The article Translanguaging in the Bilingual Classroom: A pedagogy for Learning and Teaching by Creese Angela and Blackledge Adrian discusses bilingual pedagogy based on the assumptions on Gujarati and Chinese language schools within the United Kingdom by Cummins.
The authors are comprehensive in the aspects of language ecology and how complementary schools balance bilingual pedagogy. Among the critical issues identified in the article is a smart division of the languages into two-way education.
The process should involve translation and rapid separation between the fist language and the second language which should be treated as independent.
As it is a research article, quantitative methodology provides a reliable and quantifiable result on the position of flexible translanguaging as part of bilingual pedagogy. The study consists of five parts which yield the same results.
Among the benefits of flexible pedagogy and flexible bilingualism identified by the authors are ease of communication and preservation of culture, indiscrimination of a second language and simultaneous literacies endorsement as students participating in bilingual translanguaging are assured of preserved identity in the process of acquiring education.
As a result, the authors recommend assimilating of translanguaging in the curriculum to promote appreciation of world culture and making the learning process more accommodative to minority cultures.
The article proposes a complete bilingual education as a form of instructional education where information is presented to learners in more than one language. Any system of education applying two or more languages in educational physiology can be termed as a bilingual presentational system.
Relevance of the Article
Based on the connation presented above, it can be stated that most programs in modern schools are bilingual at the least literal sense.
The only difference in use lies in the degree and multitude under which it is applied and actively recognized by policymakers and reformers in the education system in their proactive reorganization for relevance and non-discriminative reforms. Bilingualism is a strong policy for resistance to assimilation and cultural extinction.
Though young minority group members face a difficulty relating to fluent English speaking majority, they have a chance to present a lot in terms of diverse and preserved cultural background associated with unique pride which can be maintained, while at the same time, they have a chance to learn English effortlessly as a tool for interaction with the mainstream culture.
This article supports bilingual education system because the world is becoming a global village. It is desirable for the United Kingdom to be counted as part of this talent pool.
Perceived threat to the mainstream English language is just a speculative opinion as natural language changes if well integrated in modern communication tendencies.
This article dwells on flexible translanguaging which touches on identity, culture, appreciation of diversity, and simplification of the learning process. The issues identified in this article are critical in balancing mainstream language with second language in a bilingual education environment.
Reflection on the Article
Translanguaging policy guarantees that minority students participate in meaningful learning process irrespective of the different language backgrounds.
Minority language speaking groups are also put in a fair position to access education curriculum made available to English speaking peers, through affirmative action steps consisting of a complete bilingual instructional manual and English teaching methods limited to optional modules.
All forms of bilingual education should be concurrently applied in the system to benefit both the native speaking minority students, often referred to as English Language Learners, and their peers who, in the end, will both grasp the educational curriculum concepts while acquiring another language for future creative, multilingual use.
To understand cultural orientation of the increasing Chinese and Gujarati speaking minority, most high schools in the United Kingdom have developed formal requirements for all student to grasp at least a secondary language offered in courses running for almost two years taught in flex.
Besides, while it is a reality that operating bilingual classrooms are very expensive, it is the best alternative for effective methodology to relate curriculum to students with limited English proficiency. This is an inverse of an immersion system which discriminates students with poor understanding of single English language.
Therefore, the article is accurate in recommending accommodative and inclusive education system that supports policy based on bilingual pedagogy.
Conclusively, the authors have identified several benefits of integrating translanguaging among the young learners in the minority communities of the United Kingdom.
However, the main challenge remains the unbalanced and informal integration of bilingual pedagogy in formal learning institutions in areas that are occupied by minority communities speaking English as a second language.
Even though the process of teaching a foreign language to students in high schools across the world is supposed to be ideologically neutral, this does not appear to be the actual case. The reason for this is that, as practice indicates, such a process cannot be discussed outside of what happened to be the essence of the dominant socio-cultural discourse in a particular country where it takes place.
In my paper, I will explore the validity of this suggestion at length, while comparing the currently deployed methodological approaches for teaching the English language in senior secondary schools in China, to the ones that are being used to teach the Chinese language in Australian senior secondary schools. While identifying the qualitative characteristics of both national-based curricula, I will also outline what should be deemed the main obstacles in the way of ensuring the pedagogical effectiveness of teaching a foreign language to Chinese and Australian senior secondary students.
EFL curriculum in China
When it comes to discussing the specifics of how the English language is being taught to the mentioned category of students in China, one must take into consideration: the discursive legacy of Confucianism in this country, and the historical aspects of Chinas socio-economic and cultural development since the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. Even though the English language in China became institutionalized (as one of the foreign languages to be taught in schools and universities) at the beginning of the 20th century, the establishment of the all-national EFL curriculum took place in the late fifties. Having been heavily influenced by the Soviet/Russian model of pedagogy, the curriculums guiding principles include:
Placement of emphasis on the development of writing and reading (rather than communicative) skills.
Deployment of the deductive approach to teaching grammar: Students are given the grammar rules and examples, are told to memorize them, and then are asked to apply the rules to other examples (Rao, 2013, p. 35).
The assumption that students must provide formally accurate answers to the questions concerned with the practical application of grammar/syntax rules.
Reliance on the teacher-centered teaching paradigm.
In its turn, this partially explains why up until the early eighties, at least half of the academic time in the secondary schools English classes used to be spent on prompting students to memorize English texts by heart regardless of whether the former understood them or not. According to Yu (2013), Texts were committed to memory, with the aid of liberal physical encouragement and much noise. When successfully mastered, they were recited by the individual student, back to his teacher, facing the class (p. 42). It is understood, of course, that this was naturally encouraging students to think of the English language as just about anything, but the practically useful medium of international communication.
It must be noted that the earlier outlined principles, reflected by the Chinese teachers willingness to encourage students to spend long hours memorizing texts in English, were thoroughly consistent with the fact that the discursive legacy of Confucianism never ceased exerting a powerful effect on the educational domain in China, throughout the millennia. The Communist revolution of 1949 did very little to change the situation, in this respect, Emphasis on text memorization can be said to be historically rooted in the Chinese tradition in education, for it is associated with the Confucian educational philosophy that exalts and worships established text (Jin & Cortazzi, 2002, p. 57).
In full accordance with the Confucian legacy, most Chinese teachers and students continue to think of education in terms of a privilege, which presupposes the appropriateness of using a teacher-centered/authoritarian approach to teaching foreign languages in the classroom.
Up until comparatively recently, the curriculums main objective was to contribute to the secondary students overall intellectual development. By learning the English language, they were expected to grow more familiar with the ways of the Western world, which in turn was supposed to come in handy within the context of how these students indulge in analytical thinking. However, very little attention used to be paid to whether the acquired linguistic proficiency, on the part of secondary students, would come to represent any utilitarian value for them.
The logic behind such a conceptualization of the learning processs actual goal had to do with the assumption that the opportunity for graduates to take practical advantage of their knowledge of English would be severely limited. As Yang (2006) pointed out, For English to be used, it generally takes a motivated community, the right tasks, and appropriate settings. Unfortunately, these conditions seem to have been met only in certain settings in Chinas key metropolitan centers (p. 7).
Therefore, it does not come as a particular surprise that even as recently, as through the mid-eighties, it used to be considered something rather extraordinary if a secondary school graduate possessed a moderate command of the English language. According to Wang (2007), A large-scale national survey was conducted on secondary school English teaching in 1985. It found that most secondary school graduates were unable to use even very simple language to express themselves after almost 900 hours of English instruction (p. 90).
Nevertheless, as Chinas economy continued to grow, it was becoming increasingly apparent to officials from the countrys Ministry of Education that the conceptual approach to teaching English in Chinese high schools had to be readjusted to correlate with the newly emerged socio-economic circumstances. In its turn, this established the objective preconditions for the adoption of the New English Curriculum Standard/NECS (introduced through the early 2000s) by the growing number of high schools in China. As Liu (2016) noted, The central idea behind NECS is that the best way to teach grammatical structures is not to teach them directly but to engage learners attention on the meaning or message (p. 78).
NECS is based on the assumption that to prove effective; the learning process must be highly interactive something that, in turn, calls for the adoption of the student-centered paradigm for teaching the English language in Chinas high schools. By being exposed to the NECS-based studying strategies, students are expected to grow emotionally comfortable with perceiving this language as the practical instrument of communication (Sun, 2013).
However, the adoption of NECS has been widely criticized on account of this standards being excessive ,westernized, which makes it ill-suited to be deployed within the classroom-setting of an ordinary high school in China. What represents yet another challenge, within the context of how NECS is being implemented, is the fact that the overwhelming majority of Chinese English-language teachers have never traveled outside of China. In its turn, this does not only make it highly unlikely for them to feel at ease while communicating with students in English but also leaves only a few prerequisites for the learning process to be less teacher-centered.
Therefore, despite the fact that during the recent decade, the EFL curriculum in China has grown much more constructivist, as compared to what it used to be the case in the past, it continues to remain essentially traditionalist. As Zhang and Liu (2014) pointed out, The approval of constructivist ideas does not prevent the teachers from adhering to traditional beliefs, especially those in memorisation and drill. All the interview participants require their students to memorise vocabulary, sentences or even texts. This practice is still a basic element of English class in Chinese secondary schools (p. 195). There are many reasons to believe that such a state of affairs with teaching the English language to senior secondary students in China is going to persist into the future.
CFL curriculum in Australia
Although the Chinese language has been taught in Australian high schools ever since 1950, it was not up until the early eighties that it became officially included in the countrys foreign language curriculum. The main reason behind this development had to do with the fact that, as of this time, it started to become increasingly clear to Australian governmental officials that the key to Australias continual economic growth was concerned with creating the prerequisites for the countrys economy to take advantage of the exponential expansion of the Chinese (Asian) market of goods and services (Salter, 2013).
In its turn, this called for the dramatic increase in the number of Asia literate Australians something that could be achieved by orientalising the foreign language curriculum in high schools to educate Australian students in Asian languages and cultures with the assumption that this would enhance Australias economic interests in East Asia (Henderson, 2008, p. 182). This points out to the fact that the main purpose of teaching the Chinese language to senior secondary students in Australia is essentially utilitarian just as it happened to be the case with the purpose of teaching the English language to their Chinese counterparts.
Moreover, in a similar manner with the EFL curriculum in China, the CFL curriculum in Australia reflects the key values/traditions of the Australian system of education, as a whole. These are as follows:
Decentralisation. In Australia, each of the countrys states and territories is in the position to define its own educational provisions to be applied, within the context of how senior secondary students study the Chinese language. This implies the absence of the all-national foreign language curriculum something that makes it much more difficult for teachers to ensure the methodological soundness of their approaches to teaching English (Hones, 2005).
Privatisation. In Australia, the acquisition of the second language by senior secondary students is often discussed in terms of a public service, which presupposes that, in order to be able to excel in studying Chinese language, students must consider resorting to the paid services of private tutors. Such a situation came about as a result of the fact that the proponents of Neoliberalism in governmental offices have been in charge of designing the countrys educational policies ever since the early nineties.
Educational constructivism. In full accordance with the officially endorsed policy of political correctness, there are no positivist (objective) criteria for assessing the varying measure of students successfulness in studying Chinese language (Porcaro, 2011). One of the main considerations, in this respect, has to do with the fact that, as of today, just about every high school in Australia features a large population of native-speaking Asian/Chinese students, which puts non-Asian students at much disadvantage, when it comes to evaluating their academic progress in CFL classes.
Lowered academic standards. The task of learning the Chinese language by non-Asian senior secondary students is assumed much too stressful for them to cope with not the least because of this languages sheer complexity and dissimilarity with their native spoken one. Therefore, the learning process is concerned with encouraging students to use Pinyin the Romanised system for the phonetic denotation of the Chinese characters oral pronunciation (Lee & Kalyuga, 2011). Even though the deployment of such an educational approach does appear fully justified, many students perceive it to be suggestive of their inborn inability to master proper Chinese, which naturally results in undermining the strength of their academic commitment to the concerned curriculum.
In light of the above-mentioned qualitative features of the CFL curriculum in Australian high schools, it will only be logical to assume that the learning process in question cannot prove very effective by definition. This indeed appears to be the case. For example, according to Wilson, Dalton and Baumann (2015), In NSW, the number of HSC students studying Chinese in 2014 was just 798 (635 of which were students with a Chinese background), whereas a decade ago it was almost double that number, with 1,591 (para. 18).
Apparently, most non-Asian students in Australia do not quite understand why to attend CFL classes, in the first place. The line of their reasoning, in this respect, is not too hard to follow why bother with studying Chinese, if I am still going to be considered an underachiever when compared to my Chinese-Australian classmates, who use this language to communicate with their parents at home? To complicate things even further, the majority of CFL educators in Australia consists of Chinese-born naturalised citizens, who tend to rely on the highly formalistic/rigorous approach to teaching the language quite inconsistent with the laissez-faire teaching methodology, to which non-Asian senior secondary students are accustomed.
As Lee (2014) pointed out, Native-speaker teachers& often teach Chinese in the same way that they were taught it. Australian students, meanwhile, are used to a different system altogether, and are thus predisposed to finding such methodology boring or overly rigorous (para. 20). It is understood, of course, that the described state of affairs with the currently enacted CFL curriculum in Australian high schools, stands in a striking contradiction to the governmental agenda of endorsing Asia literacy among Australians.
Critique
The provided descriptions of the main qualitative features of the senior secondary FL curricula in China and Australia, allow us to come up with the following analytical insights, regarding the discussed subject matter:
Despite having been reformed to be more communicative/student-centred, the Chinese approach to teaching English language to senior secondary students continues to remain deeply embedded in the Confucian academic tradition, which in turn causes most Chinese teachers to persist with applying much authoritative pressure on students, while requiring the latter to prioritise developing their writing and reading skills. Nevertheless, even though such a teaching strategy may appear somewhat outdated (when assessed from the Western perspective); there is a good reason to think of it as being fully consistent with the deep-seated linguistic anxieties in Chinese students. The rationale behind such a suggestion has to do with the logographic essence of Chinese language, which presupposes the sheer importance of visualisation, within the context of how Chinese native speakers make sense out of the orally delivered speeches and written texts regardless of what happen to be the linguistic medium in question. Therefore, it is indeed thoroughly logical for Chinese EFL teachers to insist that students must spend long hours reading and writing in English, as well as memorising English texts by heart. After all, the deployment of such a learning methodology, on the part of EFL teachers in China, does closely match the one used for encouraging Chinese students to gain proficiency in their own language.
The methodological provisions of the Australian senior secondary CFL curriculum cannot be deemed fully appropriate especially if assessed in conjunction with what account for the contemporary socio-demographic realities in this country (Iredale, 1997). One of the reasons for this is that the conceptualisation of the curriculums objectives took place before Australian society had fully embraced the policy of multiculturalism. As a result, more and more senior secondary students in Australia grow to regard the prospect of gaining proficiency in the Chinese language, as such that represents very little practical value. Consequently, this provides them with a powerful incentive to consider dropping out especially given the fact that there is nothing compulsory about the CFL curriculum in Australia. What contributes towards bringing about such a situation, even more, is the fact that, as it was implied earlier, Australian students are not accustomed to the manner in which they are being taught the Chinese language by this languages native speakers. Thus, it will be perfectly logical to suggest that there is a pressing need to revise the curriculums very discursive foundation, as the main precondition for making it academically legitimate again. One of the possible strategies that can be utilised, in this respect, is providing students with the opportunity to study Chinese language in the so-called immersion mode when they are being required to spend some fixed amounts of time socialising with Chinese-born native speakers only.
Reflection
The main implication of the conducted research for me, as a future educator, is that when it comes to teaching foreign language in the classroom, the would-be deployed strategy must take into consideration both: the socio-economic/demographic dynamics within the society, and the innate quality of the targeted students psycho-cognitive predispositions. Because of what has been mentioned earlier, there is a certain rationale in assuming that these predispositions are at least partially reflective of the particulars of the affiliated individuals ethno-cultural background. Therefore, for one to excel as a leader in education, he or she may never cease applying a continual effort into broadening the scope of its intercultural awareness.
This suggestion is fully consistent with the culturally sensitive paradigm in education, which is assumed to correlate with the multicultural realities of todays living in the West (Byram, 2012). Unfortunately, as practice indicates, this paradigms provisions are often deemed purely declarative just as it was illustrated, regarding the current situation with teaching the Chinese language in Australian high schools. Apparently, cultural sensitivity in education should apply universally to all students, and not only to those who are considered ethnically visible.
Ones willingness to act as a culturally sensitive educator has always been deemed as the proof of his or her professional adequacy. The reason for this is apparent by taking into consideration the culturally predetermined psychological leanings of each individual student, a teacher will be able to enjoy much respect with the class, as a whole. Therefore, it will be logical to assume that is specifically the transformational model of leadership, which suits the best for those teachers who aspire to enjoy much success on the line of addressing their professional responsibilities.
As Silins and Murray-Harvey (1999) pointed out, Transactional leadership may enable an organisation to operate effectively and efficiently, but, alone, it could not develop in followers the level of trust, loyalty and enthusiasm generated by transformational leadership (p. 331). This explains my motivation for choosing in favour of becoming a transformational leader I believe that my choice, in this respect, will prove not only ethically appropriate but also rationally sound.
Conclusion
As it was shown through the papers analytical parts, there many commonly overlooked qualitative dimensions to how foreign language is being taught to senior secondary students in different countries. The researchs findings suggest that there is a positive correlation between the extent of ones professional adequacy, as a teacher, and the concerned persons varying ability to recognise these dimensions well ahead of time. In the future, I would like to do more research on how the particulars of an individuals brain wiring affect his or her propensity in learning foreign languages.
References
Byram, M. (2012). Language awareness and (critical) cultural awareness relationships, comparisons and contrasts. Language Awareness, 21(1-2), 5-16.
Henderson, D. (2008). Politics and policy-making for Asia literacy: The Rudd report and a national strategy in Australian education. Asian Studies Review, 32(2), 171-175.
Hones, D. (2005). We are one, we are many: Portraits of Australian bilingual schools. Multicultural Education, 12(3), 14-21.
Iredale, R. (1997). The impact of immigration on school education in New South Wales, Australia. The International Migration Review, 31(3), 655-669.
Jin, L., & Cortazzi, M. (2002). English language teaching in China: A bridge to the future. Asian-Pacific Journal of Education, 22(2), 53-64.
Lee, A. (2014). In with Pinyin: How to improve Chinese language education in Australia. Web.
Lee, C., & Kalyuga, S. (2011). Effectiveness of different Pinyin presentation formats in learning Chinese characters: A cognitive load perspective. Language Learning, 61(4), 1099-1118.
Liu, W. (2016). The changing pedagogical discourses in China. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 15(1), 7490.
Porcaro, D. (2011). Applying constructivism in instructivist learning cultures. Multicultural Education & Technology Journal, 5(1), 39-54.
Rao, Z. (2013). Teaching English as a foreign language in China: Looking back and forward. English Today, 29(3), 34-39.
Salter, P. (2013). The problem in policy: Representations of Asia literacy in Australian education for the Asian century. Asian Studies Review, 37(1), 3-23.
Silins, H., & Murray-Harvey, R. (1999). What makes a good senior secondary school? Journal of Educational Administration, 37(4), 329-344.
Sun, C. (2013). Probing possibilities of applying productive pedagogy to English teaching in China. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(9), 1651-1657.
Wang, Q. (2007). The national curriculum changes and their effects on ELT in the Peoples Republic of China. In J. Cummins & C. Davison (Eds.), The International Handbook of English Language Education (pp. 87-105). Norwell, MA: Springer Publications.
Yang, J. (2006). Learners and users of English in China. English Today, 22(2), 3-10.
Yu, X. (2013). Learning text by heart and language education: The Chinese experience. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(1), 41-50.
Zhang, F., & Liu, Y. (2014). A study of secondary school English teachers beliefs in the context of curriculum reform in china. Language Teaching Research, 18(2), 187-204.
Even though the process of teaching a foreign language to students in high schools across the world is supposed to be ideologically neutral, this does not appear to be the actual case. The reason for this is that, as practice indicates, such a process cannot be discussed outside of what happened to be the essence of the dominant socio-cultural discourse in a particular country where it takes place.
In my paper, I will explore the validity of this suggestion at length, while comparing the currently deployed methodological approaches for teaching the English language in senior secondary schools in China, to the ones that are being used to teach the Chinese language in Australian senior secondary schools. While identifying the qualitative characteristics of both national-based curricula, I will also outline what should be deemed the main obstacles in the way of ensuring the pedagogical effectiveness of teaching a foreign language to Chinese and Australian senior secondary students.
EFL curriculum in China
When it comes to discussing the specifics of how the English language is being taught to the mentioned category of students in China, one must take into consideration: the discursive legacy of Confucianism in this country, and the historical aspects of Chinas socio-economic and cultural development since the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. Even though the English language in China became institutionalized (as one of the foreign languages to be taught in schools and universities) at the beginning of the 20th century, the establishment of the all-national EFL curriculum took place in the late fifties. Having been heavily influenced by the Soviet/Russian model of pedagogy, the curriculums guiding principles include:
Placement of emphasis on the development of writing and reading (rather than communicative) skills.
Deployment of the deductive approach to teaching grammar: Students are given the grammar rules and examples, are told to memorize them, and then are asked to apply the rules to other examples (Rao, 2013, p. 35).
The assumption that students must provide formally accurate answers to the questions concerned with the practical application of grammar/syntax rules.
Reliance on the teacher-centered teaching paradigm.
In its turn, this partially explains why up until the early eighties, at least half of the academic time in the secondary schools English classes used to be spent on prompting students to memorize English texts by heart regardless of whether the former understood them or not. According to Yu (2013), Texts were committed to memory, with the aid of liberal physical encouragement and much noise. When successfully mastered, they were recited by the individual student, back to his teacher, facing the class (p. 42). It is understood, of course, that this was naturally encouraging students to think of the English language as just about anything, but the practically useful medium of international communication.
It must be noted that the earlier outlined principles, reflected by the Chinese teachers willingness to encourage students to spend long hours memorizing texts in English, were thoroughly consistent with the fact that the discursive legacy of Confucianism never ceased exerting a powerful effect on the educational domain in China, throughout the millennia. The Communist revolution of 1949 did very little to change the situation, in this respect, Emphasis on text memorization can be said to be historically rooted in the Chinese tradition in education, for it is associated with the Confucian educational philosophy that exalts and worships established text (Jin & Cortazzi, 2002, p. 57).
In full accordance with the Confucian legacy, most Chinese teachers and students continue to think of education in terms of a privilege, which presupposes the appropriateness of using a teacher-centered/authoritarian approach to teaching foreign languages in the classroom.
Up until comparatively recently, the curriculums main objective was to contribute to the secondary students overall intellectual development. By learning the English language, they were expected to grow more familiar with the ways of the Western world, which in turn was supposed to come in handy within the context of how these students indulge in analytical thinking. However, very little attention used to be paid to whether the acquired linguistic proficiency, on the part of secondary students, would come to represent any utilitarian value for them.
The logic behind such a conceptualization of the learning processs actual goal had to do with the assumption that the opportunity for graduates to take practical advantage of their knowledge of English would be severely limited. As Yang (2006) pointed out, For English to be used, it generally takes a motivated community, the right tasks, and appropriate settings. Unfortunately, these conditions seem to have been met only in certain settings in Chinas key metropolitan centers (p. 7).
Therefore, it does not come as a particular surprise that even as recently, as through the mid-eighties, it used to be considered something rather extraordinary if a secondary school graduate possessed a moderate command of the English language. According to Wang (2007), A large-scale national survey was conducted on secondary school English teaching in 1985. It found that most secondary school graduates were unable to use even very simple language to express themselves after almost 900 hours of English instruction (p. 90).
Nevertheless, as Chinas economy continued to grow, it was becoming increasingly apparent to officials from the countrys Ministry of Education that the conceptual approach to teaching English in Chinese high schools had to be readjusted to correlate with the newly emerged socio-economic circumstances. In its turn, this established the objective preconditions for the adoption of the New English Curriculum Standard/NECS (introduced through the early 2000s) by the growing number of high schools in China. As Liu (2016) noted, The central idea behind NECS is that the best way to teach grammatical structures is not to teach them directly but to engage learners attention on the meaning or message (p. 78).
NECS is based on the assumption that to prove effective; the learning process must be highly interactive something that, in turn, calls for the adoption of the student-centered paradigm for teaching the English language in Chinas high schools. By being exposed to the NECS-based studying strategies, students are expected to grow emotionally comfortable with perceiving this language as the practical instrument of communication (Sun, 2013).
However, the adoption of NECS has been widely criticized on account of this standards being excessive ,westernized, which makes it ill-suited to be deployed within the classroom-setting of an ordinary high school in China. What represents yet another challenge, within the context of how NECS is being implemented, is the fact that the overwhelming majority of Chinese English-language teachers have never traveled outside of China. In its turn, this does not only make it highly unlikely for them to feel at ease while communicating with students in English but also leaves only a few prerequisites for the learning process to be less teacher-centered.
Therefore, despite the fact that during the recent decade, the EFL curriculum in China has grown much more constructivist, as compared to what it used to be the case in the past, it continues to remain essentially traditionalist. As Zhang and Liu (2014) pointed out, The approval of constructivist ideas does not prevent the teachers from adhering to traditional beliefs, especially those in memorisation and drill. All the interview participants require their students to memorise vocabulary, sentences or even texts. This practice is still a basic element of English class in Chinese secondary schools (p. 195). There are many reasons to believe that such a state of affairs with teaching the English language to senior secondary students in China is going to persist into the future.
CFL curriculum in Australia
Although the Chinese language has been taught in Australian high schools ever since 1950, it was not up until the early eighties that it became officially included in the countrys foreign language curriculum. The main reason behind this development had to do with the fact that, as of this time, it started to become increasingly clear to Australian governmental officials that the key to Australias continual economic growth was concerned with creating the prerequisites for the countrys economy to take advantage of the exponential expansion of the Chinese (Asian) market of goods and services (Salter, 2013).
In its turn, this called for the dramatic increase in the number of Asia literate Australians something that could be achieved by orientalising the foreign language curriculum in high schools to educate Australian students in Asian languages and cultures with the assumption that this would enhance Australias economic interests in East Asia (Henderson, 2008, p. 182). This points out to the fact that the main purpose of teaching the Chinese language to senior secondary students in Australia is essentially utilitarian just as it happened to be the case with the purpose of teaching the English language to their Chinese counterparts.
Moreover, in a similar manner with the EFL curriculum in China, the CFL curriculum in Australia reflects the key values/traditions of the Australian system of education, as a whole. These are as follows:
Decentralisation. In Australia, each of the countrys states and territories is in the position to define its own educational provisions to be applied, within the context of how senior secondary students study the Chinese language. This implies the absence of the all-national foreign language curriculum something that makes it much more difficult for teachers to ensure the methodological soundness of their approaches to teaching English (Hones, 2005).
Privatisation. In Australia, the acquisition of the second language by senior secondary students is often discussed in terms of a public service, which presupposes that, in order to be able to excel in studying Chinese language, students must consider resorting to the paid services of private tutors. Such a situation came about as a result of the fact that the proponents of Neoliberalism in governmental offices have been in charge of designing the countrys educational policies ever since the early nineties.
Educational constructivism. In full accordance with the officially endorsed policy of political correctness, there are no positivist (objective) criteria for assessing the varying measure of students successfulness in studying Chinese language (Porcaro, 2011). One of the main considerations, in this respect, has to do with the fact that, as of today, just about every high school in Australia features a large population of native-speaking Asian/Chinese students, which puts non-Asian students at much disadvantage, when it comes to evaluating their academic progress in CFL classes.
Lowered academic standards. The task of learning the Chinese language by non-Asian senior secondary students is assumed much too stressful for them to cope with not the least because of this languages sheer complexity and dissimilarity with their native spoken one. Therefore, the learning process is concerned with encouraging students to use Pinyin the Romanised system for the phonetic denotation of the Chinese characters oral pronunciation (Lee & Kalyuga, 2011). Even though the deployment of such an educational approach does appear fully justified, many students perceive it to be suggestive of their inborn inability to master proper Chinese, which naturally results in undermining the strength of their academic commitment to the concerned curriculum.
In light of the above-mentioned qualitative features of the CFL curriculum in Australian high schools, it will only be logical to assume that the learning process in question cannot prove very effective by definition. This indeed appears to be the case. For example, according to Wilson, Dalton and Baumann (2015), In NSW, the number of HSC students studying Chinese in 2014 was just 798 (635 of which were students with a Chinese background), whereas a decade ago it was almost double that number, with 1,591 (para. 18).
Apparently, most non-Asian students in Australia do not quite understand why to attend CFL classes, in the first place. The line of their reasoning, in this respect, is not too hard to follow why bother with studying Chinese, if I am still going to be considered an underachiever when compared to my Chinese-Australian classmates, who use this language to communicate with their parents at home? To complicate things even further, the majority of CFL educators in Australia consists of Chinese-born naturalised citizens, who tend to rely on the highly formalistic/rigorous approach to teaching the language quite inconsistent with the laissez-faire teaching methodology, to which non-Asian senior secondary students are accustomed.
As Lee (2014) pointed out, Native-speaker teachers& often teach Chinese in the same way that they were taught it. Australian students, meanwhile, are used to a different system altogether, and are thus predisposed to finding such methodology boring or overly rigorous (para. 20). It is understood, of course, that the described state of affairs with the currently enacted CFL curriculum in Australian high schools, stands in a striking contradiction to the governmental agenda of endorsing Asia literacy among Australians.
Critique
The provided descriptions of the main qualitative features of the senior secondary FL curricula in China and Australia, allow us to come up with the following analytical insights, regarding the discussed subject matter:
Despite having been reformed to be more communicative/student-centred, the Chinese approach to teaching English language to senior secondary students continues to remain deeply embedded in the Confucian academic tradition, which in turn causes most Chinese teachers to persist with applying much authoritative pressure on students, while requiring the latter to prioritise developing their writing and reading skills. Nevertheless, even though such a teaching strategy may appear somewhat outdated (when assessed from the Western perspective); there is a good reason to think of it as being fully consistent with the deep-seated linguistic anxieties in Chinese students. The rationale behind such a suggestion has to do with the logographic essence of Chinese language, which presupposes the sheer importance of visualisation, within the context of how Chinese native speakers make sense out of the orally delivered speeches and written texts regardless of what happen to be the linguistic medium in question. Therefore, it is indeed thoroughly logical for Chinese EFL teachers to insist that students must spend long hours reading and writing in English, as well as memorising English texts by heart. After all, the deployment of such a learning methodology, on the part of EFL teachers in China, does closely match the one used for encouraging Chinese students to gain proficiency in their own language.
The methodological provisions of the Australian senior secondary CFL curriculum cannot be deemed fully appropriate especially if assessed in conjunction with what account for the contemporary socio-demographic realities in this country (Iredale, 1997). One of the reasons for this is that the conceptualisation of the curriculums objectives took place before Australian society had fully embraced the policy of multiculturalism. As a result, more and more senior secondary students in Australia grow to regard the prospect of gaining proficiency in the Chinese language, as such that represents very little practical value. Consequently, this provides them with a powerful incentive to consider dropping out especially given the fact that there is nothing compulsory about the CFL curriculum in Australia. What contributes towards bringing about such a situation, even more, is the fact that, as it was implied earlier, Australian students are not accustomed to the manner in which they are being taught the Chinese language by this languages native speakers. Thus, it will be perfectly logical to suggest that there is a pressing need to revise the curriculums very discursive foundation, as the main precondition for making it academically legitimate again. One of the possible strategies that can be utilised, in this respect, is providing students with the opportunity to study Chinese language in the so-called immersion mode when they are being required to spend some fixed amounts of time socialising with Chinese-born native speakers only.
Reflection
The main implication of the conducted research for me, as a future educator, is that when it comes to teaching foreign language in the classroom, the would-be deployed strategy must take into consideration both: the socio-economic/demographic dynamics within the society, and the innate quality of the targeted students psycho-cognitive predispositions. Because of what has been mentioned earlier, there is a certain rationale in assuming that these predispositions are at least partially reflective of the particulars of the affiliated individuals ethno-cultural background. Therefore, for one to excel as a leader in education, he or she may never cease applying a continual effort into broadening the scope of its intercultural awareness.
This suggestion is fully consistent with the culturally sensitive paradigm in education, which is assumed to correlate with the multicultural realities of todays living in the West (Byram, 2012). Unfortunately, as practice indicates, this paradigms provisions are often deemed purely declarative just as it was illustrated, regarding the current situation with teaching the Chinese language in Australian high schools. Apparently, cultural sensitivity in education should apply universally to all students, and not only to those who are considered ethnically visible.
Ones willingness to act as a culturally sensitive educator has always been deemed as the proof of his or her professional adequacy. The reason for this is apparent by taking into consideration the culturally predetermined psychological leanings of each individual student, a teacher will be able to enjoy much respect with the class, as a whole. Therefore, it will be logical to assume that is specifically the transformational model of leadership, which suits the best for those teachers who aspire to enjoy much success on the line of addressing their professional responsibilities.
As Silins and Murray-Harvey (1999) pointed out, Transactional leadership may enable an organisation to operate effectively and efficiently, but, alone, it could not develop in followers the level of trust, loyalty and enthusiasm generated by transformational leadership (p. 331). This explains my motivation for choosing in favour of becoming a transformational leader I believe that my choice, in this respect, will prove not only ethically appropriate but also rationally sound.
Conclusion
As it was shown through the papers analytical parts, there many commonly overlooked qualitative dimensions to how foreign language is being taught to senior secondary students in different countries. The researchs findings suggest that there is a positive correlation between the extent of ones professional adequacy, as a teacher, and the concerned persons varying ability to recognise these dimensions well ahead of time. In the future, I would like to do more research on how the particulars of an individuals brain wiring affect his or her propensity in learning foreign languages.
References
Byram, M. (2012). Language awareness and (critical) cultural awareness relationships, comparisons and contrasts. Language Awareness, 21(1-2), 5-16.
Henderson, D. (2008). Politics and policy-making for Asia literacy: The Rudd report and a national strategy in Australian education. Asian Studies Review, 32(2), 171-175.
Hones, D. (2005). We are one, we are many: Portraits of Australian bilingual schools. Multicultural Education, 12(3), 14-21.
Iredale, R. (1997). The impact of immigration on school education in New South Wales, Australia. The International Migration Review, 31(3), 655-669.
Jin, L., & Cortazzi, M. (2002). English language teaching in China: A bridge to the future. Asian-Pacific Journal of Education, 22(2), 53-64.
Lee, A. (2014). In with Pinyin: How to improve Chinese language education in Australia. Web.
Lee, C., & Kalyuga, S. (2011). Effectiveness of different Pinyin presentation formats in learning Chinese characters: A cognitive load perspective. Language Learning, 61(4), 1099-1118.
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Silins, H., & Murray-Harvey, R. (1999). What makes a good senior secondary school? Journal of Educational Administration, 37(4), 329-344.
Sun, C. (2013). Probing possibilities of applying productive pedagogy to English teaching in China. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(9), 1651-1657.
Wang, Q. (2007). The national curriculum changes and their effects on ELT in the Peoples Republic of China. In J. Cummins & C. Davison (Eds.), The International Handbook of English Language Education (pp. 87-105). Norwell, MA: Springer Publications.
Yang, J. (2006). Learners and users of English in China. English Today, 22(2), 3-10.
Yu, X. (2013). Learning text by heart and language education: The Chinese experience. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(1), 41-50.
Zhang, F., & Liu, Y. (2014). A study of secondary school English teachers beliefs in the context of curriculum reform in china. Language Teaching Research, 18(2), 187-204.
Introspection through professional and academic concepts and philosophies is an essential practice in any industry, including nursing. There is such an all-encompassing and all-covering idea as the meta-paradigm of nursing. Experts say that it considers such institutional elements as the person, their environment, their health, and the practice of nursing itself (What is the metaparadigm of nursing?, n.d., para. 2). The meta-paradigm not only educates and informs one about the status quo of the nurse but it can also serve as a lens for critical appraisal of practice, professional philosophies and personal beliefs of the medical worker. This paper will share the patients situation and analyze it through the nursing meta-paradigm.
Discussion
There is one case of successful care that would be encouraging and reassuring for every nursing professional. About 16 months ago, a construction worker who severely injured one of his arms on a building site required care. From conversations, it was clear that it was the traumatic result of miscommunication and momentary neglect of safety. To be specific, it was a complex fracture of the right arm. The motor ability of the little and ring fingers of the patients right hand remained in question until the arm was completely healed. As the therapist and orthopedic surgeon said, the future functioning of those depended entirely on the patients physiology, spirit, and care provided. However, the man quickly became depressed because of the feeling of being useless staying in the hospital with a non-functioning dominant arm. Professional, holistic philosophy demands treating all patients equally in terms of psychological efforts (Nikfarid et al., 2018). From an empathetic and compassionate personal perspective, it was obvious that this sufferer needed encouragement and comfort more than others did.
Both viewpoints seemed to be correct and deep introspection took place. The conclusion was that this patient should be given more attention since the psychological resources of the nurse can be replenished. As a result, the social and emotional needs of the injured construction worker have become paramount to those of others (What is the metaparadigm of nursing? n.d., para. 2). More nursing efforts were directed towards uplifting the injured individuals mental aspect even though there has been an understanding that a decision based on personal principles is ethically wrong in nursing. Educative dialogue with the mans family provided an opportunity to involve people close to the patient in restoring his positive attitude. The builder was able to not only heal the broken arm and restore its full motor function but also maintain an optimistic viewpoint throughout most of the hospital stay and the healing process. In retrospect, such areas of the nursing metaparadigm as the health and the person of the wounded man needed to be addressed, and they were through the other two, environment and nursing.
Conclusion
This work is a description of a patient situation that was personally encountered. It is the story of a construction worker who broke his arm and needed physiological care and significant psychological support because his health condition and hospital stay were negatively affecting his mental well-being. The necessary services were given through interaction with all elements of the nursing metaparadigm and positioning of personal principles over professional ones. The reason the construction worker case was chosen as appropriate for discussion and analysis is that it contains a conflict of professional philosophy with personal beliefs and a solution that is partly contrary to nursing ethics.
The Medicine Wheel Could be considered an essential modern tool that provides open-minded and seeking diverse knowledge individuals with numerous opportunities to delve into the peculiarities of a certain issue and conduct its in-depth analysis ( Aboriginal pedagogy, n.d.). Therefore, it could also be a pedagogical tool for teaching, learning, and understanding of human journeys at different levels. Moreover, it helps to consider the most important questions related to a particular sphere. For instance, applying the Medicine Wheel approach to reconciliation issues, we could benefit from enhanced results because of the methods ability to suggest a particular structure needed for the investigation. The Medicine Wheel pedagogy ascends to indigenous practices that tried to encompass all essential aspects of a certain phenomenon and elaborate the most appropriate approach.
Therefore, the Medicine Wheel pedagogy is closely related to reconciliation. It could be defined as attempts to restore mutual respect between people who have different cultures and mentalities ( Reconciliation, n.d.). It includes all aspects of these individuals relations: political, cultural, economic, etc. The term could also be used to describe a complex and long term process aimed at the improvement of indigenous peoples position through a specific set of measures. In this regard, the Medicine Wheel pedagogy becomes a critical aspect of reconciliation as it helps to perform a comprehensive investigation of relations between Aboriginal people and other individuals who want to establish trustful relations and engage in beneficial cooperation. In modern society, reconciliation becomes a very important issue that should be cultivated among members of society.
South
Revolving around reconciliation, I could share my personal experience to demonstrate the increased importance of this aspect and outline feelings that appear during the process. As everyone knows, Canada used to be a land inhabited by ingenious people who had their unique culture and traditions. Unfortunately, due to the unwise policy that was used by colonists and cruelty, relations with these people were spoiled, and they were moved from their traditional areas. Nowadays, we could see them only in reservations that are created with the idea to help them to preserve their culture and the way of life. I believe that regarding these facts, reconciliation means cooperation with these people to understand their unique culture and share feelings and emotions related to a certain issue. Moreover, I think we should try to establish trustful relations with them. For this reason, I reached the closest reservation to communicate with aboriginal people and discover their culture.
In general, it was a great success of mine. I visited my new friends many times and obtained important information about their way of living, culture, and mentalities. Moreover, they outlined their claims to people living in Canada.
I should say that this attempt helped me to realize that reconciliation is fundamental nowadays and could be pleasant. I managed to understand people and their problems, which is critical for modern society. This experience feels unusual as it is something new. It provides me with firmness, and I think that reconciliation is possible regarding the current state of society.
West
Therefore, everyone understands reconciliation in his/her own way. For instance, cogitating about the issue, Winona La Duke determines it as a long journey towards the enhanced mutual understanding and redemption (St. Thomas Newsroom, 2001). She is sure that it is a complex and challenging issue which demands a specific approach to consider the most doubtful aspects and make a compromise. At the same time, she thinks that the restoration of relations and improvement of ingenious peoples position is possible if reconciliation has not stopped.
Moreover, indigenous scholars share this point of view as they are confident that it is high time to act and start reconciliation. They outline several crucial points that should be touched upon to attain success and enhance cooperation. For instance, scholars emphasize a need for new relations in which both parties will act as intellectual partners and elaborate common approaches to problem-solving ( Current reconciliation initiatives, n.d.). Additionally, they outline a need to integrate aboriginal students into the university community for them to participate in the Canadian discourse and acquire a better understanding of current processes ( Current reconciliation initiatives, n.d.). There is also a significant need for training programs for aboriginal people.
In general, these ideas have a significant impact on my own concept of reconciliation. The thought of the improved and long-term cooperation with ingenious people becomes crucial for the Canadian discourse and attempts to create a unified society. At the moment, I realize that it seizes all spheres of our activity.
North
Having investigated the most important aspects of reconciliation by using the Medicine Wheel pedagogy approach, we could now formulate several steps that should be made to reconcile particular spheres and attain success. First of all, regarding the most important health issues, we should say that ingenious people should be involved in specific education to become active members of all processes that occur in the healthcare sphere (Monkman, 2016). Moreover, responding to aboriginal individuals initiatives, it is critical to ensure that their youth will be able to study at medical schools or universities. First, it will help to reconcile by promoting improved cooperation between representatives of all cultures who live in Canada.
Second, representatives of this category will be able to acquire knowledge, which is important for their communities further development ( Winona Laduke: Reconciling our relationship, n.d.). Moreover, the improved reconciliation could be attained due to the introduction of policies that facilitate access to health services and stimulate people to participate in healthcare activities introduced by authorities to attain enhanced outcomes and improve the health of the nation (Monkman, 2016). Finally, the reconciliation strategy might also include current health problems assessment procedures to acquire an improved understanding of various communities states and actions that should be performed to guarantee gradual alteration of the situation.
Altogether, reconciliation is one of the most important tasks the modern society faces today. It will help to attain improved understanding between individuals and create a homogeneous society characterized by enhanced cooperation.
The word culture is defined in numerous ways. Some may define culture as the clothes they wear, the food they eat, the language they speak, or the religion they practice. It is true that all that is part of a particular culture, but is that all? Would culture include the way we think? The way we treat others? The way we function in our society? The jobs we prefer? The things we learn at school? Hence, culture is a way of life. It is the way we think and perceives things around us. Although the language, religion, race, geographic location, and social organization are a part of the culture, it does not end there.
Multicultural Education
We live in a world with a diverse range of cultures. Being humans, we have a lot in common but we also differ greatly. When it comes to culture, the little things matter. We find all kinds of people at work, out on the streets, in our neighborhoods, and our schools; and that is where a child creates a mindset that is with him/her for the rest of their life. This is where the concept of multicultural education comes in. it is an approach to education in which an institutions curriculum, teaching methods, and ideologies are designed and put into action in the way that all children accept and appreciate the diversity around them and are aware of their contributions to the society. With multicultural education, children experience different flavors of the world at a make or break age. If the children experience and learn that the world inhabits many types of people, they grow up to understand and function effectively in a world that is experiencing rapid globalization; where all cultures intermingle and work together and cultural boundaries are blurred. (Hanley, 1999)
Multicultural education revolves around certain principles. These principles are based on the findings of the Multicultural Education Consensus Panel. These principles and guidelines help policy-making and teaching methodology in a diverse learning environment. The findings revolve around creating a healthy learning and interactive environment in multicultural educational institutions. These principles will be briefly discussed in this essay.
The principles are broadly divided into teacher learning, student learning, intergroup relations, school governance, organization, and equity and assessment. (Banks, 2001)
Teacher Learning
Teachers need to be trained through development programs that enable them to understand and function well within the ethnically diverse students and understand them better.
Student Learning
Equal opportunities should be given to all students in all fields; academic and extracurricular and foster healthy relationships through teamwork. Students need to be taught that knowledge is a combination of experiences and social, political, and economic contexts in which they exist and function.
Intergroup Relations
Good communication is the key here. With group work, students can understand one another better and understand the negative aspects of discrimination and stereotyping. Teachers should help students practice healthy interaction so that no ethnic fear and anxiety exists.
School Governance, Organization, and Equity
Decision-making should be shared and fair. Just allocation of equity should be practiced regardless of the location or population/status of schools.
Assessment
Teachers should adopt multiple culturally sensitive methods to assess complex cognitive and social skills. (Banks, 2001)
Can it make a Difference?
As we can see, multicultural education can help eliminate racism, ethnic issues, fear and anxiety, and biases. With proper training, teachers will be well equipped with the knowledge of different ethnic settings within the country. Good training will also ensure a non-bias attitude towards the students and the policies made on the basisbased on of the above principles will not be discriminatory. Apart from that, students will learn and grow up in a diverse environment. They will be taught about the issues different races face and how discrimination is widening the gap between races. With healthy interaction and group activity, students will grow into smart, comfortable, and open-minded individuals who would know that ethnic discrimination, stereotyping and other biases are unacceptable and immature. Thus, if we do this today, we can ensure a much more harmonious and open-minded world tomorrow. (Lynch)
Before my study, my conceptions of multicultural education were limited. I did not understand clearly how it can potentially make such a big difference. The advantages I thought of were limited to different ethnic groups being exposed to each other and getting a chance to interact in a controlled environment. But now I see that the concept addresses issues beyond this n move into governance and policymaking. I also see the importance of teacher training and development, which I had not realized before. Without a proper understanding of the base issues and the history of ethnic relations, a teacher cannot foster a proper healthy diverse learning environment in their class. Also, if we practice these principles effectively today we can make a big difference tomorrow.
I have come to realize that training teachers through proper development programs are a vital part of adopting multicultural education in its true sense. As a teacher, I would make it my initiative to learn more about the different ethnic groups present in our schools, their backgrounds, the negative issues they face, and how to address those issues. This would help me understand my students better, without which making them learn would be impossible. So, to train and develop a positive attitude in the students minds, it is important to first understand the issues myself.
References
Banks, J. A. (2001). New Horizons. Web.
Hanley, M. S. (1999). The Scope of Multicultural Education. Web.
Lynch, J. Multicultural Education: Principles and Practice (Routledge Education Books) (Paperback). Routledge & Kegan Paul Books Ltd.
Education is a key aspect of human life since it allows one to accumulate knowledge and resources necessary for future life. Thus, the search for the most efficient, high-quality, and fair education methods is a priority. Around the world, researchers are analyzing current teaching methodologies and trying to implement new ones. Moreover, research is a crucial part of education, which makes it necessary to analyze and search for the most effective studying models. These include research literacy, methods, and finding an answer to the ethical question, namely, whether research achieves its purpose.
The abovementioned issues were raised in many works, where the authors created new models and methodologies to improve learning effectiveness. Thus, in the article What constitutes high-quality education higher pedagogical research?, the authors raise fundamental problems of modern education (Evans et al., 2020). For example, the importance of the relationship between cost and quality of education, maintaining academic standards and ensuring academic integrity (Evans et al., 2020). Moreover, the paper examined the problem of the growing number of students and the impact of this on the quality of teaching, taking into account inclusiveness and equality. The article positively affected me as it provided me with new essential data about various concepts and notions of education and research.
I learned many important aspects from the article, however, I would highlight one crucial notion that is an inevitable part of conducting research. One means the evidence bases reliability, which impacts not only the research process itself but its relevance, truthfulness, and results. Thus, according to the authors, the strength of the evidence base articulates the degree to which the data can be trusted (Evans et al., 2020). Studying the quality of documents leads to an understanding of their validity, which will help the researcher realize whether these documents can be used. The reader should have confidence in the relevance, accuracy, and validity of the evidence provided for further application. In addition, it is necessary to make sure that the study offers novelty and is not a repetition of the thoughts of already conducted studies.
I can not affirm that the article changed my mind about the importance of using research in class and in my field. Similarly to the present, I had an idea of the importance of conducting research. However, the article has expanded my understanding of the importance of study and its components. It includes the topics relevance, the sources reliability, the search for an up-to-date evidence base, effective research methods, and other aspects. In addition, the work provided me with information about such concepts as disciplinary knowledge, pedagogical expertise, academic practice, contextual awareness, and other important terms. The article is related to my current experience as I am doing research, and thus, I can put the information I have learned into practice.
Reference
Evans, C., Howson, C. K., Forsythe, A., & Edwards, C. (2020). What constitutes high quality higher education pedagogical research? Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, (46)4, 525-546.
The term pedagogy is derived from a Latin word, paidagogi, which was originally used to describe slaves that accompanied the Roman boys to school (Korthagen, Loughran & Russell, 2006, p. 1031). The slaves were seen as both leaders and caretakers for the children. Today, the term is used to highlight the association between teachers and their students in a learning set up (Alexander, 2004). The meaning of the term pedagogy has ignited heated debate amongst scholars who have presented various meanings of the word. Contrary to the original definition of the term pedagogy, which was used solely to refer the act of teaching, modern scholars have attempted to differentiate between teaching and pedagogy (Edelenbos, Johnstone & Kubanek, 2006).
The term is used contemporarily to describe all methods and strategies used during the process of teaching. Pedagogy links the actual act of teaching with culture and methods used in the process. This research paper will explain the best pedagogical principles and practices as outlined by different scholars in the available literature. The essay will explore the principles and practices of pedagogy with reference to the various theories that teachers should adopt as presented in the contemporary times.
Main pedagogical principles
Problem motivated learning
Learning is highly momentous and genuine when prompted and obtained in the process of struggle to resolve problems (Steinemann, 2003). Research indicates that problem-motivated learning helps students in the construction of knowledge coupled with boosting their ability to apply such knowledge in learning (Law, Joughin, Kennedy, Tse & Yu, 2007).
The principle of problem-motivated learning was initially applicable in medicine, but today its application has extended to other fields (Korthagen et al., 2006). The term problem in this context refers to the common issues in textbooks that students encounter in the course of their studies. The problems are solved by applying certain scientific techniques (Beetham & Sharpe, 2013).
Integrating problem solving into learning can go a long way in encouraging students to do extensive research in search of knowledge. Problem-motivated learning should be designed in such a way that it encourages learners to read different materials available in the available libraries. The main idea behind problem-motivated learning is to assist students to discover and develop knowledge on their own without relying on their teachers (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006).
In the process of discovering and acquiring such knowledge, students interact with each other, thus acquiring knowledge ultimately. Problem-motivated learning is founded on the view that problems in textbooks can be solved through the application of various principles presented in the available literature (McWilliam & Dawson, 2008). Tutors should avoid giving direct solutions to problems; on the contrary, they should let the students search solutions to such problems on their own (Edelenbos et al., 2006). Implementing problem motivated learning requires teachers to recognise the desired outcome of the methodology used. Teachers should only give students problems that trigger research on their part as opposed to problems that may kill their learning morale.
Collaborative learning
Collaborative learning refers to a method of teaching that involves teaming students into groups and encouraging them to work in teams in the exploration of a certain problem (Alexander, 2004). This learning method brings together different ideas during problem solving. In a collaborative learning setting, students should be individually responsible for their own work even though teachers ought to assess group work as well.
Collaborative learning encourages students to share their strengths coupled with affording an opportunity for the weak students to improve their skills (Russell & Loughran, 2007). Teachers ought to predesign clear learning objectives to guide the learners through the course (Korthagen et al., 2006). The objectives should aim at improving each students performance through discussions. For such groups to work effectively, the following factors should be considered. Firstly, the groups should not be too large for such a scenario would deny some members the chance to contribute to the discussions (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006).
Secondly, teachers should only give tasks that are within the students ability to perform. In other words, the tasks should be doable, but challenging (Law et al., 2007). Research indicates that students involved in collaborative learning groups achieve superior levels of thinking and they possess a tendency to have higher memory capabilities as compared to those working individually. In implementing collaborative teaching, teachers ought to design group goals in advance and specify individual and group responsibilities.
In addition, follow up is an important aspect if the groups are to achieve the set goals (Edelenbos et al., 2006). Teachers should make constant appraisals and compare each groups achievement with the set norms. Such appraisals are helpful, since they help teachers to detect deviations at the initial stages. In case such deviations are noticed, teachers can rotate the groups or alter the original norms (Norton & Toohey, 2004).
Interactive learning
Interactive learning involves the interaction between learners and teachers (Alexander, 2004). Just like in the case of active learning, interactive learning can be at the physical, linguistic, or mental levels (Russell & Loughran, 2007, p. 113). Research indicates that living things learn by acting upon the physical environment and from response. For example, learning through conversations is a form of interactive learning at the linguistic dimension (Beetham & Sharpe, 2013).
However, the aforementioned form of interactive learning may not entail a high level of interaction at the mental dimension. The Socratic interview utilises linguistic communication to engender a high degree of interaction involving two minds. The form of interactive learning in PBL is mainly the linguistic and it takes place between peers. Active learning challenges students to mould techniques and mind-sets, which revolve around the scientific field coupled with availing opportunities for learners to link theoretical ideas to their factual world applications and gaining practical skills relevant to their course.
In so doing, they grow acquaintance that endures beyond the course coverage in which it was obtained. Interactive learning assists students to discover new ideas not to mention that it increases their analytical thinking capabilities. Interactive learning revolves around a student-centred setting and if well implemented, it can help to raise the students morale. It also encourages students to think analytically and go beyond facts and details (McWilliam & Dawson, 2008).
Active Learning Techniques
Active learning denotes a set of techniques designed to encourage the students participation in the classroom (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006). Active learning involves the students interaction with their teachers as opposed to listening to a lecture. Learning tends to be highly authentic and interesting when all stakeholders are involved actively in the learning process (Law et al., 2007).
Active involvement is an important pedagogical principle and it can boost the students performance if well implemented. Similarly, in order for the principle to be effective and consistent with pedagogy, the actual meaning of the term active involvement has to be clear to its implementers. Even though numerous active learning techniques are designed to encourage the students participation in the classroom, the most effective and commonly used are designed to encourage independent learning.
The idea behind active participation in class is to encourage every student to participate and assist teachers to assess the understanding of a topic. Active participation alters the traditional nature of learning, which is usually teacher-centred, into a student-centred classroom (Norton & Toohey, 2004). In an active learning setting, students may be given an opportunity to input their ideas on what to learn as opposed to the teacher being the sole decision maker on which topic to cover in a lesson.
Effective implementation of this technique requires teachers to design a systematic course outline in advance to guide students in the active participation sessions. The predesigned outline guides students through the process and encourages independent learning. The guide should be designed in such a manner that it follows certain sequence towards topic coverage. Conventionally, the simple topics should precede the difficult ones in a bid to increase the students catch-up and easy follow up (Beetham & Sharpe, 2013).
Alternatively, active learning techniques may be introduced by altering the seating arrangement for students. Students may be subdivided into twos before interacting, consulting, and challenging each other in the course of solving a problem (Russell & Loughran, 2007). Active learning requires healthy relationship and engagement between the teacher and students. In addition, the teacher should identify the strategies to use in order to predict a cognitive routine that the learner will employ when trying to execute an assignment that the tutor has devised for a specific lesson (McWilliam & Dawson, 2008).
Considering that a student may not get simple exercise to execute at all times, it requires the tutor to alter the active learning systems to improve the cognitive growth of the learner. In addition, the students ability to execute certain tasks may vary from one individual to another. Some learners are philosophical and they opt to work solely, while others prefer working in groups and value consultations with other students. This variation prompts the need for teachers to keep on changing active learning techniques for the benefit of each student to boost the overall outcome (Alexander, 2004).
Inviting imitation
Children and young adults are conventionally programmed to uncover role models from within their seniors (Norton & Toohey, 2004). If possible, a child will obviously adore an instructor and try to impersonate him/her. In addition to imitating teachers, children will tend to imitate fellow students. The benefits accruing from such imitations largely depend on the constructiveness of the peer culture (Beetham & Sharpe, 2013).
The personality of an individual teacher will largely influence the students selection of their role models. Therefore, teachers need to develop good relationships with their students. This goal can be achieved through teamwork amongst teachers. Research indicates that beneficial imitation boosts the students morale and increases their performance (Law et al., 2007).
Developing beneficial imitation can be achieved via promoting a peer culture within which knowledge acquisition is envied, selecting fascinating tutors in high-ranking positions, encouraging team tutoring where senior tutors can assist their subordinates perform certain tasks and even where junior teachers have the capacity to perform them, personalisation of learning, and effectual use of praise (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006).
Proper sequence
Frequent failure may affect the students morale negatively (Russell & Loughran, 2007). Although such failures should not be ignored, they should be avoided at all costs. One way of reducing chances of failure is by sequencing activities strategically so that the simple tasks precede the difficult ones (Alexander, 2004). Sequencing activities ensures that students go through the learning process in stages, thus minimising chances of failure in the subsequent stages. Learning activities ought to be designed consistently with the learning outcomes (McWilliam & Dawson, 2008).
Teachers and other instructors should break down the ultimate goals into small and manageable objectives that will take the learners through the learning process in a coherent sequence. Modern curriculums are designed in to follow a certain sequence, thus teachers must formulate strategies that takes care of the learning objectives (Beetham & Sharpe, 2013). For example, for a teacher to teach a student on long division, the student must be proficient in subtraction and addition, which reduces chances of memory failure.
Responding to the conceptual state of the student
An instructor is not only required to formulate suitable learning activities for his/her students, but also to assess their achievements constantly (Norton & Toohey, 2004). The achievement should be measured against the scheduled learning activities as formulated at the commencement of the course. The learning activities should be altered to suit the students needs if deviations are detected (Law et al., 2007). In addition to conducting constant reviews, teachers need to revisit constantly topics that students may have forgotten. Human memory tends to fade with time and such reviews can be effective tools for refreshing the students mind.
Conclusion
Pedagogy refers to the relationship amongst teachers, students, and other stakeholders in an educational setting. It involves the interactions between teachers and learners in an attempt to impart knowledge and skills to the latter. Pedagogy borrows from two major aspects, viz. the traditional ideas about learning, which describe learning as a biological and cognitive acquisition of uncontested knowledge, and the alternative ideas of learning that define learning as a cultural and social construction within communities of practice.
Teachers are the major determinants of the students success. Therefore, they have to possess the necessary skills and know-how to be in a position to accomplish set objectives. For teachers to achieve the best in their role as instructors, they have to consider certain pedagogical principles and practices. The major pedagogical principles that teachers need to consider include problem-motivated learning, interactive learning, active learning, and collaborative learning among others. Problem-motivated learning involves knowledge acquisition in the course of solving a certain scientific problem.
On the other hand, interactive learning involves active interactions between teachers and students in the classroom. Active learning involves encouraging students to participate actively in the course work. Implementing an active learning technique can go a long way in boosting the students performance if well managed. Lastly, collaborative learning involves organising students into groups for collective problem solving. Therefore, teachers should assess all the available pedagogical practices and choose the ones that meet the students learning needs for good outcomes.
References
Alexander, R. (2004). Still no pedagogy? Principle, pragmatism, and compliance in primary education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 34(1), 7-33.
Beetham, H., & Sharpe, R. (2013). Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age: Designing for 21st century learning. New York, NY: Routledge.
Edelenbos, P., Johnstone, R., & Kubanek, A. (2006). The main pedagogical principles underlying the teaching of languages to very young learners. Web.
Korthagen, F., Loughran, J., & Russell, T. (2006). Developing fundamental principles for teacher education programs and practices. Teaching and teacher education, 22(8), 1020-1041.
Law, E., Joughin, G., Kennedy, K., Tse, H., & Yu, W. (2007). Teacher educators pedagogical principles and practices: Hong Kong perspectives. Teaching in Higher Education, 12(2), 247-261.
McWilliam, E., & Dawson, S. (2008). Teaching for creativity: Towards sustainable and replicable pedagogical practice. Higher education, 56(6), 633-643.
Norton, B., & Toohey, K. (2004). Critical pedagogies and language learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Russell, T., & Loughran, J. (2007). Enacting a pedagogy of teacher education: Values, relationships and practices. New York, NY: Routledge.
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2006). Knowledge building: Theory, pedagogy, and technology. In K. Sawyer (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences (pp.97-118). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press
Steinemann, A. (2003). Implementing sustainable development through problem-based learning: Pedagogy and practice. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 129(4), 216-224.
The article Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior by Amy Chua sets out to demonstrate that the parenting technique employed by Chinese mothers is superior to that used by Western Mothers. The author, Amy Chua, is a Chinese by birth and a mother to two daughters and is therefore in a position to tell how the Chinese parents up bring their children.
The views expressed by the author are not restricted to the Chinese setting as she has an American background and she can therefore compare and contrast both the Western and Chinese parenting styles. I disagree with the claims made by Chua that Chinese mothers are superior. In this paper I shall reinforce my position by demonstrating that the arguments proposed by Chua are mostly flawed.
Article Critique
In her article, Chua is guilty of faulty logic since she uses false cause in explaining the success of children raised by Chinese parents. Chua alludes that the superior performance by Chinese children is as a direct consequence of the constant pressure to excel by their mothers and the inferior performance by western children is as a result of the accommodative nature of their parents.
This argument is a presentation of false cause since it fails to take into consideration many other factors that make a contribution to the childrens academic performances and success in life.
The author does not make use of any expert opinions on the subject but rather relies on her own experiences as the basis of her assertions. To begin with, the author highlights the manner in which she raised her children and proceeds to give examples of how she had used coercion on her daughter to produce very favorable results.
From such examples, the author declares that the confidence is build through such practices. The author fails to reference any other authorities on the subject before making such claims. In the few instances that the author makes use of statistics to prove her point, she fails to indicate her sources. It might as well be assumed that the author is inventing this statistics to reinforce her argument that Chinese mothers are superior.
A major strength demonstrated by the author in her article is that she uses words that are vivid in her descriptions. The author reveals that the Chinese will call their child stupid , worthless or a disgrace . Such emotive words enable the reader to paint a mental image of the different kinds of upbringings that the Western mother and the Chinese mother have.
The author also takes care to enlighten the reader that she is using the term Chinese mother loosely and it is only a stereotype which may not necessarily apply to all Chinese mothers. Such disclaimers prevent the reader from dismissing the authors work as a generalization.
Conclusion
This paper set out to argue that the article by Amy Chua is flawed and can therefore not be deemed as a convincing work. The paper began by demonstrating that the author, Amy Chua, is indeed in a position of authority to write on the subject. However, the paper proceeded to show that the author failed to make use of authoritative sources to support her claims or indicate her sources.
This casts doubt on the argument and reduce the credibility of an otherwise nicely thought out article. From these discussions, it can be seen that the article could have been more powerful if the author had indicated her sources and relied on other authorities on the subject.
Education entails the involvement of a person in the social perception of the contest. This means that education is an extensive process that starts as soon as an individual is born. Throughout the process, an individuals consciousness is saturated, shaped, trained, and developed whereby the behavior and feelings are stimulated. The unconscious education enables an individual to develop an intellectual capacity, which is needed in the improvement of life (Dewey, 1897). Through education, human beings are in the position to coexist peacefully, share out problems, and resolve issues easily. Education facilitates the inheritance of social capital, which is part of civilization. In modern society, formal and technical types of education are within this larger description of the learning process. Formal education only reorganizes the basic form, but it is not any different. Children are exposed to educational processes based on the demands of society (Zigler, 1999). This comes upon the realization that the child should be trained to embrace peace, adopt the wider perspective, and aim at achieving societal needs as opposed to individual demands.
Curriculum
Education mainly comprises of two processes, one being psychological while the other is sociological. The curriculum should be designed based on the two processes since they are important, and none is the subordinate of the other. In case one of the processes is neglected in the designing of the curriculum, the result would be formlessness and lawlessness. Psychological processes form the basis of education, meaning that the instincts of the child, as well as the brainpower, serves as the starting point of education in an individuals life. Therefore, education is a natural force that occurs without the knowledge of the child. The role of the educator is to facilitate the natural process that is mostly initiated by the child. Without the educator, the child might engage in haphazard training and arbitrary learning, which is dangerous to the life of an individual. The growth and development of the child benefits from the education process in case the childs activities match with educational expectations (Locke, 1996).
The School
The school is one of the basic social institutions whose major role is to mold the future of the individual from birth to adulthood. The school enables the child to realize his or her objectives in the most cost-effective manner. Based on this, education is part of life as opposed to being a process of life (Dewey, 1897). The school has the major role of ensuring that the child goes through a smooth transition from family life to societal life. Many people tend to think that education is a process of life, which affects the normal functioning of children in society. The school setting should simplify life for children, but not complicate things. This is based on the reality that social life is very complex, hence introducing a confusing educational system might even worsen the matter. Many experts believe that schooling should start at home before formalizing it at various institutions of learning. As the child goes through the new system of education, the transition process should be made as easy as possible to avoid any confusion (Gutek, 2009).
Assessment
The current curriculum is ineffective in delivering the required content to children. The school system fails to underscore the fact that the school is a community whose major role is to mold the life of the child. Children in modern society believe that a school is a special place where certain special types of knowledge are delivered (Dewey, 1897). This affects the socialization of the child in the sense that he or she ends up doing some of the undesirable things. Others may perhaps adopt unwanted behaviors that often differentiate them from others. In many cases, the child behaves differently, knowing that some responsibilities are waiting for him or her in the future. The productive learning environment should promote social life where the deepest moral training is enhanced.
Subject Matter of Education
The major role of education is to promote the social welfare of the child. In other words, it should serve to unite learners as they attempt to realize their objectives collectively. Therefore, the subject matter of any educational system should be to mark a steady delineation out of the primordial cataleptic unity of social life. It is unfair to introduce a child to so many concepts abruptly instead of taking him or her through a procedural learning process. For instance, children are introduced to writing, reading, and listening skills at the same time, which end up confusing them instead of developing their mental capacities. Based on this, each child should be allowed to learn at his or her speed. This means that the social activities of the child are the most important as opposed to the various subjects introduced to young learners, such as literature, geography, science, and history.
The Nature of Method
The method entails the process of developing the brainpower and interests of the child. The treatment of the material and the presentation technique is inherent within the childs nature. As far as the method of delivering the course content is concerned, the active side is the most important as compared to the passive development of the child. This means that the expression precedes the consciousness, while the macular development of the child is the most important as opposed to the sensory memory.
Moreover, the movement of the child from one place to the other is important as opposed to his or her feelings. The conscious part of the personality is impulsive, which expresses itself in the actions of an individual. Educationists should understand the relationship between passive and active processes regarding the development of the child in the school setting (Dewey, 1897).
Classroom Management
Education cannot achieve its objectives in case the core principles are not followed keenly. Forcing children to undertake courses that are not of any interest to the amount to a violation of their law of nature. If children are to understand instructions offered to them at a tender age, images ought to be extensively used since they are the instruments of instruction (Kasachkoff, 2004). The child might simply form an image of the true self through learning. When a child expresses an interest in doing something, it means he or she is showing signs of growing power. The emotional condition of any child is the reflection of human behavior. Learners should be allowed to share out their views without any interruption from educators. Teachers should consider the interests of students when offering a course material in the classroom setting. Each child should be engaged in the discussion to measure his or her level of understanding.
The schooling system and the Social Development of the Child
Even though education is considered part of life, it can as well be viewed as a method of social development and change among individuals. Based on this, education should be a natural process that does not depend on the formulation of the law (Dewey, 1897). Moreover, educationists should not threaten learners with penalties since it leads to resistance. As already mentioned, education is both individualistic and socialistic. It is considered individualistic since it recognizes the development of a particular personality as the only authentic way of life (Gutek, 2009). On the other hand, education is believed to be socialistic in the sense that it underscores the fact that a positive attitude is not formed through individual principles, illustration, or even refrain.
The Teacher
The teacher plays an important role in molding the behavior of an individual. Societal values and norms influence human behavior. The teacher has a tremendous effect on the life of the individual since he or she molds the future of children. Therefore, the teacher should always play his or her role in ensuring that children are given the necessary skills that would encourage social development. Since the school is a socializing agent, the teacher should assist children in striking a balance between individualistic ideals and social ideals (Dewey, 1897).
Influence on my Learning/pedagogical practices
The philosophy of education has a way of influencing my learning practices in such a way that it strengthens my understanding of the value and the need for education in society. For instance, it changes my belief in the relevance of education in society. I understand that any person going through the education system is simply in the process of socialization. Since it is part of society, the schooling system or the educational system is the organic union of individuals in any given community. The major aim of any education should be to promote social values as opposed to introducing new things. Education should strike a balance between psychological insight and social understanding of the environment. This understanding enables me to appreciate the role of educators in any system of schooling. They have the role of ensuring that children do not simply acquire unnecessary knowledge that would be wasteful in their lives.
References
Dewey, J. (1897). My Pedagogic Creed. The School Journal, 54(3), 77-80.
Gutek, G.L. (2009). New Perspectives on Philosophy and Education. New York, NY: Pearson Education.
Kasachkoff, T. (2004). Teaching Philosophy: Theoretical Reflections and Practical Suggestions. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield.
Locke, J. (1996). Some Thoughts Concerning Education and Of the Conduct of the Understanding. New York, NY: Hackett Publishing.
Zigler, R.L. (1999). Tacit Knowledge and Spiritual Pedagogy. Journal of Beliefs & Values: Studies in Religion & Education, 20(2), 162172.
