Observing and Being Observed Teaching

In Bailey et al. 2001, the writers set out the following Code of Behaviour for the observer and the observee in a lesson observation:

When I am observing thee thou shalt:

• let me know your needs of me as an observer and tell me the rules, if there are any.
• explain any extraordinary circumstances that may be affecting you or your students.
• introduce me; mention who I am, but thou shalt not keep alluding to “our guest. “
  
• offer suggestions on how I can best collect my data without making your students feel uncomfortable or insecure;
• tell your students that they are not being evaluated.
• refrain from calling on me to participate unless you ask or tell me before class.
• not alter your behavior on my behalf; behave as usual; thou shalt act naturally.
• try not to get flustered about being observed.
• not ask my opinion or feedback of your teaching in front of the class.

When thou art observing me thou shalt:

• arrive early for class and introduce yourself to everyone at the beginning.
  
• not tell me what you are looking for until you are done, if you have a preset agenda.
  
• sit behind the students, out of their direct view.
  
• observe and obey the same rules the students follow, and Chou shalt respect the opinions and ideas of the students.
  
• interact with the students only when requested to do so; thou shalt not disrupt the class or detract from the students’ learning.
  
• not use my materials without permission and not take up my break time.
• observe with an open mind; thou shalt not get hung up on petty mistakes or gaps.
• share feedback with me in response to specific questions 1 ask but thou shalt not talk to me about what 1 should or should not have done (unless I ask).

Artificial Intelligence and the role of teachers

In a webinar on the use of chatbot in education, Principal Chu maintained that Artificial Intelligence will never be able to replace teachers. But if the use of Artificial Intelligence in teaching and learning stays on the one-way communication level and mainly for imparting knowledge, which very often is not even knowledge but just information, then that’s not capitalizing on the power of artificial intelligence. With all these advances in technology, teachers should strengthen their role as A guide on the Side, and not continue to remain the Stage on the stage.

I guess that is why today, every time I see a teacher, while teaching grammar, still relies on one-way regurgitation of often unreliable grammar rules in the textbook, I would still so discouraged.

A dilemma faced by many dedicated and capable teachers

The other day, a former PGDE and MA student, K (pseudonym), suddenly texted me with the following question:

“If you would give me only one piece of advice of being a good teacher/ a good member working for the field of education in Hong Kong, what would it be?”

Well, for one thing, this is an impossible task – to give someone one piece of advice so that they can become a good teacher. And then, I myself is still looking for an answer.

But from experience, rather than really seeking for advice, K was probably going through a difficult time. She was likely looking for emotional support. Hence, I texted back:

“Wow, not an easy question to answer. Teaching is a multi-faceted endeavour. You’re dealing with colleagues, students, policies, subject knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, ….

If you could give me a bit more context, then maybe I could attempt to answer the question. In fact, did something happen that led to your feeling lost?”

As I had guessed, K then poured out her feelings:

“To be more consise, I would describe the situation as having a lot of admin and teaching duties which I enjoyed and had learnt a lot, but at the same time, a bit of fatigue and learned helplessness.

Doing admin duties is a joy for me as I treat them as challenges and opportunities (unlike most teachers who don’t like admin duties)

At the same time, my teaching quality declines inevitably. I feel indebted to my students and their parents.

Moreover, I don’t think I have made significant improvement in teaching which is the biggest threat as education should be up-to-date and equip Ss with the skills needed in the future.”

=====

In a way, this scenario is quite familiar to me. The dedicated, capable, teachers are entrusted with more and more admin duties. This eats more and more into the time which they find more meaning in: planning effective lessons, creating interesting learning resources, connecting with students to see if they need help.

After a while, you either turn yourself into an unfeeling robot, or like K, you live each day with frustrations.

I’m not a trained counsellor, and in any case, it’s not my habit to dish out superficial advice. And there are real, actual, difficulties involved that even a skilled consellor cannot rid K of.

So, in the end what did I do?

I invited K out to lunch, so that she could share her frustrations more fully with someone.

今早開會的賽馬會翻轉教學project school, 正是當年初出茅廬任教的第一間學校，它確立了我日後對教育工作的commitment 。今早開會後我又想起當年難忘的一幕。

初初教書時，沒有甚麼sense of mission, 只是穩定，人工不錯，學生和家長也尊重教師。但很快地，發覺教書並不單是一份職業，我的一舉一動，一句說話，都在影響別人的生命，於是不多久，我便很努力和盡心的去教。

但愈努力去教，我便愈期望學生以相同或更多的努力去回報我， 忘記了七零年代，社會已逐漸進入universal education 階段，不像我考升中試時，四個小六學生只有一個可以升讀中一，其餘三個都開始在工厰打工。於是我愈努力教學，便愈覺得挫折，大概五年後的一天，我覺得我的學生不再值得我的心血，突然想到要做更「有意義」的工作，就是轉到特殊學校任教，覺得這些「不幸」的青少年，更值得我的時間和心機。

我其實從沒接受過特殊教育的訓練，但那時候政府開始發展特殊教育，特殊學校極缺教師。我申請其中一間，很快便得到interview, 過程很順利，學校有意思聘請我了，但最後關頭，校長問了我這個問題：

「你覺得你真的準備好從事特殊教育嗎?」

校長這一問，真是當頭棒喝;我立即明白我其實在專業訓練和心理上，都沒有準備，我只是基於一時的自我偉大心理，作出這個舉動。這一刻的epiphany 一夜之間改變了我的mindset, 第二天回到學校，我好像變了另一個人，當遇到學生表現不理想時，我不再想我的學生應該怎樣怎樣，而是我可以做甚麼，使學生可以學得更好。

而更奇妙的，是此後的數十年，我在不同的教學崗位，遇到甚麼問題，都不再有挫折的感覺。愈從心出發，愈努力的教師，愈容易有挫敗感;希望我的故事，對他們有一點啟發。

Students of the 70s

你也許很難想像，昨天出席我新書講座的其中一位觀眾，是我七十年代在第一所任教中學教過的學生！

在我接近半世纪的教學生涯中，那時代的學生給我最大的感覺就是念舊;其他的特質，例如刻苦、凡事先求諸己，坦白說在今天也不是經常看到。我們今天說的獅子山下精神，他們就是典型的體現。後來到了八零年代中期中英談判開始，社會氣氛便開始轉變了。

有時不禁想，如果我早十年出生(即處身第二次世界大戰)，或遲三十年出生(即成為millenial 一份子)，我會是一個怎樣的人？我們的一生，有多少成份是跟隨自己的性格和意志而活出來的？有多少，其實是隨波逐流？

On the eve of a new academic year

“What is the meaning of life?”

Alfred Adler began his 1931 book “What Life Should Mean to You” with the ultimate question that every human being can’t avoid asking. The act of asking this question is indication that we all long for a life that has meaning, though sometimes the answer to the question may elude us. (Alfred Adler is the Austrian psychologist of the early 20th century who has inspired Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga to write the 2 bestsellers “The Courage to be Disliked” and  “The Courage to Be Happy”, and 温美玉 to write 教室裏的阿德勒 )

In our field, we often talk of teaching as a meaningful job. But is teaching intrinsically meaningful, or are we simply romanticising it to please our ego?

As a psychologist, Adler answers the question by emphasising the existence of other human beings on Earth as the essential condition for how we make meaning out of life. He asserts: if we were the only human being on Earth, life would have no meaning. In fact, the notion of meaningfulness wouldn’t even exist.

It is the connections we have with other people that provide the opportunities for creating meaning out of life.

To go back to teaching, if I teach a lesson in an empty classroom, I may still enjoy the act. Yet, it will not be possible for me to create much meaning out of this act.

Adler did not delve into meaning in teaching, but he identified CONTRIBUTION as the single most important trigger to finding meaning in life. “Only the individual who understands that life means contribution will be able to meet his difficulties with courage and with a good chance of success” (p. 23).

Which immediately reminds me of the work of teaching. For Adler, every job in society has the potential of making a contribution to humanity, although for some jobs, this contribution may be so indirect that it cannot be recognised easily. But I still think that it is easier for teachers, doctors, nurses, social workers, etc., whose work is directly concerned with helping others, to be cognizant of the contribution that they are making, and as a result, to be able to find meaning in life.

I have always considered myself lucky that I have been able to serve as a teacher (in a broader sense). This is not to say that teaching is an easy job; quite the contrary, a teacher’s job today is full of colossal challenges. Oftentimes, we will be discouraged, disheartened, and disappointed. Yet, the opportunities for making a contribution are always there. And according to Adler, that’s how we find meaning in life.

We can only live once.

A teacher chooses to teach at-risk students

(originally written on July 19, 2019)

一個舊學生，在一間收了很多弱勢學生的學校任教，要花大量精力處理學生的學習動機和困難，學生的情緒，和家長溝通或週旋;同時間要應付的教學改簿以及非教學工作，一件也不會少;而又要擔心殺校，工作不保……她不是沒有動摇的一刻 ，也不是沒有機會轉校，但起碼在這一刻，她仍選擇繼續在這環境工作，是什麼的信念，使她有這樣的堅持？

Let’s face it, 我們有誰不想有較悠閒的工作; Let’s face it, 我們誰不會有不同程度的勢利，只會羨慕名校教師的身份，那會關心弱勢學校及其教師的處境！

能夠勇敢地在這環境工作下去，不嫌棄這樣背景的學生，不計較個人名利的得失，背後一定有超乎常人的勇氣，獨特的價值觀，和對生命意義的昇華體會。

易地而處，我有足夠的決心，做她相同的選擇嗎？

下星期敍舊時，從她的述說中，一定會令我對教師的使命、甚或生命的意義，有更深的領悟。

教學生涯中最大的遺憾

 

(Originally written on July 29, 2019)

這是我職業生涯中，令我最內疚的一件事。

當時在任教的第一所中學任教了三、四年，雖然很勤力，但年少氣盛，腦中自我膨脹;有一天，也記不得是什麽原因，一個中二的男生很倔强的反駁了我也記不起的一句說話，我一時衝動，摑了他一巴掌。

我當時也對自己的反應詫異，但很快便在腦中找到很多「理由」去合理化我的行為，例如他不尊敬師長，他屢勸不聽……況且那年代，體罰仍然是容許的，故此經過數天，我也漸漸忘記此事。

隨後的多年，通過讀書進修，個人思考，工作及生活的體驗，逐漸明白社會學對權力(power)的定義，和權力如何以不同形式體現，和權力如何令人腐化; 原來當一個普通教師，在對待學生這範疇上也是满有權力的，一不小心也可以腐化。

同時，也慢慢明白暴力的意義，不是黑社會打人才是暴力，網上集體針對攻擊不同意見的人，人多欺負人少，老師掌摑學生，也是暴力的展現; 而暴力可怕的地方，一是它很易上癮，二是行使暴力時腦裏只有憤怒，再不懂得去思考。

終於有一天，我突然明白，當年掌摑那中二男生，是如何錯誤的行為，雖然我當時自覺很合理。我不知有否嚴重傷害了這處於青少年成長階段的男生的心理;我希望可以找到他，向他道歉，可惜事隔多年，我已經沒有他的下落。

這是我教學生涯中最大的遺憾。

同時，非暴力(non-violence )也自此成為我的基本價值和信念。

Start with why

(Originally written on Aug 22, 2019)

A former student estimated that she has to spend 40% of her working time on matters which are not related to teaching. She is a totally devoted teacher, yet she is utterly frustrated because she cannot see the purpose of that 40% of her work. However, as an employee, she can’t always reject work handed down by management.

That reminds me of a TED talk on How Great Leaders Inspire Action by leadership expert Simon Sinek. He urges all organisation leaders, in their daily management and future planning, to START WITH WHY. The starting question should never be what to do, or how to do it, but WHY do it.

What a school can do can expand indefinitely: another co-curricular activity; another inter-school competition; another mid-term test; another celebration show; another overseas trip; another after-school lesson; another exam-drilling session ……If we don’t start with Why, we will keep accumulating tasks on our plate, leap from duty to duty, and end up being burned out, feeling empty and purposeless, and achieving little that is meaningful, despite a lengthy and grand work report.

START WITH WHY.

Feeling blessed – I can continue to contribute

These days, I’ve been revising the various course outlines, the process of which involves writing down the academic year in question. On one such day, it suddenly dawned on me that the upcoming academic year, 2019-2020, would straddle the start of a new decade. In a few months, it would be the start of the 20’s of the 21st century.

To be honest, a few years ago, I would never have imagined that I would still be teaching in 202x.

Notice that just now, I didn’t say ‘… would still be WORKING in 202x’. I enjoy teaching, and if it is something you enjoy doing, it’s not work.

I’m one of the luckiest people in the world because I’ve found my vocation, and I have the opportunity to devote myself to something that I’m good at, and that I can find meaning in.