Teaching Dynamics of 21st Century and The Implication of Homefront Factors

Society entrusts teachers with responsibility of distilling and delivering knowledge, skills and wisdom to the next generation of citizens. As a teacher it will be who you are, what you do, what you say, what you deliver that makes a difference. The 21st Century teacher and student are facing a lot of challenges and expectations that start even before a student is in class. Because students are also spending more time in institutions of learning than with parents, it is important that teachers start being cognizant of these out-of-classroom factors, referred to as Homefront factors. During the implementation of a teaching approach that brings out-of-classroom experiences together with in-classroom activities known as Experiment Centric Pedagogy (ECP), the Homefront factors include technological challenges, needs of shelter, being an income earner, participating in family care needs, and teamwork were studied. It is proposed that to enhance student success, i.e., Upato in Swahili, it is the central role of each individual and institution, in all their complexity, to pay more attention to the Homefront factors in support of service and delivery of education among other inherent community and student activities. Results of our Homefront study in eight STEM related disciplines at our school showed that 50.6% of the students lived in household with 3-5 family members. Of the 18- to 24-year-old majority (around 74%) female, about 20.2% of the students indicated they worked 11-20 hours per week in addition to school leading to about 44.4% of students spending only 6-10 hours per week on their education. Only 38.7% of the students had tutoring and mentoring support and about 42.9% of the students had some form of scholarship and funding support. The implication of these factors on Upato (student success and achievement) and MSU's Strategic Goal of 50% graduation rate by 2025 is presented and discussed.