Learning beyond books-- @ IMAGINATION??

Sunday November 7, 2010
Learning beyond books
By Dr Theva Nithy

School should be where

students can learn to be morally upright decision makers and effective communicators.

There is one crucial issue that has not been addressed in this column, that is, what is school to our students, teachers and stakeholders?

What are the current, 21st century expectations for measurable, tangible outcomes for our learners and what are the intangible, immeasurable ones that still do make a difference? What are the attributes that are most sought after and needed?

School managements should consider students’ opinions before making a decision on the learning process. —

Let us try to define these. Schools should be places where our learners could immerse themselves into environments where they could learn to be, among others,

decision makers who are morally and ethically upright, effective communicators, more vocal and risk takers.

Students should be taught to make decisions based on sustainable ideals that are best and right, rather than what is profitable and easy.

Our current education system has separate subjects for morals and for religion. It is taught and lectured to students in a very authoritarian manner, and we even test our students on the subject!

In the real world, almost every decision we make has moral and ethical implications. My point is that we are being very unwise in our approach to this so-called moral education. It does not work.

We need a drastic reformation, and the route lies in incorporating moral and ethical decision making into every minute of the school day, not in preaching and testing it as a subject.

Ability to communicate

The ability to communicate means the ability to present ideas effectively — where ‘effectively’ means being able to sell an idea in an acceptable, polite, logical and convincing manner, appealing to emotional sensibilities at the same time.

The mantra has been repeated over and over again – our students are lousy communicators and I agree wholeheartedly. But they shouldn’t be blamed!

Public speaking, presentations and getting ideas and thoughts are the greatest fears and obstacles to everyone hoping to be successful.

We have fantastic resource for our government and schools that can train our learners to become so, and it can be outsourced without further burdening our teachers.

My proposal to the Education Ministry – talk to the Toastmasters of Malaysia, bring them in to schools as a club activity, make it a required activity for all students, and within three years, we will have a generation of outstanding communicators and leaders.

It might be a required activity to start with, but the students will be demanding for it within a few months.

Inclusive and collaborative decisions

This means hearing the voices of the softest whilst not being wholly influenced by the voices of the loudest.

Facebook, Twitter and the other various social media have taught us (or should have taught us) that people are no longer interested in top-down decisions.

It is time principals and teachers showed our learners that everyone should be starting to put aside egos and to start gathering opinions and feedback from their clients and bosses, before making decisions.

School leadership should really start looking at students as clients, to find out what it is they want and need in order to make their learning process more effective, fun and interesting.

A balance has to be reached of course, where everyone is satisfied and happy.

It is only when students see this happening that they will start incorporating this style of leadership and democracy into their own undertakings.

The need to be heard

Students and teachers should be agents of change, but because teachers are so authoritarian in classrooms, most students will not dare speak up and will not argue for perspectives opposed to their teachers’ views.

When students come out into the working world, we the stakeholders, start destroying our students with questions like, “What do you think? Open your mouth and talk! Don’t you have an opinion?”

We are training our students, from young, to shut up and listen without speaking.

This attitude carries on to high school, and then we turn around and insult and criticise them for this!

Our students need to learn how to fight for their beliefs, and the start of it entails opening their mouths.

Take calculated risks

Students need to know that failure and mistakes are part of the learning process and it is better for them to occur early, quickly and cheaply.

There is a saying, “Don’t trouble trouble until trouble troubles you.” The fact that such a saying exists, tells us how we think.

Life is about taking risks and immersing ourselves into trouble because we believe that it worth the fight. There are always causes to be fought for, and you know you are looking for trouble before you even start.

The point of education and learning how to think is precisely so that we learn how to take calculated risks.

Technology and language

In the next few years, technology will advance so rapidly that having the ability to spell, or write, or even learn languages will not matter.

Brain technology and language technology will nullify the need for language to be taught at school. We should be getting rid of the subjects of languages and ICT, and getting learners to start absorbing them in the process of learning other skills in the Sciences, Mathematics and in real life.

While the rest of the world is forging ahead in reaching acceptance of a global language, we are purposefully pulling ourselves back, and the repercussions will be felt in a few years. In the end, whatever we do now will come back to haunt us.

With the current inclusive government, we stand a chance of making these many transformative changes – if enough of us start making some noise.

> Dr Theva is a senior lecturer at the School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Through this fortnightly column and through the ENGAGE Programme – Education for Sustainable Global Futures – USM has started, he and his colleagues hope to help transform the landscapes of Malaysian schooling and higher education systems. He can be contacted through
theva@usm.my.