Resoluciones y normativas sobre la logística de almacenes en Cuba

A major point of consensus amongst students was that a good teacher facilitates their success by indicating what they need to study for their examinations. According to them, the main goal of being in school is to pass their exams; as such, practices that helped them achieve this goal were seen as good practices by the children. To them, a good teacher is one who can ‘teach us well so that we should understand and pass our exam

to go to the secondary school’ (KinivoB1). This instrumental criterion for determining

good teaching was manifested in students’ references to teachers whose students performed well or poorly both in internal and official examinations. Josephine’s students for example identified a former teacher as a very bad teacher because ‘only 20 children

used to pass and all the others will fail’. Apart from one case (which I will examine

later), students’ choice of their best English lesson was mainly based on their scores in the practice exercise:

AlbertoG2: This is my best lesson

Harry: is it the one in which you had 5 on 10?

AlbertoG2: [general laughter] No, I had 10 over 10, [pointing at her book] look, this is it here.

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Harry: And did you do well in the exercise GraceG3?

GraceG3: [smiling] I had nine on nine

GraceG4: Me too [all now laughing]

GraceG1: Everybody had nine in the exercise.

Harry: So are you happy with that lesson because everybody scored nine?

All: Yes sir

GraceG4: No, [all talking now] because everybody understood.

Further probing into what they meant by ‘understood’ revealed that for these learners, a

pass mark was generally an indication of understanding and as such reinforced their

preference for lessons in which they scored good marks as well as teachers and teaching that resulted in them scoring good marks. A deviant perspective, however, emerged in Yaounde where one student presented, as his best lesson, one in which he scored a zero in the practice exercise. This was particularly interesting because it was the only student who identified Kingley’s lesson as his best lesson. He was unable to recall how the lesson was taught but said he had selected the lesson because after failing in the practice exercise, his friend had helped him understand the lesson better:

KinivoB1: […] because he [teacher] did not tell us what to add, so I had zero. But after, my friend explain to me what I was supposed to do, and I know it very well now.

Harry: Wait a minute. Who helps you to understand more? Your friend or your teacher.

KinivoB1: I understand better when my friend explains to me.

This deviation from what appeared to be the norm points to an important pedagogic feature identified by learners which I will explore later. Noteworthy at this point however, is the fact that although KinivoB1 appeared to be more interested in the fact that his understanding was facilitated via peer support, there is evidence elsewhere in the interview that he sees success in exams as a criterion for determining a good teacher.

Being in the final year of primary school there is no doubt that these learners are concerned about success in classroom exams as this assures them of their preparedness for their final certificate examinations. In addition to possessing affective qualities, a

teacher who can give them an idea of the content of their examination is, for them, a good teacher. The following excerpt seems to confirm this:

KinivoG1: Il peut nous encourager à lire nos devoirs comme Ivo, il nous dit parfois que ceci va arriver a l’examen, preparez-vous. Il nous previent la section qui viendra a l’épreuve et c’est ca qu’il donne à l’examen. Mais Kingsley, il va meme nous mentir. [He can encourage us to read our homework, like Ivo; he tells us sometimes what will come in our exams and warns us to prepare. He informs us of the sections of our lessons which will come in the exam paper, but Kingsley will even lie to us]

Harry: Donc vous aimez un enseignant qui vous parle de l’examen, qui vous prévient de ce qu’il faut apprendre pour l’examen c’est ça? [So you like a teacher who tells you what to read for the exams, right?]

KinivoG1: En tout cas c’est moi; je ne sais pas ce que les autres pensent. [In any case, that’s my opinion. I do not know what the others think.]

Harry: Et les autres, vous êtes d’accord avec KinivoG1? [And the others, do you agree with KinivoG1?]

All: Oui, on est d’accord. [Yes we agree]

Talking about what a good teacher should do, GeorgeG5 asserts that she should

...be taking examples with you, telling you to come out, giving examples and saying that ‘this thing will come in the exams, so learn it well’. He should say that ‘we will write exams tomorrow, you people should go and learn this.’

Asked how it would help students if they are told what would appear in their examination, GeorgeG5 explains: ‘If they tell us what will come in the exams and they

change some things and they don’t put the same things like in class, you will easily

understand.’ It is clear from this that the student does not expect to be given exact

examination questions but would like to have clues as to what kinds of questions are likely to occur in their examinations. It is this expectation that constitutes part of their assessment of their current teachers as the quote below illustrates:

MarthaG3: I like my madam because she tells us what we will write in the common entrance [into secondary school] exams.

Harry: Does that mean that she tells you examination questions?

MarthaG3: No.

MarthaG3: She gives us past exam questions and tell us that some sections always repeat a lot in the examination

MarthaG4: She advise us to read particular sections very well because they will come in the exam.

MarthaG3: And she gives us many exercises so that we should remember the thing.

This excerpt, which represents perspectives of current teachers (George, Josephine, Martha, Ivo and Alberto) expressed by students in both sites, shows the extent to which students, like their teachers are subjected to examination pressure.