THE IMPORTANCE  OF EXPERIENCE IN TEACHING AND LEARNING.

My educational practise today is really a mixture of both Traditional and Progressive. My ultimate aim however is to have a Progressive educational approach which capitalises on experience being important both in learning and teaching process.
"Nothing ever becomes real until it's experienced." John Keats.
. It has mainly been traditional in many aspects especially before I undertook the CCTI course.  I was the major source of knowledge in my classes together with the recommended textbooks. The students sat in orderly rows and faced the teacher at the front. My role was mainly directive, I followed the set curriculum and taught in more or less the prescribed way for over 20 years. Assessments were done at the end of the term when my students reproduced what had been taught , crammed and memorised as individuals.

On the other hand to a small extent there was some Progressive approaches in as much as my subject of Geography has many practical aspects which can be done using a constructivist approach. The fieldwork aspect requires the students to formulate their own objectives, go out on the field, carry out the research, analyse the data obtained, make recommendations, conclusions and finally make presentations. I also had collaborative groups which carried out researches and made presentations etc.

I would like to have a progressive approach generally where the students take a more active approach in class, sit in informal groups, learn in ways that are interesting to them, carry out their own research and presentations, learn through experiences especially real life experiences etc as given in the Constructivist approach.

In this context however, I envisage the following hurdles. Instead of only having assessments at the end of the term, I will have continuous assessments for my students but they would still have to sit the final standardised assessment at the end as required by the syllabus. That is compulsory if they want to move to the next level. The formal sitting arrangement can be changed temporarily when in collaborative groups but not permanently since I am not the only one that uses the classrooms . The option of giving students the choice of what resources to use can only be done within limits since many resources especially technology tools are not available or in inadequate quantities.

In as much as the aim is to adopt a progressive approach which I have learnt after studying from the course, there are still some aspects of the Progressive approach which cannot work easily. The curriculum is still rigid with prescribed ways of doing things and until it’s changed nothing much can be done. Giving learners a choice of what they want to learn may cause them to miss out key aspects that are essential but not interesting. When the teacher acts only as a mentor and guide, there is likely to be a lot of indiscipline bearing in mind the large classes due to Universal Primary and Secondary education in Uganda which is free.. The teacher may not be able to keep track of the students’ progress if each learner can choose what they want to learn and how to learn it. The multiple interpretations of doing things would overwhelm the teacher in terms of time unless the class is small. In addition, it assumes a variety of resources being available to the learner to choose from. The range is limited in Uganda and many schools even lack the basics. Relating to real life experiences and collaborative or individual projects are mainly limited by financial constraints since they may require the learners to go out in the environment or field.

In summary, at present I would advocate for a blend between the traditional approach and the Progressive approaches eg in as much as the learner is given freedom to chose the learning path suitable for them there must be a set of rules or guiding principles he/she follows. The final aim would be to move more and more towards progressive approach.