Career Change?

Nilienda By Grace leo, tena. (I went to By Grace again today). This time, I taught Math. Well, the teacher taught the actual lesson, but then he had some other things he had to do (he is also the school administrator) so I helped them with their assignment…which included pretty much teaching the material again b/c most of them weren’t getting it. (though they say they understand, but then you look at their paper 15mins later and they’re still on #1a.) We were learning about fractions (changing a fraction → decimal; decimal → fraction; and fraction → percentages). It seemed that they are still having trouble understanding how to apply concepts to different problems. i.e. to change a fraction to a percentage you should multiply the fraction by 100, sindiyo?

ex: give 4/16 in percentage.

4/16 → reduce: divide top & bottom by 4 → ¼ → ¼ x 100/1 → 100/4 → 100 ÷ 4 = 25 → 25%

So I would explain that, but then they wouldn’t understand the next one. I heard the other week that sometimes even Master’s and PhD students aren’t able to apply a concepts like they should and that this is a problem with the Kenyan educational system. Students are just taught to memorize facts and whatnot, but they don’t really learn how to learn, or to grasp the concept of what they are being taught.

I guess we’ll see tomorrow if any of this information stuck. Tomorrow night → Mfangano Island (via Kisumu, Luanda, & Mbita).