: As you can see, some of these factors [teacher moves to the chalkboard and writes the two factors that learners have presented]. Ok, this Swahili language enabled them to speak to the people without any problem. Yes, somebody else with another factor? Yes?
L: [inaudible]
ST: Yes! As you can see, somebody like Ludwig Krapf enjoyed support from Said Sayyid. Because the time he arrived he was being given an introduction letter to the coastal rulers consistently. So, whenever he went to any place he presented the letter from Said Sayyid. Another factor? [No response].
As our colleague has said, missionaries learnt the Kiswahili language. For example, Krapf was able to read Kiswahili fluently and even published a Swahili dictionary and he translated the New Testament bible into Swahili. Ok, these are some of the factors which enabled them to spread Christianity along the Coastal Region.
Ok, after seeing the first missionaries let’s see [look at] briefly about the challenges they faced. What are some of the challenges they faced?
L: [inaudible]
ST: Yes! Diseases. Somebody else?
L: Language barrier.
ST: Yes! Language barrier in the interior of Kenya there was a language problem .... in language barrier. Another one? Yes!
L: There was hostility from some of the communities.
ST: Like which community?
L: Nandi.
ST: Yes! Another one? Yes!
L: Poor climatic conditions.
ST: Ok, poor climatic conditions. Yes, what other factor?
L: Poor transport and communication.
286
ST: Ok, poor transport and communication [teacher writes this response on the chalkboard]. Another one? [does not wait for response and goes on]. Ok, as you can see, some of these factors are the tropical diseases we mentioned like malaria, sleeping sickness; another one is the poor means of transport and communication – they were not able to reach some of the interior parts because the only means they could use was the railway line and yet this line had not reached all the interior parts of Kenya.
Another one [factor] is the inadequate supply of essential goods. That is lack of food. They lacked food, medical attention. So whenever they fell sick, there were no vehicles for transport. They also did not have money to cater for most of their basic needs.
Another factor that challenged the missionaries work was hostility from some of the communities. As you know, these missionaries came and when they came they introduced cultures which the Africans were not happy about. For example, they wanted Africans to abolish some cultures like polygamy .... the Africans were not happy about it at all. And other practices like the killing of twins. The missionaries saw it ....as murder and committing murder was a sin.
Ok, another one was hostility among the communities. Some communities did not want any foreign interference. For example, the Nandi as it has been said they did not want any interference from the missionaries. Ok, I think those are some of the challenges the missionaries faced.
Ok, before we end. Let me just ask you questions about what we have just learned. What are some of the challenges that missionaries faced?
L: Hostility from some communities.
ST: Another one?
Teacher educator: [Taps on the desk severally to indicate that student teacher needs to wind up the lesson.]
ST: Ok, class that is the end of the lesson. [End of lesson].
287
Lesson 2
The third presentation was by a student whose sub-topic was entitled: ‘sources of government revenue in Kenya’. This was located within the broader topic on ‘Government Revenue and Expenditure in Kenya’. According to the lesson plan, this was a Form Four topic. The lesson plan appeared as follows on paper:
Topic: Government Revenue and Expenditure in Kenya. Sub-topic: Sources of Government Revenue in Kenya. Objectives: By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to: a) Identify the different sources of government revenue in Kenya. b) Explain the sources of government revenue in Kenya. Learning Aid: A chart showing the sources. References: 1. The Evolving World Book 4. 2. KIE Book 4.
Stage 1 Introduction (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Draw upon the learners what they learnt in the previous lesson about the budget.
Learner Activity: Generate information on the meaning of the budget.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (4 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Explain the sources of government revenue and its divisions using the chart. e.g. the major division is domestic and external sources; Ask the learners to give definitions of the sources.
Learner Activity: Take notes; Provide responses to the definitions of the sources.
Stage 3 Conclusion (1 minute)
Teacher Activity: Summarise main aspects of the lesson; Mention next lesson on challenges to government efforts in raising revenue.
Learner Activity: Seek clarification on areas not understood; Take note of the next lesson.
This is how the student presented the lesson:
ST: So, who can remind us what a budget is? Class, who can remind us what a budget is? Yes, Fada.
L: It is a comprehensive statement of government estimate of revenue, expenditure and financial planning for a specified period.
ST: That is very good! I said that a budget is a comprehensive statement that gives an estimate of government revenue, expenditure and financial planning for a given financial year. Ok, class, once the government has prepared a budget, it now embarks on furnishing ways to raise revenue so as to meet the needs of the country. So, today, we are going to start a new topic: sources of government revenue in Kenya. Yes. Sources of government revenue in Kenya [Teacher writes the topic on the chalkboard].
288
Ok, and when we talk of sources of government revenue in Kenya, they are broadly categorized into two. And these are domestic sources and external sources. [Teacher writes the sources on the chalkboard].
Domestic sources and external sources. These are the two main categories of government sources of revenue. Ok, under domestic sources, we have further divisions. So, who can try and give us examples of domestic sources? [There seems to be no ready response and therefore teacher goes on]. Class, who can give us examples of domestic sources of government revenue? Yes?
L: Direct taxes.
ST: The second one? Who can try? Yes, Nikanor?
L: Indirect taxes.
ST: These are the two sources under domestic sources. We can further divide these indirect taxes into smaller categories. Yes, who can try? Class, we need examples of indirect taxes? Yes, Maraka?
L: VAT.
ST: Yes, very good! We have VAT. What does VAT stand for?
L: [inaudible murmurs]
ST: Yes. It is value added tax. Another example? [Give me another example of indirect taxes?] [No response from the class.].
Ok, another example we have Customs duty, we have customs duty [teacher writes on the chalkboard]. We also have excise duty. These are some of the examples of indirect taxes. Ok, after that, after domestic sources – indirect taxes and direct taxes, let us now see the external sources. Who can try to give us examples of external sources of government revenue? Yes, examples of external revenue sources? Yes?
L: The World Bank can give the government a loan.
ST: That is good. He has given us an example of World Bank. So, World Bank will fall under multi-lateral aid. Under external sources, [teacher writes on the chalkboard] external sources we start with multi-lateral aid. World Bank will fall under this category. Class, what is the second one? Yes!
L: Bi-lateral aid.
ST: That is good. We have bi-lateral aid. [Teacher writes on this response on the chalkboard.]. Before we start on these sources, I want you to look at this chart so that you can be able to see how it is flows. [Rolls out a chart illustration and requests for assistance from one of the students to pin on the respective section for illustration as indicated in the lesson plan] Can you come and assist me.
ST: So, sources of government revenue. The two main sources are the domestic and external sources. And then, under the domestic sources, we have the direct sources and indirect sources. We further divide these into customs duty and excise duty. These are
289
some of the examples. Loan interest and fees charged on indirect sources. Under external sources, there is bi-lateral aid and multi-lateral aid. Ok? So, I want us to pick these two.
Let us now see the domestic sources. What do you mean? These are sources of revenue that come from within the country. These include taxes and levies charged on the citizens, public organizations and traders within the country. And then under domestic sources, we look at direct taxes. What do we mean by direct taxes? Who can try? Direct taxes? Yes Rika?
L: Taxes…[inaudible].
ST: That is good. These taxes are derived from people’s salaries. Every citizen earning an income in the country is supposed to pay a tax. Ok, for example, as teachers we are supposed to pay this tax. It is referred to as PAYE. What do you mean when we say PAYE? Pay as you?
Class: Earn
ST: Pay as you earn. After looking at direct taxes, what do we mean by indirect taxes class? Indirect taxes? Who can try? [No response.]
Ok, when we say indirect taxes, we mean taxes and levies charged on goods and services but with the authority of the parliament. Ok, I want us also to look at these examples, at least all of them, one by one. I will start with customs duty. Which type of tax is called custom duty? What is it? Class? Customs duty?
L: Taxes that are levied on imported goods.
ST: That is good. These are taxes imposed on imported goods. Give me an example of imported goods that are imported into a country? Examples of imported goods?
L: Vehicles.
ST: That is good. Vehicles. Another example? Yes.
L: Fertilizers.
ST: We also have things such as machinery. So these are examples of goods imported into the country and they must undergo a customs duty tax. Ok, the next one. Let us see what excise duty is. Excise duty. What do we mean by excise duty? Yes, Dari!
L: Taxes levied on locally produced goods.
ST: Good. These are taxes charged on locally produced goods. Examples of locally produced goods? Yes, Rahama!
L: Tea.
ST: Yes, we have tea, yes?
L: Coffee.
ST: Coffee, sorry? …Ok. Under the excise duty, the goods which are produced within the country and sold locally or exported outside the country. Lastly, let us look at tourism fees. Tourism fees. Which type of fee is this? Tourism fee? Yes Dari.
290
L: These are charges that are levied on tourists either local tourists or international tourists who come to visit our game reserves or game parks. They are charged some fees and the government uses these fees as the source of the revenue.
ST: That is very good Dari. Lastly, I want us to look at the meaning of bi-lateral aid and multi-national aid. These are external sources of government revenue. What is the meaning of bi-lateral and multi-lateral aid? [No response.]
Ok, when I say bi-lateral aid, I mean, goodwill is there by friendly nations to assist one another in giving each other financial aid. For example, Kenya gets finance from Japan.
Secondly, is the multi-lateral aid. [Teacher writes on the chalkboard].
Ok, multi-lateral aid involves a process whereby many countries have formed a trading block or a global institution that helps them, especially the poor nations. For instance, we have the World Bank, IMF and Commonwealth. We have IMF, we have World Bank and Commonwealth. So these are some of the blocks that have been formed by different or several countries.
Class, so that is the end of our lesson. Hope you can now be able to distinguish the different sources of government revenue in Kenya. In our next lesson, we are going to look at the challenges the government faces in the effort to raise this revenue. Have a nice day. [End of lesson].
291
Lesson 3
In the fourth lesson and last for the day, the student presented a Form 2 lesson under the topic of ‘trade’ with a sub-topic on ‘the triangular trade’. The lesson plan appeared as follows on paper:
Topic: Trade Subtopic: The Triangular Trade. Class: Form 2 Objectives: By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to: a) List the goods involved in the trade. b) Identify the regions where the trade was conducted. c) Highlight the people who participated. Learning Aid: A map depicting transatlantic trade and the blackboard. Reference: Top Mark Paper 2. Pg. 93-94. History & Government, Pupils Book 2, pp. 69-73.
Stage 1 Introduction (1 Minute)
Teacher Activity: Define triangular trade.
Learner Activity: Take note of the definition.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (4 Minutes)
Teacher Activity: Guide students to identify regions involved in the trade; Display the map showing the trade; Ask students to mention the items and people involved.
Learner Activity: Participate in identifying the regions involved in trade; Carefully observe the map; Identify the items involved.
Stage 3 Conclusion (2 Minutes)
Teacher Activity: Summarise the main points of the lesson; Give students work to do.
Learner Activity: Take note of the main points; Students to take down the question.
The following is a transcript of how the lesson was presented:
ST: Good afternoon class?
L: Good afternoon.
ST: So, today we are going to look at the topic on trade, and the theme we are going to look at is the triangular trade. So, when we talk about trade, what is trade? Yes, Zaja? Trade? What is it?
L: Trade is the exchange of goods and services.
ST: Very good! So, the other time we looked at trade and defined it. We said that trade is the process of exchange of goods and services. So, today, we want to look at the forms of trade and specifically use the example of the international trade. And under the international trade, we want to look at the triangular trade. So, when we talk of triangular, what comes to your mind? When you look at the word triangular, what comes to your mind? Yes, Josina?
L: [inaudible].
292
ST: What?
L: A triangle.
ST: Ok! Very good! A triangle. So, we have a triangle. What else comes to your mind? Yes, Dena?
L: Eh, three sides of a triangle.
ST: Very good. There are three sides of a triangle. So, let us now go to trade. I just want to look at the regions inferred. The regions inferred in this trade. So, we have said that from the title it is a triangle. So, this one was a type of trade which was carried out between continents. It was carried out between continents. [He rolls out an illustration and pins it on the chalkboard on the section marked for illustration]. From this small figure here or a diagram, you are looking at three regions. So, that is why it was a triangular trade. It was trade between continents or countries. This trade here, we are calling it triangular trade, was trade which was conducted between three continents. Who can name the continents? Yes, Amina?
L: Asia.
ST: Is it Asia really? Yes?
L: America.
ST: America so the region we have here, the first one is America. Yes! The second one? Yes Badi?
L: Africa.
ST: Africa! Yes and that one is? [Pointing at the illustration]
L: Europe. Very good!
ST: So this one [pointing at the illustration] So, we have America, Africa and Europe. [He writes the names of the continents on the chalkboard.] So, that is what we mean by triangular trade. Another name of this type of trade is trans-Atlantic. This is because it was trade which was across the Atlantic Ocean. So, I would like us to look at this map [pointing at the illustration] here which will assist us in identifying the regions and the items of trade. So class, these were the regions. [Pointing to each of the continents as illustrated in the displayed map].
This is Africa. This one is the Americas. What we call, when we talk about the South and the North America. And we also have Europe. So, the thing to look at is the items of trade. So, from Africa here [pointing at the illustration], this is where the trade began. When we talk of slave trade, it was first organized in the fifteenth century by the Portuguese who had some trade interest in Africa. From this trade, the Portuguese carried goods and valuables from Africa. And, they were joined by the British in the eighteenth century. The British dominated the trade around the eighteenth century. So, and in that century, that is where the trade was at its maximum. So, the British and the other Europeans, obtained what from Africa? Yes?
L: The slaves.
293
ST: So from Africa, slaves were taken out to the Americas where they worked in the plantations. The slaves could work in the plantations. So, their toil, after working for very many hours, very many days, they could produce this. What is this class [pointing at the illustration with a list of goods]?
Class: Cotton.
ST: And a lot of sugar which was, in turn, exported from the Americas to Europe. And from Europe, what went to Africa? Clothes, gun powder and beads. So, these ones were the items of trade. The items of trade. [Writes the list of goods on the chalkboard.].
We have identified the first one as being the slaves. Yes, the Second one we said there is cotton, tobacco and sugar. And the third one, we have gunpowder, clothes and beads. So, in summary, class, we have looked at the regions which were inferred [involved] in the trade. And these ones were three. And also the items. And we have looked at what was moved from Africa though there were other items, but the major item that was moved from Africa was the slaves. Yes! Who is a slave? Yes. Somebody who offers …?
L: Somebody who offers his or her services without pay.
ST: Give him or her food and demand work to be done. So, this one, I want you to identify as a human being. A human being who is forced to work. So, the people who conducted the trade. People who were involved. Class, who conducted this trade? Yes, Bundi?
L: The Portuguese.
ST: Yes! Who else? Yes?
L: The British.
ST: So, in general, who were the owners of the trade? [No response.] The Europeans, the British mainly. So, in our next lesson, we are going to look at how the trade was organized. Remember that these were the slaves [pointing at the illustration], how were they captured here? And how the whole process went on. And also the effects of the trade. That is what we are going to look in our next lesson. Is there any question class? Any questions? So, if there is no question, I give you a question. I want you to go and read on the effects of this trade and also how this trade was conducted. Thank you. [End of Lesson].
294
Lesson 4
According to the lesson plan, the student teacher prepared the following lesson for a Form three class. The lesson dwelt on the subtopic: the process of scramble and partition. The lesson plan appeared as shown below:
Topic: European Invasion of Africa & the Process of Colonisation. Subtopic: The Process of Partition. Class: Form 3 Objectives: By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to: a) Describe the process of partition. b) Explain Africa after the scramble. Learning Aid: Map. Reference: History and Government. pp. 148-9 by Kivuitu, W.
Stage 1 Introduction (3 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Previewing the previous lesson; previewing new words or terminologies; Define scramble.
Learner Activity: Taking notes; Observing; answering the questions.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (3 minutes)
Teacher Activity: To state ways through which European powers acquired colonies; The consequence of the process of partition.
Learner Activity: Writing notes; answering questions, Taking notes;
Stage 3 Conclusion (1 minute)
Teacher Activity: Summarise the lesson; Give an assignment.
Learner Activity: Asking questions; Taking down the assignment.
This is how the student teacher presented her lesson:
ST: Last week, I introduced the topic of European Invasion of Africa and process of colonization, but today, I want us to look at the process of partition. In this process of partition, I want us to look at two main terminologies.
The first terminology is the term – scramble. [Teacher writes term on the chalkboard]. And the second terminology is the term – partition. Ok, [pointing at learners seated in front of the class.] The two of you, come here. [Two learners move to the front of the class]. To start with, I want to start with this term scramble. Look what the lady will do. I have some sweets here. Is everybody looking at this? [She raises her hand up and shows the sweets to the rest of the class. She drops the sweets on the table next to the two learners, who compete to scoop of a piece]. What have they done?
Class: Scrambled.
ST: No, I want you to use the right term. Can anybody tell us?
Learner: Grabbed.
ST: No chorus answers! Can someone raise a hand up? Yes!
295
L: Grabbed.
ST: Yes! You can also use the word struggled. So, the European powers were struggling to get spheres of influence in Africa. And another term is the partition. Look at what I am doing. [Teacher breaks the piece of chalk she is holding into two.] What am I doing?
L: You are dividing.
ST: Yes, I am dividing. The European powers divided Africa into colonies. The next thing I want us to look at is the way through which these colonies were acquired. Who can tell me one? [... of the ways through which colonies were acquired.] Yes!
L: Use of force.
ST: Another one?
L: Collaboration. Yes! Another one?
ST: Ok, here I have a map showing Africa after the scramble. [She asks a fellow student to assist her display the map of Africa drawn by hand]. Ok, class, as you can see, [pointing at the relevant sections on the map illustration] Africa was divided into colonies by European powers. But some states remained independent. Like Ethiopia and Liberia. Have you understood? Is there any question? So, if there is no question, please take down this assignment? [She reads aloud to the class.] State the factors that led to the scramble and partition. State the factors that led to the scramble and partition. Thank you. [End of lesson].
296
Lesson 5
The following lesson, like the preceding one, was based on a Form One topic: ‘The Peoples of Kenya up to the 19th Century’. The lesson plan for this lesson had the following:
Topic: The People of Kenya up to the 19th Century. Subtopic: Origin, migration and settlement of the people of Kenya. Class: Form 1. Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to: a) State the origin of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites and causes of migration. b) Trace and describe the migration and settlement of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites. Learning Aid(s): A map showing migration of Kenyan people. Reference(s): 1. The Evolving World: History and Government. F 1.p 15. 2. History and Government. Students Book F 1. p. 93.
Stage 1 Introduction (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Ask learner to explain the meaning of the terms migration and settlement; Ask learner to mention examples of Kenyan communities.
Learner Activity: Answer the teacher’s questions about the meaning of migration and settlement; Answer the teacher’s question for example, listing down some examples – Kalenjin, Kikuyu, etc.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (5 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Explain the meaning of the terms migration and settlement; Explain the origin of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites; Explain the causes of migration; Using a map, a teacher will demonstrate various routes used by the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites from their homeland to Kenya; Explain by giving out examples of various groups of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites. For example, Bantu – Western and Eastern Bantu.
Learner Activity: Make notes on the meaning of the two terms that is migration and settlement; Observe keenly the various routes used by the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites in the map; Take notes and identify various groups of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites by stating specific examples in each group.
Stage 3 Conclusion (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Summarise the lesson; allow the pupils to ask questions; Give an assignment – draw the map; Mention the next lesson on effects of migration and settlement.
Learner Activity: Asking questions and clarification; take down the assignment.
This is how the lesson was presented:
ST: The topic for today is Migration. To start with, I want us to ask ourselves - what is migration? Who can tell us what is the meaning of migration?
L: Migration is the movement of people from one place to another.
297
ST: Another person? Yes. What is migration? Yes!
L: Migration is the movement of people and goods from one place to another.
ST: Migration is the movement of people from one place to another. But in this case, we are looking at the Kenyan people. I believe that you are from different communities. Who can tell us about Kenyan communities? Name some of the Kenyan communities that you know of?
L: Pokot.
L: Luo.
L: Luhya.
ST: Kenyan people are divided into three groups. One group is?
L: Bantu.
ST: Another group?
L: Nilotes.
ST: Yes. The other group is the Cushites. These groups of people migrated to Kenya because of some reasons. Who can give us one of the reasons for migration of the Cushites?
L: Reasons of adventure.
ST: Another one?
L: Internal & external conflicts.
ST: For us to understand more about migration, I have a chart here which shows various routes used by these people to come into Kenya. [Gestures to one of the students to assist him pin the chart on the appropriate section on the chalkboard.]
I think for us to understand more about migration, about the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites, there are various routes that were used by the Bantu. For example, here, the Bantu passed near Kilimanjaro and settled near these places [points to sections on the illustration].
And then some Nilotes passed near Lake Victoria and others near Lake Turkana ....while the Cushites came to Kenya from the Horn of Africa. And for this case, after migrating into Kenya, they settled. That’s why we have some groups of Bantu. For example, the Bantu are divided into two. We have the Western Bantu and the Eastern Bantu. The Western Bantu are the Gusii and Luhyas, whereas the Eastern [Bantu] are the Taitas, Kambas and the Kikuyu. Also for the Nilotes, there are groups for example we have the plain Nilotes like the Maasai.
Also the Kalenjin who are the highland Nilotes. Settled in the highland parts of the country. And Luo settled near the lake. I do not know whether it was because of the fish or what but I hope because of the fish. The Cushites are also divided into two. Eastern Cushites and the Southern Cushites. Southern Cushites are mainly in Tanzania.
298
The origin of the Bantu. The Bantu are said to originate from the Western part of Africa. The Nilotes are from Egypt, near river Nile. Also the Cushites are from the Horn of Africa. Question? Any question? You don’t have questions? Ok, just draw this map showing the routes. The next topic will be on effects of migration. [End of lesson].
299
Lesson 6
Unlike the preceding two lessons that focused on History based topics, the following lesson was located in the Government component of the History and Government subject. Although the topic within which the lesson is placed is supposed to be a Form three lesson, the student teacher presented it as a Form two lesson. The lesson plan outlined the activities to be covered in the following way:
Topic: Government of Kenya Subtopic: Provincial Administration Class: Form 2 Objectives: By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to: a) Define provincial administration. b) Describe the functions and duties of provincial administration. Learning Aid: Chart Reference: History & Government Book 1 by KIE p. 93-95.
Stage 1 Introduction (1 Minute)
Teacher Activity: Introduction: Ask questions concerning the provincial administration. For example, when there is a dispute at home or with a neighbour, whom do you report to?
Learner Activity: Answer questions for example Chief, police and village elder.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (5 Minutes)
Teacher Activity: Define provincial administration. For example, it’s the main link between the government and the people; Display the chart showing the administrative units and the officer in-charge; Explain the functions of provincial administration.
Learner Activity: Listen to the definition; Take notes on the definition; Observe the chart.
Stage 3 Conclusion (1 Minute)
Teacher Activity: Allow pupils to ask questions; Give an assignment; Mention the next lesson.
Learner Activity: Ask questions; Take down the assignment.
This is how the lesson was enacted:
ST: Our topic for today is the Government of Kenya. However, for this particular lesson, we are going to look at the Provincial Administration. [Teacher writes the topic for the lesson on the chalkboard.]. So, to begin with, tell me, if you have a problem with a neighbour or your parents and unable to solve it amongst yourselves, whom do you report the matter to? Yes!
L: The Chief.
ST: Yes, the Chief! Any other person?
L: The pastor.
L: The village elder.
300
ST: Who else do you report to?
L: The police.
ST: Most of the time we are forced to go to the police, the chief or the village elder. So, this leads us to our topic whereby we have the provincial administration. And the main definition of this provincial administration is: the main link between the government and the people. [Teacher moves to the chalkboard and writes the definition.]
The provincial administration is the main link between the government and the people. And in this provincial administration we have some officials from the highest official who is the provincial commissioner. This person is appointed by the president. From the provincial commissioner, we have the district commissioner, then the district officer, the chief, the assistant chief and the villager elder, in that order.
So, here we have a chart that shows the structure of the administrative unit and the officers in-charge. Please can you come and assist me? [A student walks to the front of the class and helps the teacher to pin the chart on the respective section on the board. After this, the teacher goes on to explain.]
So as you can see, we have the administrative structure here. At the top of the structure is the office of the president. Below it then follows the provincial administrative units and the officers who are in-charge. In the province, we have the provincial commissioner. The province is headed by the commissioner. At the district, the head is the district commissioner. You come down to the division, whom do you have?
Class: [murmurs]
ST: It is not a division officer as most of you are fond of saying. We call him the district officer. And then at the location level we have who?
Class: The chief.
ST: The chief. And then the sub-location we have the? Assistant chief and finally at the village we have the village elder. [Teacher moves away from the chart after pointing to each section of the administrative structure.]
So, as we have said, the provincial administration is the link between the government and the people. Each of the officers has a function and a duty to perform. For example, if we go now like to the provincial commissioner, his main duty is to represent the president in the province. In that order, we have the district commissioner as a representative of the president in the district. The district officer represents the president in the division. And the chief represents the president in the...?
Class: [chorus response] Location.
ST: Yes, it is a location. That is why when you go to functions like now when we have the madaraka [Independence Day] holiday or whatever, when you go to the district level, the person who represents the PC [provincial commissioner] is the district commissioner. And then we have other functions for these people. I will give it as an assignment so that tomorrow we come and discuss it - the functions and duties for the provincial administration. The duties for the provincial commissioner, for example, I can just give you some few examples, like maintenance of law and order. Those are some of the duties.
301
Any question? Is there anyone with a question? Have you understood? Thank you class for your participation and see you tomorrow. [End of lesson].
302
Lesson 7
The following lesson was based on a Form One topic on ‘The People of Kenya up to the 19th Century’. Its focus, though, was on the migration routes used by the groups referred to as the Bantu. In the lesson plan for this class, the following details were provided:
Topic: The People of Kenya up to the 19th Century. Sub-topic: Migration of the Bantu Class: Form 1. Objectives: By the end of the lesson, learners should be able to: a) state at least two names of Bantu groups in the western, highland and coastal Bantu of Kenya. b) explain the routes used by the Kenyan Bantu during migration into Kenya. Learning aid: Chalkboard illustration (map of Kenya) - the migration routes used by Bantu. Reference: The Evolving World Form 1; KIE History and Government Form 1.
Stage 1 Introduction (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Review briefly the last lesson on the Cushites and link it to the day’s lesson on Bantu migration.
Learner Activity: Listen carefully.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (4 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Draw the map of Kenya on the chalkboard to illustrate the Bantu migration routes from their homeland; Explain the two main routes followed by the Bantu who migrated to Kenya (Eastern and Western); Distinguish between the western, highland and coastal Bantu of Kenya.
Learner Activity: Observe the illustration; make notes; respond to questions on the different Bantu groups in Kenya.
Stage 3 Conclusion (1 minute)
Teacher Activity: Summarise the main aspects of the lesson; ask as well as respond to questions on the lesson; Give an assignment; Mention the next lesson.
Learner Activity: Respond to questions on the lesson’s topic; Take note of the next lesson.
The student teacher presented the lesson as shown below:
ST: In our last lesson, we were talking about the emergence of African communities in Kenya up to the 19th century. So today, the last lesson we looked at the Nandi, the migration of the Cushites into Kenya. Today we are going to look at the Bantu.
It is to be noted that the Bantu came from the Congo basin. As they came into Kenya, they followed a certain route...[teacher moves to the chalkboard and writes...] We said the Bantu came from the Congo basin. This is the original homeland and as they were coming in the followed a certain route. So, when they came into Kenya, the Bantu followed two routes. We have the eastern route and the western route.
I will have to draw a map here [Teacher moves to the chalkboard] for you to see the way they came in. [He begins to draw]. So, this is the map of Kenya. So this is Kenya and this is the Indian Ocean and this is Lake Victoria. So the Bantu came from the western side of
303
Kenya. They came this way and as they came in here [illustrating on the map]. There are those who came in through the upper part of Lake Victoria. So this was their route. [He continues to show by marking out the route].
Then there are those who came on the eastern, on the lower part of Lake Victoria [he illustrate this with arrow marks]. So, this is Mt. Kilimanjaro and they came on the lower slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. And then they came up to Shungwaya. [He points the location of Shungwaya on the map]. So, this is Shungwaya next to the border of Kenya with Somalia.
And then here, they encountered the Galla, the Oromo who pushed them. So as they were pushed back, there are those who dispersed to Mt. Kenya and then those dispersed southwards. So, this is the route [Illustrates on the map]. So, at their point of dispersal which is Shungwaya, there are those who dispersed to Mt. Kenya and those who dispersed southwards. This formed the coastal Bantu. And then this other group [pointing at the map] formed the Highland Bantu.
Then on the western part of Kenya, we have the Western Bantu. These ones settled on the west of the Rift Valley.
Now class, can anyone give us examples of the Western Bantu? Yes Reba!
L: Abaluhyia.
ST: Lama?
L: Gusii
ST: Lucenti?
L: Abakuria.
ST: That is right. The Kuria, the Luhyia and the Abagusii. Then can anyone give us examples of the Highland Bantu?
L: Kamba.
ST: That is right! Yes Jimmy?
L: Meru.
ST: That is correct. How about the Coastal Bantu?
L: The Agiriama.
ST: That is right. Palipa?
L: Mijikenda.
ST: Yes!
L: Digo.
ST: That is very right. So, when you go to your private studies, read more on the Bantu. Look on the effects of their settlement in their newly acquired areas. Any question? [Learner seated at the back of class raises a hand.] Yes?
304
L: What might be the causes of migration of the Bantu to Kenya?
ST: There are many causes of the migration of the Bantu. They range from environmental, economic and social. One of the causes is over-population in their initial homeland. You see, the initial area of the Bantu was well-watered so they had a lot of food. And in that they reproduced very fast making them a very big population. So they had to move out because they were straining the environment. Yes, have you understood? Ok, basing on what Lama has told us, go and look at the causes of the migration of the Bantu into Kenya. O, if you don’t have any other question, I will dismiss you until we meet in the other lesson. [End of lesson.]
305
Lesson 8
The lesson that follows was also based on a Form One topic- ‘Citizenship’. The lesson plan appeared on paper as shown below:
Topic: Citizenship Subtopic: Ways of Becoming a Kenyan Citizen. Class: Form 1 Objectives: By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to: a) define the term citizenship. ii) state and explain two ways through which one can become a Kenyan citizen. Learning aid: Flashcard; Chalkboard. References: KIE History and Government Form One pp 85-87. Milestone in History and Government Form One pp 78-80.
Stage 1 Introduction (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Introduce lesson through singing a popular patriotic song.
Learner Activity: Join teacher in singing a song.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (4 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Define the term citizenship; Explain the various ways through which one can become a Kenyan citizen. Ask questions e.g. what do you understand by the term citizenship?
Learner Activity: Answer questions; seek clarification; make short notes in their books.
Stage 3 Conclusion (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Summarise lesson through use of flashcards with items that learners need to explain.
Learner Activity: Observe the flashcard items keenly and respond to teachers questions.
The student teacher enacted the lesson as shown below:
ST: [Teacher begins his lesson by singing a song that he is joined by a couple of students. He stops mid-way in his singing to address the students:] Class, why are you dull today? It seems like you did not have lunch! So, Good afternoon class?
Class: Good afternoon.
ST: Today we are going to study about citizenship. [Teacher takes the chalkboard ruler and uses it to draw lines that divide the board into three sections. He then writes the subject, topic and date].
I want us to repeat the song we have just sung. [He begins and is joined by the students.].
Ok, now, some of us have been hearing about the word citizen. Some of you have been hearing the word even from Radio Citizen. Someone might even say I am a citizen of Kenya. Now class, what do you understand by the word citizen? Or someone might say I
306
am a Kenyan citizen or Ugandan citizen of Ethiopian citizen. Ok, what do you understand by that word? Harita, can you tell us?
L: I think a citizen is someone who belongs to a certain country. A mwananchi.
ST: That is very good! Harita is telling us that a citizen is someone who belongs to a given country. Ok, Tau, you have something to tell us?
L: Citizenship is the state of belonging to one country.
ST: It is a state of belonging to one country. That is citizenship. Si ndio? [Is it not?] Ok, do you have anything to say? [This is directed to different student].
L: Citizenship is a legal right of someone to belong to a particular country.
ST: Ok, that is very good. So, all the answers you have given are very ok. So, basing on what you have said, it seems you understand this word. So, citizenship is a legal right of a person to belong to a given country. Now, we ... [teacher moves to the chalkboard and writes this definition:...] ‘ a legal right for one to belong to a particular country.
Ok, we have said that it is a legal right of someone to belong to a given country. These are rights that someone may have of saying I belong to a given country.
Now, having looked at the definition of citizenship, we want now to see how one becomes a Kenyan citizen. There are various ways that one can become a Kenyan citizen. Ok, before I go to that, do you have some of the ways that you think make someone to be a Kenyan citizen? Yes, Njawa can you tell us one?
L: You become a Kenyan citizen by birth.
ST: Someone can become a Kenyan citizen by birth. That is very good!
L: Someone can become a citizen by registration.
ST: Someone can become a Kenyan citizen by registration. Ok, now we have seen for someone to become a Kenyan citizen he has to become a Kenyan citizen by birth. That is what you have said. So, when you are born in a given country by parents who are from that country, then you have a legal right of becoming a Kenyan citizen. Suppose you are born in an outside country, you are born in Ethiopia and those parents are Kenyan citizens. Are you a Kenyan citizen? Do you think you are a Kenyan citizen in that particular order?
L: I think you are!
ST: You are. That is good. You can also become a Kenyan citizen by naturalization. [Teacher writes this on the chalkboard]. So, you can become a Kenyan citizen by naturalization. Naturalization is a state whereby you can be staying in a given country let us say five years or rather ten years. Then you feel like now I should apply to be a Kenyan citizen. You apply through the Immigration Department. Then you are given that kipande [Identification Card]. Do you understand the word Kipande? You are given that document that you walk with which shows that you are a Kenyan citizen.
Then you can also become a Kenyan citizen by registration. [Teacher writes this on the chalkboard]. This is also somehow same as naturalization whereby you register. For
307
example, you can come from Kenya and go to TZ [Tanzania] and register to become a Tanzanian citizen.
Now, having looked at the ways of how one can become a Kenyan citizen, we also have rights as a citizen that you are supposed to have. Do you think you have some of the rights you can tell us?
L: The right to vote during elections.
ST: A Kenyan has a right to vote during elections. [Teacher writes this on the chalkboard]. It means that when you have that kipande, that voting card, you can vote. When you go to a voting station you can register and vote. So you have that right of voting. Then, another right?
L: A Kenyan has a right to live.
ST: [Writes the response on the chalkboard.] Yes! Which means you are not supposed to hang yourself. Si ndio? [Is it not?] So, there are some people who hang themselves. Do you think that is right? To hang yourself or rather to kill somebody? So it means you are not supposed to take somebody’s life or rather you take your life...Any other right that you think you have?
L: Freedom of expression.
ST: [Writes the response on the chalkboard]. That is very good! Freedom of expression.
L: [Alerts student teacher of time by tapping on the table.]
ST: Ok, we have looked at the definition of a citizen and some of the rights of a Kenyan citizen. I am now going to ask you some of the questions. What are some of the rights of a citizen?
L: Freedom of expression.
ST: Yes.
L: Right to vote.
ST: Yes.
L: Right not to kill yourself.
ST: Right to live. I think that is all. So our next lesson is going to be national unity. So we shall meet next time. [End of lesson].
308
Lesson 9
The topic for the following lesson is ‘The Formation, Structure and Functions of the Government of Kenya’. The subtopic falls under the structure and functions of the three arms of the Government in Kenya’ (KIE, 2006: 73). The lesson plan appeared on paper as follows:
Topic: The Formation, Structure and Functions of the Government of Kenya. Subtopic: Structure and Functions of Government. Class: Form 3 Objectives: By the end of the lesson the learner should be able to: i) name the three arms of government. ii) state at least one function for each arm of government. Learning aid: Chalkboard; chart. Reference: Gateway History and Government Form 3 pg. 201.
Stage 1 Introduction (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Introduce lesson by asking learners to sing an old nursery song on depicting parts of the body. Use song to indicate topic of the lesson.
Learner Activity: Participate in singing the song – head shoulders, knees and toes.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (4 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Explain the three arms of government and their functions – executive, legislature and judiciary. Show chart; ask questions.
Learner Activity: Listen carefully; Take notes; observe the chart.
Stage 3 Conclusion (1 minute)
Teacher Activity: Summarise the main aspects of the lesson; ask questions and mention the next lesson’s topic.
Learner Activity: Answer questions; Take note of the topic for next lesson.
Below, we provide a transcript of the lesson:
ST: Good afternoon class? Ok, it is time for History. Take out your History books so that we can start.
Ok, I want to take you back to those days when you were in Nursery school. I hope you still remember the songs you used to sing. So, I want you to stand up so that we can sing one of those songs we used to sing in Nursery school. Ok? [Students rise and push their desks to create space for movement]. You still remember the song that used to go like: Head, shoulders knees and toes? Do you?
Class: Yes.
ST: Ok, Dari you seem to have a good voice. Please lead us.
L: Head shoulders knees and toes; knees and toes, knees and toes. ...
309
ST: [After singing students are asked to sit.] Ok, those were the days in Nursery school. Having sung that song, who can tell us what the song depicts? What do you get from that song class? What can you learn from the song Dari?
L: There are different parts of the body.
ST: Yes! The different parts of the body. Or the structure of the body. So today we are going to look at the structure of government. [Teacher writes the topic of the lesson on the chalkboard. She also subdivides the board into three sections.] So we are going to look at the structure of government and its functions. So, as we looked at the structure of the body – head, shoulders, knees and toes, which serve various functions, we are also going to look at government and its various functions.
Ok, before we look at the structure of government, who can try to define for us government? What do you understand by the term government?
L: [inaudible.]
ST: That is good. It is the process of exercising authority over one’s subjects. [Teacher writes this response on the board.] Ok, class, put down the definition in your notebooks. It is the process of exercising authority over one’s subjects.
Ok, under the structure of government, we have the...we are going to look at the legislature [writes this on the board]. Ok, and the function of the legislature class, they make laws. An example of those who make-up the legislature is parliament. That is, they pass out bills and they check on government activities.
The second one is executive [writes on the board]. And the function of the executive class is to carry out the laws that have been made by parliament. The example of people who fall under the executive is the president [writes this on the board].
Ok, the last part of the structure, class, is the judiciary [writes this on the board]. We have the judiciary. And the function of the judiciary is to interpret the laws [writes this on the board].
Having looked at the structure of the government, here with me I have a chart that summarises the structure of the government and its functions. [Rolls out the chart and sticks it on the board]. Ok, here I have the structure [pointing at the chart using the chalkboard ruler]. It is divided into the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. As you can see, the legislature makes laws and checks government activities. The executive’s function is to carry out or implement the laws made by parliament.
And lastly, the judiciary’s function is to interpret the law. Each of the parts of government depends on the others for success. The roles are complementary. Have you all understood? Is there any question? Thank you. [End of lesson].
310
Lesson 10
The topic for this lesson is placed in the Form one class, the first grade at secondary school. The lesson plan appeared on paper as shown below:
Topic: Development of Agriculture Sub-topic: Early Agriculture in Mesopotamia Class: Form 1 Objectives: By the end of the lesson a learner should be able to: a) state and explain at least two techniques of agriculture in Mesopotamia. b) Give two effects of agriculture in Mesopotamia. Learning aid: A map illustration showing location of Mesopotamia. Reference: K.I.E History and Government Book 1. Pg. 30-33, KLB History and Government Book 1. Pg. 32-34.
Stage 1 Introduction (3 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Review the previous on early agriculture – domestication of plants and animals; Ask questions learners questions about any knowledge of Mesopotamia.
Learner Activity: Take note of explanation; Answer teacher’s question.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (5 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Explain to the learner origin of agriculture in Mesopotamia; Give example of effects of agriculture; Show the map of Mesopotamia.
Learner Activity: Take notes; Answer questions on effects of agriculture in Mesopotamia; observe the map.
Stage 3 Conclusion (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Summarize lesson by asking learners question on techniques and effects of agriculture in Mesopotamia.
Learner Activity: Answer questions on techniques and effects of agriculture.
The student teacher presented the lesson as shown below:
ST: Last week we discussed about the origin of agriculture. And we talked about how people came up to domesticate plants and animals. And we talked of reasons like change of climate and maybe experimentation where man realized that some crops grew very fast. And so today we are going to talk about early agriculture in Mesopotamia. [Teacher writes the topic of the lesson on the chalkboard in the appropriate section].
Can someone tell me what he or she knows about early agriculture in Mesopotamia? Or, what do you know about Mesopotamia [in general]?
L: Mesopotamia is known as the land between two rivers.
ST: [Teacher writes this response on the chalkboard] Good! Which two rivers are these?
L: Tigris and Euphrates.
ST: Yes! [Teacher writes the names of the two rivers on the chalkboard.] Tigris and Euphrates. And so today we are going to talk about techniques and methods used by the
311
people of Mesopotamia in agriculture. And before that, I want to introduce you to the origin of agriculture in Mesopotamia. It is stated that the people who brought agriculture to Mesopotamia were people from the Iranian Islands. And so, agriculture developed there. And there are some factors that facilitated development...no...not factors but techniques. Who can tell me the techniques used by these people in Mesopotamia?
L: Canal irrigation.
ST: Yes! The use of canals. Another [technique]?
L: The shadoof method of irrigation.
ST: And also, the digging of dykes. And so, I would like to go through the effects of agriculture on the people of Mesopotamia. Can someone tell us the effects?
L: Food production.
ST: Is it population or production? Another point? Is there someone on this side [of the class]?
L: High population.
ST: I want you to go and find out more effects and write them down in your books. There are many more effects we have not covered. I have a chart to illustrate the location of the two rivers of Mesopotamia. Can you all see the map?
Class: [laughter]
ST: In the present day, what is Iraq is believed to have been the ancient Mesopotamia. [Pointing at the chart illustration] Here is river Tigris and this other one is Euphrates. This is why it is referred to as the land between two rivers. So, they got their water for irrigation from the two rivers. And so, I want to give you an assignment. Ok, no... class before that, is there someone with a question? Who has a question concerning our topic for today? [No response].
There is no question? So, I want to give you an assignment. Can you take it down? Write...state the effect that made....state and explain the effect that led to...state and explain the effect of early agriculture in Mesopotamia? I will collect your books for marking when I come in next time.
So, our next lesson will be on early agriculture in Egypt. And so I want you to go and read about it in the library so that you familiarize yourself with it. Let us meet next time. [End of lesson.]
312
Lesson 11
In this lesson, the student teacher taught a Form two lesson on Iron Age in pre-colonial Africa. The lesson plan had the following details:
Topic: Development of Industry Sub-topic: Iron Age in Africa Class: Form 2 Objectives: By the end of the lesson a learner should be able to: a) state and explain at least one theory on the spread of iron in Africa. b) state one consequence of the use of iron in Africa. Learning aid: A chart illustration on the spread of iron in Africa. Reference: K.I.E History and Government Book 2, 125-130.
Stage 1 Introduction (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Review the previous on meaning of industrialisation and uses of metals; Introduce topic of the lesson on Iron Age in Africa by stating importance of iron as a metal.
Learner Activity: Listen and take note of teacher’s explanation; Answer teacher’s question.
Stage 2 Lesson Development (4 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Explain origin and spread of iron in Africa using the two theories; show the illustration of spread of iron in Africa.
Learner Activity: Take notes; Observe the illustration keenly; Ask questions on what they have not understood about how iron spread in Africa.
Stage 3 Conclusion (2 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Summarize lesson by asking learners question on consequences of use of iron in Africa; Give an assignment.
Learner Activity: Answer teacher’s questions on the consequences of iron usage.
This is how the student teacher presented the lesson:
ST: Ok, last week we talked about the development of early industry [teacher writes the topic ‘the development of early industry’ on the chalkboard.] Who can define for us what we said industrialisation is?
Class: [Silence.]
ST: Ok, we said that industrialisation is the conversion of raw materials into usable items. Then we added that through the ages man has been converting ordinary raw materials to satisfy his basic needs such as clothing, weapons, baskets and the like. And we later discussed the uses of metals. [Teacher writes on the chalkboard ‘Uses of Metals’.] We also discussed the uses of gold. So today we are going to discuss about Iron Age in Africa. That is our topic. [Teacher writes the topic on the chalkboard.]
313
Yes, Iron Age in Africa. And if I may introduce, you find that iron is one of the most important metals. Its ore is more widespread than that of copper. So, we see iron as one of the most important metals in Africa and it is more widespread than maybe the other metals. And if we can maybe look at the spread of iron age in Africa, or before that we can say that items made from iron are better than bronze. [Teacher writes on the chalkboard ‘items made of iron are better than bronze’.] This means that those items made of iron are of a higher value.
Ok, so now we have the spread of iron in Africa. It is believed that iron spread into Africa from the east side of Turkey. People in Turkey are therefore believed to have been the first ones to use iron...
Ok, before we continue, I have with me here a chart to illustrate the spread of iron in Africa. [Teacher asks a student to assist her pin the chart on the chalkboard. Student obliges.] So, we have the spread of iron ore in Africa. It is believed that the spread of iron or iron smelting began around River Nile. Which is around this area - [pointing at the illustration]. It moved all along to Meroe which is one of the earliest iron smelting places in Africa. And after that we had the spread of iron to the western parts of Africa as well as to the southern parts of Africa. Also, this was around 500A.D.
It is also believed that iron smelting began maybe around Carthage in North West Africa. It then moved to the Mediterranean Sea coast and later expanding southwards. We also have, as you can see the arrow – [pointing on the illustration] that shows the possible early routes which iron spread from Egypt, the northern parts of Africa, to the East Coast route, as you can see. [Pointing on the illustration.] This was believed to be a possible early route through which iron spread.
We also notice that iron smelting or the spread of iron reached the southern parts of Africa around 400 A.D, 600 A.D, and 900 A.D. Ok, class, is it well understood? [Teacher does not wait for response and she continues to explain].
There are two theories that are used to explain how iron spread in Africa. One of the theories is the Dependency Theory. [Teacher writes this theory on the chalkboard]. This theory defines or explains to us that iron spread from one area which is believed to have been in the northern part of Africa to the rest of Africa that is the west, east central and south.
We also have the Independent Theory. [Teacher writes this on the chalkboard]. This theory suggests that iron working in Africa originated in different places independently or separately. In other words, iron smelting was an activity that was practiced by different communities at their own different times. That brings us to the effects of iron working or smelting. Class, what are some of the consequences of iron spreading in Africa?
L: [inaudible].
ST: Yes! That is very good! He says, iron working resulted in the production of better tools. Yes, another one?
L: It also led to high population.
Class: [laughter].
314
Teacher Educator: [Taps on the desk to indicate to the student that she should conclude her lesson].
ST: Ok, class due to time limitation we have come to the end of the lesson. In the next lesson we are going to discuss the sources of energy. I have an assignment for you. Draw for me the map of Africa illustrating how iron spread in Africa. Have a good day. [End of lesson.]
315
Lesson 12
This lesson was different from those that preceded it. This is because the skill that the presenter employed was a joint effort (group work). Students were asked to develop a three dimensional material that they would use to teach a topic of their choice. In this lesson, therefore, students had a model (diorama0 that depicted elements of modern and traditional forms of transport. The lesson plan appeared as shown below:
Topic: Transport. Subtopic: Forms of Transport. Class: Form 2 Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to: a) Define the term transport. b) Identify various forms of transport. Learning Aid(s): A diorama showing various forms of transport. Reference: 1) KLB History and Government. Book 2; 2) Test and Fix It, KCSE Revision Text.
Stage 1 - Introduction (3 minutes)
Teacher Activity: Display diorama showing various forms of transport; Draw upon learner attention by asking questions e.g. what can they see in the diorama?
Learner Activity: Observing the diorama and notifying the various forms of transport depicted; Answering teacher’s questions; Taking note of important points.
Stage 2 Lesson Development ( minutes)
Teacher Activity: Give the correct definition of the term transport e.g. it is the movement of people and goods from one place to another; State the two categories of transport e.g. traditional and modern forms of transport; Identify various forms from each category.
Learner Activity: Listening carefully; Taking notes.
Stage 3 Conclusion (minutes)
Teacher Activity: Summarise the lesson; Ask questions concerning the topic under investigation; Answering students’ questions; Mention the next topic e.g. communication.
Learner Activity: Listening; Answering teacher’s questions; Ask questions.
The following is a transcript of the lesson.
ST: Today we are going to tackle a topic on transport. [Teacher writes the administrative details on the chalkboard: date, class and topic]. Our topic today is transport and the first thing that we are going to look at is the forms of transport [teacher writes this item of the lesson on the chalkboard]. So, before we continue, we have something here for you to move close and have a look. It is called a diorama. [Teacher moves towards the diorama]. I introduced it to you last week when we were going through the procedure. I told you that some time we might use something called a diorama. Remember that?
Class: Yes.
ST: So today we are going to look at a diorama. And before we begin our topic because I can see most of you are curious, you want to know what is at the front here, I want you to come and look at it closely and thereafter, we will continue with our topic. So, those who
316
are at the back, please let us move to the front and look at the diorama. Bara, can you see? Has everyone seen the diorama?
Class: Yes.
ST: Alright, so what can you see in this diorama? What can you see? Or what did you see?
L: A chopper.
Class: [Laughter].
ST: Yes. A chopper. It is called a helicopter. [Teacher writes the word helicopter on the chalkboard.] Yes. Dan, what can you see?
L: A donkey.
ST: A donkey. That is very good. [Teacher writes on the chalkboard the word ‘donkey’]. Yes, what about you Joyce?
L: A car.
ST: A car! [Teacher writes on the chalkboard the word ‘car’]. Is there anything else you can see?
L: A tree.
ST: Alright, you have seen trees. Yes, you hand is raised. What have you seen?
L: A telephone booth.
ST: Really? Which one? [Pointing to models in the diorama.] This one?
L: No!
ST: This one? [Pointing to yet another model.]
L: Yes, the one at the far end.
ST: Ok, these are buildings. Definitely in any habitable place you go to, you will have buildings. What else can you see?
L: I can also see someone carrying firewood.
ST: Very good. There is a human being carrying firewood. So, up to that point at least I can see that most of you have identified what we were looking form. ... I want us define the term ‘transport’. Who knows? Who can try to give us the meaning of the word transport? ...Yes Larry?
L: It is the movement of people and goods from one place to another.
ST: Yes. That is very good. It is the movement of people and goods from one place to another. [Teacher writes this definition on the chalkboard.] ...So we are going to look at the forms of transport represented in this diorama. Who can tell us the different forms of transport that we have represented in this diorama? Yes, Ronji.
317
L: Air transport.
ST: Well, that is a bit narrow. We want to look at the bigger part [broader scope?] before we come down to air transport. Yes, Zali.
L: Water transport.
ST: Ok, it is also correct but that is not quite what I am interested in for now. Yes?
L: Modern transport.
ST: Yes! Modern transport. That is what I wanted! So, with the forms of transport, we have modern and then we also have?
L: Traditional.
ST: Yes! Traditional form of transport. Very good! So, under modern transport, we can have now have air transport, the one that Rinje has just told us and what else do we have under modern transport?
L: Water transport.
ST: Yes, we have water transport. Yes?
L: Vehicle transport.
Class: [Laughter].
ST: He is very correct. We have vehicle transport but it comes under what?
L: Road transport.
ST: So, under road transport we have the bicycle, the motorcycle and the motor vehicle transport. Is that correct?
Class: Yes.
ST: Therefore, under modern transport we have the road transport whereby we have the bicycle, the motorcycle and the motor vehicle. For air transport, we have the aeroplane...Under water transport we have the boat, ship and what else?
L: Ferries.
ST: Very good! Ok, no chorus answers. Please raise your hands if you have an answer. So, we have finished the modern transport section let us move to the traditional transport. Give me an example of a traditional means of transport?
L: Animal transport.
ST: Very good. Animal transport. We have seen here [teacher moves to the diorama] this is a model of a donkey. It is used up till now in our villages. In the olden days, there used to be the ox, the donkey, the horse, the mule, the elephant, the camel and all those other animals, even dogs in some countries were used. Is that clear? We also even have what other form of transport?
Class: Human.
318
ST: You see this person here [pointing to the model] is carrying firewood. This form of transport is still prevalent in the rural areas. Those who go to the bushes to fetch firewood often use their backs to carry the wood. Even, as you also know water is fetched by human transport. Have you understood? I will give you an assignment so that you go and look for more information. What are the advantages and disadvantages of modern and traditional transport? We will isolate each form of transport and look at the advantages and disadvantages. Any questions? Anyone with a comment? Have you understood? Thank you very much for your time. [End of lesson.]
319
LESSON PLAN 13
Topic: European Invasion of Africa & the Process of Colonisation. Subtopic: The Process of Partition. Class: Form Three Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to:
Describe the process of partition. Explain after the scramble.
Learning Aid(s): Map. Reference(s): Hist. & Govt. pp. 148-9 by Kivuitu, W. Stage 1 (3 minute(s)) Introduction Teacher Activity (ies):
Previewing the previous lesson. Previewing new words for terminologies. Define scramble.
Learner Activity (ies): Taking notes. Observing. Answering the questions.
Stage 2 (3 minute(s)) Lesson Development Teacher Activity (ies):
To state ways through which European powers acquired colonies. The consequence of the process of partition.
Learner Activity (ies): Writing notes. Answering questions. Taking notes.
Stage 3 (1 minute(s)) Conclusion Teacher Activity (ies):
Summarise the lesson. Giving an assignment.
Learner Activity (ies):
Asking questions. Taking down the assignment.
320
LESSON PLAN 14 Topic: Scramble & Partition of Africa. Subtopic: The Scramble & Partition of East Africa. Class: Form Three Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to:
Explain the meaning of terms scramble and partition. Explain the process of scramble and partition of East Africa. Give reasons as to why the European powers (Britain & Germany) scrambled and
partitioned East Africa Tell the results of the scramble & partition of East Africa. List names of people who participated/consuls in the process of scramble &
partition of E.A e.g. Sir William Mackinnon, Sir John Kirk, Karl Peters, etc Learning Aid(s): Map of East Africa after the agreement between the British and the Germans in 1886. Reference(s):
Milestone Bk. 3. Revolving (should be Evolving) World Bk. 3. A Simple History of East Africa.
Stage 1 (5 minute(s)) Introduction Teacher Activity (ies):
Explain the terms scramble & partition as from the dictionary (explain different meanings).
Give a life experience of how people scramble for sweet [sic] food and how they share.
Ask students to name countries in East Africa. Learner Activity (ies):
Take note of what the two terms mean. Tell experience how they scramble for food in the dining hall. Tell how they solve problem of scrambling for food, e.g. calling a prefect to share
(partition) the food. Stage 2 (30 minute(s)) Lesson Development Teacher Activity (ies):
Explain the meaning of scramble for East Africa. Explain what caused the scramble for East Africa. Ask question about powers that colonised EA. Tell who first reached East Africa. Give reasons as to why Europe developed interest in East Africa. Explain the meaning of partition of East Africa. Explain the process of partition. Issue the factors for the partition of East Africa. Give the result of the partition of East Africa.
Learner Activity (ies): What do they know about scramble & partition of East Africa. Taking notes. Answering questions – who were the chief European powers who colonised East
Africa?
321
Answer question asked by the teacher on what partition was? Stage 3 (5 minute(s)) Conclusion Teacher Activity (ies):
Summarising main aspects of the subtopic scramble & partition of Africa. Allowing students to ask questions focussing the objectives. Giving the assignment on the topic. Introducing the next subtopic.
Learner Activity (ies): Answering questions asked. Taking down assignment.
322
LESSON PLAN 15
Topic: Contacts Between East African Coast & The Outside World up to the 19th Century. Subtopic: Trade between the East African Coast and the Outside World. Class: Form 1 Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to:
Show mastery of the goods and factors which promoted the trade. (Cognitive). State significance of the trade in the East Coast of Africa.
Learning Aid(s): A map. Reference(s): Evolving World Bk 1. KIE Hist. & Govt. F 1. Stage 1 (2 minute(s)) Introduction Teacher Activity (ies):
Teacher asks students questions about previous lesson. Learner Activity (ies):
The students to answer the questions in class. Stage 2 (3 minute(s)) Lesson Development Teacher Activity (ies):
Teacher asks students to explain briefly the participants of the trade and give the goods being exchanged, and factors promoting trade.
Learner Activity (ies): Learners to explain and to listen as they take notes.
Stage 3 (2 minute(s)) Conclusion Teacher Activity (ies):
The teacher asks learners oral questions about the early visitors to East Coast of Africa.
Teacher asks the students to do the assignment of drawing trade routes. Learner Activity (ies):
Learners to participate in answering questions. Learners write down the assignment.
323
LESSON PLAN 16 Topic: Transport. Subtopic: Forms of Transport. Class: Form 2 Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to:
Define the term transport. Identify various forms of transport.
Learning Aid(s): A diorama showing various forms of transport. Reference(s): KLB Hist. & Govt. Bk 2. Test & Fix It, KCSE Revision Text. Stage 1 (3 minute(s)) Introduction Teacher Activity (ies):
Display diorama showing various forms of transport. Draw upon learner attention by asking questions e.g. what can they see in the
diorama? Learner Activity (ies):
Observing the diorama and notifying the various forms of transport depicted. Answering teacher’s questions. Taking note of important points.
Stage 2 ( minute(s)) Lesson Development Teacher Activity (ies):
Give the correct definition of the term transport e.g. it is the movement of people and goods from one place to another.
State the two categories of transport e.g. traditional and modern forms of transport. Identify various forms from each category.
Learner Activity (ies): Listening carefully. Taking notes.
Stage 3 (minute(s)) Conclusion Teacher Activity (ies):
Summarise the lesson. Ask questions concerning the topic under investigation. Answering students’ questions. Mention the next topic e.g. communication.
Learner Activity (ies): Listening; Answering teacher’s questions; Ask questions.
324
LESSON PLAN 17 Topic: Development of Transport & Communication Subtopic: Definition of Transport. Class: Form 2 Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to:
Define the term transport. Differentiate between land, air and water transport.
Learning Aid(s): Models of a car, ship and aeroplane. Reference(s):
Hist. & Govt. KLB Students’ Bk. F 2; Milestone in Hist. & Govt. F 2 Explore Hist. & Govt. F 2.
Stage 1 (2 minute(s)) Introduction Teacher Activity (ies):
Define the term transport by giving definitions like movement of people and goods from one place to another.
Learner Activity (ies):
Take note of the definitions. Stage 2 (4 minute(s)) Lesson Development Teacher Activity (ies):
Guide the learner on various means of transport like: air, land, and water transport with aid of respective models.
Ask learners to give various examples of the different means of transport. Learner Activity (ies):
Make notes on the various means of transport. Observe the models carefully. List different examples of air, water and land transport.
Stage 3 (1 minute(s)) Conclusion Teacher Activity (ies):
Summarise the important aspects of the lesson. Give an assignment. Differentiate between air, water and road transport.
Learner Activity (ies): Take note of the summary. Take note of the assignment. Ask for any clarification.
325
LESSON PLAN 18 Topic: Transport. Subtopic: Forms of Transport. Class: Form 2 Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to:
Define the term transport. Identify various forms of transport.
Learning Aid(s): A diorama showing various forms of transport. Reference(s): KLB Hist. & Govt. Bk 2. Test & Fix It, KCSE Revision Text. Stage 1 (3 minute(s)) Introduction Teacher Activity (ies):
Display diorama showing various forms of transport. Draw upon learner attention by asking questions e.g. what can they see in the
diorama? Learner Activity (ies):
Observing the diorama and notifying the various forms of transport depicted. Answering teacher’s questions. Taking note of important points.
Stage 2 ( minute(s)) Lesson Development Teacher Activity (ies):
Give the correct definition of the term transport e.g. it is the movement of people and goods from one place to another.
State the two categories of transport e.g. traditional and modern forms of transport. Identify various forms from each category.
Learner Activity (ies): Listening carefully. Taking notes.
Stage 3 (minute(s)) Conclusion Teacher Activity (ies):
Summarise the lesson. Ask questions concerning the topic under investigation. Answering students’ questions. Mention the next topic e.g. communication.
Learner Activity (ies): Listening; Answering teacher’s questions; Ask questions.
326
LESSON PLAN 19 Topic: Development of Transport & Communication. Subtopic: Development of Modern Means of Transport. Class: Form 2 Objective(ies): By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to:
Define the term transport. State the various means of transport. Enumerate examples of each type of transport. Differentiate between land and water transport.
Learning Aids: Three Dimensional models and diorama – car, ship and aeroplane. Reference: Milestone in Hist. and Govt. (F2) pp 101-02. Hist. & Govt. (F 2) LKB. Pp. 104-05 Explore Hist. & Govt. (F 2). Pp. 121-22. Stage 1 (2 Minutes) Introduction Teacher Activities:
Link the previous topic with subtopic at hand for a trade (exchange of goods and services) to occur, transport is one of the factors (maybe).
Learner Activities: Write the subtopic of the lesson. Stage 2 (3 Minutes) Lesson Development Teacher Activity:
Give various definitions of the term transport. E.g. a system of carrying people or goods from one place to another.
Introduce various means of transport – road e.g. cars, water e.g. ship. Air e.g. aeroplane.
Display the respective models to students. Learner Activity:
Make notes. Seek clarification on further definition of term transport. Make summary notes. Observe the displayed models.
Stage 3 (1 minute) Conclusion. Teacher Activities:
Give a conclusive remarks on lesson already covered. Administer assignment.
Learner Activities: Take down the assignment.
327
LESSON PLAN 20 Topic: Development of Transport & Communication. Subtopic: Introduction to Modern Means of Transport. Class: Form 2 Objective(ies): By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to:
Define the word transport. State three means of transport. Give examples in each means.
Learning Aids: Chalkboard, models of canoe, lorry, and aeroplane. Reference: Hist. & Govt. (F2). KLB. Method: Question and Answer, Talk and chalk, Explanation. Stage 1 (2 Minutes) Introduction Teacher Activities:
Ask students to define the word transport. Give an explanation on the meaning.
Learner Activities: Give responses by defining the word transport. Take note of teacher’s explanation. Stage 2 (3 Minutes) Lesson Development Teacher Activity:
Ask students to mention the various means of transport. Ask students to give examples in each type of means of transport. Summarise the lesson by displaying the models.
Learner Activity: Respond to teacher’s questions e.g. road, air and water transport. Answer questions e.g. lorry, aeroplane and motorboat. View the models.
Stage 3 (2 minutes) Conclusion. Teacher Activities:
Preview lesson by asking oral questions e.g. what is transport? What are the three types of means of transport? What are the various examples in each type?
Learner Activities: Give responses to teacher’s questions e.g.
A system of carrying something or people from one place to another. Land, water and air. Lorry, ship and aeroplane.
328
LESSON PLAN 21 Topic: Development of Transport & Communication. Subtopic: Development of Modern Forms of Communication. Class: Form 1 Objective: By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to state modern forms of communication. Learning Aids: Real objects. Reference: History Gateway, W Kivuitu. Stage 1 (2 Minutes) Introduction Teacher Activities:
Pre-visit the previous lesson. Introduce the development of modern forms of communication.
Learner Activities: Answering questions. Taking down notes. Stage 2 (6 Minutes) Lesson Development Teacher Activity:
Use real objects to show forms of communication. Asking students other examples of modern forms of communication.
Learner Activity: Observing Answering the questions. Writing. Stage 3 (2 minutes) Conclusion. Teacher Activities:
Summarise the lesson. Introduce the next lesson.
Learner Activities: Asking questions.
329
LESSON PLAN 22
Topic: Migration & Settlement of African Societies. Subtopic: Migration Routes of African Societies. Class: Form 1 Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to:
Explain and identify the route taken by the African societies in their migration. Learning Aid(s): A map depicting the routes taken. Reference(s): KIE Hist. & Govt. Bk 1 pp. 70-76. Stage 1 (3 minute(s)) Introduction Teacher Activity (ies):
Define the term migration. List the African Societies involved. Cite the regions in the map where they settled.
Learner Activity (ies): Take notes on the definition of terms. List the African societies by the teacher. Observe the map. Trace the movement of the various groups.
Stage 2 (6 minute(s)) Lesson Development Teacher Activity (ies):
Explain to the learner the reasons that led to migration from their homeland to where they settled in Kenya.
Outline the regions they settled. Discuss some of their contribution to the growth and development of African
societies. Ask questions.
Learner Activity (ies): Take notes. Ask question various aspects which she/he feels need to be clarified. Identify the various sections of African societies. Take notes. Answer the questions in the discussion.
Stage 3 (1 minute (s)) Conclusion Teacher Activity (ies):
Summarise Allow the learners to ask questions. Give an assignment on the specific objectives. Mention the next lesson.
Learner Activity (ies): Take the summary notes on migration and settlement of African societies. Write the assignment.
330
LESSON PLAN 23
Topic: Kenyan Societies in the 19th Century: Social, Economic & Political Organisation. Subtopic: Migration of Kenyan Peoples. Class: Form 1 Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to:
State the origin of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites. Trace and describe the migration and settlement of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites.
Learning Aid(s): Use of map depicting origin and settlement of Kenyan peoples. Reference(s): Hist. & Govt. Students’ Bk. F 1 – Assa Okoth. Stage 1 (3 minute(s)) Introduction Teacher Activity (ies):
Cite regions in the map where they settled. Define migration.
Learner Activity (ies): Observe the map. Take notes on definition of terms.
Stage 2 (6 minute(s)) Lesson Development Teacher Activity (ies):
Explain to the learner the reasons that led to the migration from their homeland. Explain the causes of their settlement in areas they settled. Ask questions.
Learner Activity (ies):
Take notes. Identify the various selections of African societies. Answer questions.
Stage 3 (1 minute(s)) Conclusion Teacher Activity (ies):
Summarise. Allow learners to ask questions. Give assignment on the specific objectives. Mention the next lesson.
Learner Activity (ies):
Take summary notes on migration. Write the assignment.
331
LESSON PLAN 24
Topic: The People of Kenya up to the 19th Century. Subtopic: Origin, migration and settlement of the people of Kenya. Class: Form 1 Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to:
State the origin of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites and causes of migration. Trace and describe the migration and settlement of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites.
Learning Aid(s): A map showing migration of Kenyan people. Reference(s):
The Evolving World: Hist. & Govt. Course for F 1.p 15. Hist. & Govt. Students Bk F 1. p. 93.
Stage 1 (2 minute(s)) Introduction Teacher Activity (ies):
Ask learner to explain the meaning of the terms migration and settlement. Ask learner to mention examples of Kenyan communities.
Learner Activity (ies): Answer the teacher’s questions about the meaning of migration and settlement. Answer the teacher’s question for example, listing down some example – Kalenjin,
Kikuyu, etc. Stage 2 (5 minute(s)) Lesson Development Teacher Activity (ies):
Explain the meaning of the terms migration and settlement. Explain the origin of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites. Explain the causes of migration. Using a map, a teacher will demonstrate various routes used by the Bantu, Nilotes
and Cushites from their homeland to Kenya. Explain by giving out examples various groups of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites.
For example, Bantu – Western and Eastern Bantu. Learner Activity (ies):
Make notes on the meaning of the two terms that is migration and settlement. Observe keenly the various routes used by the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites in the
map. Take notes and identify various groups of the Bantu, Nilotes and Cushites by
stating specific examples in each group. Stage 3 (minute(s)) Conclusion Teacher Activity (ies):
Summarise the lesson Allow the pupils to ask questions. Give an assignment – draw the map. Mention the next lesson on effects of migration and settlement.
Learner Activity (ies): Asking questions and clarification. Take down the assignment.
332
LESSON PLAN 25 Topic: Trade Subtopic: Methods of Trade Class: Form 2 Objective(ies): By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to:
By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to define the term trade. Name the methods of trade. Explain the methods of trade.
Learning Aid: Chart showing the methods of trade. Reference: History Book Two. Stage 1 (5 Minutes) Introduction: Teacher Activity:
The teacher to introduce the topic to students and define the term trade. Learner Activity:
Students to understand and take notes. Stage 2 (5 Minutes) Lesson Development: Teacher Activity:
The teacher to explain to the students the methods of trade and explain further. Learner Activity:
Students to listen and ask questions where they have not understood. Stage 3 (5 Minutes) Conclusion: Teacher Activity:
The teacher to use the chart to show the methods of trade. Learner Activity:
Students to participate and take notes and ask for clarification.
333
LESSON PLAN 26 Topic: The People of Kenya up to the 19th Century. Subtopic: Migration Routes. Class: Form 1 Objective(s): By the end of the lesson, a learner should be able to:
Give the three groups of the Kenyan people. Trace the origin of Kenyan societies. Trace the route followed by Kenyan societies. Give the reasons for their migration.
Learning Aid(s): A map. Reference(s): The Evolving World F 1. KIE Hist. & Govt. F 1 Stage 1 (1 minute(s)) Introduction Teacher Activity (ies):
Review the last. Explain to the students the three groups of the Kenyan people i.e. Nilotes, Bantu,
Cushites. Learner Activity (ies):
Listening Making notes.
Stage 2 (4 minute(s)) Lesson Development Teacher Activity (ies):
List the routes followed by the three groups into Kenya and explain their origin. Explain the reasons for their migration. Illustrate using a map showing the migration to clarify further. Explain the various places they settled in.
Learner Activity (ies): Making notes. Following the teacher’s explanation carefully. Ask questions. Observe as the teacher illustrates. Make a sketch showing the migration routes.
Stage 3 (2 minute(s)) Conclusion Teacher Activity (ies):
Summarise the main aspects in the topic. Ask questions focusing on the objectives. Mention the next topic.
Learner Activity (ies): (No Activities Included).
334
LESSON PLAN 27 Topic: Emergence of Kenyan Societies. Subtopic: Social Economic Activities of the Kikuyu. Class: Form 1 Objective(ies): By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to:
Explain the economic activities carried out by the Kikuyu. Describe the social organisation of the Kikuyu.
Learning Aids: 3 Dimensional Material depicting the Kikuyu Social Organisation. Reference: KIE Book 1. Stage 1 (1 Minute) Introduction Teacher Activities:
Draw on the learner knowledge learnt in the previous lesson. Learner Activities: Give responses. Stage 2 (5 Minutes) Lesson Development Teacher Activity:
Explain the social setting of the Kikuyu. Describe the economic activities carried out by the Kikuyu. Explain the social activities practiced by the Kikuyu. Uses the learning aid to illustrate the socio-economic activities of the Kikuyu.
Learner Activity: Listen. Stage 3 (1 minute) Conclusion. Teacher Activities:
Summarise on what is learnt in the lesson. Ask questions. Mention the next lesson.
Learner Activities: Ask for clarification on what they have learnt. Answer questions.
335
LESSON PLAN 28
Topic: Social & Political Organisation of Kenyan Societies in the 19th Century. Subtopic: Social Organisation of the Luhya (Bukusu). Class: Form 1 Objective(ies): By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to:
Explain the social organisation of the Luhya. Outline the roles of a father among Luhya. Explain the significance of God among Luhya.
Learning Aids: Chalkboard; A diorama depicting Luhya traditional homestead. Reference: The Evolving World (F 1) Milestone in History (F 1); Pavement Book 1, 2. Stage 1 (2 Minute) Introduction Teacher Activities:
Review the previous lesson on the political organisation of the Luhya. Learner Activities: Listen very carefully to the teacher’s explanation. Stage 2 (4 Minutes) Lesson Development Teacher Activity:
Explain the various aspects of the Luhya social organisation. Display the diorama to reveal the essential features of the social unit of the Luhya
community. Instruct learners to come closer to the diorama for better viewing.
Learner Activity: Learners listen carefully as they take notes. Learners come closer to the diorama for better viewing. Stage 3 (1 minute) Conclusion. Teacher Activities:
Summarise the lesson and mention of the next topic. Learner Activities:
Take notes on important facts Take note of the next lesson.
336
LESSON PLAN 29
Topic: Trade Subtopic: Methods [of Trade] Class: Form 2 Objective(ies): By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to:
Name two methods of trade. State at least one advantage and disadvantage of each method of trade.
Learning Aid: Chart, Real Objects e.g. electronic card (ATM Card) Bag [Hand], Money. Reference: The Evolving World History & Government Course, Form. P.2-3. Stage 1 (2 Minutes) Introduction: Teacher Activity:
Introduce the lesson by displaying real objects to the learner and also to give the real objects to the learner to touch them.
Learner Activity: Observing and touching the real things. Stage 2 (5 Minutes) Lesson Development: Teacher Activity:
Explain the methods of trade to the learner. To demonstrate advantages and disadvantages of each method of trade using a
chart. Learner Activity:
Taking notes, observing the chart and taking notes. Stage 3 (3 Minutes) Conclusion: Teacher Activity:
Summarise the lesson. Allow learner to ask questions. Mention the next lesson.
Learner Activity: Ask the questions concerning the lesson.