Principal Mentoring – Part II : Teachers' Will to Learn

After my first session, I am now more conscious on how I perceive teachers in terms of their attitudes, skills and knowledge. Things that happen, happens because of reasons. That reasons could be due to their belief about teaching. Wouldn’t the fact that teachers join teaching profession because of that passion to impact and influence the younger generation and to shape the future of societies.

Teachers’ Will to Learning model

It is assumed that “a will to learn” must be present before teachers engage in actual learning activities. During my years of teaching, sometimes I just wonder why some teachers just don’t see that their teaching practices don’t seem to work in class and are not trying different ways to entice the students. On the other hand, there are teachers who are constantly trying new things, have lots of ideas and you wonder where they get all their energies from.

The beliefs that teachers hold about what constitutes good students learning and good teaching have been found to strongly influence teachers’ behaviour. The quality of teaching is the single biggest in-school influence on student learning. Also essential are how teachers improve their professional skills and the part they play in improving the school and system as a whole. These voices down to how teachers’ learning is crucial in leveraging their own professional development.

Conscious competence learning model

During my second mentoring session, I was introduced by my mentor on a model called “Conscious competence learning model ”. The Four Stages of Learning provides a model for learning. It suggests that individuals are initially unaware of how little they know, or unconscious of their incompetence. As they recognize their incompetence, they consciously acquire a skill, then consciously use that skill. Eventually, the skill can be done without consciously being thought through, and the individual is said to have unconscious competence.
When teachers are at stage 1 - unconscious incompetence – they are not aware of the existing skills and not able to identify their areas of growth. Teachers may not be able to address achieving conscious competence until they've become consciously and fully aware of their own incompetence. This is a fundamental reason for the failure of a lot of training and teaching. If the awareness of skill and deficiency is low or non-existent, the learner is at the unconscious incompetence stage - the learner will simply not see the need for learning. It's essential to establish awareness of a weakness or training need (conscious incompetence) prior to attempting to impart or arrange training or skills necessary to move the learners from stage 2 to 3. People only respond to training when they are aware of their own need for it, and the personal benefit they will derive from achieving it.
The next thing was to use the Competency Model to identify which stages are the teachers in. Knowing which stage they are in, I hope to have an understanding where they are now and from their current status how I can help to close the gap to increase their competencies and awareness. Ultimately to develop them to become effective teachers.

PS: This was written quite sometime back.... but abandoned due to attachment failure....

Principal Mentoring - Part I : Is Perception A Reality?

Influence Others by Changing Perception of Them

My first session I shared with my mentor, Mdm Tang Wai Peng, a principal from Xishan Primary School was on my leadership style which is people focussed; caring for people and connecting with them. I also communicated to her about my belief and values which motivate and drive me on a daily basis which voice down to my role in my family and at work as a leader.

What struck me when she asked me about how would teachers perceive me as leader? It made me pause for a while; asking myself as to whether it is an important concern about how people judge or perceive me as a leader. Does it matter? Because what other people perceive about a person may not be the true reflection of that person.

This reminded me of a work review session I had last year with one of the beginning teacher. I asked her to give me her frank feedback about myself as a People Developer and to what extend she felt supported. She shared with me about what she heard from other teachers in the beginning of the year and it was not the real reflection of who I was. She was glad it was not the truth. I didn’t ask her as to what was the negative feedback neither who it came from? The most important thing is the trust and belief she had in me.

This makes me wonder if the negative perception is due to the limited experience I have with others or they have limited experience with me. I can understand being a newly appointed leader in the department; teachers have different views of me. In order to change their perception, I have to build relationship and trust with the teachers.

Does that mean that the interactions that we create are according to the perception of what we have about others? We tend to give new assignment or new positions or roles to teachers whom we have confidence and trust to ensure that works are carried out successfully. On the other hand, teachers who are new and inexperience or even experience and incompetent, we tend to avoid unless demonstrated otherwise.

Changing People’s Perception

When we change our perception of others, we change the consciousness we attract from them and we also literally change the way they are. You create and attract everything into your experience including your interactions with people. Your perception of others create what they are towards you, therefore changing your perception of them changes them.

I begin to realize that what we are doing to help the teachers may not be in harmony with the way we really see them. No matter how much we worked on our attitude and behaviour, our efforts may be ineffective because despite our actions and our words, what we really communicated to them was, “You aren’t capable. You have to be taught.”

I began to realise that if leaders want to change the situation, we first have to change ourselves. And to change ourselves effectively we first have to change our perceptions.

Akan Datang ......The Part II of the Principal mentoring is about skills, knowledge, dispositions and beliefs of effective teachers.

Students Feedback Helps Teacher Grow

Students Feedback Helps Teacher Grow

As teachers we should actively seek for and welcome students on how we can enhance the learning experiences we create for them. I believe every teacher should use student feedback in some way to shape their teaching. We, as teachers, will enter a classroom with hundreds of teaching strategies ready to go, but will never really know how effective they are unless we ask. Also, giving students the chance to discuss what worked for them makes them feel empowered, and allows them to be active in their learning.

The Moment of Truth I believe by allowing students to report their feedback about the teacher brings a balance to the classroom and creates a high-performance, learning team . There is an equal amount of respect shared between teacher and student. Many teachers, including myself, sometimes forget that the students have a voice too. Even though we may think we are doing everything possible to allow every student to learn, we forget to actually ask if what we are doing is working. Opening the line of communication between teacher and student is an important step in being an effective teacher and I believe your suggestion of including student feedback supports this.

Student Academic Behaviour

Influence on Student Academic Behaviour through Motivation & Confidence

Every year it’s a challenge for me when I have to take new classes. It is always about trying to build a positive relationship with students. It’s usually a battle for the first few weeks trying to gain their confidence and motivate them to do their best. It is also about trying to make them have confidence and trust in me as a teacher.

This year I am given the task to teach graduating classes, 4E and 5NA. In my 5N2 class, there is a group of students who are from the non through train and sat for N level last year. I noticed that these students need time to digest information and slow to response compare to their counter parts previously from the 4N2 & 4N3 classes. They get frustrated and give up easily when they cannot follow with the lessons. This made me wonder if the students are of low self esteem.

Self-Esteem Comes First

We have long known that when students feel good about themselves, they are much more likely to perform better in the classroom. Thus, I need to raise the non through train students’ confidence by giving them opportunity to experience small success and provide positive feedback along with frequent praise. Just like myself, I feel better about the task at hand and the ability to do it if I feel more confident. When students are feeling good about themselves, it's much easier to motivate them to become academically proficient.

Students who are of low self esteem tend to focus on the negative. Statements such as “I am not good at this” or “I am so stupid”. These indicate that they need to like themselves more and see their strength. As teachers we have to put emphasis on the positive. Give the students encouragement and motivation. Another thing that I learn from experience is to avoid criticism. Children would want to feel valued, appreciated, accepted, loved and having a good sense of self worth. Hence, we teachers must be sensitive with what we said and do.

Experience Success

Next, expectation must be realistic. This is important in getting the students feel succeed. The types of tasks in terms of assignment given must match the student’s strength and ability levels. Instructional and assessment practice can be different to ensure that learning takes place. This is where differentiated instruction and assessment comes in. However, it is easier to say than to carry out. The questions in the worksheet are set according to level of difficulty. The questions are set based on knowledge with understanding and handling of information. It would be good if the questions are tagged by level. This will give students a better understanding on where they are in their learning. On the other hand I feel that the task given should not be too easy and hardly any challenge as this is more likely to reduce motivation.

Another is learning through mistakes. Turn mistakes inside out and focus on what was or will be learned from the mistake. This helps a student focus on the positive, not the negative. Remind students that everyone makes mistakes but it's how those mistakes are handled that makes the difference. We need to see them as learning opportunities. Powerful learning can often be the result of a mistake made.

Motivation

There are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is the tendency to engage in tasks because student finds them interesting and enjoyable. Students with more intrinsic motivation tend to persist at difficult problems and learn from their mistakes. In addition, intrinsic motivation is central for the integration process through which elements of one’s existing internal knowledge is integrated with new knowledge. Extrinsic motivation is the tendency to engage in tasks because of task-unrelated factors such as the expectation of reward or punishment, for example, to pass the exam or get a good grade. Definitely intrinsic motivation will influence student behaviour in a positive way. Students who are intrinsically motivated to perform a task will usually be more self-regulated, they can work concentrated over time and use a list of strategies to manage challenges. But can students be intrinsically motivated if we remove extrinsic rewards.

There are two ways on how students approach learning: surface and deep learning. Students applying a deep approach try to integrate new information with existing knowledge; the focus is on understanding what they are studying. In the surface approach, the student is driven more by an extrinsic motivation, with the aim of mainly passing examinations. A student deploying a surface approach typically tries to memorize details without trying to construct an integrated knowledge base.

On their other, instead of asking how we can motivate students we should also be asking ourselves, “How teachers can be deterred from diminishing or even destroying student motivation and morale through our actions?” Sometime I’m guilty of this. We tend to say out of frustration and anger. But in reality we kill students’ interest and passion for learning.

Motivation and confidence are important component to almost everything children. Not only will they help with academic performance, they support social skills, making easier for children to have and keep friends. Children are better equipped to cope with mistakes, disappointment and failure and more ready to face the ever challenging world.

Reference: Influence on Student Academic Behaviour through Motivation, Self-Efficacy and Value- Expectation: An Action Research Project to Improve Learning Hallgeir Nilsen University of Agder, Department of Information Systems, Kristiansand, Norway

Scaffolding Students Learning

Breaking Complex Tasks into Smaller Tasks

Scaffolding is an educational concept in which a teacher helps build student learning. Teachers choose scaffolding strategies that allow students to facilitate their own learning with the teacher's help. The theory of "scaffolding" someone's efforts to learn describes how a learner can be supported to achieve a task or develop a skill. Just as a new building is surrounded by scaffolding poles as it is being put up, so a new learner may need different kinds of support to make progress. This theory states that learning takes place actively as children build new ideas upon their current and prior knowledge.

The topic on identification of Ions and gases is one of the important topics in O level. Students are not only tested in the written paper but also in the practical examination. Thus, it is important that students understand the topic well and able to apply their understanding in both aspect. However, students when performing their practical, they take it as standalone and do not relate to the theory. They just follow the instruction in the paper, going through the motion, just like cookbook recipe.

The topic to be covered requires students to have good understanding on previous topics that were covered in sec 4 (blue boxes). In order to check on where they are in their understanding, I gave a short test to check if they know their writing and naming of chemical formulae. Here, students who are weak in memorising the formulae would have been identified. Next, I gave them a worksheet on writing of chemical and word equation for acid and base reactions. This was meant for the students to recall back on what they have learned. I was trying to kill 2 birds with one stone; whether students were able to recall the acid and base reactions and also able to write and balance chemical equations. After which, I move on testing their knowledge on solubility of salts, assigning state symbols and eventually writing of ionic equations which is needed in the learning of new topics. I foresee the students will be having difficulty in the new topic if they are weak in their basic knowledge. Once, I am confident that my students have acquired basic knowledge or understanding; I will move on to teach students on integration of prior and new knowledge on application questions.

The role of teachers is important in supporting the learner’s development and providing support structures to get to that next stage. The scaffolds facilitate a student’s ability to build on prior knowledge and internalize new information. However the scaffolding instructions are temporary. As the learner’s abilities increase the scaffolding provided by the teacher is progressively withdrawn Finally the learner is able to complete the task or master the concepts independently Therefore the goal of the educator when using the scaffolding teaching strategy is for the student to become an independent and self-regulating learner and problem solver .As the learner’s knowledge and learning competency increases, the educator gradually reduces the supports provided.

Lastly, in whatever teaching strategies that teachers adopt, the guiding principles below will help teachers and students reap the rewards of that hardwork.

1. Start where your students are.

2. Know where your students are going.

3. Expect to get your students to their goal.

4. Support your students along the way.

5. Use feedback to help you and your students to get better.

6. Focus on quality rather than quantity.

(Adapted from Never work harder than your students by Robyn R. Jackson)

Flowchart on the cross linking of the topic :

Changing People's Behaviour

Increasing Teacher Motivation through the Development of a Personal Mission

When Stephen shared with the SMC member about a book called “Influencer : The Power to Change Anything, I was curious as to how it works. Then the digging and the searching in the World Wide Web begins.

Influence is so powerful that it can change hearts, minds and behaviour to produce meaningful, sustainable results. In order to make changes inevitable, the six sources of influence are able to give powerful strategies to create rapid, impactful, and permanent change in our personal life and the people around us.

This made me relate to the conversation that I had with Ser Yen on Friday morning after finishing work review with a teacher. I shared with her about what I gathered and observed during the work review sessions with 4 teachers for that week. I observed that teachers who thought through about their personal mission have a sense of direction and clarity. They were able to identify their core values and beliefs. They were able to spell out their strategies clearly about teaching and learning. Reasons being ,during personal mission development, we should examine and evaluate the things we want, the persons we are, the things we want to do, and the person we want to become.

This made me wonder if teachers who were vague and unsure about their purpose of life have no or little personal motivation and ability. Personal motivation is what drives us internally and externally to succeed in whatever we want to succeed in. Without personal motivation, we wouldn't be able to accomplish anything. The problem with personal motivation is that many vital behaviors are boring, frightening, scary or uncomfortable. According to an author (JD), the most powerful motivation is personal motivation. The most powerful personal motivation is when you connect to values. This leads to how to connect people through their values.

The importance of values

By discovering a person core values, one will gain a valuable understanding of just who they are, which is a very important aspect of personal growth. Thus, we can assist teachers in finding out their most important values through conversation.
You can do this by asking a few simple questions. Examples of these are:
• I’m just curious what things are most important to you in life?
• I was wondering, on a day to day basis what sort of things do you place value on?
• In the long run what is really important to you?
• If you were to lose everything what would you miss the most?
• If you were to get what you really want in life what would that give you emotionally?

Research has shown that being in touch with your personal values contribute significantly to personal motivation.
To conclude, in order to change our own behavior or the behavior of others , it is critical to deal with personal motivation through personal mission statement.

References:
http://sourcesofinsight.com/2009/06/14/influencer-training-day-2/
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/how-to-connect-with-people-through-their-values
http://johnglanvill.com/values-and-beliefs/
http://www.cogtech.usc.edu/publications/clark_fostering.pdf

People Focussed Leadership

New beginning…. New Role…. New Chapter….. New Perspective

I remember the time when I was just a teacher (I am still now), just like most teachers, I anticipated anxiously as to what will be my form class, the subject classes that I will be teaching, which committees will I be in and importantly who is my reporting officer (PD) for the year.

However, this year it is different and definitely a new role and new beginning for me as a Head of Science. I asked myself the following question …..Where do I start? What is my key focus as a leader or head of the department? One thing that I find important is caring for people and connecting with them. They called this People Focused Leadership style.

I believe that people are intrinsically motivated to do their best. However, this can sometimes be suppressed by pressures, old habits and fear of the unknown. As a leader cum people developer, one of my roles is to create a department which enable teachers to achieve their fullest potential.
I started off with questions for the teachers to ponder during the holiday. The idea was to get teachers to do self reflection for the year 2010 on what has worked and what has not in the classroom teaching and importantly their professional growth as teachers.

Below are questions that I had posted for the teachers to ponder during the holiday:

• How have your beliefs about learning and pedagogy changed over the years?
• What minor and/or major changes can you make to your teaching in order to directly increase your students' engagement?
• Are there any aspects of the profession that you are ignoring out of fear of change or lack of knowledge? (i.e. technology, Inquiry based learning, AFL, etc)
• What can you do to make your teaching more fun while adding to your students' learning and enjoyment?
• What can you do to be more proactive in your professional development?
• What resentments do your need to resolve in order to move forward more optimistically and with a fresh mind?

I realised that the mistake that I made was not asking them to pen down their thoughts. It would be good if I can consolidate the answers and understand the individual teachers need and strength. However, I find that the above questions are something they can discuss with their People Developer (PD) during the first work review session as I would be doing with the teachers under my charge.

That brings to my attention about getting connected with the teachers. If people focussed is the leadership style that I want to adopt , than it important that i know their strength, their profile and making them involved in decision making.

• Knowing their strength - I need to know the talent and abilities of those in my department, what they are good at. There may be a hidden talent that has not surfaced and by knowing and taking time to know about them enables me to position them well.

• Knowing about them – Guilty, Guilty, Guilty !!!! As leaders we tend to focus so much about their works but not to learn about their life outside their works. What do they do for fun & leisure? What are their families like? Understanding their background can build a great level of relationship.

• Encourages open thinking – I need teachers to open their mind and participate in decision making. It is about them taking ownership and getting them involved in planning.

My first plan was to work with the coordinators. I need to groom the coordinators to be leaders of their units. I need to lead and inspires my coordinators, to be the driving force to lead other teachers moving towards achieving better performance for the department. Let me quote (cannot recall where I read) that an effective leader of leaders makes a difference that improves individual performance and ultimately organizational outcomes. However, I am a bit apprehensive and sceptical if that expectation was too much for them. Definitely, they cannot the sail the boat on their own, they need support and guidance along the way.

Looking above, Im wonder if the strategies work. Wonder if I make the right move.....wonder if i am able to see the fruits of my labour.......