The developmental conditions of classroom teaching and learning in a primary school in Zimbabwe

Includes bibliographic references (leaves 140-148).The study investigates the prevailing conditions of schooling and classroom teaching and learning in southern Zimbabwe, using the Vygotskian socio-cultural theory to analyze the consequences that the breakdown of schooling and classroom teaching and learning had on learners' performance and cognitive development. Using a case study of a specific primary school in Gwanda district, the study has found that classroom teaching and learning in rural Zimbabwe was adversely affected by a conglomerate of contextual factors and worsened by the prevailing socio-economic and political problems resulting in contradictory classroom practices of teaching and learning. The analysis reveals the extent to which classroom teaching and learning has deteriorated and how the cultural practices of this specific tradition of schooling, impede on possibilities for meaningful learning activities in the classroom. The study contributes towards an understanding of the effects of the specific cultural conditions of schooling on learners' learning and cognitive development within the prevailing context of socio-economic and political instability in Zimbabwe and suggests ways in which teachers could organise pedagogy to assist their learners' learning and cognitive development