Welcome to Student-Centered Learning Thailand

LONG LIVE THE KING!

Our Mission:

To provide a center of discussion , information and planning for 21^st Century education reform in Thailand that will lead to a unity of purpose and action among  Thai and international educators to realize the goals set forth in the National Education Act of  B.E. 2542 (1999).

At the heart of this National Education Act B.E. 2542 (1999) is a move toward student-centered learning and a student-centered  classroom.  Specifically, Section 24 of the Education Act outlines what must be done   to improve  education  performance : 1. arranging learning in line with the students’ interests , aptitudes and individual differences ;2. training students in thinking abilities, especially critical thinking; 3.organizing learning activities that draw from authentic experiences; and 4. promoting situations where learners and teachers learn together.  

In addition to addressing these key issues of education reform in Thailand , indeed in international education, we also focus our attention and resources on the goal of promoting Thai teachers to reach their potential as skilled teachers using teaching methods that engage their students with the result that students love to learn through self discovery.

ยินดีต้อนรับสู่ Student-Centered Learning ประเทศไทย

ทรงพระเจริญ

พันธกิจ:

เพื่อสร้างศูนย์ข้อมูล การแลกเปลี่ยนข้อคิดเห็นและวางแผนสำหรับการปฏิรูปการศึกษาของประเทศไทยในศตวรรษที่ 21 อันจะนำไปสู่การปฏิบัติอันเป็นไปในทิศทางเดียวกันของนักการศึกษาไทยและต่างประเทศเพื่อให้บรรลุเป้าหมายที่กำหนดไว้ในพระราชบัญญัติการศึกษาแห่งชาติ พ.ศ. 2542 (1999)

ใจความสำคัญของพระราชบัญญัตินี้คือการมุ่งไปสู่การเรียนรู้และการเรียนการสอนในห้องเรียนโดยมีนักเรียนเป็นศูนย์กลาง โดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่งมาตรา 24 ที่กำหนดถึงสิ่งที่ต้องทำเพื่อพัฒนาประสิทธิภาพของการศึกษาไทยคือ : 1. จัดการศึกษาให้สอดคล้องกับความสนใจ, ความถนัดที่แตกต่างกันของนักเรียนแต่ละคน; 2. อบรมนักเรียนให้มีความสามารถในการคิดวิเคราะห์ด้วยตนเอง; 3. จัดกิจกรรมการเรียนรู้จากประสบการณ์จริง; และ 4. ส่งเสริมการเรียนการสอนที่ครูและนักเรียนได้เรียนรู้ร่วมกัน

นอกจากประเด็นหลักเพื่อการปฏิรูปการศึกษาในประเทศไทยเหล่านี้ แน่นอนว่าในระดับโลกเรายังมุ่งเป้าไปยังการส่งเสริมศักยภาพอาจารย์ชาวไทยในด้านทักษะการสอนโดยอาศัยเทคนิคการสอนที่ให้นักเรียนมีส่วนร่วมในชั้นเรียนเพื่อให้นักเรียนมีความรักที่จะเรียนรู้ด้วยตัวเขาเอง

In teaching reading in any language, common sense goes a long way. Thais appear to have been blessed with more than their share of this essential society builder and aid to educating its citizens. It is not an accident that Thailand has an impressive literacy rate.

Nevertheless, what Thai education policy makers want is even more success in bringing a majority of its student population to a high Thai language reading comprehension rate by the end of primary school. Many Thai educators feel an urgent need to get a greater proportion of Thais highly educated  in order to compete  in the global market.

A key to providing a great leap forward in reading ability is the teaching of Thai language reading based on scientifically based research.    As stated at the outset, common sense goes a long way and some Thai teachers are already following the prescriptions based on  research  about teaching children to read with understanding.

These Thai teachers, consequently, are teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Their instruction is systematic and explicit. These teachers start out with the simplest sounds represented by letters (phonemes) and move gradually to the more difficult. Therefore, letters easily pronounced are necessarily taught first. Thai teachers who teach this way tell students exactly what they hope to accomplish with them during a given lesson. And these teachers model the lesson.

For illustration, this means, that in teaching first graders phonemic awareness, the teacher pronounces lettered sounds while showing students how she positions her mouth and tongue to show how she produces the sounds. Then she prompts groups of students to mimic her sounds.

Effective Thai reading teachers move into the area of phonics when the class has achieved a good foundation in distinguishing sounds within spoken words (phonemes) and can blend phonemes into words. The teacher is explicit in illustrating the relationship between phonemes and letters that represent those sounds so students can use those relationships when they are trying to recognize unfamiliar words.

Phonics is often misunderstood. It is not an end in itself but an important part of a total reading instruction programs. Phonics helps young readers understand the relationship between the Thai alphabet (graphemes—letters and letter combinations) and phonemes (individual speech sounds).

The editors of SCLThailand are aware that there are Thai experts not only on phonics but also in the continuation of reading instruction to fluency (rapid word recognition) and to comprehension. This editorial comment opportunity is being used to ask a Thai reading expert to come forward and continue this dialogue on the teaching of reading in the Thai language and the place of current scientific reading research in the context of Thai primary education. Please help!

By  Peter J. Foley, Ed.D.

I am always attracted to schools as I travel around, whether in Thailand or in other countries. Why? I guess it is because I wonder what the experience of education is like for the children in the schools.

Travelling in three rural provinces of Southern Thailand recently, I admired the spectacular scenery of the off shore islands and rich tropical forests with limestone peaks jumping out of them. As I passed through larger towns and I noted the high schools, which always seemed to be near the main road and passing between small villages I saw local primary schools, all quiet and , bare of students at this time of the year, because April is the main part of Thai schools’ summer holiday.

Can a passing glance from a car tell one much about what it is like to be a student in any school? Of course it cannot. As I observed these schools, I soon came to realise that they all looked much the same – the large high schools had similar architecture and the design of the smaller schools were all much the same. There were differences in the way the playgrounds were kept and if paint work is used as the standard of judgment, the quality of the maintenance of the buildings. Such observations of schools would also be true in other countries.

The only way to gain an insight into the learning experience of the students who attend a school, is to actually spend some time in the school, in classrooms with teachers and students. External looks can be deceiving – a school which looks a bit run down or looks the same in design as hundreds of other schools, does not really tell one much about the experience of learning that is occurring in the school.

In this month’s edition of SCLThailand our Managing Editor has submitted an article called “The caring classroom” it is about a school in Pakistan. The photographs in that story as well as the commentary, tell us that although the school and the students are very poor, the learning experience in the school is child centred and appears to be a rich experience.

What I am getting at here is related to the theme we have taken up in previous Op Ed commentary. That is the inescapable fact that student – centred learning is strongly dependent on the pedagogical skills of the teachers.

That is not to say that the physical and educational resources of a school are not important, they are important, but the style and quality of the teaching is by far much more important.

This photograph, sent from Pakistan by our Managing Editor, Dr Peter Foley, shows the active involvement of the teacher and the engagement of the students in a school which is not much more than a tent. Please make sure you read the article on the “Caring School”.

Around the world, there are architectural companies that specialize in school design. These companies design some wonderfully innovative schools. Often their work is for wealthier governments and private school owners and developers.

One such architectural company based in Florida, USA which has designed schools around the world in both the economically advanced world and the less economically advanced world, has published a book about their work [The Language of School Design: Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools by Nair, P., and  Fielding, R., published by DesignShare.com]. The wonderful thing about this book is the first chapter looks at different modes of learning and this says much about the architects’ thinking.

A good example of their conceptual thinking is that in most schools designed by this company, they include what they call the “camp fire space”.

This is the interesting concept of providing a space in the school which is not unlike a campfire. The architects are not suggesting an actual campfire, but a space where teacher and students can gather and do what usually happens around a campfire. They can [metaphorically] gaze at the stars and dream of the way problems can be resolved or the teacher can use the space to provoke student discussion about big and generative questions. The campfire space becomes a  place where curiosity can be encouraged and dreams can be formed.

I don’t think it would be hard to form such “campfire” sites in schools that have not been recently designed. The hard thing is to inspire teachers to use this method of teaching.

Just going back to my comments about traditional looking schools, student centred education is not about architecture or the level of technology, it is about the attitudes and approaches of the teachers and those who lead and support them.  

What do our readers think?

Greg Cairnduff,

Deputy Managing Editor.

Student- Centered Learning Pathways in Thailand and Around the World

The Jalozai Refugee Camp in Pershawar, Pakistan: the IRC’s Healing Classrooms

Special Report from  editor-in-chief: Peter J. Foley,Ed.D.

The core of the  IRC’s (International Rescue Committee’s) education program is the “healing classroom” , featuring child- friendly classrooms and child- centered learning.

IRC constructs these classrooms all over the world where children find themselves victims of floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters or when they are faced with bloody wars and conflicts that force them to flee their homes and seek safety in a refugee camp or other refuge.

One such refugee camp is Jalozai Camp just outside Peshawar City.  The school is set up  in tents provided by UNICEF and run by IRC.  The schools are an oasis of safety , friendship and learning for thousands of children. Above are pictures that I hope give a sense of the IRC “healing classrooms in Peshawar , Pakistan.

All around the world, countries are trying to get better performance from schools and school systems.

Thailand is no exception to this effort.

We know that some systems perform better than others, and we know that the best schools and systems have a set of common things they do. There is no secret about the factors that lead to school and systemic excellence. It is a reasonable question to ask that in any table or list of high performing schools or systems, what are the standards used to judge the schools?

There are several ways of making these judgments. Most countries conduct nationally benchmarked testing systems – mostly in the areas of literacy and numeracy.  In Thailand, for example there are the O-net tests which provide an indication of the academic performance of schools on a nationally comparable basis.

Internationally, there are benchmarks provided by such organisations as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD]. The OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) enables comparisons to be made between systems, and between counties.

The PISA assessments examine such questions as:

• Are students well prepared for future challenges?
• Can they analyse, reason and communicate effectively?
• Do they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life?

The PISA data provides answers to these questions, through its surveys of 15-year-olds in the principal industrialized countries. Every three years, it assesses to what extent students near the end of compulsory education, have acquired in knowledge and skills essential for participation in society. The questions are related to literacy, numeracy and science and more recently, digital literacy.

Neither source of data about systems’ performance comes from research organisations such as social research company McKinsey and the Grattan Institute at Melbourne University, Australia.

Research [2006 – 2010] into high performing  school systems  by McKinsey and Company  , looked at 25 school systems around the world, their findings being published  in the report – How the world’s best performing school systems come out on top [March 2008]

It is possible to obtain information about what it is that enables some schools to be rated as high performing, and through aggregation, what it is that makes some systems perform better than others.

Schools and systems seeking improvement can look to this evidence and use it to apply it to how they operate and they can also use the evidence to lobby for better support.

While there is a number of factors that lead to high performance, such as class size, demographics, budgets and so on, however research shows there is one factor that stands out above others. That factor is the quality of the teachers in schools.

There are three things which matter the most about getting high quality teachers into schools:

• Getting the right people to become teachers
• Developing new teachers into effective instructors
• Ensuring the system is able to develop the best possible instruction for every child.

The McKinsey report found that in the 25 systems it examined, these three factors succeed in improving educational performance wherever they are applied.

Other studies provide strong evidence which support this.

In 2011 The Grattan Institute report Learning from the Best [http://www.grattan.edu.au] examined the four highest performing Asian systems – Singapore, Shanghai, South Korea and Hong Kong.

Specifically the researchers wanted to know: Why are these systems moving rapidly ahead of others?

Popular stereotypes about Asian education are strong in some countries. But this evidence challenges these stereotypes. In these four systems, high performance comes from effective education strategies that focus on implementing well-designed programs that continuously improve learning and teaching.

In just five years, Hong Kong moved from 17th to 2nd in PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) the international assessment of Grade 4 students’ reading literacy. In these four Asian systems, education reforms created rapid changes in reading literacy.

Success cannot be explained by what is often seen as an emphasis on rote learning in Asian systems. Students who rely on rote learning come to grief in PISA assessments, because PISA assesses meta-cognitive content knowledge and problem solving abilities. These skills are not conducive to rote learning. Rote learning in preparation for PISA assessment would lead to lower scores. Moreover, international research shows that classroom lessons in Hong Kong, for example, require greater deductive reasoning, with more new and advanced content.

Thai education policy makers would do well to look at the four high performing systems studied in the Grattan Report.  Anyone looking at the systems will soon see that have introduced one or several of the following reforms, they:

• Provide high quality initial teacher education. In Singapore, students are paid civil servants during their initial teacher education. Government evaluations have bite and can close down ineffective teacher education courses.

• Provide mentoring that continually improves learning and teaching. In Shanghai, all teachers have mentors, and new teachers have several mentors who observe and give feedback on their classes.

• View teachers as researchers. In Shanghai teachers belong to research groups that continually develop and evaluate innovative teaching. Teachers cannot rise to advanced teacher status without having a published paper peer reviewed

The challenge for Thailand is to look at these Asian systems and then ascertain what they can easily and quickly implement in the Thai context that is similar to the steps taken in Singapore Korea Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Thailand can do this.

Greg Cairnduff

Acting Editor

This commentary is titled “The Heart of the Matter”, this is the name of a famous song made popular by Don Henley, of the Eagles. As so often happens, the melodies of music and the lyrics of songs truly speak to us. What I will focus here, is matter about education, but what I am about to say also brings to my mind the title of that beautiful love song sung so well by Don Henley and many others. Although the song’s theme is different from our mission and this article, its title is truly relevant to the cause of this web site.

The SCLThailand website is dedicated to assisting Thai school administrators and classroom teachers to move more swiftly than has been possibly so far, towards the realization of the goal of student centred learning being the norm in Thai government schools. This goal was established in the Thai National Education Act, 1999 (Buddhist Era, 2542). Interestingly, the Act did not set a date for the massive paradigm shift that it seeks to happen.

Would it have been better to set a date for national implementation of that important goal? That is a question with many pros and cons.

Let us get back to “The Heart of the Matter”. It is now March 2012 [BE 2555], 13 years have passed since the promulgation of the Act. I wrote in a previous article [January 2012] about the need for education reformers to recognise that change is a slow process, this is certainly being borne out by the slow pace of change in implementing the move to student centred learning in Thailand.

Perhaps a symptom or sign of the lack of progress is the entrenched nature of the examination system in Thai schools. Each year, in mid March, students are very busy studying for end of year exams. On the face of it, this seems quite reasonable, but a few questions come up. Exactly which students are preparing for exams?  Answer: From primary school students as young as 6 years old in Primary 1 [Prathom 1] up to Year 12 in secondary [Matayom 6].

This leads to further questions.  How do young students in Year 1 prepare themselves for these examinations?  What is the general content of the examinations? Another significant question to ask is – why is it that children as young as this are subjected to examinations at all?  Another important question is – what hangs on the outcomes of the examinations?

I ask these questions in the hope that they will provoke some discussion on this website. The emphasis on examinations runs counter to the way students’ progress would be assessed in a pedagogical system where the student is at the centre of the teaching and learning.

In a student centered system there would be little emphasis on examinations – this may even be true for Thai schools today – the exam is not so important, although I suspect that is not the case.

But what about “The Heart of the Matter”?  

Let me come to it quite pointedly, “The Heart of the Matter” in educational terms is this: at the very core of the classroom, the school, the education system, and the nation’s  standing in international educational performance rankings, it is the teacher who matters most in students’ learning achievement. There is plenty of research evidence about this.  However, this is not the place to quote much of the research evidence. Perhaps the best evidence of the key role of the teacher is to look at the highest performing education systems in Asia and examine the factors which make them such high performing systems.

Four of the world’s highest performing education systems are from Asia. These are Hong Kong, Korea, Shanghai, and Singapore. The OECD’S Performance Indicators of Student Achievement [PISA] assessments in 2009 showed for example, that in Mathematics, 15 year old students from Shanghai performed two or three years above the level of students of the same age in Australia, the USA.

What is it about these four education systems that puts them well above other Asian systems and puts them in the class of world top performers?

The Grattan Institute from Melbourne University in Australia examined the four systems in an endeavour to get an answer to this question. The results of their investigation were published in an important report – Catching Up: Learning from the best school systems in East Asia [http://www.grattan.edu.au]

What the Institute found:

There is growing global agreement on what works in schools

A body of international research has identified the common characteristics of high-performing education systems.

They:

• Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. They attend to best practice internationally, give close attention to measuring success, and understand the state and needs of their system.

• Value teachers and understand their profession to be complex. They attract high quality candidates, turn them into effective instructors and build a career structure that rewards good teaching.

• Focus on learning and on building teacher capacity to provide it. Teachers are educated to diagnose the style and progress of a child’s learning. Mentoring, classroom observation and constructive feedback creates more professional, collaborative teachers.

The four high performing East Asian systems are implementing what works. They have introduced one or several of the following reforms.

In particular they:

• Provide high quality initial teacher education. In Singapore, students are paid civil servants during their initial teacher education. In Korea, government evaluations have bite and can close down ineffective teacher education courses.

• Provide mentoring that continually improves learning and teaching. In Shanghai, all teachers have mentors, and new teachers have several mentors who observe and give feedback on their classes.

• View teachers as researchers. In Shanghai teachers belong to research groups that continuously develop and evaluate innovative teaching. They cannot rise to advanced teacher status without having a published paper peer reviewed.

• Use classroom observation. Teachers regularly observe each other’s classes, providing instant feedback to improve each student’s learning.

• Promote effective teachers and give them more responsibility for learning and teaching. Master Teachers are responsible for improving teaching throughout the system.

A few of the keys they took: In Hong Kong the emphasis on examinations was abandoned, in Singapore teacher education courses were re developed so they place a much greater emphasis on practical classroom management and pedagogical methodology accompanied by a reduction in the philosophical and reflective elements of the courses. In Singapore, pre service teachers are paid as government employees. In Shanghai teacher’s class contact hours were reduced so they would have more time to work with mentor teachers.

But the key thing is that in each of these systems government education policy is always linked closely with teachers’ working conditions, professional learning and career pathways.

In future months we will explore these systems more deeply.

I wonder how many of the reforms evident in Singapore Hong Kong Korea and Shanghai, have been considered in Thailand?

Whichever way educational reform is looked at, researched and examined, at the heart of educational improvement, are the teachers. In his book,  Why Not the Best Schools? [ACER Press, Camberwell, Australia, 2008] Brian Caldwell devotes a chapter to demonstrate that the quality of schools will never exceed the quality of the staff.

It is in this area, that Thailand needs to make some giant leaps so that its teachers will be trained and supported in such a way that will help the country achieve the goals of the National Education Act of 1999.  The Thai system can be as good the four Asian high flyers mentioned here, but my guess is that it needs to look closely at what those systems have done to move educational reform so quickly.  Similar things could be done in Thailand.

Greg Cairnduff

Acting Editor

We recently posted an article which describes the distance education program between Sa Nguan Ying School in Suphanburi, Thailand, and Lodi High School in Lodi, Wisconsin, USA.

One of the great things about that program is the distance teaching of two teachers from each of the schools and also the contact between students in both schools. It is a way of making US history much more real for Thai students as it is taught by an American teacher,  and for their American counterparts, being taught by a Thai teacher from Sa Nguan Ying brings deeper understanding of South East Asian history and culture.

This distance program grew out of the student and teacher exchange program between Lodi and Sa Nguan Ying Schools.

Holly Jean Hargis’ journal posted below is further evidence of the great learning that can come out of an effective student exchange program.

Holly’s journal affirms how this exchange program opened her eyes to the broader world.

Thank you for allowing us to reproduce it here Holly .

Greg Cairnduff

Acting Editor 

Letters From Thailand

Holly Jean Hargis

When I first came to Thailand I never would have guessed I would be back a mere 14 months later. I first came as an exchange student from a small town in Wisconsin, and it was my very first time leaving United States. I was 18 years old and a senior in High School, and this would be the longest amount of time that I would spend away from my family.

The Exchange

Travel had always interested me ever since I was young, but I came from a large family who didn’t have the opportunity to do much of this. When my school in Lodi, Wisconsin offered the chance to spend 3 weeks in Thailand , half way across the world, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to be part of this experience. I started saving money with a summer job and was able to fund my trip, which was with 9 other students and 3 teachers from my school.

I remember the exact moment I stepped out of the airport into Thailand that first time, I remember feeling the hot and humid air at 3 in the morning and feeling so excited about having the chance to experience another culture. What I didn’t know was that this exact trip would alter the entire course of the following year for me. It would give me courage and opportunity to experience a different life after high school than I ever would have considered before.

My 3 weeks in Thailand went so fast that afterward everything felt like a dream. The exchange program was with Sa-nguan-Ying School in Suphanburi, where I lived with a host family in Thailand and had two sisters with whom I was able to become close with very quickly. My host parents couldn’t speak more than a few words of English but their smiles and laughter everyday made me feel so happy and welcome in this country. I felt a part of the school that I attended every day and also was able to see and learn more about Thailand, so I felt part of Thailand too.

My Decision

It was on the train to Kanchanaburi where I sat with my two best friends agreeing that the 3 amazing weeks in the country could only be the beginning. In this small amount of time we had been introduced to a complete different culture than our own and had made so many new friends. We wondered how much we could learn by travelling more, since we had learned so much about travel, culture, and ourselves in just 3 weeks in Thailand. It was that point when we all talked about taking a year off before college to travel more, and it was at that point I had made the decision I would be travelling abroad very soon again, and maybe even back to Thailand.

Now

Now, 15 months later I sit at a desk in Thailand, at the very same school I visited before. Instead of being a student this time, I was offered the opportunity to be on the other side of the spectrum and work as an assistant teacher, teaching English. I will be here for 8 weeks, and I believe this opportunity to be the best one I have had in my entire life.

In the United States, taking a year off before college is not widely accepted. When I shared with my friends and family that I would be travelling abroad for 8 months prior to enrolling in college, I was welcomed with concern and fear. Now, many months later, these same people are praising me for the opportunities I have been able to experience. Both my parents who have never traveled abroad before visited me on my journey, my Dad visiting me right here in Suphanburi, Thailand. I feel that these opportunities have not only benefited me personally, but those around me as well.

I started my year with the confidence I had gained from the exchange experience in Thailand previously. Starting in October I lived in Paris, France for some time while also travelling to Morocco, London, and Germany. Next, I made my way back to the Land Of Smiles to reunite with many friends and also meet some of the most amazing people I have ever had the chance of calling friends. It would also be the very first time I would live on my own, a huge step for a 19 year old travelling abroad.

Not only did I begin to live on my own, but also began a job, and a job that I loved. I have always wanted to be a teacher and my experience as an assistant teacher here has helped me realize that this is something that I am good at and that I can imagine doing for the rest of my life. I worked with Ms. Tuke, a Thai teacher here who I learned so much from and who I can call a friend. I taught children in grades 7-9 and helped them improve their pronunciation and understanding of the English language. I helped them with their grammar on papers and presentations as well. It feels so good to know that I can help these students learn, and I really feel like they always appreciated my help. The relationships I have made with my students are ones that I value so highly, I absolutely love the students here and I love the tutoring and teaching I have been doing.

This Opportunity

This teaching opportunity has also given me the wonderful chance of seen more of Thailand. Almost every weekend I was able to travel somewhere new and experience a new part of Thailand. Whether it was seen Wat Poh in Bangkok or spending a weekend with friends at Koh Samet, each experience will be one that I will never forget. Other experiences such as eating Thai dinner every night with friends or learning Thai songs and the Thai language are priceless. All of the friends and teachers I have met here, Thai, American, Chinese, and Tasmanian, have helped me feel so happy in this country and I know the connections I made here will never be lost.

I am so thankful that Chaht and the English Program at Sa-nguan-Ying presented me with the opportunity of returning to Thailand. I cannot even express how important the connection is between my school in Lodi and Sa-nguan-Ying. I truly believe and know that I would be a completely different person leading a very different life if I hadn’t been on that trip in November 2010.

The End

It’s now almost 2 months after my second arrival in Thailand and my time is almost up. I cannot believe that I am leaving this wonderful place where I have been given the chance to learn and take away so much. I have learned how to live on my own, I have met wonderful people from over the world, I have built relationships with my students, I have started to learn how to teach, I have learned so much about the Thai culture, I have learned more about myself and I have gained confidence and courage. I feel so lucky to be part of the EP family and I know that I would be welcomed back anytime. As I have learned, most people don’t stay away from Thailand for too long, and I know I’ll be back again in no time.

Distance Learning between a Thai High School and an American High School.

From the Lodi Enterprise e News [Wisconsin, USA] Tale of two schools Learning goes global in Lodi pilot program

Lodi students greet Thai teacher Karnteera “Tuke” Ingkhaninan via Skype before she shows them how to make beef curry as part of an international distance learning class. Photo Jennifer Fetterly   Students at Sa-nguan Ying School in Supan Buri, Thailand get ready for the distance learning class taught by Lodi teacher Mark Kohl via Skype. Contributed photo By Jennifer Fetterly Managing Editor Beef and green curry sizzle in hot woks as Lodi High School students prepare lunch on a cold December morning. As the strong aromas rise to the students’ noses, it’s clear it’s not just another typical school day. Teens, some who have never had Thai food before, are bridging a cultural gap tens of thousands of miles away as teacher Karnteera “Tuke” Ingkhaninan, warns them of their first time experience. “Maybe you should just start with one tablespoon of curry paste, and go from there,” she cautions the Lodi students about her homeland’s fiery spice via Skype. But far from being timid, the students jump right in, not only to the food but to the distance learning program, which started this year, with sister school Sa-nguan Ying in Supan Buri, Thailand. As part of the arrangement, Lodi High School teacher Mark Kohl instructs Thai students in U.S. History and Tuke reciprocates by teaching Lodi students the Cultural Geography of Southeast Asia. Senior Breanna Smith enrolled in the class after visiting Thailand on a school trip last year, eager to learn more. “It is really cool being taught by a teacher that is actually in that country, who can clarify things, compared with learning from a textbook. In a normal class, if you have questions you have to look on the Internet, but Tuke just knows, so it is more true to me,” Smith says as she cuts vegetables for the beef curry recipe. Other students who are part of the class have never been to Thailand but their curiosity for learning enticed them to enroll. Besides teaching Thai cuisine, Tuke has brought the students a harsher reality of Southeast Asian history like the genocide of the “Killing Fields” in Cambodia, where the Khmer Rouge killed millions. The students also learn about how the harvesting of palm oil, found in peanut butter and chewing gum, is destroying the jungles, along with the orangutans that live there. Janel Anderson, who is the Lodi resource teacher for the Southeast Asia class, says the students’ intent interest is enough reason to continue the two-year pilot program. “Students start to understand that they are participants in this whole global community, that we are all connected, that is what I want them to understand,” Anderson says. “In some ways it is easier for Tuke to get them to see it, she is part of the world and she has more credibility, not like an American teacher telling them how bad things were there.” While distance learning in Wisconsin’s public and secondary schools isn’t new, Lodi’s international spin is setting precedence. According to Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) the Lodi initiative is the only one in the state where students are taking a credit class taught by a foreign teacher. And it’s all done on a shoestring budget of $2,000, money that was used to purchase a laptop computer where teachers can interact with students via Skype, a videoconference Internet system. The Lodi School Board approved the program on the condition, other than the one-time technology budget, that there wouldn’t be any additional staff costs. Kohl, who teaches in the evening, for Thai students who must be in their seats by 7 a.m. because of the 13-hour time difference, says he thought the biggest challenge would be technology but there have been only a few instances of blurry video and dropped connections. While the Thai school has excellent equipment, the distance learning concept, with less equipped schools may hinder its expansion. “I think in some ways international distance learning is part of the future but I think that we are far off from this being the norm because there are lot of infrastructure issues. I have tried to do this with teachers in other countries and one of the problems on their end is having the technology and expertise. We are wealthy and technology rich as a nation but the people of some other countries don’t have that,” Anderson says. But aside from the challenges, supporters of the learning concept, says it teaches so much more than a curriculum. This January, Kohl taught 22 Thai students in seventh-12th grade about the civil rights movement. The last class before test time, fell on Martin Luther King’s birthday, so pictures of the African-American leader giving his “I have a dream speech” in Washington D.C. finished the class. Some of his Thai students respectfully call Kohl “the smartest history teacher” ever. “It is great to learn more about U.S. history’s real stories, truths and gain more knowledge thoroughly from the expert like Kru (Mr.) Mark,” says Piyaorn Kamwhan. Other Thai students have learned more far-reaching concepts in the sought-after class. “As you had seen in our class we don’t have enough self confidence to ask questions because when we was young if we have some stupid question our friend will laugh at us,” says Non Bunsrisuwan. “In Thailand the student must respect the teacher and it like our culture and it makes us far away from teacher. But in distance learning we get so close with Kru Mark. He is like one of our family what we had to see every morning.” Kohl, says the relationship is so strong, that when some Thai students were left homeless from a Chinese New Year’s fireworks explosion in January, he rallied school staff to raise money to help those affected. As the program gets ready to enter its second year, supporters are hopeful it will continue. “After talking with staff here and in Thailand we all agreed that this has exceeded our expectations in every facet, the technology, how we relate, the quality of instruction and it was a good investment. It has been very successful at both ends,” Kohl says.

Educators who were in schools 30 years ago will remember the anticipated arrival of computers into daily life. Probably not many people fully realised the full impact of the rapid development of Information and Communications Technology daily life, but the coming of computers was something that was looked forward to as people felt there would been many social and economic advantages that would come with the widespread introduction of the new technology. There was talk of how computers would take over so much work that people would have much more leisure. Some education systems introduced “leisure education” into the curriculum!

I guess a question remains on whether or not the introduction of computers as an essential business and household tool has brought increased leisure. Many would doubt that it has.

But one thing was true about the 70s anticipation of the coming Information Age. In the 21^st century digital technology permeates many aspects of daily life. It would be easy to list the many changes in personal and work lives that have come about as a result of pervasive ICTs, but those things are so obvious it is not necessary to mention them here.

One very important thing that is vital for educators to grasp is the rapid pace of change in work life and the exponential explosion in knowledge that has come about in the years between the final decades of last century and today.

Children born since the start of the 21^st century are “digital natives” they are growing up in a truly digital, flat world.

What about the teachers of those children?

Not too many of them would be true “digital natives” most would be “digital immigrants”, they would have had to learn to live and work in the new digital age. The use of the tools of that age does not come easily to all people, teachers included. It must be admitted, however, that just as some people have a flair for learning languages other than their own native language, so too do some people have a flair for learning the digital “language” so essential to mastering the digital tools available to teachers.

Just imagine this scenario – a teacher in a high school who cannot use email, who cannot browse the internet, who cannot use tools like Skype, who does not know anything about Facebook. How can that teacher understand the real needs of the students he (or she) teachers. How can such teachers understand the world of their students and in fact how can they know their students in a way that will enable the teacher to teach the students as individuals?

Such teachers are a bit like teachers who are asked to teach a foreign language to students when they, the teachers in fact cannot speak that language themselves. They are being put in an impossible situation by the curriculum planners and administrators who introduce such initiatives without the requisite professional development of the teachers faced with implementation of the new language.

Do you know any teachers like this? Do you work with teachers like this? What are their lessons like? What is their relationship with their students like?

In Thailand I am sure many such teachers would be found in schools.

Teachers who have not adapted to the Information Age should not be condemned or looked down upon. They deserve and need as much help as possible from colleagues and their employers so that they have the confidence to use ICTs to improve their pedagogy.

Unlike the example of the jurisdictional introduction of a new curriculum above, the students who are the digital natives of the 21^st century deserve to have teaching methods and a curriculum that is suited to their digital world and times. This need is not being imposed by administrators or governments as in the case of the imposition of foreign language learning as in the example above, it comes from an inevitable international spread of digital technology. So governments have to get their educations systems to respond to this as an imperative for their education systems.

In the case of Thailand, the government is about to start the distribution of computer tablets to students in Matayom 7 [year 1, high school]. The government should be applauded for taking a big step in providing Thai students with an important digital tool.

The advantage to be gained from this bold and brave initiative will not be maximized unless there is a program to train and support teachers in the use of these tablets. If there is adequate support this program could provide a dramatic swing towards student centred learning in Thai schools

SCLThailand will continue to monitor and encourage the government to follow through with it’s tablets for school children program.

We thought our readers might be interested in this extract from the PISA web site

Performance Indicators of Student Achievement [PISA]

Are boys and girls ready for the digital age?

 PISA IN FOCUS 2012/01 (January) – © OECD 2012

• More than 17% of students in Australia, Korea and New Zealand are top performers in digital reading, while fewer than 3% of students in Austria, Chile and Poland are.

• On average, girls outperform boys in digital reading; however, the gender gap is narrower than it is in print-reading proficiency.

• Among boys and girls with similar levels of proficiency in print reading, boys tend to have stronger digital navigation skills and therefore score higher in digital reading.

Information and communication technologies revolutionize not only the speed at which information can be transmitted, but also how information is conveyed and received. Technological innovations have a profound effect on the types of skills that are demanded in today’s labour markets and the types of jobs that have the greatest potential for growth.

Most of these jobs now require some familiarity with, if not mastery of, navigating through digital material where readers determine the structure of what they read rather than follow the pre-established order of text as presented in a book.

PISA 2009 evaluated not only how proficient 15-year-olds are in gathering and processing information that they acquire when reading printed texts, but also how proficient they are in reading digital material.

PISA found that some countries have been far more successful than others in helping students to equip themselves to participate fully in the digital age. For example, more than 17% of students in Australia, Korea and New Zealand are top performers in digital reading, while fewer than 3% of students in Austria, Chile and Poland achieve that level of performance.

Korea recently developed a “Smart Education” policy that includes digitalizing all textbooks and assessments by 2015, building or improving school infrastructure so that it accommodates new technologies, and training teachers in the use of these technologies.

Although, on average, student performance in digital reading is closely related to performance in print reading, in some countries, such as Australia and Korea, students score significantly higher in digital reading than in print reading, while in other countries, notably Hungary, Poland and the partner country Colombia, students are better in print reading than in digital reading.

For full research data go to: http://www.pisa.oecd.org/dataoecd/29/22/49442737.pdf