Dr Taleb Durgahee Ph D (Education, Sussex University, UK)
The intention of this article is to support teachers in their daily quest to produce well rounded individuals through teaching. Mauritius is well known to have an education system which promotes academic excellence which has its merits. The success rate of our system is diluted by recent rate of failures and dropouts possibly one of the reasons for increase in drug addiction.
A review of our education system reveals significant concerns in curriculum management and implementation of changes. Philosophy of education may be sound but in practice does the system value all students or just those able to perform academically. Mauritius must not throw away the baby with the bathwater. What can we do to help all the students achieve and progress in their studies and future careers? We need to preserve our academic rigour but introduce more experiential teaching and learning and develop the individual to face the wider world. Students are intelligent but they progress at different rates because of learning and teaching styles. Should there be more emphasis on learning styles? How about teaching styles? It is not always the education system but the way it is delivered can be the determining factor.
The education process is a complex one because it entails human thinking and behaviour. If we accept thinking and behaviour are critical in learning, then we should explore in depth these two driving forces. We should be honest with ourselves and ask the difficult question why education reforms have failed? Have we done enough to learn about key pillars of an educational program? What makes it educational in the Mauritian context? All educational curricula should have these two themes Thinking and Behaviour explicitly running through the content of curricula, the teaching and learning styles. What are the different thinking strategies available? How can behaviour be influenced to maximise learning and teaching?
Thinking
Mauritians blame poor teaching, an inadequate curriculum, lax promotion policies, and a lack of parental motivation for the high failure rate in the 2019 School Certificate Level exams, according to a Afrobarometer survey (2021). There is no mention of peer influence which is proven to be a key factor in learning. People talk about a failing system while laureates are appearing and winning scholarships. Does the answer lie in this conundrum?
It seems that education has been diseased for some time despite considerable political and professional efforts. Isn’t this a signal for bold decisions? Isn’t it time we think out of the box? Be courageous and use techniques which spur learning through socialisation, situational analysis, storytelling and contextual learning. Our system is deficient in techniques of experiential and developmental teaching and learning.
According to Sadhguru, education is not merely filling a child’s mind with facts but enhancing their perception to understand life deeply. This definition brings into focus the purpose of education. Why do we go to school? Not just to absorb mere facts, but to cultivate our perception and understanding. In other words, our cognitive processes, our thinking.
Sharpening of perception depends so much on attention. If the focussing processes are not increased, then we may struggle to enhance perception. At the practical level, teachers must use strategies to gain and hold attention. This is the pre-requisite. Attention is not only a success for the teacher but a deeper intellectual control students exercise to switch on their neural mechanisms to receive stimuli in a more focussed manner. All teachers know the initial challenge is gaining attention and managing divided attention. This is the first step in enhancing the senses so that stimuli or information are received and processed to make meaning. Meaning making is a rapid complex process almost intuitively influencing perception.
Teacher training and education should include practical demonstration how to gain and hold attention. It should be a situational exercise with role play in how to manage attention, key factors in enhancing perception and understanding.
The world
of metacognition
The modern perspective is metacognition which seems a big word, but it simply means enabling the student to use their faculties to be in control. Teacher being more of a facilitator than a sage. Don’t be a sage on stage but a guide on the side. In other words, putting the student in charge and empowering them with tools to facilitate learning decisions; taking responsibility and monitoring their own capabilities and achievements. Learning must be owned to become a lifelong habit. Here lies a great challenge for curriculum developers, managers and classroom management using facilitation as a dominant teaching method.
Loading students with facts and figures or information may distance some students leading to drop out because of poor memory and loss of self-esteem. The preferred pedagogy is ownership and possession also known as incorporeal ownership. These are huge, underutilised concepts in education. They are the pillars of the curriculum to promote learning. It is defined as a series of rights vested in students, the right to enjoy, the right to lead, the right to retain, the right of disposition and so on. These are critical elements if we are serious about changing approaches to redress our failings and institute an education system which cultivates responsibilities, accountability, respect and save our youths from drugs, misbehaviour, crimes. Ownership fosters pride, achievement, and improved performance. This should be the primary focus of the curriculum to give power, intellectual wealth and social standing to our students. The sense of motivation and satisfaction is enormous when we own ideas, strategies and learning.
Ownership in its nature is lingering with bundle of rights attached to it, but at the same time it also denotes the relation between the students and the learning to be owned. Throughout the years the concept of ownership and possession have evolved and have been embedded in the minds of territorial human. It has impacted society and even society has impacted its definition, meaning, scope and understanding. Ownership may mean different things to different people but what does not change is the fact that along with the rights attached comes liability, obligations, duties toward others and society in general. This is what we need to inculcate in our society which is unfortunately plagued with failures at different levels and drug addiction. In the current times of Alliance for Change, ownership is neither absolutely with the government nor the power the ownership provides is with the institution and industries. Ownership distributes power, wealth and status among all to be more productive.
Novel approaches
Big brains do not think alike. Scientists say that the brain is organised in modules with specialised domain-specific performance all joined to a central processing system that organises modular input to produce higher-order mental activities like problem solving and decision making. Others disagree, believing that the apparent modularity of human intelligence reveals more about our ignorance of the brain than about our understanding of how it works. Teachers must make sense of IQ and Emotional Intelligence underlining teaching to be a complex challenge. As teachers we know, students have their own individual style of thinking and are sensitive to teaching and learning methods unique to them. Excellence means studies and insights aimed at breaking away from a traditional to a dynamic and inclusive curriculum, teaching and learning fostering engagement empowering students to take increasing responsibility for their learning, improving and innovating strategies to achieve intended and unintended learning outcomes.
One of the essential ingredients is preparing, up-skilling and supporting educators in diverse contexts. Invest in teachers, they will produce several big brains creating the next generation of society. As always, excellence focuses on practical and effective solutions for modern classrooms and beyond.
Teachers work with different contexts daily with students of diverse background and levels of understanding. So, the challenge is enormous. What kind of teaching approaches can enhance active student engagement creating dynamic and inclusive learning environments and support differentiated instruction?
- The curriculum must put the student at the centre of learning to think and modelling behaviour. This is not a behaviourist approach but influences the impact of intellectual development and gearing on behaviour. This is reinforcing what has been argued above the modern perspectives are thinking and behaviour as key pillars of curriculum.
- Reduce chalk and talk and go for socialisation as a method of teaching and learning. Some argue that curriculum in its very nature restricts learning, but socialisation makes up for it. Dexterity of critical thinking at the practical level comes through narratives and students recognising their own narratives as expressions of their intellectual development and mastery.
- Deliver curriculum content as part of reflective groups. Drawing on my own experience of facilitating reflection as a teaching and learning method has brought substantial benefits, opportunities for deeper engagement and reframing of personal, behavioural as well as professional narratives. This is insightful learning creating a long lasting intellectual and behavioural improvement. I am confident this method brings transformation in personal development, thinking, reflecting and formation of meaningful actions. It can keep students in class and away from drugs and other delinquencies. These tools empower learners to navigate complex concepts and build autonomy in their learning process. Practical strategies for implementing self-directed learning opportunities, technology tools, such as modelling their use and providing creativity. The result is it makes learning attractive, craving fun, there is maximum student interpersonal and affective engagement with a strong desire to continue to learn.
- Steiner school of thought: Steiner had a unique curriculum solely based on the belief that education is about turning out well balanced individuals. Passing exams is not the be-all and end-all, as Steiner did not believe in placing children under stress. The success of the school is measured instead on turning out well balanced, all rounded confident individuals with a strong sense of self and self-esteem, with the skills required to concentrate, research and learn. Does that sound like what Mauritius needs?
The central theme is to encourage independence and freedom of thought within holistic education helping the student to develop into a responsible person giving purpose to their lives and communities. This sounds a laudable aim of education.
Modern curriculum should be based on thinking, behaviour, ownership and possession, experiential pedagogy developmentally appropriate. Student autonomy and facilitation methods should be the key drivers. Equip the teachers with these tools and watch the population change.
