A.M. Khan
Since 2017, the Elementary and Secondary Education Department (KPESE) has been organizing continuous professional development (CPD) sessions for primary school teachers in public schools.
These sessions are a regular feature of professional development in the province. Teaching theory and subject specialism, moving from content-based to SLO-based teaching and assessment are the main themes other than the general ones.
The literature explains that content-based teaching and assessment focuses on recalling, memorizing and reproducing the learnt content, while the Student Learning Outcomes (SLO)-based approach emphasizes on the ability to think critically, making connections between different ideas and concepts, and apply acquired knowledge in new situations. In other words, this approach discourages rote-memorization and parroting.
Here the question is whether this transition, from content-based to SLO-based teaching and assessment, is that much easy and smooth sailing given the syllabi (textbooks) and teaching theory continue to cohabitate in the past paradigm. It’s about to ‘encourage students to analyze thoughtfully, and meaningfully explore new ideas and perspectives’.
This is transitory and time consuming. The teaching theory and practice of a teacher is to be meaningfully aligned with the benchmarks of SLO, and adapting from one teaching and assessment perspective to another.
For the practitioners in public schools, notwithstanding the diverse contexts, teaching a multigrade class poses a test for them to obtain objectives at the end of the class, and to bring into work their teaching strategies for optimum learning outcomes.
It’s a puzzling setting to learn for a newly admitted child sitting in a multigrade class with an opus of students coming from different socio-economic backgrounds with varied learning capabilities. And for the teacher to optimize that every child is learning in class, taking all learners paced with by providing them what they need and want is no less than a trial.
When students demonstrate engagement with studies it means they are learning, and it shows progress. Here the teacher is enabler making sure either learners are pacing with him/her or with other fellows.
The multiple tests and limitations persisting for both teachers and school management are: location of school, weather conditions and patterns, resource constraints and facilities, and the number of schools in an area. Schools are overloaded with students somewhere while it’s competitive for others to keep enrollment in optimum level. This is how the teaching and learning changeovers in public schools.
Given the bout of indispensable transition and meaningfully adapt teaching and learning in public schools, teachers require to be trained of teaching in multigrade setting and shifting from content-based to SLO-based teaching and assessment item development. Broadly, this shift is to bring about change in teaching theory and practice of teachers, and assessment format for the purpose of learning and holistic development of children in schools.