Sharing responsibility for teaching and learning

Another recurrent feature of good teaching expressed by child-participants in both research sites was that of shared responsibility for teaching and learning. In all the classes observed, there were instances when individual students were appointed to do something in front of the whole class. This included asking them to do things like writing something on the board (e.g. a short paragraph in Kingsley’s composition lesson or underlining words/sounds in Grace’s lesson), acting out a part of a text (e.g. in George’s lessons) or just demonstrating the meaning of a verb (e.g. in Josephine’s lesson), or arranging things in a sequence (e.g. in Alberto’s lesson on how to cook a local meal) or looking up a word in the dictionary and correcting the teacher’s spelling of the word (e.g. in Ivo’s lessons) or deleting predictions on the board that do not appear in a reading text (e.g. in Martha’s reading lesson). The excitement generated by the performance of these activities was not only observable in the classroom, but also emerged in the interviews. Students liked it when they were able to do something in front of their peers; they wanted to ‘go to the board’ because ‘When I go to the board, I

will be happy because if I make a mistake, the teacher will correct me’ (JosephineB5);

or because going to the board ‘make me feel like I am the teacher [...] I like it because I

can teach something which other children will understand it and I will also understand

it better’ (GraceG3). These two excerpts suggest that the observable excitement of going

to do something in front of the class can be construed as related to students’ sense of fulfilment in sharing responsibility for teaching and learning. In JosephineB5’s case, the motivation is to be able to check his understanding against that of the teacher while for GraceG3, it is the feeling of being in the teacher’s position, of being able to share knowledge with peers and in the process consolidate one’s own knowledge that is the central motivating factor.

During the interviews, one of the things I wanted students to tell me was what will guide them in their choice of a good English teacher, if they were asked to observe a number of teachers in order to decide which one to employ in their school. Although students tended to personalise the criteria to reflect their own learning preferences, they were still able to articulate what they understood to be good practice in terms of their own role in the teaching and learning process. The following excerpt from Buea is representative of students’ perspectives on the subject in both research sites:

JosephineB1: I will select a teacher who will explain and do some actions

JosephineB2: And give us exercises and homework. She can give us words to go and look for the meanings.

Harry: Would you prefer that the teacher should give you the meanings of words or ask you to go and find the meanings?

All: (Speaking randomly) I prefer to look for the meaning myself; I want to do research and find the meaning myself. I prefer that she should give us homework to go and do it on my own.

[…]

JosephineB4: When I am doing it at home, I do it on a rough book then I can ask my elder brother to check it.

[…]

JosephineB5: I like when the teacher is explaining something, but she should not explain it all. I like that she should allow some for us to go and find out and come and explain in class.

This excerpt above reveals a number of interesting perspectives about what students consider good practice: a good teacher should give students practice exercises and homework, he/she should not explain everything but encourage students to find out for themselves, he/she should give students the opportunity to explain their findings in class.

A common feature of most of the lessons observed over phase one of this study is that they ended with a practice exercise which was most often marked by the teacher or by students marking their peers’ books under the supervision of the teacher. In other cases,

students were given homework which was then marked at the beginning of the next English lesson. This tradition was somehow represented in the data as good practice; students identified the provision of practice exercises and homework as good practice. In talking about what they would do if they were a teacher, JosephineB5 explains that

‘Sometimes if [students] do not understand something, I will explain it again then I will

give them an exercise to do so that they can understand better’. To this student, apart

from explaining things to learners, giving them exercises may be a good way of helping them ‘understand better.’ In recounting how her best lesson was taught, KinivoG4 raises amongst other things the fact that the teacher ‘gave us an exercise and we did the

exercise and we exchanged our books and marked the exercise and everybody had at

least 7 on 10.’ As the conversation unfolds, the same student argues that ‘When I do the

exercise, I understand it more better and I can explain it to another child who has not

understood.’

In the same light, discussions about homework revealed that students perceived these as an opportunity to explore learning on their own without having to depend only on the teacher. The following perspectives were expressed:

‘I like it when the teacher give us homework [...] I can go and look for the thing myself and I will learn it well [...] if I don’t understand, I can ask my friend or my brother and if he cannot tell me, I will ask the teacher and he will explain it to me. [...] I can also explain to my friends and they will help me, if I don’t understand it well, the teacher can also help me understand it well. (GeorgeG1)

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If she ask us to go and find out, it will make me to make an effort to learn [...] it is not good when the teacher tells us everything; it is good that we should also do our homework so that we can learn on our own and understand. (GraceG1)

To these students, homework provides an opportunity for independent learning, but also for students to be able to identify their difficulties and seek solutions from their peers

and teacher. Their perspectives also reveal their understanding of learning as not only teacher-led, but also student-led. It is by finding out things for themselves that they are able to contribute to classroom activity through explaining to their friends and in the process, benefiting from teacher and peer feedback.

Another instance of students’ interest in sharing the responsibility for teaching and learning was expressed in Buea where Alberto’s students appreciated the fact that their teacher made use of realia in one of his composition writing lessons but also wanted the teacher to ask them to bring visual aid to class:

AlbertoG3: I want that if he want to teach us a composition about how to cook something, he should give us homework to bring the different things [ingredients] to class.

Harry: But he brought all the things to class, is there anything wrong with that?

AlbertoG3: No sir, but if he ask us to bring them, I will ask my mother and she will explain some to me and I will understand the lesson faster.

Harry: (to the other girls) Is that true?

AlbertoG1: Yes sir. If we already know how to cook the food, we will easily know how to write the composition well.

AlbertoG5: If we bring the things to class, it will be more interesting because we will see if we can remember the names of all the things that we need to cook Ekpwang. [...] If some children do not bring everything, they will learn the other things from those who have brought everything.

Being asked to bring teaching aids to class was a way, not only of involving them in the teaching learning process, but an opportunity to do some preliminary research that will be helpful in understanding the lesson. What is more, it provided an opportunity for them to learn new vocabulary and to share their learning with other students who might not find all the ‘things’ needed for the particular lesson.