In a previous article published in The Malta Independent on Sunday of 23 November, I highlighted some of the main challenges the reform presents us with, mainly that of setting standards, developing a meaningful and challenging curriculum, providing students with varied support, and having teachers that are motivated and supported to give of their best.
In this article I would like to focus on the teacher and on meaningful learning. Naturally, this article cannot be taken on its own. For teachers, teaching and more so “meaningful learning” to flourish they need vision, direction, a caring environment and leadership that makes a difference.
A point I would like to start with and share with the reader is that I believe teachers do make a difference. They have always done so. We are all familiar with teachers who gave fantastic lessons and engaged students in innovative ways. We all know of teachers who taught with passion and a moral sense of accountability in spite of a school or the school system they worked in. We all know of the attitudes, attributes and practices the best educators have that make them beloved, respected and remembered. Surely we can all recall teachers that made a difference in our lives. They “connected” maybe in different ways but they left an indelible mark on our lives.
Recently, I asked a few of my colleagues in schools to recount a meaningful learning experience. These are some of their recollections.
One teacher, Ms McKenzie, tested us on the first day of school on how many things we had noticed on our way from the school entrance to her classroom. I had noticed two to three things. She spent the year teaching us to be present and to pay attention to the world around us.
One teacher I want to mention is Mr Dawn, our teacher of English in Form II. As part of our grade for his subject, we each had to choose an author on whom we would become an expert in the course of the scholastic year. I chose the poet John Milton. I read his poems and learnt about his life and the times he lived in. I remember the pleasure of having the time to delve into one area deeply and to feel knowledgeable.
The story I want to share is a more recent one that my daughter experienced a couple of years ago. Her Grade II teacher emphasised writing. He had students reading their work to their classmates. He also encouraged the students to react and give constructive feedback. He used to praise the students for their efforts and provided them with opportunities to publish their work on the school magazine, on school boards. Every student had his work on display. That was all it took…
These narratives, which I am sure we can all relate to, have several elements in common. They speak of teachers who had high expectations; fostered accomplishment; offered encouraging feedback; and generated surprise, even drama, in the classroom. And they almost all mentioned by name a teacher who had in the course of a moment or a term – whether by force of personality, caring, subject knowledge, or teaching technique – left a lasting impression. Some stories may be specific – the time the teacher brought in her guitar – and some are impressionistic – “I don’t know why I liked that year so much. It was the way the teacher related to us.”
In Authentic Achievement: Restructuring Schools for Intellectual Quality (1996), Fred Newmann and colleagues wrote that authentic achievement stands for intellectual accomplishments that are worthwhile, significant, and meaningful, such as those undertaken by successful adults; scientists, musicians, entrepreneurs, politicians, crafts people, attorneys, novelists, physicians, designers, and so on. For students three criteria (are) critical to significant intellectual accomplishment: construction of knowledge, disciplined inquiry, and the value of achievement beyond school.
Teaching for authentic achievement is a complex and difficult task; one that goes beyond teaching facts, one that involves connecting with students and showing them how to use knowledge in real-life contexts. In the concluding part to this article I encourage the readers to reflect on the following points.
David Perkins presents us with a fundamental challenge. “Perhaps the broadest and most basic question for educators – before matters of method, testing, or grading – is “What should we teach?” And perhaps the most basic answer is “knowledge.” Knowledge in the broad sense – facts, ideas, and skills – provides the mainstay of the school curriculum from kindergarten to further and higher education.
Fine for knowledge. But then there’s the question of what you do with it. Education has always been more generous about exposing learners to large volumes of knowledge than about teaching them the diverse skills involved in handling knowledge well – the knowledge arts.
The knowledge arts include communicating strategically, insightfully, and effectively; thinking critically and creatively; and putting school knowledge to work out in what educators sometimes humbly call the “real world”. The knowledge arts bundle together deep reading, compelling writing, strong problem solving and decision making, and the strategic and spirited self-management of learning itself, within and across the disciplines.
We need to put the knowledge arts on the table – to celebrate them for the depth and power they provide and for the ways they make knowledge.
The knowledge arts are more than just tools for teachers to teach with. They encompass ideas, skills and attitudes for learners to learn what should be essentially our curriculum. The current curriculum review needs to ensure such a move. Thinking of the knowledge arts in this way creates new responsibilities for educators. As teachers teach science, history, or literature, they should be able to specify what skills of inquiry, strategies of communication, methods of organisation, and ranges of application they are striving to develop in students; how they are spending time on it; and how they are exciting students’ interest and providing serious guidance. It is only in this way that the curriculum review currently underway will exist in any substantive sense.
Education is not just about acquiring knowledge, but also about learning how to do significant things with what you know. It’s not about dead knowledge, but about bringing knowledge alive. To educate for today and tomorrow, every school and every classroom should teach the knowledge arts seriously and well.
Throughout the years we have heard a lot about the need to “connect”, “to engage”, to win the hearts and minds of our colleagues and of our students. The purpose ahead of us is a virtuous one, one requiring a commitment not only by our teachers but also other specialists working in the field, by adopting a community approach to formation and development. Together we must win the hearts and minds of students by engaging them in whatever areas of study we teach so that they can discover genuine meaning and value in their experiences in the school, the college and beyond.
Do take time to share this article with your colleagues. I am confident that it resonates a lot with your own experiences and those of others. Why not ask your students and colleagues about their most meaningful classroom experiences this far? And, remind yourself, this may be the best year ever for them, and for you!
Dr Bezzina is Director of the Quality Assurance Department, Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education.