A Ph.D. student in the College of Education, Alicia Whitley is a former high school English teacher who focuses her research on teacher preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last May, Whitley and two other education Ph.D. students got to apply that expertise on a 14-day trip to Kenya, observing teachers and students in varying grades. And they offered their insight to help the schools as Kenyan curriculums shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NC State students made presentations to some 80 Kenyan teachers, and covered topics such as how to ask more open-ended questions to students and how to better gauge where students are to tailor instruction to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Janell Miller \u201913, \u201920 MSED, a Ph.D. student studying literacy and English language arts, found it inspiring to watch the teachers reach the students in classrooms that are \u201cbare bones,\u201d facing overcrowding (around 100 students in some high school classrooms) and dealing with technology gaps. \u201cI\u2019m interested in this idea of learning through talking and talking to learn,\u201d says Miller. \u201cAnd I feel like because they\u2019re working with so little, that\u2019s what they have to do there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe kids are going to play. It\u2019s going to be OK. Those are all things that I definitely learned and I will take back with me. It was a transformative experience.\u201d
\u2014<\/strong>Alicia Whitley, College of Education Ph.D. student<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nThe trip, now in its fifth year\u2009\u2014\u2009there was a one-year hiatus in 2020 due to COVID-19\u2009\u2014\u2009was designed by Michelle Falter, a former College of Education associate professor who is now director of teacher education at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin. Falter, who received funding for the cost of the students\u2019 travel, says the idea is to give NC State Ph.D. students exposure to global education while allowing them to take reins as leaders in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They learned from their Kenyan counterparts, as well, coming home with insight they can pass on to the teachers they\u2019ll help prepare. \u201cThe humor, the joy,\u201d says Whitley. \u201cThe kids are going to play. It\u2019s going to be OK. Those are all things that I definitely learned and I will take back with me. It was a transformative experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n
A Ph.D. student in the College of Education, Alicia Whitley is a former high school English teacher who focuses her research on teacher preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last May, Whitley and two other education Ph.D. students got to apply that expertise on a 14-day trip to Kenya, observing teachers and students in varying grades. And they offered their insight to help the schools as Kenyan curriculums shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NC State students made presentations to some 80 Kenyan teachers, and covered topics such as how to ask more open-ended questions to students and how to better gauge where students are to tailor instruction to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Janell Miller \u201913, \u201920 MSED, a Ph.D. student studying literacy and English language arts, found it inspiring to watch the teachers reach the students in classrooms that are \u201cbare bones,\u201d facing overcrowding (around 100 students in some high school classrooms) and dealing with technology gaps. \u201cI\u2019m interested in this idea of learning through talking and talking to learn,\u201d says Miller. \u201cAnd I feel like because they\u2019re working with so little, that\u2019s what they have to do there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe kids are going to play. It\u2019s going to be OK. Those are all things that I definitely learned and I will take back with me. It was a transformative experience.\u201d
\u2014<\/strong>Alicia Whitley, College of Education Ph.D. student<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nThe trip, now in its fifth year\u2009\u2014\u2009there was a one-year hiatus in 2020 due to COVID-19\u2009\u2014\u2009was designed by Michelle Falter, a former College of Education associate professor who is now director of teacher education at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin. Falter, who received funding for the cost of the students\u2019 travel, says the idea is to give NC State Ph.D. students exposure to global education while allowing them to take reins as leaders in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They learned from their Kenyan counterparts, as well, coming home with insight they can pass on to the teachers they\u2019ll help prepare. \u201cThe humor, the joy,\u201d says Whitley. \u201cThe kids are going to play. It\u2019s going to be OK. Those are all things that I definitely learned and I will take back with me. It was a transformative experience.\u201d<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Graduate students compare notes with educators in Kenyan classrooms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":5208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-immersive.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-immersive-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"backgroundColor\":\"green_400\",\"displayCategoryID\":9,\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Graduate students compare notes with educators in Kenyan classrooms.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[1317,271,1318,1324,1319],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-5207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-bets","category-stories","tag-alicia-whitley","tag-college-of-education","tag-janell-miller","tag-kenya","tag-michelle-falter"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":9,"name":"Stories","slug":"stories","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":249,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5207"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5207"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5243,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5207\/revisions\/5243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5207"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=5207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}