UPS AND DOWNS DURING THE CONSTRUCTION OF A WIDE ROAD
FOLLOWING A THIN LINE DROWN DURING UNIVERSITY STUDIES
AN EXAMPLE OF THEORY INTO PRACTICE
Darvesh Karim,
Instructor,
Aga Khan University,
Professional Development Centre North (PDCN)
Gilgit
INTRODUCTION
Being from a rural and
a backward context and having been exposed to the teacher-centered teaching
methods during my schooling period and afterwards in my own initial teaching
career with the traditional concept: “a teacher’s role is to deliver a moral,
pass on knowledge and skills, and help students solve
puzzles,” (Confucius). In other
words, my teaching methods in the classroom were naturally traditional as I had
adopted a teacher-centered academic style from my past. This academic teaching
style is characterized by teaching techniques of grammatical explanation and
translation, and so is sometimes known as the 'grammar-translation method.'
(Cook, 2000).
Through this style, I
believe I succeeded in delivering the necessary language knowledge as well as
giving cultural information to my students for almost ten years of my teaching
career. Furthermore, as a teacher, before the class, I sometimes use to prepare
my lessons very carefully and thoroughly. In the class, I did my best to pass
on as much knowledge as possible to my students. Once I fulfilled the
syllabus’s requirements, I was satisfied and my superiors were also satisfied.
Hence I believed that I was a good and responsible teacher.
Such a situation
remained until my selection for Masters in Education at Aga Khan University
Institute for Educational Development Karachi where I studied different
approaches of modern teaching learning processes, specifically the Action
Research theory and practice for which I could say a paradigm shift in my
understanding occurred. However; I understand that university studies only draw
a thin line towards school development, while the whole road has to be
constructed when we practically involve in school development initiatives.
With a theoretical
understanding and a thin line drowned by the university towards school
development, I re-joined the practical field of teaching and learning and I
began my journey as a professional teacher-researcher with an esteemed
university’s offsite campus in a remote area of Gilgit-Baltistan. During the
first year of my practical work I was assigned a very significant task to run
Whole School Improvement Program (WSIP) in a private school of Gilgit from my
institution Aga Khan University - Institute for Educational Development -
Professional Development Centre, North (AKU-IED-PDCN) which is an institute
totally dedicated for the capacity building of all the stakeholders of schools
with a special focus on teachers, head teachers and school management
committees, so that quality education and conducive learning environment and
opportunities could be provided to the students of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Among other courses of AKU-IED-PDCN, WSIP is
the major program which is also called the flagship program of PDCN. The main
principle of WSIP is to treat the school as a unit of learning rather than an
individual, with the long term aim of development and effective group dynamics
and collegiality amongst teachers, students and communities for the purposes of
ongoing educational dialog and improvement. (Shafa, Karim & Alam, 2011). All the stakeholders such as students,
teachers, head teacher, school management committee, parents, community and
senior management of the system contribute their complementary or
interdependent roles in improving quality of education in schools. In other words all mechanism of the school
machinery simultaneously takes part for a proper functioning of the school
system. The centre and focus of change in the program is the ‘child’. All
human, material and financial resources are utilized to achieve the objective
that is holistic development of the child.
The project school
which was assigned to me to run WSIP during the academic session 2009 – 2010
for one year school based rigorous input and two years follow-up support was a
private girls’ high school in district Gilgit.
While
initiating the quality mechanisms for school development through an extensive
school development plan, my focus was on six major areas and with the full
cooperation of all the teaching staff and the principal of the project school I
intervened in an extensive action research project.
Following
six areas were the focus of my intervention.
Improvement
in quality of teaching and learning is the main focus of whole school
improvement model. Quality teaching is fundamental in the process of school
improvement especially to enhance students’ learning outcomes. It uses to be a
major pillar of WSIP and during the intervention phase, it digests a major
chunk of time to mould the teaching learning processes towards the desired
curve.
Curriculum Enrichment and Staff Development
Curriculum enrichment and staff
development are the fundamental aspects of WSIP to ensure quality teaching and
learning. Efficient teachers use various means and ways to provide concrete and
ample knowledge about the different topics to the students, and they use to
integrate different resources and material to enrich curriculum and for better
understanding of their students.
It is well understood and researched
that when we involve parents in education, children's learning positively
relates to higher achievements. So, the more intensively parents are involved
in their children's learning, the more beneficial are the achievements and
their effects with a long-lasting impact (Karim, 2010).
Leadership and Management
When it comes to leadership and
management, many people think of either a business or team environment, many
times overlooking the fact that school leadership is probably one of the most
important kinds of leadership. Leadership and management skills are important
in all walks of life.
School facilities,
resources and school building even the colour of the walls can affect whether
the students and staff members who spend their days in the building perceive it
as a place that enhances learning or as just another structure filled with
desks and chairs. Hence while planning for this important pillar of WSIP, kept
in mind about the shared space to accommodate computers and ensure
accessibility as some classrooms were with larger strengths. Likewise school
surrounding landscape also plays a key role in providing a high-quality
educational environment.
Social and
moral development of children is the prime goal of improving schools to develop
children as civilized and cooperative individuals of the society and WSIP’s
focus was also on this dimension of child development.
I concluded the WSIP as an intensive
and effective program for a holistic school improvement by focusing on its all
six pillars. I as a professional development teacher required possessing and
demonstrating profound level of subject competency, commitment, down to earth
attitude to all stakeholders to make the process successful and leave a long
lasting impact in the school and society. I found that teachers accept our
preaching for change when they see our strategies working effectively for
student learning. The WSIP process at
the project school worked successfully in terms of developing teachers’ content
knowledge in English, Science, Social Studies and Mathematics. Change in the
school timetable and lesson planning proved to be instrumental for addressing
all students’ learning needs teaching and learning with specific goals and
developing interactive teaching and learning environment in classrooms. Collective competitive environment increased
the level of motivation for individual learning and group success. It helped to
raise students’ academic results in the annual examination. School system’s
high officials also applauded our interventions and positive results in the
school. However, further collaboration (planning, implementation and assessing
change) is required between PDCN and the partner organisation for more
productive and sustainable impact in schools.
KEY SUCCESSES
1. Students’
confidence level has tremendously increased and they take very active part
during lesson delivery by the teachers as well as when the visitors visit the
school. To respond the questions from the visitors most of the students raise
their hand. This rapid change has also been brilliantly felt and expressed by
the senior officials of school system who appreciated the efforts of PDCN and
formally thanked for the WSIP intervention and the fabulous success in this
regard.
2. Teachers
have developed a caring attitude towards students and corporal punishment has
been totally abandoned, which has been very prominently expressed through
reflections of teachers as well as the students. Teachers are now on the way to
develop a positive and strong relationship with students.
3. Teachers
have adopted interactive methods of teaching and utilize sufficient time for
lesson planning and classroom teaching and learning. Mostly teachers stay back
in school to complete the planning for the next day or to prepare the required material
and teaching aids for the next day.
4. Students’
grades and pass percentage has been now improved. Specifically in SSC-II
examination overall result remained 94% and grades have also improved than the
earlier board results. Only one student could not make it to qualify with one
subject drop. While the rest of the school result remained high than the
previous years.
5. In
secondary section, students have developed the capacity of creative writing and
mental maths, as in these focused classes we initiated the practices on regular
basis. Students are confident now to write anything as they have been
habitually and creatively write.
6. Teachers
have developed a capacity to manage classrooms through group work, pair work,
and group presentations. Teachers provide individual support to the students
and most of the classes are now use to be focused on activity base teaching and
peer assessment. Teachers have adopted these vibrant teaching methodologies
enthusiastically because they have felt the students’ learning outcomes and
motivated responses in their classes.
7. As
a teacher, I was successful to build a strong and respectful relationship with
students as well as teachers, which reflect whenever we visit the school,
through occasional gifts, greeting cards and the welcoming behaviour, while
students reflections and teachers reflection were very much evident to prove
that I was able to build a strong relationship and attachment with the
students, teachers, school and with the community as a whole.
8. Distributed
leadership concept is in practice effectively, as on daily basis teachers take
turns to lead the school as day teachers, while other opportunities to exercise
the roles to boost up the leadership qualities are in place now, many
responsibilities like house coordinators, student councillor, section
in-charges, weekly workshop leaders, individual responsibilities, event
in-charges etc. have been introduced and are in daily practice.
9. Most
of the students have developed a learning attitude and a spirit of team work
has been extended, which can be observed while a group work, a competition, or
during any task which involves the houses.
10. Teachers
and students have developed a mutually respecting attitude. Behavioural
problems are very much less now because of students’ counselling and consistent
practice of caring attitude by the teachers. It can be now claimed without any
hesitation that students are now sound ethically, socially and morally as a
result of effective integration of reflective practices during lessons.
11. Enrolment
has increased from 410 to above 500.
12. Physical
environment is now comparatively cleaner and tidier and houses are now very
actively involved in cleaning of their respective classes to get the praise
from the teachers and management.
13. Students’
self-esteem has improved as a result of presentations, freedom of asking
questions for clarity and sharing ideas in classrooms as well as outside
classrooms. School culture has been changed towards mutual understanding,
respect and sharing ideas freely without the hesitation of being wrong.
14. Head
teacher keeps students’ academic record in order to review teachers and
students performance based on weekly and monthly tests along with the attitude
record, attendance and punctuality record. He also gives rewards and gifts to
the students in assembly to appreciate and encourage the performances of
students.
15. Teachers
and students are now more regular and punctual at school and classroom.
16. Students’
handwriting and spelling has improved to a great extent which was weak before
the intervention.
17. Students’
personal hygiene has improved due to weekly competitions and the awareness
given through celebrating Global Hands washing Day and inviting LHV/Doctor as a
guest speaker.
18. Teachers
became sensitized of gender equity and equality after observing lady teachers
at PDCN taking lead role during workshops.
19. Parental
involvement has been increased due to the effective intervention regarding
community participation initiatives like parent teacher meetings, meetings with
mothers, invitation to parents during the events we celebrated in the school.
Now parents frequently visit school to meet the teachers to know about the
progress of their children.
20. Teachers
now share reflections with colleagues on their daily classroom practices in staff
room. Staffroom environment has been now transformed to academic discussions,
reflections and classroom experience sharing instead of general discussions and
gossips.
21. Teachers
share content and plans with colleagues before going to classrooms.
Behind
every success, there used to be a long story and some failures or challenges
too. My intervention in this school was of course not always ‘All is well’
situation. I had to face many challenges and hardships during the intervention.
A short summary of challenges faced are listed below;
CHALLENGES
1. During
the initial days of my intervention, students and teachers were reluctant to
accept my presence and were treating me like some visitor or guest. They were
assuming WSIP as PDCN’s program, not their own. (But this issue was overcome
with the passage of time as I proved myself to be the part of their school not
the guest and WSIP as their own program by motivating and taking all the
concerned individuals into loop while initiating a new strategy).
2. Teachers’
brain drain, relevant subject teachers’ shortage and classroom handling issues
– this issue remained from the beginning till the end as some subject teachers
were missing and I had to over burden the existing teachers, however engaging
the class is somewhat different than handling the class with the relevant
subject. Because, to control the class I use to send an available teacher, who
was absolutely supposed to control and maintain the discipline of class but not
taking the class according to the subject. This was the problem with the
Science subjects especially in class IX and consequently there was a weak
result in class 9th as this class remained suffer for the whole year because of
frequent change in Science subject teachers. Secondly, I worked closely with
teachers for their professional development; and on a stage when I had already
spent so much time on mentoring, he or she quits the job as it has been the
practice in private schools, it becomes problematic as you don’t have any option
to choose or solution for this.
3. Lack
of cooperation from the system in terms of establishing computer lab and
networking. Curriculum enrichment is a major pillar of WSIP and we made huge
efforts to establish a computer laboratory in school by gathering all the
displaced computers and out of order ones repaired. We frequently asked for
some financial assistance from the school system to hook-up all these computers
in a network, so that we could be able to get the access to the information
highway (internet), so that we could be able to provide teachers as well as students access to the
latest information and updates. The system officials never denied for the
assistance, but the promise took a whole year to accomplish and till our exit
from the face to face intervention, the promise was not entertained.
4. Teachers
were initially sceptical towards the change in the weekly workshops, because
habitually teachers use to leave early on Fridays, while weekly workshops
needed at least two additional hours of teachers’ time. However as the time
passed, they started to take interest and even showed willingness to lead the
weekly sessions too.
5. Teachers
were perhaps having over expectations from PDT as I felt that they were
assuming our intervention would bring an abrupt change, while I perceive that
change is a gradual process and it takes long time. However, I am confident to
say that even within a limited time of one year a change is visible.
6. Teachers
with more working experience and age are difficult to change their beliefs and
practices.
7. Whenever
guests or the system top system officials visit school, in one way or the other
teachers and students use to describe PDCN, WSIP and the PDT in good and praising
remarks. They connect these remarks with their understanding and learning,
newly emerged quality of teaching and learning in their school, the conducive
learning environment, many new and effective changes, the discipline and
motivation towards learning, the displays and leadership opportunities to
students and teachers etc. I strongly felt that the concerned system officials
didn’t like these remarks (It is just my feeling and might be wrong).
8. WSIP
is an extensive programme towards a total change in an educational institution.
The six major pillars are much broad to accomplish and achieve all the set
targets and objectives within a short period of face to face interaction which
is limited to five months only (excluding vacations). Accomplishment of all the
six WSIP pillars was itself a major challenge.
REFERENCES
Cook, V.
(2000), “Second Language Learning and Language Teaching”, Foreign
Language Teaching and Research Press, Beijing.
Karim,
D. (2010, July 11). Parental involvement in education. Dawn Islamabad,
pp. 21.
Karim,
D. (2012). Exploring Head and Deputy Headteachers’ Attitude Towards Using
Computers in Education. International
Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education (IJICTE),
8(2), 20-32. doi:10.4018/jicte.2012040102
Karim,
D. (2009). Exploring head and deputy head teachers’ attitude towards using
computers in education. Unpublished master’s thesis, Aga Khan University
Institute for Educational Development, Karachi, Pakistan.
Shafa,
M., Karim, D., and Alam, S. (2011). What Works in Education in Pakistan, and
Why? International Journal
of Business and Social Science Vol. 2, 16, 132- 145.
