This chapter examines the use of film as a tool for instruction using a constructivism inquiry paradigm and action research. It also describes didactic modes of using film in active learning and teaching literature in Kenyan secondary schools. Students' responses to adapted films of the approved set books were the source of data. Deductive and inductive thematic methods were used in data analysis. The findings how film provides an edifying experience to diverse groups of learners, thereby improving their comprehension, concentration, and retention abilities. It also reveals how film helps learners to develop various skills such as cognitive, critical thinking, creative thinking, social, and cultural that are tenets of the competency based curriculum.
TopIntroduction
UNESCO’s Delors Report (1996) posits that in confronting the many challenges that the future holds in store, humankind sees in education an indispensable asset in its attempt to attain the ideals of peace, freedom and social justice. While the report does not advocate for education as a panacea to a world in which all ideals will be attained, it posits that education is one of the principal means available to foster a deeper and more harmonious form of human development thereby reducing poverty, exclusion, ignorance, and oppression among other social injustices in society. Today more than ever, education plays an integral part in preparing learners to become global and conscious citizens, and to be ready for challenges associated with the highly technology-driven society. Indeed, Kereluik et al. (2013) support this notion by stating that “disciplinary knowledge and domain knowledge are as important as ever and will continue to be so well into the foreseeable future” (p. 132-133).
However, education today stands at crossroads. There is a growing pressure on curriculum reforms towards a vision of 21st Century Education, with key education stakeholders demanding a re-envisioning of education instruction to meet the needs of the dynamic and ever-changing world. Educational reforms can be witnessed across the globe, with “an unstable, uneven, but apparently unstoppable flood of closely interrelated reform ideas which are permeating and reorienting education systems in diverse social and political locations” (Ball, 2003, p. 215). This change is marked by a growing pursuit of a new wave of educational transformation, broadly called 21st Century Education. While this is a nebulous term used by a variety of voices in the educational sphere, with varying motives and purposes (Abbiss, 2013, p. 6), this movement is often seen as the antithesis to the current dominant educational paradigm, which some term Industrial Education (Benade et al., 2014; Gerver, 2015; Criswell, 2016). The paradigm shift focuses on “teaching our students so that they become well equipped with the 21st century skills” (Kivunja, 2014, p. 85). The shift, however, is more profound and underpinned by a fundamental change in the philosophy of education which flows through to distinct curriculum, instructional design and, arguably, fundamental objectives of education.
While the precise nature and purpose of 21st Century Education remains contested, it is undoubtedly a fundamental challenge to the core notions of current education systems across the world. It has been argued that 20th century education emphasized compliance and conformity over creativity, two skills that were necessary to do well in a professional or corporate environment and to hold down a good job for decades. Kuhn and Hacking (2012) have argued that the current status quo of education is breaking down for a variety of reasons and that a complete rethink of every facet of education system is necessary in order to build an egalitarian system which produces learners ready to thrive in, and adapt to, the modern world (Fullan, Quinn, & McEachen, 2018). Compliance and conformity are now a relic as demands for market oriented 21st century skills gain momentum.