By Matri Lamb
Machakos County sits in the semi-arid countryside of southeastern Kenya, dotted with smallholder farms growing corn, millet, sorghum, market vegetables, and fruits.
Despite its official designation as part of greater Nairobi, the region is almost entirely rural. Poverty rates are high, and the county’s 909 primary and 270 secondary schools are chronically under-resourced.
Enter Kenya Connect, a local NGO operating in the remote Mwala sub-county of Machakos since 2002. They have used the Question Formulation Technique to build professional learning communities for teachers and foster more collaborative and creative classrooms for students.
Changes to Kenya’s educational landscape
In recent years, Kenya has been putting its education system through an ambitious overhaul, increasing enrollment and spending, while introducing a new Competency Based Curriculum that puts less emphasis on high stakes exams and more on student-centered learning.
School districts in remote parts of the country, however, have encountered difficulties implementing the changes because professional development opportunities are limited — as is transportation, tech equipment, and access to the internet.
Supported by a Maryland-based nonprofit, Kenya Connect serves teachers and students with health and educational programming. Their vision is “an empowered rural community that learns, grows, and thrives together.”
In addition to creating infrastructure that supports learning, Kenya Connect has been working to address the pressing need for quality, 21st century professional development specifically tailored to the rural Kenyan educational context.
Teachers partnering across continents
In 2019, Rotary International granted funding to Kenya Connect to provide specialized professional development to teachers in the Mwala sub-county. A group of teacher-mentors based in British Columbia came to Kenya for the first phase of training, working with Kenya Connect’s professional learning team to provide the kinds of support teachers identified as most important — including help with technology and strategies for making teaching and learning more student-centered.
The emphasis of this intensive in-person training was on developing a self-sustaining support network within schools. Soon after, the pandemic hit. There was an immediate need for practices that were meaningful and easy to access through virtual training.
Make Just One Change
John Anderson and Thomas Morley from Rotary had read the book Make Just One Change, outlining the use of RQI’s Question Formulation Technique in classrooms, authored by co-founders Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana. They felt it aligned well with the teacher’s needs and proposed it as a focus for the teachers’ learning.
“When we saw Make Just One Change,” John recalls, “we thought, ‘This is where we need to go,’ because this is so important in 21st century learning. We needed something that … we could hand back to teachers who could use it. It had to rely on teachers in Kenya.”
A total of 60 teachers from 10 different secondary schools signed on to participate in professional learning communities (PLC’s) centered around reading Make Just One Change and learning the Question Formulation Technique (QFT). They met monthly to discuss the reading, share what they thought was applicable to their school, and support each other as they began implementing the practices in their classrooms.
“We wanted them to enjoy this”
Every school had a liaison teacher who worked together with Kenya Connect to coordinate and lead the PLC’s. Occasionally, they’d have a group Zoom session with the mentors from British Columbia, who would get up before dawn in Pacific time to meet with the teachers, respond to questions, and offer suggestions. A Rotary grant, through Rotary District 5040 and District 9212, helped equip teachers with needed technology, including Chromebooks, routers, and internet connectivity.
I recommend that all teachers embrace [the QFT] as it caters for learners with all kinds of abilities, including the ones that have challenges in academics. — Pauline Mueni
The process was not without its challenges. Teachers were unaccustomed to sharing openly with one another about difficulties they encountered. Trained in an entirely different educational paradigm, many were habituated to expect evaluation and criticism for their efforts. They also had concerns about finishing required curricula and making the QFT align with expected learning outcomes.
The Kenya Connect team offered generous amounts of encouragement, modeling the QFT and emphasizing that the purpose of the PLC’s was to be there for one another as they learned new skills, not to critique. “We wanted them to enjoy this and see the need for it, not force it down,” said Rebecca Akinyi Migwambo, Kenya Connect’s professional learning coordinator.
Working with a local university
Ultimately, the PLC’s helped forge a new culture of mutual support in the pilot schools as teachers met to discuss the book and talk about their experiences applying the QFT in their classrooms. Engaging one-on-one mentors from the faculty of South Eastern Kenya University (SEKU) also proved key to the program’s eventual success. The faculty mentors attended the PLC meetings and observed live classroom sessions, providing valuable extra support and encouragement.
Although the pilot program ended after two years, several teachers have become champions of the QFT, coaching other teachers who are looking for ways to make their classrooms more student-centered and inquiry-focused.
One of these teachers is Pauline Mueni, who says, “I recommend that all teachers embrace [the QFT] as it caters for learners with all kinds of abilities, including the ones that have challenges in academics.”
The Kenya Connect team and the SEKU faculty authored a study in spring 2024 assessing the results of the project. Titled Reinforcing the 21st Century Pedagogical Skills Through the Application of the Question Formulation Technique in Secondary Schools in the South Eastern Region of Kenya, the study concluded that the QFT has “enormous value” for global education in the 21st century. The team has recommended to the Kenyan Ministry of Education that it become embedded in the Competency-Based Curriculum.
Engagement, collaboration, and creativity in classrooms
Before the paper was released, the team summarized some of the significant and lasting changes they see in the learning environment for teachers and students who participated in the project.
Student engagement has increased, they report, as teachers shift toward facilitating learning rather than directing it. There is more collaboration and creativity in classrooms; students have stepped up as active co-creators.
Perhaps the biggest change they have noted in participating schools is that colleagues are now seeing one another as resources and friends, not critics. With this shift comes greater confidence, as teachers realize they can be collaborative learners alongside their students, trying new things and getting support.
A final word
RQI’s Question Formulation Technique was deliberately designed to be adaptable to any subject and context. Kenya Connect’s experience introducing the QFT to schools in a rural region of the country is an example of how the practice can be used in any setting with any level of resources.
Thank you so much to Kenya Connect and all the SEKU faculty for your incredible work and for sharing your experience. We’re so pleased to know about your wonderful outcomes using the QFT!