A study by NCED (2010, pp. 83–85) found signs of improvement in classroom
teaching-learning practices. The researchers observed that significant
percentages of teachers were performing above average in their platform
skills (82 per cent), selection of content (64.6 per cent), delivery of lessons
(69.7 per cent), concluding lessons (64.3 per cent) and using transfer strategies
(60.3 per cent). These positive findings indicate that Nepalese teachers
are perhaps moving away from rote memorization and teacher-centred
pedagogical approaches towards student-centred approaches. However,
studies by others, such as Room to Read have not been so positive, with a
study report noting that teachers used the lecture method, asked students to
turn to a specific page of the lesson of the textbook and to ‘recite the given
content either silently or loudly’ (Room to Read, 2014, p. 3).
For the present study, the researcher observed classes in seven schools of
three districts to identify what the common pedagogical practices were.
Altogether, 21 classes were observed, of which 12 classes were in four schools
in which innovative approaches were being piloted, while the remaining nine
classes were in three ‘regular’ schools (those in which innovative approaches
were not being implemented). All of the schools covered in this study were
public schools.
The classroom practices observed in the nine classes in ‘regular’ schools were
as follows.
- In seven of these nine classes, nothing was done by the teachers to link the
day’s lesson with previous lessons or with the experience of the students.
There were no pre-lesson or anticipation activities to prepare students for the
lesson. Two of the classes were started by the teachers asking and checking
homework. Half of the class time was spent in checking homework, which
took time out of the day’s lesson. Two of the classes began with a review
of the previous lesson and then the teacher started the day’s lesson, but
in one of these classes the new lesson lacked continuity with the previous
day’s lesson. Thus, in only one class out of the nine did the teacher start the
lesson by reviewing the previous lesson and explaining how it was related
to the new lesson. - In all nine classes reading was the main activity (conducted for the majority
of the class time). Five of the classes were delivered by either the teacher or a
student reading a paragraph from the book and the teacher then explaining
the paragraph. Sometimes the teacher simply repeated what had been read
aloud and sometimes the teacher explained the meaning or simplified the
paragraph. In one class, students were asked to read from the book and then