Over the past week, many of my blog readers (some are fellow teachers!) have kindly asked me how my new Masters in Teaching course is going, and, in particular, insights on our first placement visiting schools. Do I still think it is worth quitting my 100K a year job? I thought now would be a good time to share some of my thoughts so I created this new blog: It Takes a Whole Village to Raise a Child. I’ve grouped my thoughts under the over-arching themes I found in my school visit: the community of learners and teachers; social and cultural contexts; diversity; learning and teaching contexts and codes of conduct; alternative education settings; and where to next?
WHO IS THE COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS AND TEACHERS IN MAROONDAH?
Firstly, why did we go visit a school cluster? In our course text, Churchill et al. (2011, p. 5) state 'We assume, that as students, we have already served an apprenticeship for becoming a teacher because we have observed teachers over some time. Consequently we now assume that we already know what good teaching involves', but teaching evolves and each teaching environments brings new information. As a teacher, I need to be critically noticing the learning and teaching around me, and incorporating what I think and feel about what I see, for my understanding of teaching to become personally relevant (Churchill et al. 2011, p. 26). It’s important to keep in mind, reading this blog, that my ability to notice is limited. Noticing relies on and interacts with/is influenced by identity & beliefs (what you know and believe to be/not be, and value), and decisive action (what you decide to notice) of the 'noticer' (Moss et al. 2004, p. 20).
As a teacher I need to know about my students: their community; culture; family life; peers; demographics; history; experiences; interests; goals; problems; hurdles; reactions; understandings; and previous learning and/or misconceptions. I have compiled several concept maps using <Inspiration9® Software> of <where and who> the Maroondah community youth learn from to better display the many, many different contexts learning in takes place, and the importance Maroondah has placed on providing and maintaining these contexts. Many of these places/organisations/buildings were actively linking themselves to each other to better serve the interests of the Maroondah community, and I was surprised at how connected many were. 'Ethnographic work... 'implicates us in moral questions about desirable forms of social relations and ways of living. It is linked to our assessment of our own society....' (Simon & Dippo, as cited by Britzman 2003, pp. 33-34). Undertaking the ethnographic study in Maroondah has definitely caused me to think more about my own council area of Boroondara, and what is available to me, and to the children I babysit who learn here.
WHAT ARE THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS OF THE MAROONDAH AREA?
Most <households> in Maroondah with school-age children are couples (8,422) and single-parents (2,116), with a few multiple-family households (329) but mostly single-family households (26,022). In the <2006 census> there were 6,280 0-4 year olds, 9,021 5-11 year olds, and 8,161 12-17 year olds in the Maroondah area, with a decrease of ~800 children in the number of 0-11 year olds from the 2001 census and no equivalent increase in the 12-17 year old group to compensate for those kids simply having grown older. 9.9% of <households> had 5 or more people living there regularly, reflecting communal family living of some cultures in the area, and perhaps others with low incomes requiring pooling of resources.
It appears to be proportionally harder than average to keep youth in formal education schooling in Maroondah. For people aged 15 years and over in 2006 in Maroondah, their <highest level of schooling completed> were Year 8 or below (5.9%), Year 9 (7.4%), Year 10 (17.5%), Year 11 (16.7%), Year 12 (44.1%) with some not going to school (0.5%) and some withheld that information (7.9%). A larger proportion of people in Maroondah had <left school> between Year 9-11 than the Melbourne average. Of those <aged 15 years and older> in Maroondah in 2006, 42.4% held formal education certifications including vocational studies, and 46.3 held no formal qualifications, and there were ~3064 15-19 year olds <in the workforce>. There was a decrease from 2001-2006 of people attending <further education> in TAFE settings (-400) or universities (-200). Is further learning no longer valued as much here? How much will the lack of high school education create difficulties in life for these youth?
Of those that were <still learning> in formal educational settings: 8,363 (8.4%) people were in primary schools, 6,990 (7.0%) people were in Secondary schools, 2,236 (2.3%) at TAFE settings, 3,108 (3.1%) at universities and 746 (0.8%) at other educational settings. There are more very young children in the area, but attendance at primary and secondary schools has decreased overall, perhaps due to migrations out of the area. Not all students <migrate> from other countries, they also migrate from other parts of Victoria, others Australian states, and move within the City of Maroondah and from school to school as a result – all of which disrupts student learning. In the 2006 census in the 5-14 year old school-age group 2099 children <moved> into Maroondah, and 2754 children moved out of the area. In Maroondah <schools> from 2001-2006 there was an increase in pre-school attendance (~200 people), a decrease in Government (-600 people) and Catholic (-150 people) primary schools with a slight increase in primary aged kids attending Independent schools (+50 people). In <secondary schools> there was an increase in those attending Catholic schools (~90) and a decrease in those attending Government (~150) and Independent (~100) settings.
<Religion> in the City of Maroondah is predominantly comprised of Christian groups (60.5%, compared to 2.9% non-Christian), with Catholic (23%), Anglican (15.9%), and Uniting Church (5.9%) dominant, with 24.3% of the population professing no religion. I visited the Salvation Army Church on Wantirna Road. The youth co-ordinator there told me (Pers. Comm.) they have programs for children 0-18 years old that includes playgroups, Sunday school, bible groups for older kids, and youth groups that learn through social events such as camps, State Youth Games, and movie/band nights (Youth Co-ordinator, Pers. Comm.). They have noticed an increase in Asian (mainly Chinese) and Sudanese families in their parish, whereas most of the Burmese are going to St. Paul’s (Youth Co-ordinator, Pers. Comm.). Reflecting the census data they have very few single parents, most families have both parents working, most are middle class, and some are on welfare and transient. The Salvation Army Church is part of a Children’s Ministry Network of churches in the Maroondah area that link with chaplains at schools, run Religious Education programs in schools, school holiday programs, and a yearly October Family Festival Celebration (Youth Co-ordinator, Pers. Comm.).
In the <2006 Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage> in the Melbourne Statistical Division, Maroondah came in at 19th of 31 councils and shires, with a rating of 1045.9, with the most disadvantaged council area being Greater Dandenong in 1st place (893.9), and my own council area of Boroondara the least disadvantaged at 31st (1104.5). This <index> is ‘derived from attributes such as low income, low educational attainment, high unemployment, jobs in relatively unskilled occupations and variables that reflect disadvantage rather than measure specific aspects of disadvantage (e.g. Indigenous and Separated Divorced)’. Our guides at the schools we visited all described their kids’ parents as being mainly tradespeople and technicians, administrative workers, and small to medium business owners/managers. This is supported by the <Maroondah Council Website> that shows that people that work in Maroondah are employed in the main areas of Manufacturing and Construction, Retail trade, Education and Training, and Heath Care and Social Assistance. These parents were described as self-starters that placed high values on education for their children as a way to elevate their children’s lives even further than their parents had achieved for them. My teacher friend in Mooralbark said (Pers. Comm.) that one of the biggest problems facing her area, and adjoining parts of Maroondah such as Croydon, was generational poverty. Noddings (2005, p. 85) said 'It is shortsighted and even arrogant to suppose that all people can escape ... problems... such as adequate medical insurance, liveable and affordable housing, safe neighborhoods, and non-poverty wages for honest work... through better education, particularly if that education favours those with specific academic talents or resources.' Are we giving kids in these areas the right sort of education to help them live better lives than their parents?
Compared with my own council area of <Boroondara>, <Maroondah> has less people from non-English speaking backgrounds, 9.5% compared to 18.5%. The City of <Maroondah> had less people that are non-proficient in English (5.6%, or 1,036 people), compared to The City of <Boroondara> (8.8%, or 3,481 people). In 2006 the top-ten non-English <languages> spoken in Maroondah were Italian (977 people), Cantonese, German, Mandarin, Greek, Dutch, Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic and Polish (303 people), with growth in Arabic, Mandarin, and Cantonese from the 2001 census. 5,273 (28.6%) people over the age of 5 of those born-overseas, but living in Maroondah, were <proficient> in both another language and English. Of those people <born-overseas> there had been a growth from 2001-2006 in people from India, South Africa, China, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Overall, the majority (72.1%) of the overseas-born population <arrived in Australia> before 1991. I, personally, found it hard to see the ‘strong’ cultural diversity in Maroondah many speakers emphasised to us when I come from a more multicultural council area. From what I saw in Maroondah cluster schools that I visited I went to a more multicultural school in Carey Baptist Grammar School, in Kew, where I had Indian, Chinese, Japanese, other Asian countries, American and Canadian friends and classmates. I grew up in Hong Kong, China, where I was a minority Caucasian at a Montessori pre-school with children from China, mainland Europe, India, and other Asian countries.
The Maroondah area has had a recent (post 2006 census data) influx of African, Middle Eastern, and particularly, many Burmese refugees, many of whom are studying at the Blackburn English Language Centre (BEC), for varying amounts of time (up to one year), before being moved onto mainstream schools (BEC Visit Talk, 21 March 2011). The BEC has temporarily been set up on the grounds of Maroondah Secondary College but originates from Blackburn. The AMES network aids with settlement and Foundation House gives trauma and other support to new families (BEC Visit Talk, 21 March 2011). Students at BEC start at all times of the year, are organised by age if primary aged or by ability if secondary aged, and have an almost individualised child-centered curriculum of study (BEC Visit Talk, 21 March 2011). Those over 16 years of age are usually more disadvantaged in their English speaking skills and have less time to learn the Australian Schooling system so are moved into remedial or study such as TAFE or trades (BEC Visit Talk, 21 March 2011). The main challenges faced by the teachers here is that many of the kids have had only 1-3 years or even no formal schooling, and they have many different languages (Thai, Greek, Iranian, West Chinese), with the Burmese speaking one or two of five mutually exclusive distinct dialects (Chin-Hakha, Chin-Tedim, Chin-Falam, Karen, Burmese)(BEC Visit Talk, 21 March 2011). The school employes Multicultural Education Aids who are liaisons and translators but there are only a few, they are spread thinly, and not all the languages/dialects are covered (BEC Visit Talk, 21 March 2011). When these kids move into mainstream schooling, how well do they adjust? I felt from the talk that we should be giving them more time in language centres before moving, but the government will not provide the extra funding. Time, and time again, in this week of visits, I was struck by how much politics was in control of the education ceiling in our society and how frustrated those actually trying to provide education were by how tied their hands were financially.
WHAT IS DIVERSITY AND WAS IT PRESENT IN MAROONDAH?
Dewey (1916, p. 86) profoundly said: 'Society is one word, but many things'. Diversity is similarly one word but many things. Dewey (p. 105) also noted that ‘an undesirable society... is one which internally and externally sets up barriers to free intercourse and communication of experience.’ This quote picked up a theme in tutorials, where we were asked ‘What are 'diversity' and 'equity/inequity' in education?’ (Week 4 EPR701 Powerpoint). I will look at the themes these quotes put forward by relating a few observations from the week in Maroondah and my own experiences.
There are three centers of compulsory attendance in Australia: prisons, mental institutions, and schools! (Week 1 EPR701 Powerpoint) If we are not given the choice whether to attend school or not, what choices do we have inside school? When I am asked what I thought of my high school I invariably reply that I mostly enjoyed it and that I thought it was a good school because it gave me lots of choice and diversity. Students should have the freedom to 'participate in the construction of their own learning objectives' (Noddings 2005, p.77). One high school had implemented a new sports program of differing levels of engagement with electives (such as gender-specific recreational team sports such as basketball, competitive sport (intra/inter-school and state), sports science, or walking and health for those less actively inclined). This choice assists with engagement and responsibility and this school had so far found it more successful than the old model of everyone does the same set physical education. I also find that I usually rate my engagement and enjoyability in something if I have been given choices and have chosen to do one of the choices.
The difficult part of democracy is combining the diversity and the plurality of it (Dewey 1916, p. 88) with inclusion of all that diversity/plurality. Why should everyone be included? 'It could well be argued that inclusion is one of the core values, if not the core value of democracy. The 'point' of democracy, after all, is the inclusion of everyone (the whole demos) into the ruling (kratein) of society’ (Biesta 2010, p.110). Consider also, that ‘educational policy and literature place a lot of emphasis on catering for diversity and the ethics of being as inclusive as we can but does this really happen?’ (Week 4 EPR701 Powerpoint). In our first morning session on placement we heard from the principal of Ringwood North Primary School, Michael Green, who told us ‘Difference is positive’ (Workshop Talks, Maroondah Secondary College, 21 March 2011). We heard so much in this workshop about the diversity (especially ethnic diversity) in the Maroondah area but throughout that day, the rest of the week in our travels throughout the area and school visits, my team (all living in East Hawthorn/Kew/Box Hill) remarked on how little ethnic diversity we saw. Of course it is important to always keep in mind that there are many facets to diversity and just because all the students look caucasian, even if they are from the one small block in Melbourne, they will still be very diverse in interests, learning preferences, experiences, family backgrounds, and so on.
In 2001-2006, 374 0-19 year olds were listed as <requiring additional care> and assistance in their everyday lives, with Maroondah having a higher percentage than the Melbourne Statistical Division within the 0-19 year old age range. Of the schools we visited, one had the aforementioned student that needed ramps and an adjusted physical education program, one school had an ESL program, one school had an ESL teacher come in for a handful of students, and the last school did not run an ESL program as they did not have enough students to be able to allocate the funding for a teacher. My teacher friend in Mooralbark said her school is 99% caucasian students and runs no ESL program either. It made me wonder if not having these programs available at these schools, children requiring ESL will choose not to go to such schools, diversity becomes limited there, they therefore do not offer ESL, and the cycle continues. I was shocked to hear, from another group (that visited a school my team also visited but we had a different guide) that their guide had told them that the school did not run an ESL program specifically because it discouraged such students from applying to the school, because such students made things ‘difficult’ and they hoped none ever applied. In both approaches (teacher strategy based and teacher responsible within the current system versus system-based 'norms' and the problems of hidden curriculum and school practices and politics/economies), to diversity and equity there are invented categorisations made, all people are included into one or several categories, and these categories are sustained through the use of them whether the intent to is 'good' or 'bad' (Churchill et al. 2011, Chapter 5).
I was stunned by the hidden practice in this school... partly because we got no such message from our guide, and partly by the racism inherent in that comment. My teacher friend in Mooralbark says (Pers. Comm.)they have more than five Indian teachers, who get racist treatment every day from their students. It surprised and saddened me. It also reminded me of one of the reasons I quit my job as a geologist. I was sick of working in mines where I was treated poorly because I was a woman or treated better than Aboriginal or Papua New Guinea employees because I was white. I wanted to be appreciated for who I was, and what I could do - not the colour of my skin, or my blonde hair (I even dyed it dark to avoid its effects), or have someone refuse to have me as their supervisor simply because I was a woman. I realised that I couldn’t readily change the attitudes of the people I worked with, at the ages they were, and the entrenched culture they were within. I needed to get to the next generations - to help them appreciate all the diversity in the world. I needed to work from the bottom up to try to ensure that another person would not go through such experiences.
HOW DO THESE LEARNERS ‘LEARN’ AND ARE THEY BEING TAUGHT EFFECTIVELY?
When we visited storytime at Ringwood Library to see an Early Childhood learning environment I was so surprised to see how many people were there, at least 30 parents (fathers and mothers), several grandparents, and 35-40 kids ranging from one to three years old. We saw the greatest proportion of ethnic diversity in Maroondah here with roughly fifty-percent of the families from the Indian sub-continent and other Asian countries. So maybe, in a few years when these kids enter the school system we will hopefully see more ethnic diversity in Maroondah? The librarian running said there were usually this many people and they ran different aged sessions every day with similar numbers to this session (Pers. Comm.). The librarian also said that some of the parents would travel from other council areas such as Nunawading to come to the Ringwood sessions as it was very important to parents that they, and their children, identified with the storyteller as each librarian had a different style. This made me think of Britzman's (2003, p.7) comment that ‘[teachers] seem to explain competency as the absence of conflict.' The librarian’s comment on choosing her or leaving for another librarian’s storytime contrasts with what we are being taught in our course - that as teachers we need to adapt to the needs of all our students, not that they need to adapt to our one teaching style.
Keeping in mind that ‘not all teaching is educative or ‘good’ ’ (Scott Webster, Deakin University Lecturer, Week 1 Lecture), did the teachers we saw in the schools follow the VIT (Victorian Institute of Teaching) <Code of Conduct>? How did schools discipline? Were they ‘good’ teachers? A Grade 9 English teacher at one high school we visited had imposed ten minutes of silent reading at the start of her class. Two students which had not brought books to read were ‘named and shamed’ on the whiteboard (I clearly remember their names!) - a violation of '<Principle 1.2 of the Code Of Conduct: Teachers treat their students with courtesy and dignity>’. It is interesting to note here that there are no set standards anywhere stating ‘Students treat their teachers with courtesy and dignity’!! Jokes were used for discipline in another secondary school’s science class: ‘there is a scale called ‘The [insert name of disruptive child] Scale’, and it measures irritation’ - which made everyone, including the child, laugh good naturedly, and certainly make J & I laugh. For very difficult kids schools have a certain number of strikes-per-year. One school had a student working at a desk outside the Assistant-Principal’s office on pre-suspension. All the discipline I saw reminded me of Britzman’s (2003, p.31) comment that 'learning to teach is a social process of negotiation rather than an individual problem of behaviour'.
Back in the Grade 9 English class, when several students, one which had a book but was not inclined to read, asked the teacher why they were doing the silent reading she simply replied that that was what they were doing. Noddings (2005, p. 75) argues that ‘before we can fully engage with what to teach we must first have to be very clear as to why we are teaching’. The teacher gave no explanation as to why the students were supposed to be engaged in this activity. She was also just standing there, arms crossed, looking at the class! She was not using the time for something else, such as to get marking done, or prepare for the lesson, or any other activity which would have led J and I to work out what she was trying to achieve, and we didn’t have an opportunity to ask her. I asked one of the students near me if they were meant to read a specific book, thinking that maybe the reading was in preparation for an activity on a study text but the student replied that even though many were reading the same book (Deadly, Unna?), they were allowed to read any book during this time. This concerned me because the student had implied that they did this period of silent reading often, each time with the same confusion as to its aims and reduced engagement. The teacher told another child, who had come in late, without a book, that they could have gotten one from the library - again reinforcing the idea that there was no specific book or passage to read and no specific aim for this task. I asked a friend of mine who teaches English and she said she didn’t know of anyone who used ten minutes of random text silent reading, especially at the start of a class, and was as confused as me as to the teacher’s aims with the task.
‘<Principle 1.4 Teachers maintain objectivity in their relationships with students>’ is a tricky principle to fulfill. The main message from all the speakers and the contact people we met at the schools was that teaching was all about relationships. It seems to me, to be a very fine line that teachers tread between fostering a good relationship with their students and other students in the school whilst still making sure they ‘do not behave as a friend or a parent’ and ‘interact with students without displaying bias or preference’ (<www.vit.vic.edu.au>). One of the teachers at a secondary environment related to us (Pers. Comm.) how he takes his infant to school football matches on weekends to further build relationships with the boys at the school, several of which are trouble makers - he says the kids respect him more as he’s happy to trust them around his infant.
In my experience, I think that relationships is one of the most difficult parts of teaching. As a Teaching Assistant in laboratory practicals (for first year university students studying geosciences at a Melbourne university) it is difficult to stand aside and not comfort a crying and distressed student, but to direct them to professionals on campus that can. It is equally difficult not to engage in camaraderie in student/faculty events such as trivia nights and field trips. Or even in class when students want to know about you to decide whether you are worth their respect and attention. They don’t just care if you know what you are talking about, they want to decide if you are friendly and helpful; whether they even like you enough to ask you. When I am a ski and snowboard coach for kids it gets even trickier, as kids are always trying get your attention by pulling on a jacket, or they are cold, or crying, or happy and want to dance or hug you or you need to assist them in getting up because they’ve fallen in deep snow and can’t get up, or you need to assess an injury and whether to get ski patrol in. In these situations it’s not always about leaving them to themselves to promoting resilience. Most people that work in primary schools, childcare centers or early learning areas can attest to these issues. Avoiding touch with students, particularly young children, is difficult because hugs may be fine with one child, but not fine with another child, or their parent. Helping students learn about their emotions and all the extra social parts of their life that don’t always fall under curricula becomes a challenge. It is very situational, and I still try to to the best in each situation, with each child or young adult (or adult).
‘<Principle 1.8 Collegiality is an integral part of the work of teachers>’. It became very clear during the week that we will not be alone when we become teachers. In some schools and situations we may spend more time at one end of a spectrum, teaching alone: my friend teaching in Mooralbark says she pretty much ‘teaches her own thing’, and that ‘her classroom is her domain’ (Pers. Comm.). At the other end of the spectrum are teachers who are orchestrated to work and plan together. At the primary school we visited classrooms were clustered together so that the three prep classrooms, for example, were adjoined with a central, clear walled teacher’s pod:
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| Teacher's Pod, Primary School Prep Classes |
We saw much of the Question-Answer IRE (‘Initiation, Response, Evaluation', Clifford & Marinucci, 2008, p. 677) approach in schools, particularly in the high schools. These type of questions are ‘not posed as an invitation to investigate further; it’s a test’ (Clifford & Marinucci, 2008, p. 677). The science classes at one of the high schools was trying to implement the Inquiry method with varying degrees of success. Clifford and Marrinucci (2008, p. 677) describe the Inquiry method as evoking ‘powerful, stimulating questions that lead to further questions’ (Clifford & Marinucci, 2008, p. 677), and ‘in a genuine inquiry, the topic itself matters far less than the attitude kids and teachers take toward it. If they are moved to ask why, to wonder who thinks otherwise, to explore what other strange things just might be connected to this one little problem, then they are in an inquiry space’ (2008, p. 679). Several classes were looking at YouTube videos and formulating questions on the information presented there, another class was looking at an image on the board of ‘The Kilogram’ in its carefully environmentally-controlled chamber to springboard conversation on how we measure things, do we use constants? how do we measure a kilogram if we can’t use the one ‘standard’ in that case? I liked his idea, and he was taking a stab at using the inquiry method, and most of the students were engaged.
ICT is a cross-curricula priority in the <Australian Curriculum> (being phased in across Australian education) and has been present in schools in some form or another since I was in Grade 6, in 1993. Many of the schools we visited, both primary and secondary, have iPad trials and laptop computers and government installed computer pod rooms between classrooms - with mixed results. Most teachers we talked to found the pod rooms to be a waste of space as they could only hold around a third of a class, and learning and behaviour was hard to monitor. They felt computers would be better inside classrooms or in designated computer rooms that all students in a class could fit in. A further issue was well explained by my teacher friend in Mooralbark. In the last few years, her school upgraded their ICT capabilities and built a new science area but they have exhausted their funding, and are finding it hard to maintain their equipment and improvements, and all they have spend their money on will be broken (if it isn’t already) or obsolete soon. I am left wondering: how can we use ICT better?
ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION SETTINGS
Noddings (2005, p. 85) says that ‘...everyone in a liberal democracy should have a chance to obtain the goods of that society. That seems right. But does such a commitment imply that access to those goods should come through a successful competition in traditional schooling? What happens, then, to those who do not do well in the only form of schooling we now make available in the name of equity? Suppose instead that we created rich alternative curricula and provided guidance to those students who might welcome and succeed with them? Questions such as these go to the very roots of what we believe about democracy and democratic schooling.' There are three institutions in Australia where attendance is mandatory: prisons, mental institutions, and schools (Scott Webster, Deakin University Lecturer, Week 1 Lecture). If all children must go to school, '...so long as we measure success in schools competitively, there will be losers' (Noddings 2005, p.85).
Where do these ‘losing’ students go? In Maroondah, when traditional schools and their counseling programs can no longer help them, many end up at the Croydon Community School where they practice that 'each individual constitutes his own class' (Dewey cited by Noddings 2005, p.79). This school has 128 kids ranging from Year 7 to 12 and 75% are below National learning standards, 25% have diagnosed disabilities, and a further 25% percent are not diagnosed but indicate mental health problems, substance use, have been involved in Youth Justice programs to keep them out of jail, and/or have ADHD (Workshop Talks, Maroondah Secondary College, 21 March 2011). Despite all these facets of these learners they were involved in ‘Big Picture Education of Relationships, Rigour and Relevance’ and martial arts related attributes of ‘Be Strong, Be Kind, Be Calm, and Try Hard’ (Workshop Talks, Maroondah Secondary College, 21 March 2011). Noddings (2005, p. 79) cites that Dewey (agreeing with Plato) says that we should provide different forms of education for children with different interests in order to find their interest and help them grow to be expert at it in order to perform it for the good of the state. Plato (cited by Noddings 2005, p. 79) goes further, saying that ‘those who love certain forms of work will care deeply about that work and become competent at it.' The Croydon Community School had tailored individual programs, with an emphasis on responsibility, that were assessed by exhibitions (Workshop Talks, Maroondah Secondary College, 21 March 2011). These individualised programs are what all teachers try to aspire to but rarely achieve. They are, however, successful when implemented for on average, each child progressed 1.1 learning years per year, much better than if they were in a more traditional learning context (Workshop Talks, Maroondah Secondary College, 21 March 2011).
In this setting, once again, the importance of relationships was stressed, and understanding the youth we are teaching. ‘For adolescents these are among the most pressing questions: Who am I? What kind of person will I be? Who will love me? How do others see me? Yet schools spend more time on the quadratic formula than on any of these existential questions' (Noddings, 1992, p. 20). As teachers, we need to find out what motivates particular kids, because we will need to adapt our teaching to whether they are motivated by fun, freedom, love, belonging, survival, or power etc. Another big theme for the week, well-expressed at this school, was ‘don’t be the expert - ask for help’ (Workshop Talks, Maroondah Secondary College, 21 March 2011). As teachers, we need to collaborate, to make links with community and use all the resources available to us so we are better enabled to make ‘... such modification of traditional ideals of culture, traditional subjects of study and traditional methods of teaching and discipline as will retain all the youth under educational influences until they are equipped to be masters of their own economic and social careers’ (Dewey 1916, p. 104).
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
‘But there is the great difficulty. Each generation is inclined to educate its young so as to get along in the present world instead of with a view to the proper end of education: the promotion of the best possible realisation of humanity as humanity... Who, then, shall conduct education so that humanity may improve?’ (Kant, as cited by Dewey 1916, p.102). If one of those educators is going to me, where do I go from here?
What can I work on personally?
Nearly everyone we talked to that week stressed the importance of building relationships (students, school, other teachers, community) in order to teach effectively. Focus on people as individuals. Identify and tap into or create my networks of support. I need to build my presentation skills! Rob Motton gave us a ‘Theatrics of Presentation’ workshop (Workshop Talks, Maroondah Secondary College, 25 March 2011) that reminded me of many things I already do when instructing but often forget to bring into my teaching, and some aspects of presentation I had not considered. In order to engage students I need to be engaging, and engaged myself. I’m even considering some voice training as I sometimes lose my voice when talking a lot. The librarian at Ringwood (Pers. Comm.) told us her colleague used to be an opera singer and recommended pineapple juice for when you get a sore throat/voice. Interesting and perhaps worth looking further into? Several principals stressed flexibility - you will be called on to teach outside your 'discipline/method' and probably 'age-range audience'. I need to become a teacher & learner who teaches and learns from/with kids, not a just science teacher or a history teacher.
What can I offer that Google can’t?
One of my tutorials raised this question and I thought about it during my ethnographic week, and still think on it. Textbooks are like Google, they present us with information but they cannot assess how we are learning and adapt to synthesise information for us to answer our own questions - an informed great (hardworking!) teacher can do this. I firmly agree with the concept: the greatest difference you can make in a learning environment is the introduction of a great teacher (Churchill et al. 2011, p. 26).
Why should my students turn up to my class? Because they have to? How can I teach so that they want to? Why should I turn up to my class?
These are the next questions to tackle as I move towards ten days of ‘shadowing’ (a snow industry teaching term) teachers in their day. After seven (eight, upcoming) ski seasons coaching and instructing... I’m back to being a rookie again!
My next teaching-related blog will share that - sure to be eye-opening - experience!
REFERENCES NOT DIRECTLY LINKED TO IN TEXT
Biesta, G 2010, Good Education in an Age of Measurement: Ethics, Politics, Democracy, Paradigm Publishers, Boulder Colorado.
Britzmann, DP 2003, Practice makes practice: a critical study of learning, State University of New York Press, Albany.
Churchill, R et al. (Eds.) 2011, Teaching: Making a Difference, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Milton, Queensland.
Clifford, P & Marinucci, SJ 2008, ‘Testing the Waters: Three Elements of Classroom Inquiry.’ Harvard
Educational Review, vol. 78, no. 4, pp. 675-88.
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