Linette aspires to become a renowned journalist when she grows up. She is a jovial and full of life class 7 pupil at Rumuruti DEB Primary School in Laikipia West Sub County.
A survey conducted by Jielimishe GEC Project in August 2017 revealed that teachers spend 32% of their time in class for a group and collaborative learning as compared to 19% in 2015. This marked a 13% improvement in learner centered learning through groups. This is attributable to Jielimishe GEC’s intervention on Teacher professional development: teacher training coaching and mentorship in areas of Technology Literacy and Gender Responsive Pedagogy conducted in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
The survey indicated that teacher lecture, where learning is teacher centered, had reduced from 51% in 2015 to 28% in 2017 depicting an improvement in classroom teaching with a shift from teacher centered to learner centered teaching. Teacher training has therefore enabled teachers to design lessons that give the students an opportunity to increase their participation as 32% of their lesson time is spent with the learner asking questions. In 2015, there was limited room for students to direct their own learning and therefore had limited opportunity to direct their own learning through group work, interaction or asking a question. By 2017, student directed learning had increased to cover 4% of the lesson time and 4% of the lesson time spent for interaction.
Linette was one such key beneficiary of this improved teaching. She said, “I have constantly improved my marks in science subject anytime I sit for exams and this is because teachers have become more social and approachable”. Her class mate Rita said, “I am currently performing very well in Math as the teacher is more-friendly and I can ask him questions anytime”.
Daniel who is a class higher than Linette shared that teachers are engaging students more in group work something that was missing two (2) years ago. “Many students used to learn in black board, but now most of the time a projector is used,” Says Dominic who is the classmate to Linette
