Teacher Guide
1.Summary – Aims and Content
The decision making activities in the accompanying file are about shanty towns. Mathare in Nairobi, Kenya is used as a case study but the exercise is adaptable to other shanty towns.
The exercise may be used either as interactive self-assessment screen activities, enabling students to work independently or in small groups, or as a whiteboard facilitywith whole class discussion on issues of shanty towns. There are no given answers to the decision making. The exercise can be developed as a paper activity.
The exercise enables students to:
describe the characteristics and understand the problems of shanty towns
make short and long term decisions about future development
evaluate different ways forward
through photo description, text analysis, decision-making and evaluative skills. Completion of the activities by small groups enables the development of discussion skills. There is opportunity for literacy skills if written work is completed
The resources may be used with Foundation and Higher GCSE students as outlined in the description below.
2.Links to WJEC specifications
a)WJEC GCSE Geography A (Mainstream) Specification: Generalisation 2B Key Ideas 3, 4. Land use patterns and their recent changes in an LEDC city, internal inequalities within an LEDC
b)Key skills: C2.1a, C2.1b, C2.2, C2.3
Background resources
WJEC Coursemate for New Wider World, Nelson Thorne, 2004, Chapter 12 Global urban development, contains information on: Mathare; Nairobi; rural-urban migration in Kenya.
3.Activities – suggested approaches
Menu highlights and provides links to each of the following activities.
Your Targets identifies what the students should be able to do by the end of the activities.
Getting to know Mathare invites students to find out what Mathare is like by using: photographs; a moving sequence of facts; descriptions written by contrasting visitors. It is important for students to complete this description and gain an understanding of problems in Mathare before completing the interactive decision making activity. There is a facility to print off the facts and descriptions in order to have this information to hand when completing the decision making activity.
The written descriptions and facts may need to be reduced for Foundation students.
Decision time! Students are given a sum of money to spend. Many different ways to develop Mathare are found on the screen. Each type of development has a cost and can be added to a ‘shopping basket’ for that year. The screen shows how much money students are cumulatively spending when they make decisions. A warning is given when they overspend. There is a facility to remove an item if there has been an overspend.
The activity is divided into three; first year, second year and long term. Immediate choices for e.g. construction and health improvements, can be separated from longer term ones such as developments to reduce flow of rural out-migration from other parts of Kenya. The developments relate specifically to Mathare. The long term activity asks students to give reasons for their decisions either through discussion or by writing.
It may be more suitable for Foundation students not to distinguish between short and long term solutions. Also a reduced number of choices could be given in the decision-making exercise.
Bringing it all together Students are asked toevaluate which is the best way forward.
1. Newspaper reports of the local youth football team,
2. Womens self help schemes, the details of which are found in the textbook WJEC Coursemate for New Wider World, Nelson Thorne, 2004, Chapter 12
3. Photo of new housing in S Africa.
The evaluation can be completed on the whiteboard using the given table. This could be printed off to aid evaluation for less able pupils completing the self assessment interactive activities.
4.Paper Activities
Getting to know Mathare
This activity can be completed by downloading the photos. The facts and written descriptions by visitors can be obtained from the from print facility.
Decision time!
The activity is found below. The list of costed different types of development can be photocopied onto card with each choice on a separate card. Groups of students can then discuss an agreed way forward for the first year, the second year and the third year.
Bringing it all together
Students evaluate three different ways forward for Mathare.
1. Mathare youth football team - There is a facility to print the newspaper articles.
2. Women’s self help groups – the information about this is in the Coursemate textbook.
3. Rebuilding as in S Africa – the photograph can be downloaded.
Possible Improvements for Mathare
Each improvement has a value given in Kenyan shillings. You have KES 400,000 to spend in the first year and KES 400,000 to spend in the second year.
First decide on what you think the immediate improvements should be. Then think of longer term solutions. Complete Table one with your ideas.
Once you have decided on your priorities start Table 2 in pencil. It is likely you will have to juggle some decisions and change some choices when you only have in total KES 400,000 to spend.
Next complete Table 3, your improvement plan for the second year.
Finally, write in Box 4 ideas you would like to see taken up for long term improvement of Mathare.
Training for one teacher
KES60000
A qualified teacher for a year
KES120000
Electricity connection to one building
KES20000
Weekly supply of medicine for one year, including that for AIDs
KES40000
Water connection to one building
KES40000
Weekly visit by a nurse for one year
KES10000
Concrete for 100 metres of road
KES20000
Free bus for year to scrap metal workshops
KES50000
Electricity connection for one area of Mathare
KES50000
Community Centre
KES50000
One water pump
KES60000
Wells dug in semi-arid area of N Kenya
KES100000
Weekly doctor’s visit for one year
KES30000
Sewerage network
KES200000
Support for Fairdeal to ensure more small farmers can sell coffee, flowers and vegetables
KES100000
Family planning clinic
KES50000
Build permanent homes for the Maasai near the National Parks
KES 100000
Locally run Health Centre
KES70000
Training for one nurse
KES60000
Oven to heat local clay to make bricks
KES10000
Table 1. Improvements I think should be made
In the first year
In the second year
Long term
Table 2
First year improvements
/Cost
/ Reasons for choosing this improvementTable 3
Second year improvements /Cost
/ Reasons for choosing this improvementBox 4. Plans for long term improvement of Mathare