TLM

"Lectures put participants in a position of sustained, passive listening. Learning, unfortunately is not an automatic consequence of pouring information into another person’s head. It requires the person’s own mental processing. Therefore, lecturing by itself will never lead to real learning." Dr. Mel Silberman, a professor at Temple University

TLM = Teaching and learning material. As I’ve noted previously on this blog, in the Ghanaian world, this equates to a large posterboard. Teachers use these posterboards as a visual aid while lecturing. In my time here, I have repeatedly emphasized the importance of hands-on teaching learning materials as being more effective than these posterboards. Unfortunatly, lecturing and development of posterboard TLMs seems to be the norm and it doesn’t appear that many people are interested in deviating from it.

So, this semester I was asked to help students with the development of said TLMs. I don’t agree with the development of these posters, but the tutors at the college expect them from the students, so what can I do? I asked students to draw a plan of their first TLM and I provided feedback. Most of my feedback consisted of, “this is not effective”, or “would be nice to see a new verse used rather than same one from when you were a child” or “this is not effective” or, oh yea, “this is not effective”. In the darkness, a few plans emerged as promising. However, generally speaking, the topics covered on the TLMs were outdated, inaccurate, or just completely pointless. These plans have me even more worried about the education system of this country. The students are simply reproducing ideas that teachers throughout Ghana have been using for years. I just continue to hope that one, just one teacher, somewhere along the way, will break the mold, try something new, and send a jolt through this current system.

Everyone's favorite verse. I saw this exact plan a few dozen times. This ridiculous song has been around since these college kids were in primary school. Time to move on!

A duck? Really? I've never seen this animal in Ghana.

How does a poster teach anyone how to construct anything? One shape covering an entire posterboard. Sigh....

Considering the amount of time that kids spend cleaning and cooking at home, I think they've got this topic mastered. No need to cover this in school.

On a side note, this month has definitely not been one of my favorites. Two weeks ago I had a fat lip and rashes. Last weekend I had a serious intestinal dilemma. Now I have a terrible cold. Keep pushing me Africa, keep pushing me.....