5.3 THEMBA’S TEACHING
5.3.4 Interview with Themba
5.3.4.1 The philosophy of teaching
After I had observed Themba’s lesson whose topic was about the sum of the interior angles of a quadrilateral, I interviewed him about the same lesson on the same day. My interview with him focused mainly on the constructs of learner-centred approaches and meaningful learning. In this section I will dwell on learner-centred teaching with regards to both my interview with him and the lesson that I observed him teaching.
I first wanted to find out about the methods of teaching he was taught at college.
He submitted that as far as he remembered he was taught how to use the discovery and the discussion methods. However, I did not ask him about other teaching methods besides the two instead I tried to find out whether his lecturers ever taught him about learner-centred teaching. His response was that indeed they taught him learner-centred teaching at college. The following is what transpired in my conversation with him.
Themba: Yes, especially when you are doing some topics in Math. I like it so much even here in school. Because even here at school I am still using it where it is supposed to be used.
Interviewer: So in other words you were taught learner-centred teaching at college.
Themba: Yes.
Themba acknowledged that he learnt about learner-centred teaching at college.
He seemed to like it and lamented that he normally used it in his teaching. In
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his lesson, Themba had two main activities in which he engaged his learners.
And in each activity he organized learners into small groups which was one of the strategies of facilitating learner-centred teaching. I observed that in the first activity one learner was actively participating whilst the others were quiet and watching him as he worked on the problem (Figure 5.16). Whilst the learners were working on the task, Themba never attempted to encourage group discussion among the groups. He moved from one group to the other telling them to work fast. Themba never pushed learners for diverse thinking. For example when he asked them to draw a diagonal on a quadrilateral, they drew only one diagonal (Figure 5.17) yet any quadrilateral had two diagonals. He seemed to be content with only one diagonal drawn by the volunteer learner.
When asked to give a description of learner-centred teaching he said that:
Themba: According to my understanding learner-centred teaching: the learners are the ones who are finding facts and the teacher is just coming with the topic and with questions just to guide them but the learners are the ones who are learning themselves the concepts in everything in Mathematics. Just guide them with the questions and assist them; then and there but they are the ones who are doing everything.
Indeed when he introduced the lesson Themba would always ask learners questions whilst they were in normal class arrangement and even when they were sitting in groups. During the first activity he guided them to make a generalization that the sum of interior angles of a quadrilateral is 3600. In that activity Themba dominated the discussion. Here, he was asking them questions expecting quick answers. His conception of learner-centred teaching seemed to be in line with his teaching practices. He believed that in learner-centred teaching, the teacher must lead the discussions and ask learners questions to arrive at the answer.
However, during the second activity there was discussion among learners.
Here, Themba also made an attempt to give explanations to the groups that were struggling but that was minimal. In fact, he would quickly start explaining to entire class on the problem that the group was struggling with. He would
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conduct a question and answer discussion with the whole class and dominating the discussion in the process.
Themba was asked on the teaching method that he used when teaching the lesson and he responded by saying that it was demonstration. Furthermore, he was asked why he used the demonstration method and whether his method had any connection with learner-centred teaching.
Themba: I used to demonstrate some concepts. This is the way you are supposed to do it. I have to demonstrate it and then they are the ones who have to find the answers for themselves.
Interviewer: Does this method have any connection with learner-centred teaching?
Themba: It has a lot because I just think I must ask them questions and guide them then they themselves are going to find it how it is calculated.
According to Themba, demonstration was a learner-centred teaching method because it allowed him to guide the learners as they attempt to find solutions of a problem. He believed that in learner-centred teaching, the teacher must guide learners as they work on a task. Indeed when showing them that the sum of interior angles of a quadrilateral is 3600 as in Figure 5.19, he dominated the discussions guiding them to make a generalization. But the learners never found the answer for themselves as he pointed out in my interview with him. Again he guided learners to find the value of b in Figures 5.20 and 5.21 without giving them an opportunity to find the answer for themselves. Themba also mentioned that he used learner-centred teaching most of the time.
In my interview with Themba, I also asked him about the problems that he encountered when using learner-centred teaching. He pointed out that learner- centred teaching is time exhaustive because he had to go back and help learners with conceptual difficulties. Themba also mentioned that the large number of learners was a challenge to him since he had to pay attention to every learner.
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From my interview with Themba I noticed that he believed in learner-centred teaching. However, his actual teaching methods did not model a learner-centred approach. In his teaching, he used the demonstration method which involved demonstrating an example while his learners watched him. According to Themba, the demonstration method is consistent with learner-centred teaching because the teacher had to guide the learners. Furthermore, his question-and- answer technique was used to get the specific answer that he was looking for.
Although he made the effort to arrange his learners in groups, he did not use this arrangement to encourage learner engagements within the groups. He continued teaching to them and dominated the discussions whilst learners were in their small groups. When he asked them to work on problems in his first activity, the learners worked as individuals within their groups and did not communicate with one another in their groups. Whilst in the second activity there was discussion among learners.