Brian Mutua scored 8 straight As and had a mean score of 84 out of 84 at Sunshine school in the 2024 national examinations to become the top 2024 student nationally. Asked by a 9 P.M. citizen TV news anchor Lilian Muli, on 10th January 2025 to comment on the school system that nurtured him Brian, without blinking an eye, said the 8-4-4 system he went through made him more of a person who remembers what he read in class than one who can use the classroom knowledge and skills in the real world. He was quick to praise the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) system which his younger brother was going through as better because he sees it through his brother as one that imparts skills that can be utilized outside the school.
Brian in essence was saying that the education he and his cohort received helps them progress up the academic ladder but it is ill-equipped to make them fit into the society and that there is a difference between the 8-4-4 and the CBC system of education. One of the main differences is that whereas the 8-4-4 system was teacher-centered (TC), the CBC is learner-centered (LC).
Let me elaborate on the key differences between TC and LC.
In a TC approach, which the CBC education was introduced to eliminate, all the focus is on the teacher who is thought or deemed to know it all. In the classroom the teacher talks as the students passively listen and when outside the classroom the students largely work alone in libraries or elsewhere trying to understand and memorize the classroom (lecture hall) information. The teacher (largely subjectively) evaluates student learning. Students do not get feedback on major examinations.
In an LC approach the focus is more on the student than on the teacher who is mainly a facilitator and not necessarily an instructor. In the class the teacher facilitates and students interact with him/her and with one another. Outside the classroom students work on projects in pairs, in groups or alone depending on the purpose and nature of the activity. Students peer-evaluate their own learning guided by the teacher in classroom projects presentation. Major examinations are projects defended in class with students getting direct feedback. This way the project owners use the feedback to perfect their projects for direct implementation.
Allow me use my own example of LC approach at the university. This is a marketing unit in a bachelor of commerce class. Right from day one in an orientation meeting I let the students form self-selected groups of not more than five depending on the size of the class. I have taught classes as large as 200. In the first two to three weeks of a 14-week semester I introduce the principles of marketing and give the students my PowerPoint lecture notes, readings and references for them to do cooperative or group studies outside the classroom as they undertake self-identified projects. The notes form a guide similar to a lab guide in a lab-based unit. This is in adherence to the Confucian philosophy of, “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand”. My belief is that the social science lab is the society or industry out there and not that four walled space in the university with test tubes and other gadgets. So my students go out in the field to test and verify theories and principles gotten in the lecture hall.
In class I define and explain the basic principles of marketing i.e. the 4Ps. This is the “I hear” part of the Confucian philosophy. I then ask the students to “elect” a project of their own which requires them, in their formed groups, to observe the environment, relate the lecture hall knowledge to the environment and design and produce an appropriate product (the first P- product). This becomes the “I see” part of the Confucian philosophy. They then price their product (the second P – price), and settle on how they will place it or how it will reach the customer (third P-place) and finally promote it (the forth P – promotion). This will take them up to 9 weeks in the field to pave way for them to come back to the classroom to spend three of the 14 weeks of the semester to present their projects for peer review and marks awards and this accomplishes the “I do” part of the Confucian philosophy. I avoid written examinations for I believe that giving the same written examination to all the students is based on a “one size fits all” approach where all students receive the same testing irrespective of their specific needs which might not benefit all students.
At the presentation, groups present their projects with every member of the group participating. In the audience every student evaluates every presenter as I do likewise. The average of the students’ evaluation is averaged with my own to make the final mark. My own awarding will be based on how well each presenter uses the marketing knowledge extracted from the introductory lecture and the reading list and reference material given.
At https://youtu.be/eg5gOxi8mEI; https://youtu.be/lS8dxg4-wKQ you will capture a presentation of my students who borrowed from their parents to design a product and profitably market it within the semester and actually converted the same into a part time business while still at college. There are others on my you tube and TikTok channels.
Brian’s message is clear to me. The learner centered learning approach is well and better placed to enable students fit in the society.