The ManicaPost
Divaries Cosmas Jaravaza
THE Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Prof Murwira has introduced education 5.0 which is a further development to the traditional education 3.0. The traditional three pillars of a university are; 1 Research 2 Teaching 3 Community service and Engagement. There seemed to be an agreed priority ranking of the three pillars to be Research as the most important, followed by teaching and lastly community service. The new model adds innovation and industrialization. How are these elements prioritized and integrated in terms of teaching methodologies and assessment implemented in Universities? How can educators/facilitators (usually called lecturers) transform their teaching [which has largely been ‘lecture’method and routine laboratory experiments (for natural sciences) to confirm known outcomes] to inculcate the innovative and entrepreneurial/ industrialize mindset in learners?
Traditionally, research has been considered as the most important component of academic enquiry at universities. In our opinion, Education 5.0 does not change that priority but seeks to bring research into our teaching and learning rather than taking it as a separate component from teaching. Education 5.0 requires every teacher to be a good researcher so as to transform learners into industrialists and innovators rather than ‘parrots’ who can recite content without any meaningful practical meaning. There is a Chinese proverb which says, ‘talking does not cook rice’.
Education for the future should be focused on creating thinkers who do not need to just regurgitate or memorize information. Producing a learner who will be productive in meeting Zimbabwe’s vision 2030 is a clarion call to all educators to revamp their teaching methodologies lest Education 5.0 will just be a ‘fad’ soon to be swept into oblivion a few years from now? Our current education system has a shallow assessment view because it just rewards learners for recalling, imitation, basic psycho-motor skills in technical courses and language mastery. However, producing entrepreneurs, industrialists and innovators is a different ball game where the thrust should now be on higher order skills’ that is:
Critical thinking and expert mind set
Creative problem solving
Teamwork
Communication
Interdisciplinary approach.
Hence, the fact based lecture method no longer fits these requirements. We need to change our pedagogics to interactive teaching. Kauchal and Eggen (1988) noted reasons why the lecture method is widely used in education are basically convenience to the lecturer and Universities’ need for mass production which defeats the essence of Education 5.0. These advantages are listed below:
It is efficient, since learners are given organised information
There is no need to worry about teaching strategy, ‘just lecture’
It is very flexible and can be used in a wide range of courses
Novice teachers can easily master the lecture method within a short period of time
The lecturer can simply ‘tell’ learners and ‘survive’ in the lecture room.
It becomes apparent that these advantages are largely selfish because their main benefit is making it easy for the teacher and also facilitating ‘mass production’ by Universities to produce useless graduates who may not contribute much to meet vision 2030 and are ‘hard to sell’ to other countries.
Santos, Kupezynski and Bain(2016) argue that the lecture method is DEAD, in other words it is:
Deficient in capturing learners’ attention.
Excludes majority of 21st century learners who may not be able to attend brick and mortar classrooms. The way to go are inclusive classrooms, that are actually virtual classes.
Adds nothing to creating an engaging and supportive learning community. There is no teamwork with the lecture method.
Diminishes learners’ engagement in the classroom.
Our opinion is that ‘talking’ or ‘telling’ is not teaching and ‘listening’ and ‘notes taking’ is not learning. Educators need an urgent paradigm shift to interactive teaching methodologies to salvage Education 5.0.
Using interactive mode of teaching, learners are active participants in research based teaching which automatically leads to the desired outcomes of innovation and entrepreneurial mindset as learners will learn from their mistakes as they try things. Interactive learning facilitates discovery processes which inculcates learners’ ability to think like experts and enhance growth of learners’ professional identity.
In natural sciences, the traditional experiments which are predetermined in terms of process and outcomes are replaced by open-ended inquiry based experiments where learners try novel experimental designs. These experiments may even go beyond laboratories to include partnerships with industry so as to conduct experiments in collaboration with industrialists. These will be value adding experiments to solve real problems being experienced in industry. So Universities will be ‘industry solution providers’.
These interactive methodologies are heavily anchored by technology for use by learners and academic staff. Technology facilitates hybrid teaching methodologies with the following benefits:
Improve learners’ soft skills and technical computer skills which are a must in our dream middle income economy.
Increases learning time since it enhances out of class engagement among learners and academic staff.
Encourages discovery learning, teamwork, communication (including media literacy) and creativity.
Briefly, the following technology based techniques inter alia have been used by teachers; blogging, power point and prezi, screencasts, podcast, smart boards, moodle, social media, chat rooms etc.
Minister Murwira should consider the following prerequisites in terms of resources that are required at tertiary institutions for Education 5.0 to be implemented in earnest otherwise we would have experienced another semantic high sounding nothing;
There is an urgent need to provide basic training to academics in research based interactive methodologies. Academics without PHDs need financial support to improve their research skills through such studies. Those with PHDs should be trained in interactive teaching methods to bridge the gap between being a good researcher and a good teacher. We have seen Professors who are ‘idiots’ when it comes to teaching. Their teaching is atrocious and they take lectures as platforms to talk about their degrees, family, time in the UK, USA etc, all that nonsense at the expense of learning.
Vice Chancellors need to be reoriented so that they promptly abandon ‘mass production’ strategies which are currently prevalent in almost all Universities in Zimbabwe. Emphasis has been on graduating thousands of learners with little concern on skills imparted over the four year period.
ZIMCHE should enforce smaller classes so that teacher-learner ratio is drastically reduced.
Seriously consider scrapping off ‘hit and run’ programs involving ‘rich’ students who do not have time to learn anything from Universities but literally ‘buy’ degrees. These absentee students do not attend any brick and mortar and virtual classes but they get all their assignments done for them by hired academic ‘bouncers’ and they also cheat or bribe to pass the final examination.
Provide adequate teaching resources to academics. Universities have misplaced priorities. Academics should be given laptops, projectors and various interactive methodologies tools of trade rather than expecting them to buy using their own funds because some lecturers may not afford. How much is a laptop as compared to the top of the range cars that are bought by University executives? At some Universities students scramble for chairs, there are no adequate lecture rooms; no sockets, no wifi or it is always malfunctioning.
Minister Murwira should not be fooled by cheer leaders who assure him that this noble Education 5.0 will just propel itself without any investment in resources at Universities. We have seen ‘innovation’ and ‘industrialization’ being incorporated in Universities mantras without any tangible commitment. Zimbabwe has a fair share of good pretenders in leadership, take note!
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