Teacher Learning in a Community of Practice: A Case Study of ...

understanding it at all. I just don't think that OBE is working and r don't
think that it's going to work. I think they should have married 90% of the
traditional way and 10'Yo of OBE. You cannot do OBE 100%. It's totally
difficult.
From the above extract we see that Shirley, a teacher who had been teaching for eight
years, had little regard for the potential of C2005.
Mary, another teacher with twenty-four years of teaching experience, expressed her
reservations about OBE in the following comment: (Initial interview)
Mary: I'll be honest, in that like, OBE, I started like two years ago because I took
the first lot of grade fours and my basic problem that I've found with OBE
was getting away from actually teaching children the basic skills. Now when
we inherit them from junior primary to senior primary, we have the problem
of reading. We have the problem of them writing. We had the problem of
them actually setting out work and all that because what happened with
OBE.... They were doing like less writing I would say and that became a
problem.... So I'm saying that maybe I'm found wanting, you know ...
Beth, a teacher in a semi-rural area reflected on C2005 and OBE as follows:
Beth: I can say that I like Curriculum 2005 because it helps us as educators, to
help creative learners. Learners who think critically, not learners who are
passive like us. Sometimes we were so passive in our days. The teacher
would just teach... We were so passive but these learners, they are
fortunate because in Curriculum 2005 really. They know if we work as a
group, one is the helper, one is the speaker, one is the mover, blah, blah,
blah. So it makes teaching in the indoor classroom very easy. Most of the
work goes to the learner... But you have to do most of the talking all the time
as an educator. They just come up, just give them the work and they just do
it.
She went on to describe her colleagues' perceptions (at her school) and the context in
which her own learning was taking place.
Beth: But since, it's not all of us who really appreciate Curriculum 2005. I'm not
working alone in my grade so I'm happy but other educators really; they find
it so hard. What can I say? I can say that some of them, they resist to
change so it's...make sure... you know, you feel that we just wish that all of us
here could just enjoy and then be familiar with the outcomes but each one
they've said no, you are in the field. We've been here for 20 years; this
thing is not going anywhere. So then you are discouraged by that.
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