WHY DOES IT MATTER WHO TEACHES MY CHILD?
More and more private, international or bilingual schools are being opened in recent years in many countries. In past two decades the number of English-medium international schools has grown from 2500 to almost 11000; while only in China there is about 850 of them.
Why do we as parents look for an alternative? Is it because we are not keen on the programs offered by the traditional public-school systems of education? Or do we feel children can’t really succeed in such system? Do we want to create for a child more opportunities to develop? And what about the perspectives of the boards, owners and investors – is their main goal just to gain the profit that is accessible from a growing market? Or are we having a higher purpose in mind when we build the school?
From whichever side we look at it, we can be sure that it is impossible to build a successful school where students feel happy, valued while reaching their true potential based only on the old schools approaches and principles; and it is impossible to build the modern and progressive schools where students reach their potential with people who are keeping their minds narrow… Please do not misunderstand me, I would be the first one to name several techniques, methods and approaches that were great in the traditional systems and which are still applicable. But equally I would name several of them, which are long time outdated and should be seen rather as relics than as useful practices that lead to what societies need nowadays.
I am teaching Further Mathematics classes while I am training other teachers to shift their minds away from test-driven learning towards practices which are more valuable and beneficial to students’ holistic development. And by development I do not only mean the A* on their certificate, rather I am talking about the whole human development and growth of mind.
But where do we start? Ideally you work with great open-minded and competent leaders. And the best is, if they have also spent some part of their career as teachers. You can’t understand the students’ neither teachers’ needs, if you have never stepped into the classroom in the role of a teacher. As Brad Gustafson nicely put it, the real problem is there are people who have not stepped foot in a classroom since they were in school, yet without proper insights they are often making decisions, which have an impact on teaching and learning. It is like when a 2-D being is making a decision about the existence in 3-D space, without actually being aware there is a third dimension…
Next, building the connections with your students right away in the first lesson is equally important. It is easier to achieve the objectives of holistic education, if the environment is built on relationships rather than purely on the policies. And how do we want to build the relationships, if we never had a chance to connect with one – another?
In my lessons and workshops, I usually start with the session of reflection – we sit in a circle, so students or teachers have a chance to feel we are all equal, each of us bringing some talents, some knowledge, some experience into the circle and thus we have a chance to learn from each other… We have no obstacles between each other, we can easily make eye contact with others and we may easier grow together. “What is the most important question in mathematics as in Life?”, I ask. Someone usually says: “WHY?” A very natural question follows – WHY is “WHY?” the most important question? Because it leads us to finding the reasons, and when we are able to find the reasons, we are able to understand.
Now question for you: do you think this is possible in the setting where teacher talks for an hour, students take notes, go home, memorize things their teacher presented and come back repeating the passages of history books or formulae of mathematics while not knowing where the formulae comes from or how the events in history were related? Do they just plug the numbers in and get the correct answer, while not having a clue why they do what they do, what the answer mean and how to clearly communicate and present it to the wider audience?
I believe and see in schools, it’s not possible. Both students and educators need to be clear about the fundamental difference between learning, knowing and understanding at different levels of what, how and why? To learn means to find something new. To know means that I am aware of that fact, of the skill, I remember it, I can recall it or use it. But it is the understanding that we are aiming for. Why? Because if we gained deep understanding we are not only solving the problems, but we are also able to see the connections and reasons behind. At top of it, there are big benefits of understanding – firstly, we have the ability to pass this knowledge on to others with confidence, and secondly, we can create (the meaning) and built upon it.
However, the students sometimes need to be reminded how important and satisfying understanding is. Why reminded? Because to each of us this desire to understand things deeply is quite innate! Each and every single little child asks WHY? Why there is a rainbow on the sky? Why is it raining? Why the birds are chirping? Why? Why? Why?
But something goes wrong then; we go to formal school. A place, where we should find that learning is a natural part of being alive which shall or should never stop. A place, which should not only answer all our why questions, but generate many more of them and which should nurture this innate curiosity and a desire to understand. A place, which should…, but not always does.
We need to start seeing the schools for what they truly are meant to be – PLACES OF CREATIVITY, where we create the meaning and understanding of ourselves and the world around. In my opinion Ken Robinson in his book Creative Schools rightly recommend us to inspire creativity in students. But how do we want to inspire them in this aspect, when we consciously push them towards the uniformity that we offer? When you are creating something, it really does NOT matter, whether you wear a tie or have pink hair. If we want to support the curious minds of the scientists, the uniformity we put on the expression of the students’ thoughts, ideas or feelings is surely counterproductive.
This is what I am trying very hard for my students and trainee teachers to understand by offering the reflection and discussion session right at the very beginning. Why did you choose this course? Why do you want to become a teacher? It is a unique opportunity, where you learn about the students and where they might learn about you. You can remind them, that every single teacher is there to guide them rather than to control their learning. They are in charge of their own learning and teacher is there to support it only. By asking questions constantly the teacher is creating a natural flow of question-answer field, where students have a chance to learn deeper through interaction with the teacher, their peers, but also with their own minds. And as a benefit, a teacher has an opportunity to learn about their students, about their minds, current abilities, potential, motivation, desires and dreams. But about their own teaching also, how effective it is and how to serve students better. Teaching and Learning are both of a creative nature and should always flow in TWO-WAYS.
To achieve this, we need to build deep human-to-human connections among ourselves, in which we realize who we are and what we should truly be doing as teachers – helping others on their Journey by using the power of educating another human mind. This is not a power to control, it is a power to positively influence the minds of the youngsters or people around you, so humanity as whole is open to sharing ideas and can move forward. We can’t achieve this by blindly following outdated handbook policies without revision and adjustment to current needs of humanity. By relying only on the old approaches, we simply can’t reshape the next generation.
If we want the students and teachers to think and to create, we need to provide the opportunities for them NOT to lose the innate desire to express, to question, to learn and to understand. This should not be limited only for the students in the bilingual or international schools but is especially important to them as they are being prepared for studies abroad. At those universities knowing is not enough – students are expected to reason, to defend their solutions, to explain their answers or the chosen methods. They are expected to communicate clearly, so there is no confusion between what they think, what they say, what other people hear and what other people understand. The understanding and the ability to build upon the knowledge is one of the skills we need to focus on.
You can’t prepare students for such an endeavor in a passive and uniform environment where all they are expected is to learn some patterns and formulae and apply them on the test with no understanding why they do what they do. You can’t expect them to share with you how they feel, if you do not even allow them to visually express who they feel to be. Support variety, not uniformity – otherwise we are risking killing their creativity and will to express their uniqueness, and we might slow down the progress of the next generation of scientists or thinkers… And let’s be honest – if the cure for cancer was introduced by a scientist with pink hair, would you refuse the treatment???
The majority of teachers in my trainings are very eager to learn new methods, questioning techniques and interactive teaching approaches. When I ask them why it is so, they all answer in a similar manner: when I was a child, I was in the class with another fifty students and one teacher. Naturally there was not much space for questions being asked or discussed. The teacher talked and usually took care of a few top students. In such environment, only more able students can fill-in the gaps that are created in the learning process. The rest just had to go with the flow. The reason why I want to learn new beneficial teaching methods is the fact, that I do not want to create the same environment and suffering experience for my students – I want them to question and to understand.
But not all of teachers are like that. Some of them do not see the benefits of creating the meaning and advantages of understanding. There was one young engineer, who went to teaching Math and Physics. And he asked: “I do not understand why should I learn new things, when I am a teacher already?” It made me speechless, I could feel how my mind shattered as when the rock hits the window. This teacher has not realized that the answer lies within the question itself: you must keep learning new things and you need to continue growing, exactly because you are a teacher…
Now: why does it matter who will teach my child? Exactly because I wish my child spent the time with someone who will not only passively try to transfer facts and information on. I want my child to be inspired and involved in the communication as well as in the process of creating so they develop in many areas and gain multiple skills. So, why do we need to change how we train the young teachers? Because we do not want our children to suffer under the guidance of a passive teacher, functioning like a robot.
Regardless teachers’ age it is not enough to say: “Do it differently.” Especially to teachers, who have never experienced education models that are based on the interaction. We need to show them. They need to experience what it means to learn with deep understanding, while engaged in the discussion. You can’t just request a change hoping it will happen overnight. You need to shift their minds first… In addition, I would recommend educating the parents as well. Create some opportunities during the year when they have a chance to participate in 1-2 hours workshop about learning, about studying, what does it mean that the child is preparing to study abroad and what skills are expected to succeed there? Explain to them and insist, that not everyone needs to get to Oxford, Cambridge, Yale or Berkeley… Stop competing with others and start to compete with yourself. Am I better than I was yesterday? Did I learn something new which enriched me, my set of skills, which I can use in my current or future job to the best benefit of the people I serve? Explain to the parents that fulfilling the potential is a great success and teach them that even with C in mathematics class they can find happiness in Life if they are provided with chances to develop in the areas where their talents are – music, art, sport, humanities, languages.
Teaching the parents to support their children desires and dreams is equally important… It happens very often that a child chose a major based on the desires of their parents, and although hoping to major in literature or psychology, parents do not see the value and force the child to study business or finances. This might, however, lead to a frustrated youngster, who will suffer greatly spending time doing something that was not his choice and calling, because to live a happy life means to follow our inner desires not desires of others. And lastly, educate the parents that they should not send children to get their education abroad expecting no change in youngsters’ mindset. This is a fake hope, and often leads to surprised, disillusioned parents when suddenly they notice their children’s perspectives have changed dramatically. Often, they quickly outgrow their parents in many aspects, because of the amount and the variety of experiences they collect during their studies.
(RB, 5.11. 2019; Guangzhou, China)
- Taylor, J. (2019). The highs and lows of a new life teaching overseas. [online] Tes.com Available at: https://www.tes.com/news/highs-and-lows-new-life-teaching-overseas [Accessed 23 Sep. 2019].
- Gustafson, B. (2018). Reclaiming our calling: Hold on to the Heart, Mind, and Hope of Education. IMPress, LP.
- Robinson, K. and Aronica, L. (2016). Creative schools. New York, New York: Penguin Books.