BY Nkosazana Ngwadla
“Give the learners the opportunity to discover learning instead of standing there and doing all the reading and talking”, learning should be made fun and exciting, says Helen Septoo.
Helen is a Foundation Phase Education lecturer, based on the Missionvale Campus of Nelson Mandela University.
In addition to her lecturing duties, she also runs workshops at schools, where she works with the HODs and principals to retrain teachers to improve how they perform their duties.
Before COVID-19 brought the world to its knees, Helen had been based at and working in the United Arab Emirates, before she joined Mandela University in 2021.
Sharing why she decided to work with teachers , she notes the gaps she identified in the South African schooling system, particularly in the foundation phase.
Listening to, After paying visits to the classrooms, she realised why teachers in schools complain about unruly children, as she encountered cnbored and uninterested children, as a result of the bulk of their learning.
“In most cases, the classes and the lessons are so teacher-centred. The learners must just sit there and listen to what the teacher says”, says Helen, noting how learning in schools in the country encourages little engagement from the learner, as the learners take in and regurgitate information at the teachers’ command, not thinking and interacting with the information.
Helen realised how dependent on the teachers the learners had become, and sees this as a problem, it is too one-sided. So, for her, it’s about “making changes so that leaners can benefit, but in such a way that the teachers can still feel in control”.
Instead of talking at the learners for hours a day, Helen thinks teachers should shift focus in classrooms back to the learners.
Image: LinkedIn
