UNIVERSITY OF ESWATINI
BONGANI MHLANGA
BACHELOR OF EDUCATION
SECONDARY
145650
PORTFOLIO FOR CURRICULUM
STUDIES IN HISTORY
EDC 476
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Bongani Mhlanga is a Bachelor of Education 4th
year student at the University of Eswatini. I possess an International Diploma
in Computer Studies and have a vast working experience with Non-Governmental
organizations (NGOs) like the National Emergency Response Council on HIV and
AIDS (NERCHA). I fell in love with teaching while doing my day to day duties
especially when dealing with community Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVCs)
and realized I had to jump in to the teaching profession to impart and
transform the lives of the young minds in schools. This is because education is
seen as a fundamental instrument for societal transformation in any country.
Having done my Degree programme, I have been totally
transformed and I am going to bring a portfolio of my experiences, the skills
and capabilities that I have harvested from the course, Curriculum Studies in
History throughout my degree journey. I will include some tangible examples as evidence of the achievements I got from the course.
A PERSONAL REFLECTION
The course Curriculum in History has been so helpful
in transforming my career. It has greatly influenced the way I think and
understand about the 21st teaching and learning. I have greatly
harvested many skills from the beginning of the course in year two until final year. Skills include the self-understanding of a
History teacher, the art of teaching the skills needed in in History, the way
to do lesson plans and scheme of work in the subject. I have also learnt to handle
sources, to use teaching aids and student involvement methods.
The use of sources in History is a fundamental aspect
of it that forms a bigger portion of teaching and learning of the subject. I
have learnt in the course series, the importance of using sources in History
and the art of selecting the best sources for a particular topic. For example,
the use of journals when teaching about the history of Eswatini, and other
sources rather than relying on the limited sources that are available. In this
piece of work, I will be presenting a portfolio of skills and experiences in
the course with tangible evidence to most of my shared experiences and skills.
WHAT IS IT TO BE
AN EFFECTIVE HISTORY TEACHER?
Research offered a plethora of definitions of an
effective teacher. Clark (1993, p. 10) wrote that, “Obviously, the definition
involves someone who can increase student knowledge, but it goes beyond this in
defining an effective teacher.” Being a history teacher is not as easy as one
may think. It is a very complicated and sensitive subject. There are skills
that a history teacher has to acquire before going out to teach the subject in
schools. Doing the course has greatly empowered me with a variety of such
skills. I have learnt to understand my strengths and weaknesses.
Collins (1990), while working with the Teacher
Assessment Project established five criteria for an effective teacher: is
committed to students and learning, knows the subject matter, is responsible for
managing students, can think systematically about their own practice, and is a member
of the learning community. In the series of courses in Curriculum in History, I have been well equipped to be competent enough to become effective history
teachers. Content knowledge is a requirement for every history teacher; this is
made possible by employing a lot of strategies that we learnt in the course.
The key one is being up to date with knowledge and this is through reading
books, journals, articles and daily newspaper publications. I have set my phone
to a mode that enables me to read a series of daily publications which I make
sure I read every day to keep myself updated with current affairs.
Another skill I have learnt is that of being
reflective as a history teacher. After every lesson, it is expected that an
effective history teacher reflect on the lesson he/she was facilitating on.
This is because it enables them to do introspection and see where a lesson went
wrong for a more refined next lesson or even a re-approach to the same lesson.
Personally, I have learnt to be reflective beyond the academics, but to reflect
from all that I did in every particular day and that helps me to grow in
understanding my strengths and weaknesses.
Coming to the teaching of History, I have learnt to
use other teachers where I identify some limitations in addressing a particular
topic. As I am new to the profession, I invited the Head of Department (HOD) to
address issues about the art of answering History topics. I realized after
giving them a test that they were listing and making some bullets and few had a
clue about concepts of describing, explaining, and evaluating a question. It
was through a personal reflection after getting the nature of responses that
are not required when answering History test questions.
THE ART OF
TEACHING HISTORY
Moreover, the teaching of history goes hand in hand
with some expected skills that need to be developed in the learners. As I an new to the profession, the course has empowered me with skills to teach the subject
effectively. History can be an inspirational and rewarding subject, yet in
others it can seem dry and of little relevance. Learning to teach History in
the Secondary levels helps teachers to learn to teach History in a way that pupils
will find interesting, enjoyable and purposeful.
I have learnt a lot of student involvement methods of
teaching History in a way that will captivate the interest of the learner.
These include student involvement methods which enable the learners to feel so
relaxed and free while learning because learners learn easy when the mood is so
relaxed. There is a method that I have attached to my portfolio which was
marked by the course lecturer. It was designed to involve learners during a
lesson. The student involvement method was tried in a classroom situation and
it was so effective.
PREPARATION OF A
LESSON PLAN AND A SCHEME OF WORK IN HISTORY
Teachers begin planning a lesson by considering the
context of teaching and the learning situations most likely to interest their pupils
(Taylor, 1970). Lesson planning is one
of the key skills every teacher should have. Lesson plans differ from subject
to subject. The history format of planning a lesson is so simple and easy to
master while communicating to the teacher about the steps he/she will be following
as he/she deliver the lesson. It is also informing and constructive in making sure that as a teacher, I do my best in teaching the History subject in the classroom situation.
A lesson plan comes from the scheme of work which is
another complex teaching tool where topics are broken down to small chunks of
teachable items. It also set the target dates of teaching those topics. On that
regard, a scheme of work is as helpful as a reference point for a history
teacher. It is not easy to do but so helpful to organize the way to teach the History Syllabus. The course has fully equipped me with a comprehensive
knowledge of formulating a good scheme of work with all the components of it
and the art of managing it. The scheme of work that I have attached as evidence
in my portfolio is a design that is ideal to History and that I have learnt
during the course of the program. It was checked by supervisors during teaching
practice and the more I was getting feedback from them, the more improvement
I saw in my scheme of work development skills as well as my teaching skills.
Mr Bongani Mhlanga
