My Approach to “Pupil Development”

Today marks a new beginning in my effort to lead and organize the pupil development curriculum in my school. The growth and development of all pupils is my central goal as the head of pupil development, and all teachers need to play an integral role in its achievement. In my last week’s reflection, as far as I have determined listening to my more experienced colleagues, I see pupil development as the way that a pupil grows, progresses or increases his/her developmental capacities to achieve a set of pupil outcomes as a result of the teaching and learning in the school. Hence, the learning experiences in pupil development are critical to achieve this objective.

I see the pupil development department as a “big” project, one that involves making meaningful changes in how pupil development is being done in my school. This “big” project also represents a significant challenge to me – with the initial lack of clarity regarding the direction the department as a whole was trying to go! As a result, the programs of the 5 different units within the department were not tied to any common departmental goals. Likewise, some units having “pet projects” in motion with varying degrees of success, and these too were not connected to any departmental goals!

This “big” project on pupil development does require the efforts of all teachers, their willingness to put forth the necessary commitment, creativity and coordination to make extraordinary things to happen in the school.  One of the challenges I anticipate in leading the change in pupil development is getting teachers to do away with their comfortable “this-is-how-we-have-always-do-it” way. Hence, I decided to clarify and provide a meaningful purpose to all teachers first before introducing the new approach to all pupil learning experiences. Such clarification of purpose involves getting teachers to understand the reasons for the new approach – the “why” questions. My school leader made me also realized that clarification of purpose must also involve getting teachers to think of our vision of our ideal AI pupil, specifically in terms of “outcomes” which teachers want our pupils to attain at the end of 4 – 5 years in our school. The more clearly teachers can see what is included in the “outcomes” and what is not, the more focused they can become in planning their learning experiences for our pupils.

With a basic understanding of the purpose and outcomes of pupil development, my next step will be to provide the teachers with the approach to help them attain the desired outcomes of the pupils. It is important at this point to remind myself that even when teachers understood what the mission is, or what the vision is or what the approach is, there may be some teachers who may never fully know “why” they are being asked to do what they are being asked to do, nor have the passion for it. Nevertheless, change efforts must persist on!