(This article was first published in the New Vision on June 9,2021)
By Dr Lawrence Muganga
There are some moments that stand out from the rest as being a game-changer. When you imagine these moments, what are you seeing? I can pretty much guarantee what you are not seeing. You are not remembering the time you were writing your test or final exam. You are also probably not remembering reading a textbook or having a teacher lecture to you. The things you are most likely remembering are authentic learning. These are moments of learning where you make connections from the learning to the real world.
Now let me tell you the problem with Uganda’s current education system. Schools are not setting up a whole lot of authentic experiences. Instead, they teach students inside a bubble and do not make the connections that will make the learning more meaningful.
Let us consider the example of learning to ride a bicycle. I remember learning to ride a bicycle vividly even though it is an event that happened over 30 years ago. My friend sat me on the bicycle, encouraging me and letting me get my balance by holding onto it. Then all of a sudden, he shoved me down the road. I felt like I was going at 100km per hour. Guess what else. I have never forgotten how to ride that bicycle. It was an enduring lesson for me, transcending the moment and providing me with a lifetime authentic lesson.
Can you imagine if my journey to learn how to ride a bicycle began with learning all of the parts of the bicycle! I am not sure how useful that information would have been to me in my bicycle riding adventure. Carrying on with the example of riding a bicycle, and if it was part of Uganda’s education curricula, how do you think such a course would be taught to students?
You would be forgiven if you thought that students will, perhaps, learn the history of bicycles, learn the physics of how the gears and chain work to propel the bicycle, might watch other people riding a bicycle, and test the effectiveness of various bicycles. In no part of this learning would anyone actually be riding a bicycle, experiencing that authentic lesson. We would then send these students out into the world with all the confidence that what we have taught them will enable them to ride a bicycle on their own.
Of course, many of these students will fail. They will fall off the bicycle, not know how to keep their balance, or not even be able to get onto one. But some of them will figure it out for themselves and that will make us deem the education system a success, ignoring the fact that these students would have been successful no matter what.
When I walk into classrooms, I see a lot of teachers telling children how to ride a bicycle or expecting them to know without providing them with the authentic experience. Rarely do I see a teacher authentically allowing children to learn to ride a bicycle. Why are these authentic experiences so valuable? Because in them, students are learning how to learn. You show a child how to do that and they can learn almost anything they want.
The writer is the Vice-Chancellor Of Victoria University, Kampala
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