Prologue
Thomas Chai is
the Senior Executive Chef of Tung Lok Restaurants in Singapore. He is, in fact,
one of the celebrity chefs thronged by the media. In a recent television appearance,
Thomas was asked to prepare a banquet with all his signature dishes for a
person important to him. Thomas invited his English teacher.
When Thomas first
arrived in Singapore from Malaysia, he was not able to communicate in English.
He had to attend the in-house evening English classes. But then because of the
long work hours, he was always late for class and sleepy during lessons. He
felt very embarrassed each time he dozed off. Yet his teacher smiled, patted
him on the shoulder and gave him extra lessons when he was free. When it was
the last lesson before the examinations, the teacher called the four weakest
students to her room and gave each one a card with words “I expect no less than
4As in your examinations” written on it. That meant straight A. And that was
what Thomas achieved. Upon getting the result, Thomas ran to the classroom
where lessons used to be held to announce it to his teacher. He was
disappointed to find out that she had been re-deployed to another centre.
Eleven years
passed and so when the teacher and student met at the banquet table covered
with bowls and dishes of exquisite food, it was one touching scene. There
seated was one elegant elderly lady with a broad smile on her face, then came
in the meek soft-spoken student, Thomas. He approached her and they hugged. The
next second saw Thomas feeling about his pocket and taking out a card – that
very one his teacher gave him. In the gentlest voice, he said, “I got 4As. I
thought you would like to know. Thank you for your confidence in me” as he
handed the card to the teacher. All eyes were teary.
This summer I was
in Singapore. When I was dining with my friend, Mr. Bert Koh, there Thomas was
bustling around in the kitchen. Bert got excited and told me his story. We
approached him with Bert pointing out that I am an English teacher. We had a
photo taken. The next day, Bert gave me the recording of that television
program and so I came to know the story of Thomas and his English teacher.
My
awakening
One teacher has
touched a person and he in turn touches the world. Isn’t this amazing? And I am
blessed enough to be in this enviable profession of teaching. But to be honest,
I have not always felt like this in the long years of my career.
Too often in the
past, when lessons were over, I collapsed into my chair grunting how students
were unmotivated and unwilling and that teaching them was a total waste of my
time. But with the passage of time, I was enlightened. Perhaps it was the
reading of an article or the sharing I had with some guru or a talk I had
attended or perhaps I had learnt it the hard way or had tasted the sweet fruits
of some successes but trust me I have forgotten when and why I became
converted. I have changed.
I no longer engage myself in depressing indictment of
students’ hopelessness but instead I have become most critical of myself taking
on the blame and the responsibility for their non-performance. I do not indulge
in self-deceiving beliefs that my lessons are the best and therefore deserve
their full attention, that they are lucky to be in my class and they should
render their very best efforts to me, that they should be active learners
getting the most from my lessons. These would be thoughts too beautiful to be
true. And I know when such “paradise” scenario does not happen in my class, I
cannot just conclude that my students are lazy and not worth my efforts and
devotion. That could be the easy way out. But what would subsequent lessons
degenerate into? Two worlds or more in one classroom – my pathetic cocoon world
of profound knowledge and the students’ different worlds of their own? Hours to
become days and days to become years? That is not to happen in my classroom.
No, I would not allow that.
Biting the bullet
What takes place
in an effective classroom is learning not just teaching. Too often there is
teaching but no learning. Teachers, who are nervous, frustrated or are
engrossed in catching up with the syllabus keep teaching regardless of whether
the students are learning. Paying attention to the situation of learning
demands adjustment, adaptation and even improvisation. All these may seem too
much to ask for but that is exactly our responsibility as teachers – to foster
learning. Teachers who are experienced or prepared should know their students
well and should have taken every possible situation into consideration when
preparing lessons. The crux of the issue is to bite the bullet - be accountable
for the failure of learning in the classroom. That requires a lot of painstaking
soul-searching. Admitting failure and accepting the blame is only the first difficult
step. How to prevent future failure and ensure permanent success is the
challenge.
We teachers often
blame students for not paying attention to us but do we to them? Do we know
what they are doing under the desks? Are they following the lesson or reading a
comic book or text-messaging? Reflective teachers would try to decipher all
those passive looks or nodding heads or absolute silence. In their little ways,
our students are telling us that they are not tuning to our channel or are not
even on the same planet as ours. In their various ways, they want us to know
they are not learning and yet how often do we attend to all these signs?
“If they don’t
understand, why don’t they ask? They just don’t bother!” says the teacher. No,
they might not know they have the right. Or they don’t know where to start.
Their behaviour is a conglomeration of years of pleasant and unpleasant
classroom experiences. They might have been told off once they open their
mouths. They might have been warned not to ask stupid questions.
And we have to
admit that in many ways, classrooms have basically not changed much though the
whole world around us has. Young people who are so used to all the audio and
visual sensations would for sure find the traditional classroom one prolonged
boring monologue. As teachers, we have to believe or if you don’t, then
convince yourselves that all students are willing to learn and can learn, they
just cannot endure the way they are taught. If we really want self-motivated
students learning in our classroom, we ourselves must first be strongly motivated
to learn.
No quick fix and
definitely no panacea
Problem students
or rather problem behaviour comes in all forms and severity and for all kinds
of reasons. Teachers should never nurture the wishful thinking that there
exists somewhere in the world a magical potion to cure all ailments. And what
works in other classes all the time may instead bring havoc to another. A
cocktail recipe might work more effectively than a single shot of a particular
serum. We need to be alert, patient and appreciative of improvement however
small or insignificant it might be. When it does occur, recognition is due so
as to nurture its further growth.
Dosage 1: Individualization
What our students
hate most or take advantage of is when we teachers see them as a homogenous
mass. Those seeking attention would be so disappointed when they discover to
their dismay our eyes never fall on them. On the other hand, some others would
feel so comfortable when they successfully remain invisible and anonymous
amidst the big crowd. What can be more disastrous to happen than a teacher
having to point at students and not being able to name them even by the end of
the school year?
Students all want
to feel that we are treating them as individuals with their names, character
and needs well grasped by us teachers. We should never simply label students
according to their performance. They are humans and should be treated as such
with respect. Conscientious teachers would assess their students individually
and set achievable tailor-made targets for them. Instructions are always
specifically tailored to foster and exploit students’ talents. Students want
caring teachers who have an eye on them in class, check on them, pat them on
the shoulder in recess, jump in to help when hearts are broken, appreciate the
slightest effort and regularly design a variety of learning activities and tasks
that give them the opportunity to learn in modes that suit their individual needs,
styles and levels. All students want to be positively challenged and not
depressingly demoralized.
Dosage
2: Honesty, humour and humility
Often enough there are times in class when a teacher simply
has to be honest, honest that he is not in control, honest that he has spoken a
word too harshly, honest that he has wronged a student, honest that he cannot
answer a question posed by the student and honest that he has allowed his own personal
emotions to get in the way. Only when teachers are truly honest to themselves
and to the classroom situations will they be able to address the problems and
put classes into perspective.
There are ways
out. Teachers have to be humble and good-humoured and take the bull by the
horns. Humble because only the humble are open-minded enough to learn.
Good-humoured because a joke or a smile can save face when heat is rising.
These are moments when teachers should loosen the iron fist and look at the
students with fondness rather than impatience and frustration. Teachers nowadays
are all trained professionals armoured with techniques to handle all sorts of
difficult situations. As long as they remain calm and not irritated, they do
know what best is to be done. A word of apology to the wronged student, words
of confirmation to the one who shouts out the answer, a dramatized laughter, a
question rephrased for that “dumb” student who has his lips sealed, a promise
that you will look up for the answer to that “naughty” student who has asked
you a question you should know but cannot answer are all contingent measures
you know and can resort to.
Dosage 3: Compassion,commitment and conscientiousness
When in the
classroom, teachers should see beyond the surface. Hostility can be a mask for
fear. Compassionate teachers would respond to such hostility by persuading
students to remove the mask and reveal their fear. Teachers should remain
composed and restrained. Direct confrontation is a “face” matter and “face” is
a big issue not only to the teachers but also to the students. While we want to
maintain our dignity, so do the students. We should keep in mind that when we put
students down in front of others, the entire class might turn against us. Shouting
and screaming would not defuse the situation. The misbehaving students have to
be allowed to respectably retreat from the confrontation. But this does not
mean the teacher is to let him off. The case must be followed up when everybody
is calmer and when contention is clarified.
These days, all
teachers and not just those assigned counselling and guidance duties have to
learn communication skills and counselling strategies. Adverse situations can
happen in any class and anytime. It is not wise to wait for the cavalry to
march in to your rescue. A mere command of the subject knowledge is no longer
the sole criterion a teacher has to master.
For teachers to be able to “control” the class takes more than a kind
heart. It takes strong commitment to the profession and a very conscientious
attitude to constantly reflect on their teaching and update When a student is
entrusted to us teachers, he becomes our responsibility. We cannot allow
student not learning and not achieving though to what extent he does learn
varies from student to student. We cannot have a student not being “touched” by
us. Changes have to ideally take place intellectually and emotionally.
Booster dosage: Prevention is better than cure
Though there are
always ways out of difficult situations, we should in the first place never
allow them to happen. There is bound to be casualty whenever adverse situation
happens no matter how good you get out of it.
In Hong Kong,
teachers’ workload is so heavy and diversified that it is not uncommon for us
to become forgetful. We might go back on our own words. We might lose our sense
of relativity when we inflict penalty. We might be habitually looking at the
same students for the whole lesson while neglecting the rest. We might not see
hands raised a dozen times.
We have to make
our “house” rules clear and stick to them. We cannot assume students know what
we want and how they are to behave. Different teachers have different sets of
regulations and hold different levels of tolerance as to what can happen in
class. Students are faced with ten if not more teachers every day and they
might get confused.
In order for each
class to be effective, we have to be in our best physical and mental status all
the time. We have to feel good about ourselves and in particular we have to be
proud of our profession. Every day we should do all we can to step into the classroom
at our best as this pre-determines the success of the lesson. We should be
addressing the whole class and yet each of the students is to feel that we are
looking at him as an individual person. When we see any breach of our house
rules, we have to stop it at the start by a critical look made obvious to the offender
and if the misbehaviour continues, we have to stop whatever we are doing and
attend to the matter. We can wait for him to become aware of our disapproval.
Short of these actions, we are sending the wrong message to our students and in
fact we are encouraging more to follow suit.
Conclusion
I have been a
teacher for over forty years. I cannot say I enjoy every minute of it. But I
can declare that right now at my present position in school, I am at my most
cheerful self when I am in front of the students as the English Language
teacher and not behind my desk as the Deputy Principal. Teaching is instantly
rewarding and it is even more so if you enjoy it. Teaching is tough but as we
are touching souls, it cannot be easy.
