Doing the “wrong” things for the right reasons

I have learnt that teachers do not like to hear mass lecture from their school leaders/ middle managers about others who are doing things poorly especially when they are doing things correctly. Teachers who constantly submit their work on time may feel unhappy to hear their middle manager question the whole department because other teachers were late. These teachers would prefer that the middle manager to speak directly to these teachers. I too believe that to subject these teachers who are doing their job correctly to reprimands is fundamentally wrong!

I find that the converse is also true. By praising teachers who do what is expected, one can raise the bar for those who are not working up to the standard. This is what I will call “Honoring our superstars”. I gotten this idea from a book and intend to make use of such an approach to help raise the bar for everyone in my department. I constantly reminded myself about this important approach and was careful not to send out general emails to reprimand. However, there are exceptions to every rule. Below is an experience I had recently which illustrate the time I broke this rule.

At the beginning, we were experiencing some problems at our heads’ meeting with professional behavior. It is obvious that the same one or two heads arrive to the meeting early. These early birds are followed by others who cross the threshold. Finally, one or two other heads will filter in late – either bearing an apologetic look or seemingly without care. Initially, I tried to address the issue one person at a time to avoid the trap of seen lecturing everyone. Then one particular meeting showed me that it was starting to affect everyone. Before the start of the meeting, the same two heads were speaking about how embarrassed they were becoming at the meeting – of what our meeting look like to outside observer or in the context of a classroom. What were we as heads modeling to our teachers and pupils? It was clear to me that they probably didn’t know that I was addressing the problem with specific heads. It also became evident that my method of addressing these “minor” problems did not appear to be working. By not addressing the late behavior in a public way, I was frustrating my “superstars”!

Hence, later that same day, I decided to emailed all the unit heads, in which the content concluded with

  “Let us all be on time at 9am so that we can start and end on time!! Hope we can set this general expectation for all our meetings.”

When I went for the next meeting, all heads appeared early or on time!

Although I have broken the rule about lecturing to the entire group, it was clear to me that this was the right thing to do. I have publicly validated what most of our heads had become frustrated with. I believe that this was a case of doing the “wrong” things for the right reasons. And I will do it again!

My Take on “Service Learning”

We have been talking about service learning for a few weeks now, trying to get the “buy-in” of members in the committee. One interesting view by some teachers on service learning is in terms of a special program added to the school’s curriculum – something outside of the normal teaching found in our daily classroom lessons. Service learning, according to Wikipedia, is simply a method of teaching! While I presently also hold this same view of service learning, I hope to eventually sustain service learning as a teaching method integrated into the curriculum rather than an add-on program!

I came onto service learning when my colleagues and I first spoke about exploring to develop a more meaningful student-initiated community service program, instead of the community involvement program (CIP) which has been happening in our school for several years. The purpose of applying this teaching method is to raise the level of pupil involvement and to achieve positive C2015 pupil outcomes as a result.

Service learning is defined as “a method of teaching/learning that challenges pupils to identify research, propose, and implement solutions to real needs in their school or community.” Service learning differs from CIP in that it includes a component of planning by pupils and closely connected to the C2015 pupil outcomes (Confident Person, Self-directed Learner, Concerned Citizen, Active Contributor) – elements not apparent in CIP.

As I am rather new to service learning, I have adapted my approach to service learning based on the KIDS (Kids Involved Doing Service) Consortium model, which stresses on three components, namely outcome integrity, apprentice citizenship and pupil ownership.

I see the presence of all three components leads to the desired C2015 pupil outcomes. 

The “pupil as planner” component is particularly critical to the concept of pupil involvement and ownership. Ideally within the learning experiences, pupils are very much involved in decision making. However, I have found that giving our pupils the “ownership” is not a simple proposition. Such idea carries with it all sorts of anxiety and fear – from pupils I have spoken with and especially from teachers! What appears on the surface to be fairly natural occurrence is actually not so in our school. It requires a tremendous amount of trust from teachers and a tremendous amount of responsibility from pupils. But I see this service learning as a good starting point to get a stronger commitment from pupils especially when they have a say in what they are doing during planning – which was really giving them choices. By providing the pupils with choices, they can then take personal responsibility. Teachers on the other hand should search for ways to involve their pupils. All of this brings us to the question of trust. It is very uncomfortable for teachers to relinquish all control. Hence, one suggestion as a start to service learning is for teachers to give pupils some control with scaffolding by the teachers as additional support. As the pupils develop and improve in their abilities and knowledge in service learning, the support can be gradually removed. By then, our service learning can then truly be very much pupil-centered and I believe that our pupils will succeed beyond teacher’s expectation. The value of providing opportunity for pupil involvement and ownership lies in enabling our pupils to be not “just visitors” rather than contributing members of the school!

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!

My Take on “Pupil Development”

“Pupil Development” is a term that has been used extensively in schools. Pupil development is commonly regarded by teachers as a good thing. But what exactly is meant by the phrase of pupil development? Often, teachers attached vague and nonspecific meanings to this term and suggestions from many have become a catchphrase with no direct application to their work in teaching and learning.

What does “Pupil Development” mean to me? Based on shared ideas of what pupil development could be, gathered from my colleagues, I now see “our” pupil development as the way that a pupil grows, progresses or increases his/her developmental capacities as a result of teaching and learning in the school. I now also recognized the value of viewing pupil development as a whole pupil concept. 

Now that I have defined pupil development, this definition will help guide my approach to pupil practice and serve as the rationale for designing and implementing specific pupil development events, projects and programs.

Expanding on the definition, I next identified specific aspects of development and examine factors that influence its occurrence by considering the following questions:

1. What ultimate developmental outcomes should we strive to achieve in our school?

     - 21^st century pupil outcomes: Confident Person, Self-directed Learner, Concerned

       Citizen, Active Contributor

2. What important factors lead to this development?

    - Values, Desire, Skills and Knowledge

3. How to encourage growth of the pupil?

   - Platforms, Reflections

The definition of “Pupil Development” has provided me with the basis for the practices of pupil development. Expanding from the definition, pupil development is about transforming values into desire, skills and knowledge through actions exhibited in the various platforms. The demonstration of such desire, skills and knowledge are then reinforced and learning is guided through reflections.

While I believe that the pupil development department will take the lead in the school articulating concern for the pupil growth and development of the pupils. Development of the whole pupil is more complex and far more important for only the role of one department. All departments (IP and non-IP) in the school can benefit by understanding more clearly how pupils develop over in their time in specific lesson, in the class, in CCAs, in school and factors that contribute to that process.

With the above steps in place, I now have, at best, a direction of where pupil development is heading and what pupil development may look like in the future – which is really the starting point of my leadership role in pupil development. My next step will be to look at the possibilities of new opportunity and challenges and be personally involved with my pupil development teams as well as with others so as to fulfill what we had envisioned.