Changing Education Paradigms

Recently the education board in Indonesia has been seriously talking about some mammoth changes for the 2013-2014 curriculum.

The changes are said to include removing English from the primary school curriculum. They say this is because they will replace it with a subject to improve attitude.

Now although I do not really know too much about the changes yet to comment on them here, the whole issue did get me thinking about a speech I heard from Sir Ken Robinson about Changing Education Paradigms. I feel the point of his speech can be summed up in a few words - we need to seriously question what we know about education itself, rather than making small changes to curriculum, standards and management we should be making big changes to our perceptions and pushing to make education what it truly should be. Those are my words, not his but a summary none the less.

His words are "we need to change the culture of our institutions, the habits of our institutions and the habitats they occupy".

So what should education be? I don't think we can fully answer that question before we take our first steps on our new journey, and to make a new journey in a better and more effective direction we need to first remove ourselves from our current path. But hasn't the path been working fine up until  now? I think we can all agree on the answer to that. This conversation about reforming education will never stop untill we first reform and refine our thinking on the matter.

Below is a RSAnimate video of the talk he gave in 2003 on Changing Education Paradigms. It is very easy to follow thanks to the illustrations even for a non-native English speaker.

It is well worth a watch! I've transcribed my notes below the video for those who prefer to read and for those who want to see my feelings on each issue. Enjoy! ^_^

Changing Education Paradigms

-A commentary of the speech made by Sir Ken Robinson

Any of my own feelings or opinions will be written in italic like this. The summary of the speech below is not quoted word by word but rephrased/written for easy reading. 

Around the world today there is a lot of talk about reforming education. According to Sir Robinson there are 2 reasons for this.

1. Economic: How do we educate our children to take part in the economies of the 21st century? Given that we can't anticipate what the economy will look like next week? As demonstrated by the recent economic turmoil.

2. Cultural: How do we give our children a sense of cultural identity while still teaching them how to thrive in the global village?

The problem is, schools and school boards are trying to meet the future by doing what they have done in the past and in the process they alienate millions of students.

In the past we were sold the notion that if we studied hard, did well and went to college we would get a good job. Our children don't believe that anymore and they are right not to. A college degree is good, but not a guarantee on a job anymore, especially if the route to it marginalizes most of the things you think are important.

Our education system now is still based on an enlightenment view on education and caters to the needs of the industrialization era.  This creates a certain perspective of education that although very useful in the past and a great step forward then, our perspectives need to be seriously revamped to keep up with the current era.

The prophet Muhammad SAW was said to of said "Teach people according to their era!"

There is an increase in Attention Deficit Problems with teens, mainly because of a lack of adaptability in the way we educate.

The arts are a victim of this mentality as they give an aesthetic experience. An aesthetic experience is when your senses are operating at their peak. When you are fully alive.

What we are prescribing for our children is an anesthetic experience. To hold their attention we are asking them to shut their senses off. What we should be doing is waking them up to what they have inside themselves.

We have a model of education based on the interests of industrialization and in the image of it (like a factory). Think about it!

• Schools still run with ringing bells
• Subjects are separated into different places and times
• We still educate children in batches, separating them into age groups (like the most important thing about them was their year of manufacture).

 There are many different children of the same age that learn in different ways. Some learn better in groups, some on their own, some in the morning, some in the afternoon.

It's all about 'conformity' and you can see this in the constant increase in standardized testing.

The above line is especially relevant in Indonesia!

Sir Ken Robinson suggests that we should go in the exact opposite direction. That's what he's talking about when he says ' a change in paradigms'.

Divergent Thinking

Divergent thinking is an essential capacity for creative thinking. Divergent thinking gets less with age and this surprisingly coincides with 'becoming more educated'.

This may be because amongst other things in school we are taught:

1. There is one right answer
2. It's in the back
3. Don't look or copy because that would be cheating (where outside school that's called collaboration) 

We have to think differently about human capacity. See that many of the concepts we have of education are myths (like the separation of academic and non-academic individuals). Realise that great learning happens in groups, collaboration is the stuff of growth.

If we atomize students and judge them separately we form a disjunction between them and their natural learning environment.

"We need to change the culture of our institutions, the habits of our institutions and the habitats they occupy."

To discuss this article and Sir Ken Robinson's ideas together please visit the CLT Facebook Page or leave a comment bellow!

Until next time, keep shining sharing and succeeding!

-Hugh

Education, Language and Learning a Language

Hi guys,

One of the points that I mentioned in the post 'How to get 100% success in teaching a foreign language' was that around 90% students spend 9-12 years studying a language but still can't speak it. They may be able to parrot some sentences out, but they aren't autonomous speakers of the target language.

This is because they are 'learning' not 'acquiring'. By 'learning' I mean 'learning about'.

One of Steven Krashen's main points in the 80s was also that there is a distinct separation between 'learning' and 'acquiring'. He called it 'The acquisition-learning distinction'.

Now although he wrote a book on this in 1981 (31 years ago) titled 'Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning' we still find that in most schools and language institutes in Indonesia today language is still learned but not acquired.

I feel there are three reasons for this:

1. The acquisition-learning distinction has not been socialized enough with potential and current teachers
2. It is easier to test that language has been 'learned' rather than acquired (it can be tested just like any other subject)
3. The text books which teachers are asked to teach from (and which are preparing for those tests) focus of course on learning rather than acquiring the language. 

There are also three reasons that those three reasons shouldn't hold us back on this:

1. It is easy to socialize the acquisition-learning distinction
2. The nation will get a far superior benefit from almost 100% of High School graduates being able to communicate autonomously in English rather than 10%. Besides that more students are going to do well in the final year 12 exam in they have been actually acquiring the language for 9-12 years rather than just studying it.
3. Teachers want to see their students successful. If the focus is changed to being able to autonomously communicate efficiently in the language rather than just get good test scores. I believe teachers will accept the challenge and any changes in the curriculum that supports it.

I want to make this post short and sweet because I believe this is essentially a simple point, a simple fact with simple and easy application. I hope to do more in the application of this point in the coming years, around Indonesia if God grants me that opportunity.

If students acquire English starting from their first year of primary education, they will do well in the TOEFL exams for entry into Universities because they will be competent in the language. The main things that are tested in the TOEFL exam are Reading Comprehension and Correct Vocabulary Selection (usually in the form of multiple choice questions). Grammar is tested but somebody with purely a conscious understanding of grammar will most likely do badly. The student with a subconscious understanding of what fits and what doesn't will do much better in questions relating to grammar. This has been proven in numerous studies and I have seen it also in my own personal experience with language students here.

Further more even if only a slight increase in TOEFL scores and fluency are found (worse case scenario) wouldn't it still be better that most students graduate with a communicative competency in English? a B1-B2 (European standard) competency alone opens ups many opportunities for the individual including but not limited to trade, education, employment, contacts, the global village, cultural perspectives and professional development. Essentially we would be giving millions of people a gift for life, the gift of another language.

So I hope this post has inspired you to spread the message of language acquisition which essentially means a campaign against 'language learning' as there is simple not time for both and our priorities should be clear.

Keep on sharing, shining and changing lives!

Kindest regards,

-Hugh

Lesson Plans. The good, the bad and the ugly!

Hi Guys,

Today I wanted to talk a little about lesson plans. Now for those senior teachers out there I know what you're thinking 'as if we don't know what a lesson plan is' and I agree, I had to think twice before posting on this topic.

The reason I ended up biting the bullet and writing about this is because surprisingly enough during my time training teachers I've had more than a few teachers come up to me and ask me 'What is the best way to make a lesson plan' I've also had them ask 'How do I write out a syllabus'. So that alone tells me it's worth talking about and posting up here.

So let's get into the nitty gritty. The reason I've entitled this post 'the good the bad and the ugly' is because in regards to lesson plans I've seen them all. For many teachers in Indonesian schools lesson plans are a cause of distress. I suspect that is because of a number of reasons:

1. The teachers are asked to give one years worth of lesson plans at the 'Raker' time, which would be a small book. I've seen some institutes give a day or two for 'fine tuning' a years worth of lesson plans. This is all easier said than done. How do you expect a teacher who has been assigned a different subject to last year or even a different level to 'fine tune' the last teachers lesson plans (that is to say if that last teacher made any at all)? How do you expect teachers to handle changes in the curriculum and/or program or be creative in the way they teach when they are asked to confirm exactly how they are going to teach the subject one year ahead of time? These are of course rhetorical questions. We can not ask this of teachers and should not.

2. Often teachers after a hard days teaching, socializing with parents and correcting work don't feel up to letting their creative juices flow out into making improving lesson plans and sometimes just don't make the time to do so. That is why we see 'RPP' (lesson plans) coming up as a popular download on the net. I sometimes wonder whether the teachers lessons look anything like what they've given their coordinator or dept head.

3. Quite often in schools here, there are no set coordinators or department heads. If there are they are usually assigned fairly heavy teaching or administrative duties. This means they often don't have time to properly check over teachers lesson plans, give feedback or do walkthroughs (lesson observations). They usually just request lesson plans are in by a certain date (if they are unreasonable they will ask for a years worth of lesson plans all at once) and then they file them, never to see the light of day again.

So you'd wonder why any teachers would want to hand their lesson plans in if that was the case.

That being said, I have worked at one school before where teachers were asked to put their lesson plans in only one day before, were given feedback on their plans, given training on how to make good lesson plans and were given their lesson plans back before they had to teach and they still didn't like writing lesson plans. So what's the deal?

I think most of the case it's a simple case of poor 'macro planning'. Basically if you don't know how to write up a great syllabus yet you aren't going to be able to make great lesson plans and to write a great syllabus you should have a strong underlying teaching methodology to follow. Think about 'How I want to teach my students?' before you even begin to put pen to paper.

Then and only then think about the curriculum, then the syllabus then the lesson plan.

So it goes like this:

Step 1. Methodology --> How I'm going to teach my students (how are they going to learn best)?

Step 2. Content (curriculum) --> What I'm going to teach my students (what should I expect from them) and how am I going to asses them?

Step 3. Timeline (syllabus) --> When am I going to teach the content my students and what is it going to align with in the rest of the curriculum i.e. other subject/programs?

Step 4. Details (lesson plan) --> Use the above information Step 1 for structure Step 2 for content and step 3 for position to make your lesson plan. It's just basically cut and paste and adding one or two things once you have a strong methodology to guide you. It is best to make a formula that repeats itself and takes care of all of the above. That way the structure is the same, you only have to change the content.

So basically if you're not happy with how you're going to teach your students (your method) change it before the year starts then choose a curriculum (if you can) or edit the curriculum that has been served to you by a 'higher power' (more likely) to suit your methodology. After that make sure every thing you want can be achieved (with plenty of time to spare) in the timeline and think of extra things you can integrate into your classroom (like excursions or daily activities to complement the curriculum). Finally make a basic format and formula for your lesson plans based on the above e.g. Lesson 1/5: Like this! Lesson 3/5 Like that! and Lesson 5/5 some kind of formative assessment. Walla! 50% of your lesson plan woes have gone out the window.

That being said though, there are many teachers out there that will look at the above and say 'what a lot of hard work!' and 'I'll have corrections to do, as it is I am taking work home!'. Well obviously this article isn't for them and they probably didn't read this far anyway (joking). But in the off chance that you are thinking that; which is more important, having the students know what mistakes they've made, or delivering such a shockingly good lesson that the students don't make so many mistakes?

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this write up on Lesson Plans, if it was all child's play for you maybe you can forward the link to some of your workmates that perhaps aren't so savvy yet?

Either way keep up the great work and let's change some lives!

Warm Regards,

-Hugh

P.S. I may post up a basic 'Engage Study and Activate' lesson plan format later, just for newer teachers of EFL to use as a reference. The reason for this is because we still have a lot of English Teachers who haven't any formal Education Qualifications (sometimes they can turn out to be the best teachers). I don't know when I'll post that up but I'll try and remember to do it soon. ^_^

List of Available Modules for In House Training

Hi Guys,

Below is a list of available modules for in House Training. Most modules take approximately two hours to complete although some are better delivered in a half-day or full-day workshop.

1.        The Principles of Language Acquisition

2.       Contextualizing Language

3.       Building Language Awareness

4.      Integrating Skills

5.       Pair and Group Work

6.      Learner Feedback

7.       Classroom Management (emphasis on large classes)

8.      Learning Strategies

9.      Authentic Materials (using and adapting)

10.    Critical and Creative Thinking

11.     Alternative Assessment

12.    Individual Learner Differences

13.    Younger learners (emphasis of ages 5-10)

14.    Peer Observation (formative evaluation practices)

15.    Reflective Teaching Practices

16.    Power Teaching

17.    TPR and TPRS

18.    Suggestopedia

19.    The Communicative Approach and Language in Use

20.   Integrating Piety and Values

21.    Learning Through Video

22.   Learning Through Songs

23.   Teaching Procedures PPP to ESA and Alternative Procedures

24.   Curriculum and Syllabus Design

For the details of any of the modules such as module components please email me (my email can be found in the banner of this page).

Kindest regards and best wishes,

-Hugh

Questioning Our Preconceptions on Education

Dear Friends,

I once read a story about a few men sitting together on a plane. They were traveling on a light aircraft to a small town in Alaska. One was a local, another was an American from down south and another was an international traveler from Asia (Korea or China I forget). Anyway over the loud speaker came the voice of the pilot explaining how much longer it would be till they landed, where they were now, the usual stuff.

When the pilots voice came over the speaker the passengers could immediately tell the pilot was a woman. The American (from down south) said "that's unusual, we have a female pilot today, the Alaskan man replied "Oh no, quiet normal here, in this neck of the woods there are more pilot licenses than drivers licenses. Quite normal to have a female pilot!" the Korean man then chimed in and said "Wow, so strange!".

You see here we have three different preconceptions 1. It's normal 2. it's interesting and 3. it's strange. All on a fairly simple subject on the sex of a pilot.

Entering a new situation or idea:

We all enter a situation or look at a new idea with our own preconceptions about what is normal, effective, okay or strange. It doesn't matter whether our preconceptions are the best way of thinking or not, we have them none the less.

Having them is normal and part of who we are but refusing to look outside our preconceptions limits us as human beings. Limitations to thinking can be disastrous!

Edward De Bono put it as thinking without values is pointless, values without thinking leads to human rights violations (Hitler was quoted to of said:

“How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.”)

. I think that sums it up pretty well. Or at least, values or preconceptions without questioning will to a metal block, or a shallow view of things. Also Edward De Bono has explained in detail how we can expand our thinking process, he talks about a reliance on critical/judgmental thinking and how this itself although effective in many situations can be poor when looking at preconceptions or new ideas. Read more at http://www.edwdebono.com/

The need to think better and question our status quo is I think blatently obvious considering the above.

Preconceptions in education:

The above issue is as rife as ever in the education industry, especially in developing countries like Indonesia but not at all limited to them.

There are huge reform movements in education happening in the UK at the moment and a lot of talk about the irreverence of learning about King George the 5th and his many wives to today's generation. You can find more about one reform movement in the UK by visiting http://www.born-to-learn.org.

In Indonesia however and many other developing countries, the trend and norm seems to be to model their education on what education in Europe or the USA is like, not on what it could or should be like. This is the trend but thankfully not the only path being taken. There are many other schools who are taking a revolutionary step away from the norm, not only the norm of Indonesian education but the norm of Global education and the norm of Global mistakes in education.

If a surgeon from 18th century walked into a hospital today do you think he would be able to function normally? Forget the 18th Century just imagine a surgeon from the 60s my wife is a Dentist and for her thesis she did it on the differences in implant techniques and technology. The techniques and material they were using in the 60s looks like something out of a horror film, no wonder people are scared of going to the dentist nowadays, it's probably ingrained in there selective memory from generations past.

Can the same be said for schools though? The answer is probably not! If a teacher from the 18th century walked into a school today we could probably pick up a book and teaching from the board almost as well if not better than many teachers today. This is a result of us not willing to rethink education. A huge amount of development has been done in the way the brain works in the last 25 years (which I would love to expand on in another article some time) which has not been taken heed of in the way we teach now. Sure the term "Active Learning" is well known now in Indonesia and many other countries but how "Active" can the learning be if the basis of examination is still balanced on paper based assessment, an essentially "passive" method of examining knowledge?

Exceptions are leading the way but for a limited clientele:

Like I said though there are schools that are taking the renegade path like the "School Of Universe" in Parung, Bogor or many of the Montessori schools scattered around JABOTABEK (Jakarta and Surrounding Suburbs) now. But these schools are reserved for the wealthy elite and upper middle-class than can afford paying well over a hundred dollars a month per child (well over the average Indonesian's monthly salary).

So there is now a call to arms, a call to change and a call to questioning our preconceptions on thinking, learning and education. The Indonesian teacher is not in an easy situation. When they where in School they got taught in a stagnant paper based way that has been in use for centuries, when they went to University although they were perhaps taught about "Active Learning" but they were taught "Active Learning" in a passive way from their lecturers. After they finished University and started working, although they may have begun to understand the concepts of Active Learning (ironically through passive instruction from their lecturer) there workmates failed to show a practical example of AL in use so the memory of a slightly better way of teaching soon fades and they begin the process all over again with a new generation. I know, Indonesian teachers don't want it to be this way, I know many Indonesian teachers who are fighting against this vicious cycle and doing something about it, promoting Active Learning in their underfunded schools in remote areas of Indonesia and making a difference. Changing lives! Not only with active learning but with many other concepts and techniques that are less well known not only in the Developing World but in seemingly well Developed Nations as well. They need help though, they need support and they need a place to discuss the revolutionary movement as it unfolds.

Our Part To Play:

I hope this blog and the facebook group under the same name Change Lives Together! can be one of the many accessible forums for like minded teachers to share and change lives together!

I will finish with a little story from Robin S. Sharma of a boy who is bugging his Papa (who was trying to read the paper). The father decided to distract his son with a map of the world he found in his newspaper by tearing it up into hundreds of peices and giving it to his son. The father thinks he'll have at least a few moments of peace and quiet but after only a little while his son comes back with the completed map. "Wow, how did you put it together so quickly, you are quite the little genius!" said the father, "No Papa, it was easy really, on the back of the map there was a picture of a person, once I put the person together, the world was okay!".

So perhaps, if we can change lives, even just the life of a of a fellow teacher in the way that they teach. We can play our part in changing the world. The world is after all, made up of many individuals who are waiting for change, waiting for something to happen and change begets change just as hope begets hope and love begets love. Let's stand up and begin then, let the education revolution begin with us - today!

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead


Until next time I hope this has been inspiring for you and shines a little light and hope on your day.

Kindest Regards,

-Hugh