Many Papua New Guinean women resort to marriage or other activities after failing to progress in their education.
Alice Napasu could have been one of these women, but she continued to struggle through the education system, and today, graduated with a Master’s in Philosophy in Education from the Pacific Adventist University.
Alice was surrounded by proud family members, who were excited about her achievement as she becomes the first women in her family to reach a prestigious level in education.
Alice is a testament of sheer hard work and perseverance. She failed her grade 10 years ago and had been out of school for a while but yesterday, she graduated with Masters in Education Philosophy.
She enrolled at UPNG Open campus and was selected to PAU to study Secondary Education in 2010.
Inspired to help students learn and understand math effectively but she did not know what to do. Her journey to Port Moresby was to find employment in the city schools.
Her Thesis focused on how to help students understand Mathematics when teachers are dealing with them in the classroom. She experimented with two different teaching methods.
They were the ‘Work-example teaching’ strategy and the ‘problem-based teaching’ strategy. While problem solving teaching strategy deals with 21st century problem solving skills, the work example deals with how the human brain works.
After her experiment, she concluded in her thesis that the Work Example strategy was effective in teaching mathematics in the classrooms.
She said she is willing to share her work with individuals or the National Education Department, if possible. She also took the time to encourage others who are struggling in the education system.
Her achievement was also a proud moment for her family.
