Education matters

AS the great Albert Einstein said: ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results’.

A perfect sentiment for the end of term. At this time of year I usually challenge my teachers and students to reflect on what they have achieved throughout the year and perhaps more importantly what they haven’t. 

It is easy for students to just pack up books and school bags, throw them in a corner and not think about them until the ‘Back to School’ signs start appearing in the malls around Bahrain. 

Likewise, it’s easy for teachers to pack away their teaching resources and displays and do exactly the same thing but that, in my opinion, is a waste of a year and one which illustrates what Einstein said perfectly.

If we do not learn from what we have experienced, how do we expect to grow and become better at what we do? 

For students, there are summer schools and tutoring classes that help them to catch up on learning missed throughout the year. The object of this is to ensure that they are of a suitable standard to be able to keep progressing in the next academic year.

But what about the staff, the teachers and heads, what do they do over the summer to ensure that they come back ready to face the challenges of another year and to ensure that they are of a suitable standard?

A friend and colleague of mine used a very good line to define professional complacency recently. When a self-opinionated and blustering teacher was observed teaching a dreadful lesson, the teacher told my colleague that she had 20 years of teaching experience. “You haven’t,’ he replied. “You have one year of experience and you’ve repeated it 20 times.”

Again, a simple way of summing up the stunted growth that comes from a lack of reflection.

As the academic year closes I urge all education professionals, (no matter how many years they have been in the job) to take some time to consider their experiences from the passing year and learn from them in some way.

Many teachers will have had professional appraisals, but these are often stuffy, paper exercises and not really that useful to professional growth. I urge you to think about the little things, the everyday moments that challenged you or made you think. These are the moments to reflect on and learn from. 

There will undoubtedly have been lessons that didn’t go as well as expected, students who didn’t make as much progress as they could have and more than likely meetings with colleagues or parents that could have been handled differently. 

All of these experiences, alongside the better ones, make you a more experienced and seasoned professional and if you learn from them, changing your perceptions and considering how you can improve, these experiences become priceless because they influence your ability to do your job well … and that is to the benefit of the children you teach and the families you serve.