ORIGINALLY WRITTEN: OCTOBER 5, 2018

By: Anne Noah

What I learned from the learning contexts.

As part of my learning exercises, I was told to observe a padlet wall

After observing the learning contexts in the padlet wall, I went further to discuss with my friends and family about how they learn. I realized I was also guilty of the crime of putting people in a box. I assumed that the more similar a set a people were the more similar their learning patterns would be. I’ll explain, I assumed that hyperactive people would always lean towards the group of people who like collaborative learning more than any other method. I had the opportunity of speaking to a few friends of mine whom I can classify as rather “upbeat” and 2 out of 5 of them would rather study alone. This affirms the fact that what works for one will not work for another because learning is an individual experience.

I realized that we all need to be given a chance to find ourselves and understand what works best for us. During the infant years, kids should be exposed to all the possible learning options and then they can decide eventually what process works best for them.

Teachers ought to facilitate learning and not authoritatively dictate what the learning process should be. It’s either we realize this and adopt a more progressive style of teaching or we will be creating the next generation of unhappy robots who stick within the box and are taught to be afraid of stepping outside- the place where all the amazing things happen.

It has further strengthened my resolve that the typical educational experience in Nigerian classrooms truly drags us eons behind and the earlier we improve our teachers, the better for the generation to come.

Personally, I learn by sharing and also by taking out time to practice what I’ve learnt repeatedly. I truly value my alone time but I have come to realize that I learn faster when I steer my learning towards teaching others.

How do you learn best? I would love to know.

Progressive education has been really unpopular in some circles, why is this?

I believe this has been unpopular in Nigeria because most teachers lack in-depth content knowledge of the subject which they teach. To successfully facilitate a classroom full of inquisitive learners you would have to possess a substantial amount of knowledge on that subject.

I also believe progressive education is unpopular because most teachers here lack the passion needed to get the job done. They would rather follow a rigid routine and finish the curriculum given to them than to challenge themselves to push for better teaching methods. It is easier to dictate a rigid lesson outline that doesn’t challenge you to engage your students than to create a conducive learning environment which encourages the child to engage in critical thinking. Students who question what they are being taught from time to time are often discouraged and forced to only answer questions in a certain way with only words acceptable by the teacher.

Finally, there are teachers who wish to teach and always push to improve their methods but the major reason why they are unable to do so is that teacher support, training, and collaboration in Nigeria is ridiculously low.