Friday, December 28, 2018

Writing for Problem Solving



Foreword

            No one can deny the fact that problems constitute a great part of our life, and they often make it worth living. We survive through struggling against them. They are the main source for hope and dreaming of a better “tomorrow”. It is true that those problems exhaust us badly, but in the end we can defeat and solve the greatest part of them and carry on with life. It is always a great pleasure when we eventually solve our problems, and build up experience to go on with life. However, many people find it hard to keep thinking all the time how to solve a problem that has suddenly invaded their life without their consent, and that’s what happens most of the time. No one chooses to create problems for themselves, but this often happens involuntarily. They only see problems as mere troubles turning their life into hell.

            These people never want to admit that everyone is subject to different kinds of problems, and they keep complaining “Why me?!” You can smell objection but also defeatism in the phrase. It seems hard for them to deal with thorny problems which surpass their capacities. This is so because they don’t know how to treat them critically; as a result, they get irritated and worried. Those more experienced people can find their way to solve their problems effortlessly, whereas those with little or no experience, easily give up the struggle pretending that their problems are problematic, i.e. they are mixed up with other associated problems, so they get cornered and they surrender at once.

            Learners have their own problems as well, and they have to deal with them to survive. Their problems are as young as they are, so they are mostly simple and can often be solved when the learners could detect and follow the causes; which they don’t generally do because they still need the way and the tools. That’s why voices of practitioners in the field of education rise for the necessity to integrate teaching critical thinking for problem solving and decision making in the school curricula. The learners need to learn how to face their problems, no matter how they are, calmly and start thinking how to find a way out with those problems. Here comes writing to be a good tool to use in exploring and dissecting the possible causes of the problem so as to fix them and find suitable solutions; then pick out the most suitable solution among them. This can be done through thinking by writing.

            No doubt writing is a High cognitive complexity task due to the great number of elements included in its making. However, when it comes to using it for thinking, it is less formal and more a free writing. It has to respect the general rules for legibility only, but apart from that, it is no more than a way to stay tuned on your focal task. If the learners can just train on this process regularly they would gradually develop both writing and problem solving skills.


Thursday, December 27, 2018

Developing Better thinking skills In High school



Introduction

            Is it really so hard for school to perceive the tremendous change that is occurring around it nowadays? It seems that it is afraid of admitting that it is too much for it to cope with the change. All indicators point to the fact that the “new” teaching methods they adopt have already been outdated. As long as we still keep teaching the kids lessons they no longer feel like learning, we will never be able to ignite curiosity in them so as to make them develop suitable critical thinking skills which fit their digital era and their creativity inclination. They need to feel the change at school; that change which is ravaging all old thinking processes and concepts about learning. The generation Y have chosen to wear lenses that are capable of piercing the invisible and discover more appealing learning approaches. I bet students no longer wait for school to introduce them to information and communication technology as they have gone a long deal already.

            Shamelessly some schools still use old teaching tools and methods in the era of tablets, Smartphones, phablets, tele-conferencing, flipped classrooms and distance-education. They are not aware that apprenticeship has enormously changed in material, content, theory, method, medium and approaches. Schools look hesitating in tackling subjects that they were not used to tackling because they are slow in acknowledging the shift in all domains of knowledge including defining literacy. There are no such digitally illiterate students today, but some schools are unfortunately.

            Most of us would agree with Arthur Schopenhauer’s words, “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident”. Well, I wonder why school is hesitating and doesn’t seize the opportunity to start stimulating learners to be creative through thinking differently but ingeniously. It should invade the new world and develop it through developing the learners thinking skills. Some steps have been taken already but they are still filled with incertitude and reluctance.

            Incorporating critical thinking concepts into high school curricula is not a choice, it is the only choice to promote the students and help them develop thinking skills and abilities to be ready for the unknown challenges of the future.


Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Grade Inflation & Low learning Achievement ?!



Introduction

            Some people attribute the students’ low performance at school to several different causes like, social media, working parents, poverty, bullying, unskilled teachers, conventional teaching and learning approaches, family problems, no assistance at home, absenteeism and so on, but all these are only the tip of the iceberg. The real reason however is somewhere within this medley of causes. Our concern here is simple, how come the students perform poorly at school, yet they get high grades?!

          Logically, it is unconceivable that a poor learner gets excellent grades and then be applauded and rewarded. This is an ironic situation, isn’t it? But unfortunately this is what happens in reality. The students are killing themselves to get good marks regardless of what they have achieved as learners. The standard of mastery in any school subject doesn’t permit high grades unless there is talent, concentration and perfection. Brilliant students cannot be distinguished now that even low efficient students can get high marks which can generally be ill-gotten.

            The students nowadays are so fervent to get the best grades that would meet the requirements of institutes of eminence.  They don’t care about what they are capable of but only about having the necessary grades allowing them to access those high standard schools. The result is that some students do their utmost to get excellent marks regardless of the means. The inflation of grades has harmed learning and proficiency so much.

            School needs to evaluate the students in terms of their abilities to assimilate, use, reuse and reprocess the information they get at school using their critical thinking problem solving and creativity skills. Not just repeating the lessons they have imbibed during the term. Thus, only intelligent, assiduous and committed students can manifest their skills, competencies and merit. In this case, the students, for the most part, will change their perception of learning and can draw a line between their schooling and their education.


Tuesday, December 11, 2018

The Battle of Reading



     Besides writing, reading has also become another horrible experience for this generation of learners who grew up within the social media realm. We don’t know where this would lead them. Most learners today try hard to avoid reading so as not to expose themselves to boredom, embarrassment, frustration or disappointment. Most students have suddenly become illiterate in the sense that they can give the text nothing that would help them understand it. They own no schemata, no background knowledge and no vocabulary repertoire which might allow them to read, comprehend and infer. Reading has become the worst battle they have to fight and certainly lose. They are now hooked on the virtual volatile vibrant world of internet where they feel free, amused and more anonymously sheltered. They shun the battle of reading mostly for this very particular reason.


     For these “digital” non-active learners, Reading is a real ordeal. It is the worst battle they have to fight; all the same, they never feel like reading at all. They hate fighting the battle of reading because they know they will lose it, and even if they are sure to win, they believe that they won’t get anything of value from that false pride of winning the nonsensical battle of reading. They don’t generally read unless they are obliged to, like when they have to sit for a test or an exam for instance. In leisure time, they never dare to fight the battle of reading because they need to be strong enough to keep up with the rhythm of the battle. They feel it is a mere waste of time and effort because they won’t gain anything even after winning it.


Monday, May 7, 2018

A stylistic approach to Meja Mwangi's novel "Going down River Road"


Abstract

Meja Mwangi’s novel Going Down River Road has not got the merit it deserves. Most critics approach it negatively. They emphasize the fact that it is weak, pessimistic, and does not offer solutions to the deplorable economic and social situation of the neo-colonial period in Kenya he tackles. However almost no one has approached it stylistically to explore its artistic features. And this is what I am trying to do in this study.

Let’s first stress the fact that the novel is not an essay or an article. It is not required to propose solutions to problems though most African novelists do so. We should not deny its powerful construction thanks to its style and language. Its force stems from its true to life characters, setting and diction, besides its distinguished depictive language. Its styles reflect the real type of life people in the poorest areas of Nairobi lead and this is creative writing. To reach this, Maja Mwangi deployed all figurative language devices and tools such as metaphor, simile, degeneration, personification, synecdoche, euphemism, comparison, irony, along with the use of the cinematic techniques. His use of imagery, on the other hand, has enriched and of course given the book the value it deserves as a piece of art.

Going Down River Road was first published in 1976 after Meja Mwangi had published three strong novels, namely Kill me quick, (1973), Carcase for Hounds (1974), Taste of Death (1975) but Kill Me Quick got Jomo Kenyatta Prize in 1974.and this novel, owns the same strength and worth which made it deserve the same prize in 1977. Going Down River Road is using quality literary devices and this renders it particularly very popular to the extent that it is recommended for tourists who want to visit Neirobi.

Meja Mwangi’s book is not a simple report on the conditions in Nairobi. It is rather a living thing which makes the reader absorbed by the marvels of the detailed descriptions which stimulate all the five senses; besides the funny characters that add a lot to the refinement of the artistic skills the writer obviously worked on meticulously.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Learners as Public Speakers



When the learners are called on in class, they commonly get haunted by the shame of making mistakes and being laughed at. That’s because we have stigmatized mistakes and consequently blocked their involvement and engagement in most classroom activities which consists of speaking, giving opinion or negotiating meaning. When we stop correcting them all the time, the students feel independent and become a little more daring in expressing their thoughts. They can think aloud despite the hindrance of their language imperfection. Gradually their responses or comments go from scattered words to phrases then to sentences and statements until the students reach the stage of being capable of presenting their ideas trying hard to make them intelligible. The teacher should seize the opportunity to shift with this new skill they get into leading them to the ultimate stage of delivering speeches. They will surely be pleased to speak publicly (within the restricted classroom context first) surmounting all their fears and disinclination.

            Whenever they have an idea, no matter how imperfect their language fluency is, they stand up in front of the class to deliver what they have in mind. It works well with most students. As for those who still couldn’t get rid of the stage fright and the mistake phobia are given models to exploit for more insurance and self-confidence, and this works pretty well as a shelter from making mistakes or getting stuck.

            Training the students on public speaking is not a superfluous activity; it is a priority nowadays because communication has become the key for success in business and in almost all careers. How the students can express their ideas clearly counts a lot, and for this reason they need to practice public speaking as early as possible and with a public as restricted and confined as their own classmates.


Saturday, March 24, 2018

Misinterpreting Creativity for Verbal Irony



While the teacher was establishing the classroom rules at the beginning of the school year, he seized the opportunity to draw the students’ attention to the importance of doing homework in time.  He clearly stated that “Any student who fails to do homework has to write an apology e-mail giving at least three reasons why the homework was not done, and the e-mail is to be considered a substitute for the homework, and it will be corrected and graded”. As the students hate writing, they decided never to forget about their homework whatever it takes. And that’s exactly what the teacher aimed at.

            One day, after he had taught the students the use and usage of “too and enough”, as usual the teacher gave them homework to do on the weekend. The homework was an easy receptive exercise. The students have only to fill in the blanks with the appropriate adverb of degree, and it goes something like this,

*// Fill in the blanks with “too” or “enough” appropriately
1. This exercise is _______ easy to do.
2. I think Mr. Baker is good ________ for the job.
3. The workers don’t work quickly ___________
4. John is _______ smart to be fooled.
5. The manager is ________ busy to meet you today.
6. etc

Adam, who is actually a good student, didn’t do the homework, so he had to write the e-mail, and here is what the teacher read,


Monday, January 22, 2018

To say or not to say, "I'm sorry". Is that a question, too?

Startup

            Communication is the pupils’ major in most schools. It focuses on exchanges that make sense. It consists of interacting positively in various situations simulating real life. Normally, there must be a great amount of etiquette and politeness in conversations that are supposed to happen in real life. Among the things the pupils learn are how to communicate civilly. They learn how to ask for anything and how to respond respectfully. They also learn how to apologize when they feel they have done something wrong. Well, this is great. What if the learners learn to behave first? They should learn their rights and duties vis-à-vis their entourage and their community. They should learn how to conduct themselves correctly and respectfully according to the norms of the community in which they live. They should remain inside their circle of liberty and never invade others’ either physically or verbally. This way, they won’t need to keep apologizing all the time.

            There are situations in life that the kids are not prepared for, and they almost don’t know how to cope with, but if they are prepared to be active citizens, they would easily find an outlet. They need to admit it when they feel guilty and apologize for any harm they could have caused to the others. This is the only way they will learn not to be outraged and abide by the rules and customs of the society in which they live. Once they are not brought up correctly, they will never be aware when they do wrong. They have no background knowledge about the rules to rely upon in dealing with life diverse situations.

            They have to learn to be good communicators, extroverted and sociable. They should learn never to be ashamed to say, “I am sorry” when they have to. Apologizing is not easy for most people, it needs courage and self-confidence. Despite all, before teaching kids how to apologize, teach them how to avoid situations in which they would be obliged to say sorry. They should learn to gain control of their behavior. This is how the loose “I’m sorry” would gradually vanish except for courtesy or for showing compassion.


It’s usually too late when one says, “sorry!”

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