BOOK REVIEW: Philosophy of Teachers’ Epistemic beliefs for Changing Pedagogy: A paradigm Shift to Competency Based Education

Book Title: Philosophy of Teachers’ Epistemic Beliefs for Changing Pedagogy: A paradigm Shift to Competency Based Education.

Authors: Dr Michael Kariuki and Prof Misia M. M Kadenyi.

Reviewer: Prof Maurice N. Amutabi, PhD.

There have been many debates about the introduction of the Competency-Based Education (CBE) in Kenya, especially the manner in which this was done.

The finger pointing has been about the extent to which stakeholders were involved in the introduction of the new system of education, and which is now at junior high school level.

The system has been met with a lot controversies and challenges with many opining that it was a top-down imposition by President Uhuru Kenyatta just like in 1984 when the 8-4-4 system was hurriedly imposed under the regime of President Daniel Arap Moi. The worry and concern are that in few years from now, learners who are now at junior high school will be joining universities and there is evidence indicating that many policy makers may not be ready on how CBE will shape up at university level.

There is no evidence of CBE course books, textbooks and the revision of university courses are yet to be reformed in alignment with CBE. Kenyan universities have not been adequately prepared to begin changing their curriculum to suit the new system of education. There have been calls for textbooks relevant to CBE.

The current book, Philosophy of Teachers’ Epistemic Beliefs for Changing Pedagogy: A paradigm Shift to Competency Based Education by Michael Kariuki and Misia M. M Kadenyi is a response to such need particularly for teacher education at the university level.

It responds to the need to have textbooks that address the new challenges and imperatives that will come with teacher preparation for CBE in Kenya. Based on present realities, the  book breaks new ground in creating philosophical impetus in understanding changing pedagogy in Kenya.

It is among the earliest efforts at understanding the new CBE and creates a good foundation for learners and teachers at all levels in understanding the dynamics of the new system of education. It has sound arguments which will provide our understanding of CBE in ways that are new and insightful. Kariuki and Kadenyi have established adequate justification on why this book has come at the right time, just when the country is already implementing CBE, still in its infancy, which provides adequate time to gain from this book.

Five years ago, Daniel Namusonge Sifuna in an article co-authored with Mark M. Obonyo (Sifuna & Obonyo, 2019) and Maurice N Amutabi (2019) warned about the need to prepare texts for university level of the CBE.

The book under review, ‘Philosophy of Teachers’ Epistemic Beliefs for Changing Pedagogy: A paradigm Shift to Competency Based Education’ provides new insights that are not covered in any book on pedagogical issues in light of new reforms and changes in education in Africa. Its main argument is that curriculum reforms need to go hand in hand with pedagogical reforms largely due to new frameworks, breadth of coverage of content, learners’ age and societal expectations.

In chapter one the book under review, addresses philosophers of education in ways that promote global representation, from Africa, Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America. The conceptual framework of the book is simple and maps out the importance of this book to the reader in very profound ways. 

The second chapter in ‘Philosophy of Teachers’ Epistemic Beliefs for Changing Pedagogy: A paradigm Shift to Competency Based Education’ examines Competency-Based Education (CBE) in Kenya, paying attention to the dynamics at play in the education reforms in the country. The chapter pays attention to many attributes such as competence as a series of tasks and as a set of attributes.

It covers important issues such as integrated competence and the pros and cons of competence-based education in Kenya, which make readers understand some of the issues which previous discussions have been silent about. The difference between 8-4-4 system of education and the new CBE become manifest in this chapter.

The examination-based model can be energy-supping and yet learners emerge with almost zero knowledge and skills due to rote learning and memorisation, which instigates desire for short cuts to high academic grades at schools and prestigious courses in universities all of these have engendered the unethical practice of cheating in national exams.

On the other hand there is situation of mass failures being reported in universities in prestigious courses including but not limited to engineering, medicine and law, all have exposed cases of cheating in the previous levels of education. Many universities are dealing with school indiscipline arising from cases of exam malpractices which including exam cheating. The victims of exam malpractices at university are finding it hard to survive in competitive courses where some of the students admitted to them have no intellectual capacity to cope with the expected academic and scholarly rigour that is demanded. 

The third chapter covers many themes which include the concept of pedagogy in Africa. It also covers normative view of pedagogy, it distinguishes between restricted and broad view of pedagogy, it also discusses on pedagogical review in Africa. The chapter takes cognizance of many ways in which pedagogical dimensions have been pursued in African context by paying attention to indigenous as well as external influences making great blends and cocktails and smorgasbords which attempts to make learning enjoyable, exciting but not necessarily challenging.

Many books have not paid attention to indigenous knowledge systems and many readers will find this addition useful and informative. Many thinkers on Africa’s education, such as Dani Nabudere feel that we have not inculcated our own ways of knowing and making meaning that would be useful in future knowledge creation that is broad and rich (Nabudere, 2018). There is need not just to produce scholars educated in western notions but there should be African knowledge systems as well, in order to produce competent graduates fit for African context. 

The fifth chapter interrogates many issues such as etymological definition of pedagogy, philosophical pedagogy, pedagogy of science, education and pedagogy, heuristic pedagogy, among others. This chapter provides a historical analysis of pedagogy going back to Plato’s dialogues, from paidagogos to pedagogy and other related concepts and terms.

The conception in the chapter calls for what Dani Nabudere has called for, the need for educators to be prepared to learn, unlearn and relearn according to different situations given that there are no silver bullets in learning (Nabudere, 2018). Many educated people often refuse to unlearn, thereby missing the opportunity to recalibrate and embrace new ideas.

They remain locked in the past and are not able to embrace change. We had this playing out in real time during Covid-19 pandemic when learning institutions were forced to go online and many instructors were found wanting due to their previous resistance to online learning, which they had never embraced but were now forced by circumstances to embrace and use.

The sixth chapter examines various strands and types of pedagogy, from traditional pedagogy and progressive pedagogy as espoused by various authorities, which learners and general readers will find useful in interpreting day to day learning experiences. The chapter looks at teaching as an inter-subjective and intentional process. The chapter ends with examination of Aristotelian analysis of teaching.

Chapter seven examines many themes which include Socratic Method and analogy in teaching, pedagogy of Socratic dialectic, the paradox of Meno and Platonic pedagogy. The chapter pays attention to the classical European moment in pedagogy, which has been critiqued by scholars such as V. Y. Mudimbe (1988) who have called for new ways of pedagogical articulation which are democratic and inclusive and not autocratic or dictatorial.

Mudimbe states that it is a problem that African scholars base their knowledge and methods on the European constructs. Therefore, he charges the scholar who seeks a new understanding of human history with posing philosophical questions of method in the face of contradictory reports. 

The eighth chapter looks at issues such as rhetoric, paying attention to how this was looked at by the likes of Plato and Aristotle. It looks at Aristotelian Rhetoric Triangle, including Ethos, Pathos and Logos for a Classroom Teacher, and finally, looks at five canons of rhetoric in teaching.

Chapter nine looks at Teachers’ epistemic beliefs for pedagogy of competency-based curriculum and Schommers’ Five-factor dimension and teachers’ epistemic beliefs.  The chapter places the teacher at the centre of dynamics of learning and how this needs to be factored into any education reforms.

The tenth chapter covers many themes such as national ideology, education policy, and pedagogy of competency-based education; the rational for education reform in vision 2030, among others. 

The eleventh chapter is equally fascinating and provides a rich literature review on epistemic beliefs. The chapter examines many scholars and their views on pedagogy among other issues. There are many learning moments as one reads through this chapter, relevant for education reforms.

The bulk of chapter twelve looks at the work of Dewey and the formulation of pedagogy. There are many themes covered under Dewey’s perspectives, such as Dewey’s pragmatic epistemology, pragmatism and pedagogy and pedagogy of pragmatic social constructionism.

Chapter thirteen looks at pedagogy and sagacity where Odera Oruka’s Sage Philosophy is analysed for its pedagogical implications in Kenyan education.

Chapter fourteen covers many themes that include gender responsive pedagogy, teachers as gender learning experts and key terminology in gender policy in education in Kenya. 

The book makes legitimate claims and perceptions, it makes the connection between pedagogy and epistemology of curriculum in ways that promote learning environment, material prevalence, teacher preparation and resources as well as supportive structure. The book provides insights based on the experiential views.

The authors Dr Michael Kariuki and Prof Misia M. M Kadenyi have made use of the vast experiences in teaching in Kenya. Using their pedagogical experience, they expose the underpinning of epistemology of competency-based curriculum in Kenya and its attendant attributes. 

Based on field research, observation and classroom experience, the authors delve into new horizons that are totally new and Avant Garde. The reader is taken into a realisation that the book is informed by exigencies of now, new policy imperatives and contemporary research on education, as well as knowledge of previous education systems and the gaps that they have created in which CBE is trying to fit in.

The authors make the point that implementation of competency-based education should not be taken lightly as it calls for mobilisation of ideational and practical realities which call for reorganisation in thinking, planning and implementation and which require inclusion and participation by all important stakeholders in order to succeed. 

The book points out that anchoring a new education system needs to put in place new pedagogical explorations based on research realities. The place of the teacher is central to these new realities, an issue which the Kenyan education system has previously ignored. The book demonstrates that research in personal epistemology of the teacher reveal that instructors enact espoused epistemic beliefs in classroom pedagogical practice where incorporation of such knowledge and skills are needed in order to be successful. Placing the teacher at the centre of the process is not only empowering but fulfilling. 

The book suggests that teachers must be prepared and adequately empowered to change their pedagogical competencies through training and lifelong learning. The teachers are called upon to engage in learning, unlearning and relearning in order to make meaning of new realities of the 21st century learner. The teachers are called upon to engage their memory on what worked well in the past as best practice. They are called upon to pay attention to their default epistemic beliefs which must be replaced by what is aligned with the epistemology of a competency-based curriculum which is participatory and inclusive and calls upon learners to be creative, inventive and innovative.

Dr Kariuki and Prof Kadenyi have made great efforts in cushioning Kenya from suffering from scenes Kenya witnessed during the introduction of the 8-4-4 system of education. During the introduction of 8-4-4 system of education, many stakeholders were caught off guard. Schools from primary school to high school were found wanting in the expectations of the practical based education system. The universities were equally found unprepared and this was compounded by the double intake of students from 7-4-2-3 system and those from the 8-4-4 system. 

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From the foregoing, I would like to strongly recommend this book, ‘Philosophy of Teachers’ Epistemic Beliefs for Changing Pedagogy: A paradigm Shift to Competency Based Education’ by Michael Kariuki and Misia M. M Kadenyi for readers from all walks of life and all disciplines. This is based on diverse reasons.

Firstly, there is need to know about CBE and its implications on a country’s development which I am sure many readers will find fascinating. Secondly, the chapters are written in a simple language and presented in an interesting style which can be understood by the readers. Thirdly, this is an important book that will add value to great issues in teacher education in Africa, especially promotion of indigenous knowledge systems and view of promoting a holistic human being.

Finally, readers will be fascinated by the practical examples given by the writers who are highly experienced and trained in this area of teacher education in Kenya and Africa at large.