27/08/2026
On that same day, after the experience I shared in my previous post, another incident happened.
One thing I do with my learners during my lessons is that I don't just teach and assume they have understood.
Before we leave the centre each day, I give them a short assessment.
I want to know:
Did learning actually take place?
Not just, "Did I teach?"
There is a difference.
On this particular day, I was teaching them how to order decimal fractions.
I had already taught them how to compare decimal fractions, and then moved on to ordering them.
I explained the process.
I showed them what to do.
Check the whole numbers first.
If the whole numbers are the same, move to the tenths.
If you still cannot differentiate them, move to the hundredths, then the thousandths, and so on.
I explained it to them and most of the class understood it.
But during the assessment, I noticed that a few learners were still struggling.
One particular boy was not getting it.
I had explained the concept several times, but he still didn't seem to understand.
That was when I realised something:
I had taught it, but he had not learnt it yet.
And that distinction is very important.
If I had not assessed them, I would probably have released everybody and gone home with the assumption that the lesson was successful.
After all, I had taught it.
Most of them understood it.
The class seemed fine.
But the assessment exposed the gap.
So while the others went home, I kept this learner and the few others who were still struggling.
And this was where another lesson came in.
Patience.
I could have become frustrated.
I could have said:
"But I've explained this several times. What is difficult about it?"
I could have been angry.
After all, I had already taught the concept.
But I had two choices.
I could get frustrated because they weren't understanding what I thought was simple.
Or I could calm down and find another way to explain it.
I chose the second.
I reminded myself that what is simple to me may not be simple to them.
I understand the concept.
They don't.
If they saw it the way I saw it, they probably wouldn't be struggling with it.
So I had to find a way to help them see it.
I broke the decimal numbers down.
I separated the whole-number part from the decimal part.
Then I labelled the decimal places A, B, C and so on — A for tenths, B for hundredths, C for thousandths, and so on.
The learners could easily relate with ABC. Seeing the letters on the decimal parts made it easier for them to understand which place came first, which came next, and so on.
Instead of looking at the entire decimal number at once, we focused on one place at a time.
For example, if we had three numbers with the same whole number, I wrote the letters directly on the decimal parts.
So, we had A, B, C representing the tenths, hundredths and thousandths respectively.
Then, rather than looking at the entire decimal numbers at once, we started with the A's.
We compared the A in the first number with the A in the second number and the A in the third number.
If we could determine which number came first by comparing the A's, then we were done.
But if the A's were the same, we moved to the B's.
If the B's were still the same, we moved to the C's, and so on.
It became easier for them to see that we were simply moving from A to B to C, checking each decimal place until we could differentiate the numbers.
Which was smaller?
Which came next?
Which was greater?
Then we moved to the next place where necessary.
Suddenly, it became clearer.
Out of the four learners who were struggling, three eventually understood what I was teaching.
And I spent extra hours doing this.
This experience reminded me of two important things as a teacher.
First, teaching is not complete because you have explained something.
You need to evaluate.
You need to assess.
You need to find out whether learning actually happened.
Because it is possible to teach a lesson perfectly according to your lesson plan and still have learners who didn't understand anything.
That may even have been part of what happened to the young lady I talked about in my previous post.
Her teachers may have taught the lessons.
They may have written their lesson notes.
They may have covered the topics.
But somewhere along the line, the gap was not identified.
And when one concept was built on another, she got lost because the foundation was already missing.
The second lesson is about patience.
As teachers, we need to be careful with saying:
"It's simple."
It may be simple to us because we understand it.
The learner doesn't.
And if the learner is struggling, our job is not to get angry because they don't see what we see.
Our job is to help them see it.
Sometimes, that means explaining it again.
Sometimes, it means using a different example.
Sometimes, it means breaking the concept into smaller parts.
Sometimes, it means spending an extra hour.
And sometimes, it means going back to the foundation.
The fact that most of the class understood does not mean we should forget those who didn't.
The weakest learner in the room still deserves to learn.
And sometimes, when we are patient enough to find another way to teach them, we don't just help them learn.
We become better teachers ourselves.
The story continues...
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