This is one of the Best Academic Practices. After the completion of syllabi, secondary schools that attain peak performance in KCSE through the right route expose their candidates to subject experts and examiners.
Ideally, there are teachers who strive to expand their expert authority to lofty levels. Sedulously, such teachers try to generate more knowledge by publishing complementary course books. Such preceptors also thrive in churning out good guidebooks that facilitate in-depth revision programmes.
As a scribe, I see such teachers as experts because their efforts make them crane their necks — making them manifest at their best above the rest. Schools that are keen to invite subject experts and examiners, benefit bountifully because students find crucial chances to hear it from seasoned speakers.
But before that, KNEC invites teachers for retooling. In such academic pow-wows, teachers learn how to set and mark exams. Schools we lionise as veritable academic giants ensure that most of their teachers train as examiners. So that as they race against time to complete the syllabi, they press relevant buttons with clock-like precision.
Therefore, it is an advantage, when schools are awash with teachers who are notable experts and examiners. They can start with home-grown solutions to access success in KCSE before they go out of their way to invite external experts and examiners. After all, the sage said charity begins at home. This is the way I see it as a scribe and speaker.
In case a teacher is an expert or an examiner in his or her area of specialisation, it is easier to win the confidence of learners. Ostensibly, when the teacher evinces self-efficacy, it changes learners’ attitude. Apparently, teachers train as examiners in specific papers. Therefore, in my subject of specialisation such as English, I can be an examiner in either English Paper 1, 2 or 3. In case I choose to be an examiner in English Paper 3, I will evince expert authority in imaginative composition and essays based on KCSE set texts. Conversely, this does not imply that I will stop teaching other aspects in English as a subject. Instead, I will still have to know how to teach other spheres such as poetry, grammar, folk tales, short forms, et cetera.
No wonder, some of us who train teachers on best approaches, we vouch for team teaching. On this, there is the essence of constituting and consolidating academic departments in schools.
Being that some subjects like English have a broad scope, this validates my strong stance. Teachers trained in the three separate papers can find wonderful ways to complement each other.
Ipso facto, it is necessary to invite guest examiners to build more blocks. This is important whether the school has home-grown examiners or not. In a school where teachers have trained as examiners, the guest examiners just visit to dot the I’s and cross the T’s. Somehow, even if teachers are good at what they do, they always require others to visit and tighten loose nuts or polish pale parts. Maybe, through change of instructors, students may understand problematic areas. Then, experts need one another because diamond cuts diamond and wise words of Solomon remind us that iron sharpens iron.
Consequently, when a school lacks teachers with basic training as examiners, it means that in case they do not invite them, doom will loom large. They may also fail to find what Paulo Coelho calls the elixir or alchemy of transforming metal into gold. This may lead to a lot of activity without productivity.
There are schools where teachers create more contact hours with students and expand learning time but they continue to register poor performance. Meaning, for things to be hunky-dory, there must be subject experts and examiners who can assist students steer clear. The onus is on experts to train the candidate class on the art of exams. They should sensitise candidates to prepare adequately, which justifies the essence of teaching, testing and re-teaching.
In addition, subject experts and examiners must talk about the Table of Specification (ToS) also known as Exam Blueprint — ‘a must come areas’ and skills tested in each topic. KNEC uses it to develop assessment areas.
Topics tested focus on KNEC syllabus objectives, Bloom’s Taxonomy, trends in marking and setting plus format of exams. When analysing KNEC reports, it is important to study performance of previous years, address reasons for poor performance and consider raft of recommendations proposed by pundits. Bloom’s Taxonomy focuses on higher-level skills and high-order questions — ability to recall, comprehend, apply, analyse, synthesise and evaluate.
Likewise, on trends in marking and setting, teachers should prepare students for the unpredictable nature of exams. They should stress the need for content mastery and retention. It is important to talk about exam integrity. Advisedly, it is right to focus on the components of the format of exams, which include number of papers per subject, skills tested per paper, total marks per paper, sections per paper, total marks per section, areas tested per section and the time each paper takes.
Again, subject experts and examiners should caution candidates against common mistakes made in exams such as wrong interpretation of questions, failure to bring out skills tested and failure to respond to questions in the required depth and breadth.
Finally, subject experts and examiners should train candidates on how to plot work on paper. This captures writing, drawing and labeling diagrams, presenting Mathematical work and balancing chemical equations.
By Victor Ochieng’
The writer rolls out academic talks in schools. He trains teachers on Best Academic Practices. vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
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