Editorial, Reform Forum Number 8

The 1998 NIED Educational Conference 

This special edition of Reform Forum has been put together specifically for the 1998 NIED Educational Conference, the theme of which is:

However, this doesn’t mean that it is not, as usual, full of articles of interest to any Namibian educator, or person interested in education in Namibia, whether they will be attending the conference or not.

This year’s Conference gives us a chance to look back at the progress we’ve made in educational reform, and to reflect on how we can offer better support to practitioners dealing in their classrooms with the change to learner-centred, democratic education. Are we doing enough for our teachers? Are there more efficient approaches we could be taking? The Conference is designed to help us explore some of these issues, and to come up with practical recommendations for a better way of doing things.

Because so much of education reform is based on the switch to learner-centred education, learner-centred education forms the central focus of many of the Conference presentations, and of many of the articles in this edition of Reform Forum.. The first article in this journal, Ursula van Harmelen’s Is learner centred education child centred? looks at the assumptions about knowledge and how we learn that underlie learner centred education and our decision to adopt it as national policy.

Mariana Van Graan, who heads NIED’s research department, examines the situation on the ground. What is going on in Namibian classrooms, and how are teachers interpreting and coping with the changes? Learner-centred education: equal to groupwork? Findings from Namibian classrooms is based on recent studies carried out in various regions of the country. The work not only describes the current situation in our schools, but can also serve as a point of reference from which we can guauge our progress in the years to come.

The last three articles in this journal look more closely at specific aspects of or approaches to teaching and learning in Namibian schools.

Patricia Rowell, who works for the BES Project, explores the consequences of the different types of language we use in Language for teaching and learning in the classroom.

Paul Cook, who works on the same project, describes the role that reflection can play in professional development and learner centred education. Teacher reflection in learner-centred education explores the tool of reflection as a means of empowering practitioners to implement change.

Peer coaching in Caprivi: a description of work done on staff development for secondary English in the Caprivi Region , by Val Sismey who works with ELTDP, records the lessons learnt by the project while implementing one particular means of teacher support. The description is offered both as a record of process and as inspiration for anyone who would be interested in trying out a similar system.

All that remains is to wish our readers an interesting and productive Conference. We look forward to including your comments on it in our next edition!  

The Editorial Committee