INVENTARIO DE DEPRESIÓN DE BECK (Parte I)

While the teachers in the first category were concerned with curriculum factors, the teachers in this category were concerned with constraints related to teaching and learning. The most common constraints which the teachers were concerned with were the large number of pupils in the classrooms and lack of teaching and learning resources. The teachers admitted that these factors contribute to ineffective teaching of environmental education in primary schools. Referring back to what was said before, effective teaching and learning takes place when a variety of teaching strategies and resources are provided in the classroom and when the emphasis is on understanding rather than receiving knowledge from the teacher.

C-S1. Large class size

Most of the teachers mentioned large class size as one of the constraining factors in the teaching of environmental education. Large class size refers to classes with many students. Discussing large classes, the teachers in this sub-category talked about classes having too many children, hence being a challenge to teaching and learning. The teachers said the classes are so big that they have up to 199 pupils. Some of them sit on the floor, making the teacher unable to move round the class to support the children in learning. As a result, most of the teachers who have big classes cannot use participatory methods and methods that involve taking the pupils out of the classroom. Below are examples of the teachers’ opinions on class size as an obstacle to teaching and learning:

“Another challenge is too many pupils in one classroom. First of all they are very noisy. Secondly, I cannot even plan to take them out for field observation because with 199 pupils in the class it is difficult to control them when they go out. Some of them may go to other places instead of what you want them to do. This is a big challenge because we teachers cannot teach in the way we think is good.” (Muso, M) “Too many pupils in one classroom (Large classes) – Sometimes a class may have 70 to 80 pupils, so it is difficult for one teacher to organize and manage activities for all the pupils especially outside the classroom.” (Sina, M )

From the teachers’ comments, large classes are more challenging in the upper classes, standards five to seven (aged 10 – 13 years), than in the lower classes, standards one and two (aged 6 – 8). One of the teachers teaching in the lower classes had a class of 105 pupils in standard two. She said that although the number is big she managed them because the small children have high respect for their teachers. For example, in keeping order in the class she just calls,

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“Watoto!” meaning, “Children” and they reply, “Mwalimu” which means, “teacher”. Then they would keep quiet and listen. This can be exemplified by statements of two of the teachers who said:

“With the small children, I do not face any challenges, although the number is big. But I manage to teach them well. For example, if they are making noise in the class I call them “Watoto!” and they reply, “Mwalimu” Then they keep quiet and listen to me or do what I have instructed them to do.” (Sinta, F)

“There are no problems because the small children mostly need to be guided. If the teacher tells them to do something they will make sure that they do it as the teacher has directed or has asked them to do so.” (Kyeku, F)

C-S2. Lack of teaching and learning materials

With overcrowded classes, the issue of lack of teaching materials is expected. Therefore, most of the teachers who were interviewed said that in teaching and learning, one of the critical challenges they face is lack of teaching and learning materials. Examples of the teaching materials which they mentioned were books, and gardening/farming tools. The teachers accounted for this situation as a result of lack of funds in the schools. Registering their concern for lack of teaching and learning materials, some of the teachers said:

“Lack of teaching materials and funds to buy them is another challenge. For example, in agriculture you have to have seeds, hoes, and many other things to teach the pupils about good agricultural practices. Lack of these things means that I will not be able to teach them practically.” (Klenga, F).

“[...] Also when it comes to teaching, there are no teaching and learning resources, even books. One book is shared among more than five to eight pupils. So my class of 45 pupils has got eight books only. Therefore the teacher has to write everything on the blackboard.” (Heri, M)

“The problem is lack of funds – schools do not have funds to carry out different environmental education activities like buying tree seedlings and even books. All these things are necessary for the learning of environmental education.” (Sina, M)

Apart from lack of funds to buy teaching and learning materials, the teachers also said poor funding also makes them unable to plan and go on field trips, which they feel that is a very effective method of teaching environmental education. This concern can be illustrated by the following statement from one of the teachers:

“Another problem is lack of funds. When we teach environmental education we sometimes plan to take the pupils to places where they can see real life situations. In some cases the places we want to see are far from the school, so we need transport. The issue of transport has been one of the burning problems because our schools do not have transport and also no funds to hire transport when teachers want to go on field trips with the pupils. This prevents the teachers from going to visit places where they can learn from actual situations like visiting a farm to learn good agricultural practices or see some initiatives of good environmental practices.” (Muso, M)

While some teachers considered the issue of lack of teaching materials as an obstacle, they also tried to think of ways to solve the problem. One of the strategies used was asking the pupils to bring some tools and materials from

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home. However, this strategy has not been very successful. This can be seen from the following extracts from the interviews:

“The challenge that I have in implementing environmental education is lack of equipment for environmental management in the school like hoes, watering cans and hose pipes. Sometimes, we ask the pupils to bring them from home, but they do not because the parents do not allow it for fear that they may get lost or other parents might be using them. If the school had money we would buy these tools, but the school does not have money.” (Sina, M)

“Yes, there are problems because first of all there are no teaching materials. For example, in vocational skills, you might plan to make a certain picture with the pupils, but you will not be able to because of lack of materials. Sometimes we used to solve this problem by asking the pupils to bring the materials from home, but nowadays they do not bring them. They just say they have forgotten. As a result, we most of the time teach in theory and no practice. It is good if the materials are available in the school so that when the pupils come to class they find them ready and make the things as stated in the syllabus.” (Tunu, F).

Many teachers emphasized that lack of teaching and learning materials was one of the constraints facing them in the teaching of environmental education. The materials which were mostly referred to were text books and teaching guides. This suggests that teachers are dependent on text books as a source of knowledge. However, environmental education knowledge can be obtained from different sources like newspapers, radio, and the environment itself. It all depends on the teachers’ awareness and initiative. The aspect of lack of teaching materials was also linked to lack of funds. Teachers pointed out that schools did not have funds for buying teaching and learning materials and also for conducting field trips.