PROJECT: Collectivism vs. Individualism in the Classroom

 In two days it will be exactly one month since we came to Ghana and three weeks since we started teaching English in Butre and Azani.

This type of thing happened to us regularly in the beginning:

Tomaž: Nathaniel, could you please start reading from the beginning of the page, please.
Nathaniel: Yes sir...[begins to read but stops at an unknown word]
Emmanuel (muttering under his breadth): cootlury [sic. cutlery]
Nathaniel: Cootlury.
Tomaž: Cutlery.
Nathaniel: Cootlery.
Tomaž: Cutlery.
Nathaniel: Cutlery [but now he is slightly flustered and having trouble finding his place]
Tomaž: [Starts reading where we left off]
Emmanuel: [Also begins reading]
Nathaniel:[picks up and starts reading]

At this point both students continue to read together and, if allowed, other students will pile around the book (unfortunately we don't have enough books for everyone) until they are all reading together, in a stilted cadence, loud and clear. Unfortunately they aren't all reading, usually just one is reading and the rest are repeating after him or her. It is challenging to get the students who aren't already good to take the initiative, they just wait for someone better to speak up.

I imagine that every society adopts a different balance between collectivism and individualism. The resolution of the tension between these two concepts defines a group. In Ghanan primary education collectivism is the clear favorite.

It makes me smile when I think about how much effort my teachers expended to get us to work together in groups. Here we work hard to achieve the exact opposite effect. But, at the same time, we have learned that working against this tendency is not always a good idea. Most of the students want and expect to read in groups. Only a few of the advanced students want to work alone.

The first thing that we started to teach the students were 30 opposite pairs (hot-cold, deep-shallow etc.) and I think that they have mastered these pairs (i.e. they can tell me, even individually, most of the opposite pairs and about half of them can use the opposite pairs in sentences). We also continue to build vocabulary using the words from the books. We haven't started writing yet. Right now we are at the point where about 1/2 of the time (45min) is spent in groups of three reading the books.

Now we are going to start teaching a new sets of opposites in addition to comparison forms of the opposites we have already taught (i.e. hot, hotter, hottest).

We also need to think of a way to split the class into levels without chaos breaking out, this is harder then it sounds. Some of the children are already at the point where they should try to read in their minds instead of out loud and we would like to separate them from the others and give them some more difficult books to read.


Čez dva dni bo natanko en mesec od najinega prihoda v Gano in tri tedne od začetka učenja angleščine v Azaniju in Butri.

V začetnih urah sva se pogosto znašla v sledeči situaciji:  

Tomaz: Nathaniel, prosim začni z branjem.
Nathaniel: Da. ... [Bere, ustavi se ob neznani besedi]
Emmanuel [zamomlja]: cootlury [sic. cutlery - v slo: pribor]
Nathaniel:  Cootlury.
Tomaž: Cutlery.
Nathaniel: Cootlery.
Tomaž: Cutlery.
Nathaniel: Cutlery [zdaj besedo izgovori malce v zadregi, išče mesto v knjigi, kjer je prej končal] 
Tomaž: [Pomagam Nathanielu najti mesto v knjigi, začnem z branjem] 
Emmanuel: [Prav tako začne z branjem] 
Nathaniel:[Se pridruži Emmanuelu]

V nadaljevanju učenca breta skupaj, če je le dovoljeno se jima pridružijo tudi ostali, obkolijo mizo ter nadaljujejo vsi v en glas. Jasno, glasno, v ritmu metronomaJ. Čeprav imaš v začetku vtis, da so vsi poglobljeni v branje, je hitro jasno, da branje vodi najboljši/a, ostali pa v glavnem ponavljajo za njim/njo. Zelo težko je pripraviti manj uspešne učence, da prevzamejo iniciativo, saj se neradi izpostavljajo.

Razmerje med individualizmom in kolektivizmom se od družbe do družbe razlikuje. Prevladovanje ene ali druge smeri družbo zaznamuje. V primeru ganskih osnovnih šol je jasno, da prevladuje kolektivizem. Medtem ko so se naši učitelji trudili spodbujati delo v skupinah, je v Gani ravno obratno. Tu predstavljajo težavo individualne naloge, saj jih učenci opravljajo neradi, izjema so zelo dobri učenci.

Kot sva omenila že v prejšnjih objavah, sva začela z učenjem nasprotij - izbrala sva 30 parov (vroče-mrzlo, globoko-plitvo itd). Do zdaj so jih učenci v veliki meri že usvojili. Kar pomeni, da jih posamezniki znajo navesti, približno polovica pa jih poleg tega zna uporabiti še v stavkih. Urimo se tudi v besedišču iz knjižic, ki jih redno prebiramo. Branje trenutno predstavlja približno polovico srečanja (45min), otroci berejo razdeljeni v skupine.

V naslednjih urah se bomo lotili nove skupine nasprotij, začeli bomo tudi s stopnjevanjem pridevnikov (npr. hot, hotter, hottest; slo: vroče, bolj vroče, najbolj vroče), ter utrjevali že naučene.

Pomembna stvar, ki jo še morava izpeljati, je delitev razreda glede na raven znanja, kar je težji podvig kot se zdi na prvi pogled.:) Delitev se nama zdi resnično smiselna, saj nekateri učenci zares izstopajo, berejo gladko, so že na stopnji ko znajo brati v mislih. Želiva da naša srečanja kar se da izkoristijo in imajo možnost branja zahtevnejših knjig.  

Tomaž