Day 5 - Lesson observations

Expressive Arts Malawi style!

On our second day we really wanted to get stuck into the teaching. We had an opportunity to visit a lot of classes and observe lessons.  We felt sorry for the teachers because the learners spent a lot of time looking at us instead of actually paying attention to the lessons. Most classes numbered more than 75 - 100. Teaching generally was from the front with groups of 8-10 pupils sharing one textbook. There was a lot of repetitive statements parroted back by the pupils (ie Are we together? Yes, we are together).  In maths classes, pupils would watch as the teacher discussed a sum or method and then complete a couple of examples on the board.  Pupils would then, if they had exercise books, complete an answer and then wave it in the air for it to be marked.  Difficult task for the teacher to do when there are more than 100 in the class. Mary and I tried to help out with this.  In discussions with the teachers we suggested some of the techniques we use here in Scotland like having other pupils mark books and perhaps have the pupils self assess themselves using a traffic light or smiley face system.  Some of them thought this might be possible. 

We watched one lesson in Expressive Arts. The teacher began working with the pupils reviewing vowel sounds and numbers from 1010. We were slightly confused by this until the entire class went outside to practice letter formation in the red sand.  We also watched a great lesson on human rights where older pupils were able to identify what were human rights and list them.  We are hoping to build upon some of this information in our lesson exchanges between both schools.