On The Ground - Nov/Dec 2023

Club of Leaders (CoL)

The last two months of 2023 focused on collecting data to evaluate the CoL. Malembe Rise evaluated teacher pedagogy, student to student interactions, student to teacher interactions, and students ability to expand their knowledge beyond the classroom.

The teachers involved in the CoL were invited to video tape themselves teaching in order to self evaluate and reflect on their pedagogy. In addition, a cohort of students were invited to observe three teachers within the CoL and in their own classrooms and compare the strategies used in both settings. Mr Chancard, a Malembe Rise staff member and master teacher, stated that teachers involved in the CoL “are adapting to the methods that put the child at the center and are beginning to understand the philosophy of the Club”. The goal for the teachers involved with the CoL is to not only become familiar with but truly invested in a student centered approach to teaching so that it becomes a natural part of their pedagogy and they seamlessly implement it into their daily classroom lessons.

Twelve teachers at Hebron school and Malembe Rise staff members were asked to use a Likert scale to rate four statements about their feelings toward the Club of Leaders and its impact on the students’ personal development. The statements were: 1. The CoL has improved how my students interact with me. 2. The CoL has improved how I interact with my students. 3. The CoL has improved how the students interact with each other in the classroom. 4. The CoL has expanded their knowledge beyond what is taught in the classroom. When compared with data collected in January 2023, there was a 17% increase in how the students interact with each other and how the CoL has expanded knowledge beyond what is taught in the classroom. This data will continue to be analyzed and utilized to improve the CoL as Malembe Rise moves into 2024.