Psychomotor takes education into new millennium
In this second article of our continuous revolution which will only end upon final victory, let us understand what the psychomotor domain encompasses.
AT THE setting up the Department of Psychomotor Activities in Education in the President’s Office, a lot of tongues wagged and still some people are in the dark about this “animal” referred to as psychomotor.
Benjamin Bloom, an American psychologist, made a dent into the then approved theories of learning such as Piaget’s Developmental Stages theory, Skinner and Bruner’s Classical and Conditioning theories, Bandura’s Observation theory, Hull’s performance plateau, amongst others.
Whilst the above theories had been very applicable to boost the production of war materials during the First and Second World Wars, Bloom in 1956, over 10 years after the Second World War came with a taxonomy that has shifted the focus of learning in both institutions and the work place.
Bloom’s taxonomy has three domains: cognitive (knowing), psychomotor (doing), and affective (feeling/attitudes).
Simply put, a learner only grasps a concept effectively if he gets to know and understand what is to be learnt, practises what he has learnt and in the process have a feeling of what is being learnt thereabout creating attitudes about what has been learnt.
It is folly to have learning that is purely cognitive just as it is to try and have learning that is either purely psychomotor or affective.
Without being blasphemous, we could refer to domains proposed by Bloom as the trinity where there are three-in-one and one-in-three. This means that one can never be involved in one domain without the others but to what extent this has to be done is the big question.
Our education curricula in schools and institutions of higher learning have let learners down by involving them in practice at superficial levels.
Agriculture is being limited to a small vegetable bed, Woodwork to small model items, and Mathematics to practical exercises in the book with no real life applications.
What should be the ideal focus on psychomotor activities in education?
From the experience with those study areas such as music, the crafts and sport, it has been deduced that learning can occur better if the doing is introduced first as this would lead to the cognition and then feelings with attitudes coming up as well.
There is no reason why the same principle should not applied to other areas of the curriculum as this is also linked to techno-entrepreneurship.
How can the psychomotor domain be applied in all learning?
It should be accepted that learning the psychomotor way should generally follow four stages which can be adjusted as the need arises.
Observation and Understanding: This is where the teacher or instructor gives clear instructions, clear demonstrations or uses appropriate visual and audio aids.
This stage is so important because if learners continue from here without a proper understanding of the concept or skill, whatever follows will not be correct.
This is why it is essential to have the correct basic education that is given proper resources, i.e. human, material, facility and financial. Without this, students will always complain that mathematics, science or English is difficult.
Imitation: After observing and understanding, learners are required to imitate by following instructions given either verbally or in written form. It is at this stage that a qualified teacher or instructor can tell whether the first step was clearly understood and corrections can be made before proceeding to the next stage.
I always inform my learners that learning is best done by copying the correct things.
Practice: “Practice makes perfect” is the statement the ancient teacher would always repeat to learners. Is this statement correct? The answer is a big no. Why?
Well, if the task has not been understood and learners have not gone through the imitation stage and got errors corrected, any practice that may occur will certainly not lead learners to perfection, in fact in all learning there is no point when anyone reaches a stage of perfection otherwise we would only practice once, and get perfect forever.
Practice should actually follow a progression where grouped short practice sessions are recommended for beginners whilst the longer, intense and more complex sessions are reserved for the more experienced performers.
Adaptation: This stage can also be referred to as application where the learner gets to know the purpose of his/ her learning by using it in everyday life. Cookery students are found making candy cakes for sale to parents during a parents’ day, or the carpentry department start repairing broken down furniture at the school and nearby schools.
If Zimbabwe is set to develop entrepreneurship in our youths, this should start in our institutions of learning.
Because psychomotor domain is about doing and the government wants it infused at all levels of education and training, it does not mean the nation is going to be turned into carpenters, builders, farmers and welders.
What it means is that whatever is to be learnt in this country, there should an element of doing, leading to adaptation so that the learners will see the value in their learning, have the feeling of it and attitudes then follow.
Getting Zimbabwe to appreciate and understand this bold endeavour which has led many countries to be success stories they are today will be a mammoth task but we want every reader who has read this today, is to do a small homework for us before reading next week’s article.
Google what countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and Germany have done with their education system in the past three decades to be where they are today.
In short, we are trying to make you aware of the fact that our education may still, in some areas, be of the ‘70s in the 21st century.