Sunday, August 26, 2012

Attitude matters most ─ Our Desire to Change

Looking at my colleague's examples of common bad attitudes, I generalize that the one of the reasons behind such attitudes may be the availability of choices. Sometimes, no choice will determine the success of attitudes change more than the desire to change. When all else fails, we know that sometimes desire alone may keep people going in the right direction. There are real life examples of people gotten passed insurmountable obstacle to make themselves better when they realized that change is possible if they want it badly enough. But I personally think that desire only sometimes is not enough to change attitudes.

Let me use an example I have read to illustrate the point.

“.. While hoping about one day, a frog happened to slip into a very large pothole along a road. All of his attempts at jumping out were in vain. Soon a rabbit came upon the frog trapped in the hole and offered to help him out. He too failed. After various animals made many attempts to help the poor frog out, they finally gave up. So, they decided first to get the frog some food before they continue. However, not long after they took off to get food, they saw the frog hopping towards them. They could not believe it! “We thought you could not get out” they exclaimed. “Oh, I could not!” replied the frog. “But you see, there was a big truck coming right at me, and so I had to!”

This example illustrated that at times, it is when we “have to get out of the pothole of life” that we change our attitude. As long as there are acceptable options, change may not happen. We are all more comfortable with old problems than coming out with new solutions. Too many times, we are settled in the comfort zone and accept limitations placed upon us.

I believe that people can change their attitude, and the belief that change is inevitable is one of the greatest motivations of all. Nothing sparks the fire of desire more than the sudden realization that you cannot stay the same forever.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Direction of curriculum session(s)


I am glad that when we teachers first came together to speak about curriculum – on wanting to improve the quality of curriculum, we did not begin with a focus on teaching –specifically on teaching strategies. So, there was no talk about whether direct instruction or cooperative learning was better. Or what the most important technology features was needed for learning to succeed.

Instead, the starting point was focused on teacher’s beliefs about learning. Questions about teaching – specifically teaching methods are important, but they need to be asked in the context of whom we are teaching and what we want out students to learn. Why is this so? The reason is that the particular types of teaching and learning can be strong or weak depending on the teacher’s goals for learning and the prior knowledge and skills that the students bring to the learning.

I already see a great deal of information obtained through the discussion on how students learn, during the first curriculum session. I believe that subsequent sessions will be as fruitful. Such information obtained will provide important guidelines for deepening our thinking about teaching and my goal is to attempt in organizing everyone’s beliefs about students’ learning using known structure which may help in analyzing of learning situations. For example, by looking at what do teachers consider as important for our students to learn and who can learn well and why, the teachers’ definition of an expert learner and about effective ways to help our students develop their learning, common overlapping information can be grouped.

Through classification, useful information can then be obtained for analyzing the quality of learning that we seek. A worthwhile challenge!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

My Belief about Learning


As I continue to ask questions about the nature of our students learning ─ on what is important for them to learn, about who can learn well and why and about effective strategies for enhancing my own learning and that of helping our students, I will attempt to articulate my own brief about learning.

My beliefs – or rather my expectations of learning stems from my personal experience. As a parent, I look at how my newborn, from birth with the ability to learn how to walk. I watched with a big smile but yet no great surprise as my baby maneuvered successfully around an obstacle for the first time. As they grow, the child becomes more confident and gradually becomes a stable and confident walker and runner. So happily, my child goes to school with me knowing that he can walk and run. With opportunity and carefully training in schools, some of the walkers and runners become hurdles, dancers, basketball players and gymnast while others still trip over their own feet.

Similarly, I believe that each newborn also has the ability to think. But why does this matter? From my outside working experience, I came to see that the problems of the world are complex and that solutions need to be subtle. Therefore, there is a need to know how to be creative, how to analyze problems and have a wide range of approaches to problem solving and collaborating to succeed. Otherwise, those of us who have stumbled through our lives, making bad decisions and choices, with misunderstanding know the importance of thinking – of good thinking. As such, there is a need to provide opportunities for our students to become skilled good thinkers.

How do I unpack the meaning of skilled thinkers? In my learning days, 80’s and 90’s, the focus was on acquisition of skills like reading, writing and calculating. I noted the change in skills demands nowadays – example knowing has shifted from being able to remember and repeating of information to being able to find and use the information. Nowadays, we are all expected to think critically, express ourselves clearly and persuasively and solve complex problems.

As such, I see the goal of teaching should be to help our students develop their intellectual tools and learning strategies that allows them to think about their lives (both inside and outside school). So, the focus must be on fundamental understanding which will add value and contribute to our students’ more basic understanding so that they will become the self-sustaining lifelong learner.



Sunday, August 19, 2012

First Curriculum Session – What revelations to me?


When teachers were asked by our school leader to come find out what curriculum was, no one knew what discoveries would be made. At first, the team of teachers was surprised at the number of teachers and of those present, and they were somewhat puzzled, some remained puzzled till the end. “What is this all about?” As the activity proceeded, starting with teachers identifying what constituted their beliefs about learning and the teachers came out with various practices involving actions, strategies and activities and placed them under “common” themes. A superficial analysis revealed that some of the thinking behind these subconscious practices (experiencing, understanding, applying, motivating, communicating, collaborating….etc) were not new.

I see this revelation of teachers’ beliefs about learning a step in the right direction for the school’s effort to enhance the teaching and learning that focuses on 21stcentury outcomes. “What was the one thing?” The answer to this question is “Well, it does not matter!” I believe that the purpose of the session(s) is to enable anyone who is confused or unsure to discover what practices supported by their own beliefs of learning for the 21st century classroom. The ideas can then be extended to the various subjects content area, thus forming the model of 21st century teaching and learning.

A more interesting revelation to me was the leadership practice that I believe will make a vast contribution to this modeling of 21st century teaching and learning. This is how I saw such practice put into action by my school leader.  He stood in front of all of us and given the declaration of “I also do not have the idea nor solution”. Such proclamation of not being the sole thinker and contributor sets the proper expectations for all of us and made everyone the champion of all related to learning and teaching. This was productive as I saw all teachers willingly take over the position of leading the charge in learning. If our school is to meet the learning needs of all students, to create a combined wisdom of all teachers for the betterment of our students, then we cannot rely solely on our school leaders. I just daringly stated that we need to remove the school leaders as the sole source of decision making, but without doubt, the school leaders are crucial for this to happen. Actually, by doing this, the school leaders are the architect of school 21stcentury teaching and learning.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Attitude matters most


As I grow up, I loved basketball. It all started for me in Primary four when I watched NBA for the first time. I was captivated. After that, I could be found practicing my shooting and playing layups games on the many courts at school. Soon, I started on the basketball team as reserve and continued on to Junior College.

From my school basketball experience, I learnt that talent is not enough to bring success to a team. Of course, there is a need for talent. But as I remembered my coach teacher saying “You got to have great players to win… You can’t do without great players, but you can lose even with them playing!”  So, it takes much more than talented people to win.

Since then, I came to realize that talent needs to be combined with the right attitude in order to win. And if there ever a match between talent and attitude, I have no doubt which will emerge the winner. Perhaps that is why I placed such importance of a positive attitude for myself, for my children as they are growing, and for my teams I lead.

For some reason, there are those who think that it is “hip” to be negative. What is worse is that bad attitudes can influence others to show similar traits. I suspect that they think it makes them appear smart or important. But the truth is that a negative attitude hurts rather than helps the person/situation.

Do you have any experience in interacting with a person for the first time and already suspected the person to have poor attitude? I personally have such an experience. And yet the person with bad attitude may not be doing anything illegal or unethical, yet his attitude may bring down the team just the same. I found out that one of the reasons may be that attitudes are subjective. People always show on the outside how they feel on the inside. I am trying to list down negative attitudes and group them under a common theme. Are you able to recognize common bad attitudes that can ruin a team?

Finally, repeating what my coach teacher said: Good attitudes among members do not guarantee team’s success, but bad attitude guarantee its failure.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Curriculum Session – First of many


Today’s session on curriculum provided valuable insight to the briefs of my fellow colleagues regarding learning. Some responses made me say, “She and others understood what I tried to do.” Though it may be mis-represented idea – it was what I believe the “flow” represented. The session also provided me with a vocabulary to think more precisely and more sharply about the work of curriculum. “… and all these years, I have been trying to hunt for the notion of shared concepts and principles... a practical structure is here all along.” I told myself. And once that were to happen, I am sure that I will understand many things – or at least begin to understand them.

My concern for the school now is not that the teachers who seek to help students find authenticity and utility in what they teach – beyond the traditional paper-and-pen test. My worry is for the talk of “drop in grades initially” because of the refocus on curricula with those attributes. It sounded more like a clause in an agreement contract. Real-life context and applying in the curriculum is not new in our teaching. I personally believe that all students deserve and need to derive meaning from the curriculum. I am totally against the idea that only a small group of our students can work with high level, meaning-rich curriculum. Incorporating properly planned context and meaning into our curriculum will only provide the kind of pleasure (motivation – as we called it) in our students that will enable them to learn well.

The learning intent of this session will help teachers (18 of us a start) see that in order to teach well, teachers themselves need to first know what we want and need our students know, understand and do, then we as teachers can enable our students to learn.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Good Values and Character of Students

Teachers are the most important element in the classroom. As a teacher, there is a tremendous power to make a student’s life joyous or miserable. In all situations, it is the teacher’s response that decides whether how the learning will be in the classroom.

In our classroom, there are two important relationships happening – the relationship between teacher and student and the relationship between students. Both of these potentially will affect the character of the students. But in what ways will the teacher affect the value and character of our students in the classroom? Is such an impact significant compared to their student peers?

Sadly to say, not all teachers use their impact on the students in positive ways. Some treat students in ways that damage their self- esteem. Personally, I remembered the painful humiliation I felt as a Primary student when a teacher gave me a slap with no apparent reason.

Other teachers err through neglect. They say that it is the task on our discipline group. So they do not have time to try to foster good character and values through their interactions with the class or individual students.

There are others whom I regard as great teachers, who do relate to students in ways that model and nurture character. We have all come across such teachers. What is it that such great teachers do? How do these teachers develop teacher-student relationships that foster values and good character?

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Balancing Care and Candid


In my school leader’s reflection on building a stainable culture of care, he spoke on the need to have people with high personal mastery, self-efficacy whose purpose is in service of others. He also spoke on the failure to communicate shortcomings of each other with love and care for each other’s well-being – to be open and frank.

Since my appointment as a middle manager about one and half years ago, I have been trying to strike a balance between care and candid with my teachers and trainers.

I shall first attempt to articulate my experience on care – the idea of treating my teachers and trainers in my team like family. To me, such commitment to the team focuses on two areas, namely building of the team spirit as well as giving and expecting responsibility and accountability of each team member. The later part of the commitment is what I came to put into action this year.

As mentioned in my reflection at the beginning of 2011, one of my intentional focus as a middle manager is to build the team spirit – on the importance of informal communication (lunches outside school) and the need for holding formal interactions (biweekly meetings) so that the teachers feel valued and feel a sense of belonging to the team. I came to realize that having a system in place helps but should not be considered as the main factor in building team spirit. Instead it is the personal touch whenever I deal with my teachers that mattered most. One of the key principles I have adapted from my experience working with my teachers is – “Seek first to understand, then be understood” (by Stephen Covey). My listening with the intent to understand, my learning from such communications and finally my leading has helped me developed positive relationships with my teachers. And finally, going through the learning journey together with my teachers has enabled me to connect and get the most out of my teachers and trainers.

There is this tendency to think that being caring means giving my team (teachers, trainers) permission to do whatever they want – that I appeared “soft” to some teachers and fellow middle managers. Some teachers even came to expect that I cater to all (even the simplest) of needs. This idea is wrong. I came to believe and expect that all in my team will work with responsibility and accountability. I believe that my caring about people has helps all parties involved (my teachers, trainers and I) establish a positive relationship. In this way, I can actually have many more opportunities to speak to them candidly and have hard conversations with them to help them grow and perform better – therefore, expanding our relationship. Everyone has problems and makes mistakes. Everyone needs to improve and needs someone to come alongside to help them to improve. I see this as my responsibility to be that person who helps my teachers and trainers to get better, especially in getting a team to move together to accomplish our common goal and that requires being open and frank. And since it involves responsibility to the welfare of a group or cohort, there will be teachers and even my fellow middle managers who will get angry at my actions and decisions. It is inevitable – I felt that it is the right time to do and I will do it all over again. So how does one maintain the relationship while trying to move people forward? By balancing care and candid – that my caring should not suppress my candid, while being candid should not displace my care. 

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Thinking versus Good Thinking: Self-contradictory?


While driving at T junction today, I found myself behind a youngster in a red convertible. Like many others, I have certain expectations about people in convertibles, but this youngster surprised me. While at the T junction, he was painfully careful. He slowed down as he approaches the intersection. The closer he got to the intersection, the slower he became. At this point, with great care, the youngster looked to the left and then looked to the right. No vehicles were coming. Satisfied with his safety, he started his engine and crossed over to the other side of the road and sped off. The youngster was careful – and yet he wasn’t. Surely the middle of the intersection is not the best position from which to scan for oncoming vehicles! What about crossing over to the other side?

This youngster’s behavior provides a kind of metaphor for the purpose of the review session we had for our management meeting yesterday. When on the road of life, we ought to be thoughtful about what we are doing which was clearly shown through some of the presentations. Many departments highlighted thinking as important part of learning – good thinking I might add enhanced learning. For example, we ought to manage students’ study skills and strive to enable thinking (creative thinking was common) of our students. Yet if good thinking is to help us out in life, it has to go on the road with us – a journey which I believe must start early when schooling. The trouble is, good thinking often gets left behind altogether, or it is exercised in flawed ways and so does not do quite the right job – like not implementing reviews and sharing during departmental meeting, as this youngster has shown.


How can then we encourage ourselves and others of our charge – teachers and particularly our students – to take good thinking on the road when we are not thoughtful ourselves? Learning and leading in thinking, is a task I believe all teachers are already doing it in their classrooms (using tools such as mindmap, star method: 5W + 1H, SCAMPER and following structures such as the Bloom’s taxonomy, UbD) – is the answer to the challenge. The idea from many experts is that thinking should be like brushing our teeth – a habit. Habits are not behaviors we just pick up arbitrary. Instead, they are behaviors that we exhibit consistently on appropriate times, and they are triggered unconsciously as a response without painstaking attention.

Thinking is routine, but good thinking is not. The youngster who looks for vehicles from the middle of the intersection is a good example. Some may ask: Can one have good thinking that truly works? I believe strongly in it. Why? I see the difference in thinking and good thinking. Thinking involves using our mental capability, which everyone is capable of doing but good thinking requires management of our mental capability and more importantly involves mental process so as to enable the appropriate behavior.

In all fairness, the youngster in the convertible displayed good thinking too. It was good that he looked both ways with care. No doubt his scan of the road was precise and sensitive. The issue was that his thinking included a bug, like a bug in a computer program. Although his thinking had a thoughtful phrase (carefully looking out for vehicles, slowing down his vehicle when approaching the junction), he was not thoughtful about his behavior (choosing the point where to look out for vehicles, speeding off to the other side of the road).

So, the idea of good thinking versus thinking is not contradictory. Good thinking requires management and such processes can be taught in our classrooms and can be managed well by the students… To be continued.

Improvement and Innovation_ Your expertise needed to craft its true meaning


In our EPMS form, teachers find the title on improvement and innovation where teachers are to highlight involvement and contributions in activities or projects on continuous improvement and innovation, and including the impact and value created as a result. In today’s reflection, I shall attempt to articulate what I see as improvement and innovations in teaching and learning, but more importantly to incorporate your experiences/activities and effort to improvement and innovation.

I will start by speaking of experiences I had learnt from other teachers.  A Primary 1 teacher asked students to solve 3 + 3. One boy, whom we shall call John, excitedly raised his hand and answered that the answer was 8. After asking John to rethink and still hearing the same answer, the teacher held up three fingers on each hand and asked John to count them. This time he got the answer “6”. “Great”, said the proud teacher.  “So what is 3 + 3?” John again replied the teacher proudly “8”, leaving the teacher perplexed.

As teachers become proficient in teaching, their lesson has become a well-learned routine.  In this way, such well-learned routine may turn out to limit the teacher’s ability to help students develop a basic understanding of the subject matter. I see this as self-contradictory. However, the teacher who focuses on helping students develop a deep understanding of the subject matter through providing command of alternative methods may be one answer to the problem.

Under such situation, the initial attempt to understand the students’ learning difficulty is not easy and time consuming, sometimes even painful if our conclusions are wrong. However, I find that it is through such process of learning new strategies, teachers will be more proficient than before, as they let go of some of their comfortable techniques while learning better methods.

It is this part of the learning and unlearning of the teaching process that I see as improvement and innovation. What is your opinon on this?
 
Is there any experiences/activities where you implemented and initiated in your own classroom for improvement and innovation? Have you shared/taught such experiences/activities with other teachers? Is there any collaboration done with other teachers for improvement and innovation in teaching and learning?

I personally hold that true improvement and innovation is not one more “extra thing” for teaches to showcase. It is not one teacher single handedly can do to change the teaching and learning for all students. And most importantly, it is not possible without building all teachers capability.