Empowering Kenyan primary students as competency-based learners with Learning through Play with Technology (LtPT)

• In Event: Raising student voices: Teachers’ support for student critical thinking through the Tech & Play Initiative in Kenya and Rwanda

Proposal

Kenya is creating an innovative manufacturing and knowledge-based economy staffed with a critically thinking, creative, and technology-prepared workforce. Under the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), Kenya is transitioning away from a route exam-oriented education system towards one that supports critical competencies. Kenya Play (KPLAY), funded by the LEGO Foundation, is developing a LtPT holistic model that works in 311 under-resourced primarily rural areas in Kenya. Through KPLAY approximately 90,000 students experience joyful, meaningful, engaging, collaborative, and iterative learning, that builds STEM skills, knowledge, and learning-to-learn capacities.
In this presentation IREX will share the adaptive development of KPLAY and how teachers and school leaders made the necessary shifts in their mindset as they move their own practice from traditional memorization-based teaching to play-based educators while interrogating the cultural implications of a shift related to student empowerment. The CBC highlights applying skills and knowledge to real life situations and KPLAY supports educators to learn by doing through the CBC competencies – Communication, Collaboration, Critical thinking, and problem solving, Imagination and creativity with Learning to learn abilities. KPLAY developed an evidence-based iterative program. Over the past two years of the project, we have learned that:
• Teachers are pivotal as this transition requires a mindset shift as they move towards a facilitation, play based model for LtPT to work.
• To develop mindset shifts and skill building there must be investment in teachers as they experiment with this model and master LTPT practices. KPlay includes training, a period of application and coaching, and communities of practice.
• School leaders and the education system needs to buy in to the value of play based learning and create an environment that supports teachers, parents, and students.
• The physical space of a PlayLab in each school paves a way for experimentation, creativity, and imagination.
• Parental engagement is important as they understand the importance of play at school and home and support learning materials in school.
Specifically in KPLAY’s rural context:
• The LtPT methodology can be used for under-resourced areas and with students with disabilities through differentiation, localized expertise, and local materials.
• Systems implementing STEM and soft skills can use the LtPT approach, scaffolding digital literacy for all learners.

These modifications in the KPLAY model promoted a shift in mindsets of teachers and promoted the use of LTPT in the classroom. Through interviews and focus groups with participants, classroom observations, teacher survey data and school visits, we have begun to see real change. Additionally, many teachers initially suffered from technophobia and had avoided using digital gadgets previously provided by the government under the laptop projects. But now these are actively used by children and teachers in many of the schools because of IREX’s scaffolded technology training. (Data forthcoming) This significant shift is from a system that taught students to remain silent and memorize what they are told to a system that empowers students with critical thinking. Here we see LtPT as contributing to the protest of route learning through raising student and teacher voice.

Authors

• Sarah Bever, IREX

• Lucy W Maina, International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX)