amstref

15/09/2017

As we muse over the puzzle around the school fires and whether the return of the cane as recently proposed by Dr. Matiangi is the ultimate solution...we should bear in mind that learning is fostered or laden by emotions. The 'classroom' is an emotional place, our children are confronted by three sets of emotions: emotions due to interactions or realities external to the school; social emotions-which maybe attributed to nature of relationships between them and their peers in school and teachers; AND Academic emotions which are generally linked to their learning experiences especially around aspects like assessment. The academic emotions may be either positive...pride, excitement, anger hope enjoyment etc while the negative emotions include, anger, shame, anxiety, boredom, hopelessness...; well research shows that when students experience positive emotions, they tend to develop adapative motivational patterns like resilience, appreciation of efforts while those who experience negative emotions exhibit maladaptive motivational patterns like a sense of hopelessness, anger, despair and fear amongst others...; Reflect and ponder over! How well do we support our children emotionally especially academic emotions...look out for next post on tangible strategies we can employ...

02/09/2017

KCSE 2017 mattters: Transparency and accoutability is at the heart of a just assessment process...Even with knowing how the judges voted, both Jubilee and NASA leaders are keen to find out the details of what informed the verdict of those assenting and dissenting('Mr Kimemia further called on the Supreme Court to lay down its reasons for annulling the presidential election results in the petition filed by opposition leader Raila Odinga'...(online Daily Nation Sept 2nd)... )...why then is Dr. Matiangi, Prof. Magoha and KNEC crew tormenting our children by keeping the KCSE marking and grading system a mystery. One year down the line there has been no official communication on the marking and grading process adopted for 2016 and what will happen in 2017.

15/08/2017

Yesterday, the British government announced that there armed policemen will soon have bod-cameras-mounted on their 'heads' (not literally) to enhance transparency...this is to help amongst other things in dealing with disputes over police shooting incidences. I came to understand through that news bulletin that it is a practise that has been in place in the USA for sometime...this news item made me think deeply about the level of transparency from state officials in our country...and before you think I ma think about form 34A, B, Cs...(nothing the matter with that)...I am actually thinking about our KCSE system. Students will be doing exams in another two months time...given some of the controversies that arose last year, it is not very clear to Kenyan citizens what grading system was and will be employed in grading the results and why...: Is this right?
Currently we are in the proces of implementing/launching a new curriculum-the process of how that process is going in shrouded in mystery. If you go to the KICD site, they have a list of schools where the pilot study is being carried out-the list itself is full of errors and inconsistencies; the justification of the choic eof the particular schools is not given; what the pilot testing entails is not given; who is carrying out the piloting or overseeing to collect real and valid feedback is not given...we are supposed to wait for the results and gladly accept what will be reported to us and commit our children's destiny to persons, who as I repeatedly said may not take their children to the same schooling system.
Kenyans...wake up! Some of the things we see around us we passively entrench as a culture. It should be every parent's and candiadtes right to be clearly told/confirmed to how the exams will be graded...in a country where transitions and long term decisions are made out the one set of exam...part of getting it right is strategy! Will CRE and physic for example be graded in the same way...we need to petition the ministry to clarify this sonnest...they should do so not just through circulars but though public communicaton so that every Kenyan parent or student gets to understand...Let us shun mediocrity...look out for the next course of action...!

10/08/2017

the sophistication of the Kenya election process...meant that the mathematics discussons as predicted earlier...extended beyond the basics like addition, subtraction, totals and percentages to include ratios, proportion even arithmetic and geometric progression...not forgetting aspects like rate of change...and even the mathematics concept of constant...and the application of the deeper aspects of mathematics like patterns, majority, or randommness etc...just in case you come across a student asking where will we use all this maths...well the narration above is one good example... IEBC and all political contenders have inevitably had to use the maths to plan and guide their campaigns and to make sense of the results...did I forget the police and the whole security dockect...can you begin to imagine all the mathematical considerations during this elections...they had to take in trying to secure the country... who will do the maths for them when they abandon the maths at form one level as proposed in the new education curricullum?... ... ...

05/03/2017

am not sure why I found myself thinking of this video as I was reflecting on the current conversations in social media on the reported incidence of bullying ...Alliance high school.. and probably others...Oh yeah...I was thinking about the fact that leaders are not born but made...the student leaders...emulate directly or indirectly leadership practise through the explicit and implicit trainings they are offered. The first time I saw this ...I thought to myself something is quite wrong in the way Matiangi approached this matter. Now I can put some of this feeling to words...bullying(using of superior strength to intimidate or influence someone...(internet definition))...can you identify manifestations of bullying in this clip...? what would a transformational leader ...have done differently?

11/12/2012

AMSTREF an educational foundation specializing in Math and Science education in Kenya is seeking to engage on part-time basis Sales and Marketing representatives whose roles would be to Market their latest release of a first ever Mathematics Magazine in Africa targeting schools, Institutions and individuals.

These marketers should be:

Energetic and Self Motivated
Have developed interpersonal skills
Education level of Secondary School and beyond including the current form four leavers
Between the age of 18-24 years.

Interested candidates to apply by sending an e-mail indicating personal attributes and place of residence in the country on or before the close of day 18th December 2012.

25/05/2011

Africa MathScience Technology Research and Education Foundation (AMSTREF) is a public charitable trust registered in Kenya.

25/05/2011

AMSTREF (amstref) is on Twitter. Sign up for Twitter to follow AMSTREF (amstref) and get their latest updates

25/05/2011

25/05/2011