Recapturing the Joys of Teaching and Learning

I need to preface my article with some background information about myself so you can understand where I am coming from: Hi! I am an Australian Adult Educator who has worked in Australia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Brunei, Malaysia and for the past 12 years, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I’m old school, therefore very adaptable! Hence my teaching experience is quite diverse and vast! Before entering the teaching arena, I worked in many different hand-on positions in a variety of technical areas. I often tell people that it’s easier to tell them what I haven’t done, rather than what I have done! I’ve been a shop assistant, a hairdresser (in training not qualified), switchboard operator, receptionist, meatpacker in an abattoir, bookkeeper, cake decorator, dressmaker, waitress, wine sommelier, functions & event organiser, and the list goes on and on! I grew up in an era where you took whatever job was offered to you and I’m proud to say that I can count on one hand how many times I’ve applied for jobs, mostly they were offered to me when people knew me and what I could do or was capable of doing. All these positions gave me many different strings to my bow. Then when I went to university at the ripe old age of 30, I had hooks on which to hang my academic knowledge. So started a new chapter in my career life – teaching! To date, I’ve had three different phases in my teaching career. In the first & second phases of my teaching (15 years), in Australia, PNG & Brunei, I taught Bookkeeping, Office & Business Skills, Resume Creation, Job Search Skills, and Interview Techniques, Hospitality (housekeeping, front & back office, bar, cocktails, wine, restaurant, butler services, functions & events), dressmaking & hand embroidery, Food Commodities for Catering, Hotel Management & Tourism, IELTS Exam Preparation (to both teachers and students), Curriculum Design and Development, Programme Development, and established the first hotel training school in Brunei. And I am very proud of the fact that I started the first apprenticeship program in Brunei, this being achieved by organising and developing a joint Memorandum of Understanding between the Technical College and various industries in Brunei. The third phase, Malaysia & the UAE (14 years), Teaching and mentoring teacher trainers, as well as conducting teaching strategies workshops for primary school teachers, all over Malaysia; teaching English and IELTS preparation to Government Secondary School Principals in the Abu Dhabi Emirate in the UAE; workshops for teachers from the Emirates College of Advanced Education in IELTS preparation, the at two different universities, English Language, IELTS preparation strategies, Language & Communications, Academic Writing, Presentations, Discourse Analysis, Linguistics, Critical & Creative Thinking and Mentoring PhD students.

The other phases in between all the above were management positions: Director IDP Education Australia & IELTS Administrator; Project Manager for APEC 2000 in Brunei; Project Manager for Professional Development for Teachers nationally in Australia, which was linked with a new Australian Curriculum Implementation Plan. Teacher Fellow/Consultant in Malaysia to train, mentor and conduct research for teacher training. There’s more, but this gives you an idea of the scope of activities I’ve undertaken!

Academic studies I have achieved to date are: A Diploma in Adult, Technical & Vocational Education, A Bachelor of Education in Educational Management & Leadership, A Master of Education (specialising in Teacher Training) and a Doctor of Education (specialising in Mentoring). And I started university when I was 30 years old! I had a great deal of work and life experience behind me when I started university to hang the academic learning on. I still remember my first day at university, and when I got home my (then) husband asked me how my first day went and I said with a huge radiant smile on my face “I feel like a flower opening up” – and that was exactly what it felt like – my mind was being opened to the wonder of academic learning! I’ve never lost that feeling and I strive to instill that feeling in all my students – to want to learn and enjoy all the benefits learning has to offer: Knowledge, Power, Respect, and Choices - because most importantly, education can open many doors in life – it gives us choices in life. It is the most powerful weapon we can arm ourselves with. Never stop learning!

So in a nutshell, that’s me! Now that you know more about me, my article will make more sense – knowing where I came from, where I’ve been, and where I’m going, sets the scene for my article below:  

Being a person who loves to both learn and teach, I want to share with you all some thoughts and insights which I hope will inspire you to recapture your ‘inner child’ approach to life and how we live it, as well as how we approach our teaching.

I’ve read an article by Rex Steven Sikes on this topic, so felt I had to share it as it reawakened my own sense of wonder about life and teaching.

How can we recapture the sense of joy and adventure we had in learning as children? Sikes states how, as adults, we need to rekindle a sense of growing and contributing.

Sikes also discusses how, in order to excel, we need to remember what it felt like to learn something new when we were children – have a sense of wonder in how we look at learning.

Sikes further declares that by current estimates, if we read for one hour a day in our own fields, that within three years, we would be a top expert in our field! Continuing to read an hour a day for five years, would make us top experts in our countries, and within ten years, a world expert in our field. Well worth an hour of our day - every day!  

Having taught Critical & Creative Thinking, I realise that just ONE idea can change the world. We all need to become better thinkers, innovators and more interesting people (and teachers) who foster curiosity and creativity in ourselves and our students.

Taking a walk somewhere you always go and walking there as though it is totally new, says Sikes, is like being an anthropologist doing an ethnographic study, making the known elusive and bewildering. Seeing what you notice that you didn’t notice before. This reminded me of an initiative at my university here in the UAE, the initiative is called “Walk & Talk”. I’ve been in this university for 6 years and thought I knew where everything was and had seen it all, but one particular day, I took my students along for the experience, and both the walk and the talk were amazing! The topic of the talk that day was marriage and family – and the students taught me quite a bit about their own culture and society views on this hot topic, as well as discussing their own views on their future decisions. But then the walk! Wow! I saw places I hadn’t seen or noticed before within the confines of the university. The highlights for myself and my students were the student art centre – the artwork by students was very impressive, to say the least, and then the music centre where we saw and heard a student playing a very impressive piece of classical music – and she told us that she didn’t know how to play the piano when she first came to the university! On to the student canteen, where we were given a free ice-cream! Many more sights and sounds were experienced and the whole experience opened all our powers of observation – I can’t walk around our campus anymore without noticing more areas that I hadn’t noticed before. The students were inspired by what they saw around campus and we had a great discussion about the topic of the day as well as creative options open to them within the university.

Another interesting observation cited by Sikes is that by watching movies more than once can heighten our power of observation and also causes us to question or look at life from a different perspective. Noticing more nuances each time the movie is viewed. If we think about two people who go to the same movie, one may love it, another may hate it and tell others not to go and see it. Are they really talking about the movie? Sikes says “No, they are sharing with you what they paid attention to – they are letting you know how their mind works.” No movie is truly universally good or bad, there are things about it that one person likes while another may not.

Hence, recapturing the joy of learning is vital because it enriches us as individuals and enables us to pay attention to nuances. To become more creative, states Sykes, we need to learn a new concept or idea and we can begin to open doors that we didn’t even know existed!        

On the topic of movies, the Independent Learning Centre in my university introduced a great innovation for students to improve their English language capabilities – movies! I’ve taken classes to the weekly movie screening several times and different teachers have devised pre and post worksheets and discussion topics to enhance the movie experience for the students – it has always been well worth visiting one of movie sessions! To see students discussing what they gleaned from the movie, as well as practicing their listening and speaking skills, can be a very rewarding exercise for all involved. I know it assisted me in learning how my students thought and the level of their understanding of the English language used in movies. Many a great discussion has resulted from these sessions.

To increase a sense of fun and creativity, I sometimes take my classes outside for a lesson – I call it “Class on the Grass” – I have a couple of mats and we spread them out on the grass and have our lesson outside – very good for speaking and discussion sessions. The students love the change of scenery and enjoy the interaction with more spirit than in the classroom.

My latest initiative has been to set up 21st Century Workshops, an innovative way for teachers and students to increase their knowledge and skills in topics that pave the way for more awareness in current world topics and events. Some of the topics included in the workshops are Snapchat to Learn English, Instagram Business, Climate Change, Debating, Readers Theatre, just to name a few! These workshops are aimed at assisting students in acquiring further skills in the 4 C's (Communication, Creativity, Collaboration & Critical Thinking). Students have been embracing this new fun way of learning and have become innovative thinkers and been a joy to teach!

So, in order to recapture your own sense of joy in learning, push yourself, set yourself new goals, but do so with a sense of adventure, joy, and fun. By trying some of the activities already running around your university, college, or school, or by creating new activities which can improve learning as well as our well-being, we can assist in creating a happier workplace by recapturing and sharing the wonder of learning!  

References:  

A transcript from a live seminar with Rex Steven Sikes: https://idea-seminars.com/articles/recapture.htm