Waking up to new learning styles

Looking up to learning — students don’t always have to be in the classroom

In younger children, such moments are complimented with excitement, eagerness and even joy. We’ve all seen the kid with his or her hand stretched up in the air as far as it will go, desperate to gain the teacher’s attention. It’s a sight far less common when students hit adolescence. Such is life.

There’s no doubt that attention spans shrink considerably within the first years at secondary school. Hormone imbalances also dictate a certain lethargy – when scientific research suggests that adolescents need at least ten hours sleep a day, what’s the point of even trying to get students that age to do anything?!

Motivating older students can be one of the biggest challenges for any teacher but it need not be such a daunting experience. Contrary to the stereotype, most teenagers want to learn. As they wander into adulthood, they’re at their most curious and adventurous. Given encouragement, they’ll thrive on achievement and come back for more. Excite them and you’ll earn their respect.

Does this mean teachers have to be entertainers? Not necessarily, although a little character goes a long way. More importantly, it’s about how you get kids to learn that is key. Sit a class-load of fourteen year-olds in front of a teacher who spends a whole lesson reading from a book, and you have the students’ attention for ten minutes. Get them to read it themselves, discuss it, challenge it, and pull it apart and you get their minds working. Some will still sleep, they haven’t had their ten hours, but most will be wide-awake and learning.

Academics have been studying how we learn for decades now and putting students at the centre of learning is nothing new. In the past few years, however, there have been some creative advances in the way we teach our children and innovative techniques are being invented by educators all the time.

Thai educators are keen to embrace learner-centred teaching methods. The government has implemented various schemes to help with training and many international schools, where the concept of learner-centred education is second nature, play a vital role in passing on their knowledge. Local teachers have been invited for day visits as well as long-term observations, giving a lucky few the hands-on experience and confidence necessary to translate theory into practice.

Some teachers have already begun to adopt new strategies with pleasing results. Others are still dipping their toes in the water, waiting to see if they have what it takes to turn the tide.

Suda Sriphyak, Kanchapat Chaoplaina

It seems that those who already use learner-centred techniques are reaping the benefits. Kanchapat Chaoplaina and Suda Sriphyak are two English language teachers at Sainampeung School on Sukhumvit 22. Over the last few years, both have introduced a variety of learning-styles to their classrooms and the students have responded well.

“I sometimes divide the students in to small groups, sit them in front of a computer and assign their work using PowerPoint,” says Chaoplaina, who oversees a large English department. “They are more interested than when I used tape recorders or chalk or a piece of paper. The weaker students get better when they work in a group with smarter students – they really help one another.”

Sriphyak agrees. “The students are more alert,” she says. “I let them choose which unit they want to do and give them some time to do presentations using the computer in the next class. They know such a lot. They are often better than the teacher!”

Interestingly, as more and more Thai teachers become proficient in teaching this way, it appears that native English speakers employed by Thai schools to teach language may have the most to learn. Erptip Chaichamnong, from Potisarnpittayakorn School on the outskirts of Bangkok is not impressed by some of what she has observed. “It seems they don’t listen to the children,” she says. “Sometimes, they just sit there and read to them and the children get bored. They need to try different techniques to make the children more interested. It’s a concern for a lot of Thai schools.”

Learning post recently visited International School Bangkok (ISB) to see what kind of methods and ideas lie at the root of student-centred learning.

Deborah Welch

Deborah Welch, who is Deputy Head of School for Learning, has done a great deal of research into learner-centred education. “When looking at how people learn and in various studies on the brain, cognitive scientists have come to the conclusion that you have to place the learner at the centre of learning,” notes Welch. “Before, education was always thought about as ‘I am the teacher, you are the empty vessel, and I am going to deposit all that I know in my brain into you.’ And the learner’s not in that equation. It’s all about the teacher and what the teacher has to do.

“There needs to be more focus on what the students are learning. We’ve got to think about how we put the student first and where this learner is. What do they already know? What can I do to activate their prior knowledge that gets them thinking about the subject or the process?”

One approach is to use what is known as the ‘KWL’ method within each unit of work. ‘KWL’ consists of three questions for students to think about. At the beginning of an activity, they are asked “what do you Know?” and “what do you Want to know?”. At the end, they should be able to answer, “what have you Learned?”. Sounds simple but it can be a useful framework for bringing any activity into focus.

According to Welch, with questions such as these, you immediately start provoking curiosity and encourage children to reflect upon their current experience.

Indeed, adopting an appropriate style of questioning can make all the difference to students’ learning. One useful tool in this context, with which many Thai teachers are familiar, is Bloom’s Taxonomy – a table which categorises the level of abstractions of questions that commonly occur in educational settings. This can be found in educational books or by simply searching the Internet.

Ann Straub

The Director of Curriculum and Staff Development at ISB, Ann Straub, has been working closely with colleagues on improving and promoting student-centred learning both here and at other schools around the world.

“Part of the job of a teacher is to push students beyond knowledge and comprehension,” says Straub, whose team has come up with a range of strategies to ensure that teachers use their talents and resources to the fullest potential. In practice, that means understanding how students learn and, significantly, how students learn differently.

“We use the term ‘differentiated instruction’ which is instruction tailored to meet the needs of individual learners,” explains Straub. “Importantly, everyone is being educated towards the same goal and speaking the same language.

“There are three areas in which you differentiate. First is the content, followed by the process (how you teach it) and then the product (how you assess it or how the kids show what they know). Providing different ways of doing all these things can appeal to students’ interest and readiness.”

In the end, it all comes down to the use of variety and imagination. Students of all ages respond best to a changing environment, not one that is static and uninspired. Textbooks and lectures are valid teaching resources but when used relentlessly, the effect can wear off very quickly. That’s why Straub suggests that occasionally coming up with other methods of delivery and assessment can improve the learning experience for everyone.

“We have already had visitors from the Thai ministry,” says Straub. “They are very interested in differentiated instruction, so we’ve put on workshops. But the question often is, that with a class of 40 or 50 students, how do you do this? In fact, it’s something they can address quite easily in their curriculum. For example, if students learn better with others then you give opportunities for them to work in small groups. The idea should be that you’ll vary the way that you teach things – use more visuals, more diagrams, more hands-on. These are all things that are manageable in the classroom.”

By way of example, Straub recalls a lesson on Buddhism, which was taught to a grade 9 class who were studying different religions. In this particular lesson, the class were asked to research the ‘eightfold path’, a central Buddhist concept, and then produce a piece of artwork that contained text but ultimately conveyed what they had found out. The result was a vivid piece of work and the students were much more engaged with the topic than they would have been if they were told to write an essay instead.

But differentiation is not simply about variety. It is also about catering to student’s readiness for learning a new topic. For instance, some of the students in the ‘Buddhism’ class were Thai. “These are students who don’t need to sit down and learn the eightfold paths of Buddhism, they’ve lived through it,” says Straub. “So what do you do with them? Actually, they went to a wat and were able to interview folks there and come back and teach other students what they had learned.”

Caught up in a grade-orientated system, some teachers may be interested in the concept of differentiation but would be lost when it comes to assessing something not written down in rigid form. When it comes to grading a piece of artwork on Buddhism, for example, what do you look for?

According to Straub, it is imperative that teachers know what they want their students to have learned at the outset. That way, they can gear their questioning or tasks so that students are able to show specific learning outcomes appropriately.

The students themselves are well aware of what makes them tick. Younger students seem to be fairly confident in telling you if they learn best from pictures or sounds. Older students are capable of a little more complexity.

From left to right — Parima, Karin and Donald from ISB

“It’s better to be more involved,” says senior student Parima Phudipakorn. “If you’re in a seminar, you need to have some understanding of the material so that you can get involved in the discussion. Whereas if the teachers are teaching from a textbook, you know you can always go back to the book and re-read it. I feel as though you’re not as focused with the textbook as you are with a seminar.”

Her colleague, Donald Sampson, has recently received a number of prestigious prizes for mathematics competitions and cites the teachers who pushed him and challenged him as being a positive influence. Teachers who simply taught ‘to the middle’, made him turn off most of the time, he says.

Another grade 12 student, Karin Yukiye Fujii, was particularly taken with one teacher who had an innovative approach to science lessons. “With a physics course that I took, the teacher created his own materials,” she told us. I had to do a lot of work on the internet – in order to do homework, etc, we had to refer to his website. By doing that we had access to interactive manuals and a choice of activities.”

All teachers have their own individual approaches to learner-centred education. Different strategies work for different subjects and, indeed, different people – we have only scratched the surface here. But it is the human touch that lies at the core of learning and the less mechanical our delivery of education is, the better it is for everyone. Even for those teenagers who haven’t had ten hours sleep.

If you have any queries about learner-centred education or would like to see a trained teacher in action, ISB would like to help. Send an e-mail to learningpost@bangkokpost.co.th and we’ll pass it on.