[MUSIC] Your're welcome again to course three, week six, and this time we focus in, on great thinkers of education. In course two, you looked at philosophies of education. And philosophy is best understood when we talk about it; when we dialogue about ideas. So, for this lecture, we're going to adopt a dialogue or conversational approach. And to help in the combination is Professor Emeritus John Macbeath. John, you are welcome. >> Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, George. And we are going to look at four. >> Four. >> And we start with and correct me if my pronunciation isn't right here, we're talking about Pai Obanya. >> That's it. Pai Obanya. >> Good. Okay. And he's one of the ones that you've chosen as a key thinker. >> Yeah. >> So, say a bit more about his-- just introduce him to us a bit. >> Pai Obanya is one of the renowned educationists in Africa, he comes from Nigeria. And one thing that makes him different in a way is advocating for transformation, for transforming teacher teaching in Africa from a situation where the teacher will see him or herself as know-all, to a situation where the teacher will see him or herself as seeking to know how to know. >> Knowing how to know. >> Knowing how to know. And then he also thinks that the teacher must not see himself as someone who's a monopoly of knowledge, but as someone who should be constantly learning to know more. And that is what makes me think that his policies or his principles are relevant to our dialogue. >> Because he talks, doesn't he, about this five chain process of education, and that's kind of a core thing in his thinking, isn't it. So, just say something briefly, George, about what these five things are, and why they're important. >> Yeah. Pai Obanya simply thinks that education is influenced by five key things, which he dubbed the "Five Ps". >> Right. >> That you need politics. You need policy, you need program in terms of how teachers should be prepared. You need processes how teachers should behave, and supported, and you need a product. What type of teacher, what type of child do we need. So, these five Ps, he thinks, is very critical in transforming teachers. >> So, that phrase, essentially, the whole of his kind of philosophy, isn't it? And he talks about levels. >> Yeah. He also thinks that the five P's can be operational at three levels. And normally when we're thinking about changes in pedagogy teaching, we only focus on the teacher. But for Pai Obanya, the environment within which the teacher operates matters, and so leadership at a school level, school organisation, management - all become critical. Then he also talks about level two, which basically deals with what happens in the classroom, and here the teacher is at the centre. And he thinks that the fact that the teacher has been prepared for the classroom doesn't mean that a teacher is well-equipped. So, there should be continuous support in terms of professional development, and that is what he calls the level three transformation. >> So, professional development is the key to moving from level two to level three. >> And hitting level three is very, very critical-- >> Right. >> --in the whole process of such. >> Because this is where then he's talking about transformation, isn't he. He's talking about how you actually make transformational change. When he's talking about this, he's talking about promotion of learning at the centre and the purpose, this is the purpose of learning. It's all about transformation. >> Yeah, and you know as from the beginning, his whole idea is to move the teacher from a perception of the teacher knows all, to a personal perception of the teacher knows something. You know, so that to place emphasis on the learner. And here, what he is saying is that learning is key to what another teacher does-- >> Yeah. >> --in the school. >> Yeah. This whole notion though, that the teacher knows something and that the students know something, that the teacher's not the know-all that's transmitting knowledge. That's pretty, kind of, a radical sort of thinking, isn't it, in the Ghanaian context? >> Oh yeah, it is, it's radical in the Ghanaian context. Especially where the very traditional of Ghanaians believe that knowledge and wisdom lies in the ancient. It's a radical notion, but I think gradually teachers are getting used to this new thinking, they are realising that there are situations where the learner, at times, knows more than the teacher. >> And when he says something about every person who stands at the front of the class isn't necessarily a teacher. >> Well, it's common in some parts of Africa where politicians will come out in reaction to teachers' strike action, for instance, will come out and say, "Look, if teachers are not going to teach, we'll invite taxi drivers, we'll invite farmers to come to the classroom to teach." And there are also occasions where we have a number of children engaging-- sorry, teachers-- people engaging in teaching who haven't had any training at all, so, Pai Obanya is simply saying that, look, let's promote professionality-- >> Yeah. >> --in teachers. Let's train people to teach. >> So, it's the danger of de-professionalisation. He's saying to reinsert the whole professionalisation of teaching. And then he talks about a couple of key, sort of, principles. >> The first two focuses on the teacher. And principle one of Pai Obanya's philosophy is that there should be a re-conceptualisation of the teacher's role. That the teacher should be seen more as a facilitator in the classroom. Principle two talks about teacher orientation in terms of delivery, and he's very emphatic that the teacher should move away from lecturing-- >> Mm-hm. >> --to encouraging children to discover things for themselves. >> So, these two principles that you've talked about already, George, are his key ideas about this whole thing that he calls transformational pedagogy, and he also talks about it as a tool, not just for transforming the teacher, but for transforming the learner. >> Learner. >> Yeah. >> And this leads on to his third principle, which is transforming the learner. And by this he thinks that the learner shouldn't see himself or herself as someone who gets to the classroom to receive information from the teacher. But someone who helps you discover things for himself or herself, someone who'll be engaged in the whole process of learning. And it also calls for the teacher himself to encourage children to engage themselves in the learning process. >> And there are four, aren't there? Four parts to that principle. >> Yes. >> Which are the intellectual, attitudinal, the value orientation and the emotional. >> And emotional. He talks about these four, that if the student's learning can be transformed, then it must be seen intellectually, instead of just helping the child to get facts. The child should be helped to be creative in their thinking. And talking about attitudinal and just as I said, the child gets to the classroom with an attitude of, "I'm here to be taught". That must change to I'm here to learn, to engage in the learning processes. Then he talks about value orientation, and here too, talks about how the child can be helped to accept the new thinking. And here, let me just give you an example, that even at a university level there are some students who find teachers who engage students in discovering things for themselves as not being good teachers. So, they prefer teachers who will come and give out lecture notes for them to copy. And so, Pai Obanya's transformations, as far as the learner is concerned, is to help them to reorientate. >> It's a very difficult cycle to break, isn't it? >> It's a very difficult cycle. You would need more dialogue, you know. >> Even, you're saying, at university level we are here to be taught. We're not here to learn. >> Yeah. >> So again, this kind of quite radical notion that he's asking us to rethink. then, of the whole process of learning. And he comes up with a whole lot of different suggestions and strategies. >> Yeah, Pai Obanya doesn't only talk about the change, but he also proposes other strategies. And one of them is that the teacher should not only question in class, you should only listen to questions from children. So, questioning and listening is one of the strategies, and to accept and to encourage everybody to speak in the classroom, not only the teacher speaking, or the brightest person in the class speaking. >> And I like his notion of weaving. He talks about weaving in that it's meant for a process of learning teaching. >> Yeah, yeah. >> A bit about what he's talked about there. >> Yeah there are situations -- it is common in Africa -- where students learn for examination. So, they learn just to say-- >> Just in Africa, George, hey? [LAUGH] >> Well, I'm talking about from the African perspective here. Yeah. So, it's like chew, pour and forget. You pour for the exam and then you forget. Pai Obanya wants that process to be broken, where learning will form part of the whole thing. Where learning-- what is learnt in the classroom can be applied outside the classroom. That's what he means by weaving. >> So, it's woven into the way you think, the way you behave and you don't just reproduce knowledge material. You're thinking for yourself. So, this is a practical theory? >> A very practical theory. A radical, practical theory. >> So, what do you want people to take away from this? What do you want people to do about it? >> Yeah, I think that I want pupils, listeners, to explore further Pai Obanya's ideas and principles which can easily be found on the web. And at least the reading materials that you will be referred to would also help. And then I want them to think about what these principles underlying teacher's work today as described by Pai Obanya mean to them. Then lastly, I want them to answer this last question. [LAUGH] How to Pai Obanya's ideas agree with educational thinkers within their countries? Even within Nigeria, within Ghana, how do Pai Obanya's ideas agree with other educational thinkers? >> And I see huge resonances, huge links with the thinking of other thinkers who we're going to come and talk about as well. We're going to talk about David Perkins, we're going to talk about Vygotsky, and I just see so many close connections between what he's saying and what they're saying, and whether you want to look at some of those, I think we'll be able to see the strands and the weaving that takes place among different theories. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. [MUSIC]
