Brain Based Teaching: KISS
by Peter J. Foley, Ed.D.

David Sousa – “Lecture continues to be the most prevalent model in secondary and higher education but produces the lowest degree of retention.”

In Thailand I have met teachers who use brain based teaching in their classroom. This is good. What is disappointing is that the approach to using brain based teaching is incomplete and often the research behind the teaching practice is only partially understood or not understood at all. For example, some Thai teachers use the mind mapping techniques with students in order to help the students design their own learning projects. What teachers often fail to do is to coach students to connect the mind mapping exercises to what they already know, what they hope to learn, and where they will find out the information to complete a particular project or exercise. Moreover, there is often a huge gap in the students’ mind-mapping plans and the student’s real, personal interests and the students’ experience. In fact the planned project often turns out to be what the teacher is interested in, not the students. And it also turns out to be based on the teacher’s experience, not the students.

A cardinal rule of brain based teaching is that learning that connects to a learner’s experience and interests will optimize long term memory learning. What teachers must master is how to set up a classroom and  lesson plans that will optimize learning. You do this by understanding what conditions and methods of learning an individual’s brain needs to learn best. For most teachers the KISS (keep it simple stupid) rule should be followed.

To keep it simple, it is useful to remember Craine and Craine’s three principles of complex learning:

1. relaxed alertness
2. orchestrated immersion and
3. active processing.

RELAXED ALERTNESS

Effective teaching starts with creating a friendly, nurturing classroom. It is common sense (and research shows) that fear and threats close a mind to complex learning and the mind goes to survival mode. Thus teachers who rely on negative criticism and verbal and corporeal punishments or otherwise instilling fear in his/her students are actually preventing learning. Brain research evidence suggests that stress is a significant factor in creativity, memory, behavior and learning. Teachers who purposely manage stress factors (purposefully decrease stress of failure or embarrassment) in class are likely to experience a positive classroom environment. There are many ways to decrease stress in the classroom, such as integrating stretching exercises, incorporating recess, teaching coping skills, and utilizing physical education.

The teacher can create relaxed alert students when the role of the teacher becomes that of a coach, one who nurtures, encourages, demonstrates with enthusiasm and purposefulness.

ORCHESTRATED IMMERSION

As the term “orchestrated immersion” implies, the teacher becomes the orchestra leader composing lesson plans that incorporate experiences that will lead students to make meaningful connections. To cite an illustration, in Bradenton, Florida I observed a class where the math teacher taught measurements, including the metric system, using cooking as an experiential springboard. The teacher had learned that many in his class were passionate about cooking. Small groups of students worked out measurements for individual recipes. All the students were totally engaged in the preparation of different recipes. Every one passed the core curriculum skills test on weights and measurement with no difficulty.

ACTIVE PROCESSING

A teacher’s lesson should give time and space for student to reflect on what they are learning. It is also important that during the processing time the teacher makes formative assessment to check students’ understanding of the concepts just taught. A useful reflective instrument is the keeping by each student their own journal that can be sued by both student and teacher to tract the student/s progress and further questions.

Another simple list that can be used by teachers to help create good brain based teaching practices is the use of Susan Kovalik’s model ITI (Integrated Thematic Instruction). Kovalik lists nine brain-compatible elements in the learning process:

Absence of Threat( this should include the threat of failure by students)
Meaningful Content
Choices
Movement to Enhance Learning
Enriched Environment
Adequate Time
Collaboration
Immediate Feedback
Mastery (application level)

Our last simple guideline to brain based teaching and learning is from Marlee Sprenger: Sensory to Long-Term Memory in Seven Steps.

1. Reach: Grab students’ attention by introducing the topic in a way that is meaningful to them.
2. Reflect: Allow students to make connections between new information and prior learning through such activities as writing or responding to a question.
3. Recode: Have students put ideas they have encountered in their own words.
4. Reinforce: Provide positive reinforcement to students when recoding is accurate, or give informational feedback to avoid lingering misconceptions.
5. Rehearse: Engage students in related activities that demand higher levels of thinking and incorporate multiple memory systems.
6. Review: Offer brain-compatible review activities such as practice tests, games, drawing, writing, mind maps, and acting.
7. Retrieve: Ask students to retrieve newly-formed memories and apply them in different ways.

Within these steps there are many opportunities to incorporate brain based learning. For example in the reflection step it is useful to turn to your neighbor and discuss a topic. Stopping at key interval in a lesson for students to reflect on a topic with one another is a way to achieve long term memory learning. Humans are social and we learn and reinforce learning through interaction with others. The brain based teaching conscious teacher will also be aware that the short attention spans of the average student demand appealing to different senses for learning and different learning exercises to hold students attention. Make these simple principles and active part of your classroom planning and actuation.

This short review of some of some of the best guidelines to brain based teaching and learning is intended to encourage the reader to delve further into using brain based teaching methods and to KISS ( Keep it Simple Stupid).

1. R. Caine and G. Caine: Making Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain ( 1991)

2. Susan Kovalik: The Model Integrated Thematic Instruction (1993)

3. Marlee Sprenger: Becoming a “Wiz” at Brain-Based Teaching (2006)

Authentic Learning…..

from the dictionary: learning that is genuine, real, not false or copied…

                             from latin: Original., primary, at first hand

In Tasmania in 1980 Rob Banfield started teaching in science, maths, and a few other areas. He has taught in Java at Bandung International School. He holds an Ed.D in leadership professional learning and has keen interests in curriculum design, pedagogy development, effective leadership and strategic planning.

Why would we be  interested in authentic learning, surely all learning is authentic?

Perhaps NOT!  Some learning has to be not first hand and  uses copied texts and demonstrations. Safety, efficiency and  the  practicalities of schools demand these professional  boundaries.

However, we know that engagement of students in real learning often increases their motivation, energy and indeed their learning of new concepts and applied skills.

My enthusiasm for this authentic style of teaching has a few personal waypoints. One particular “hard to teach class” in 1983 encouraged me to manipulate an entire Grade 9 Science Curriculum around the real science of cars.  Cars were a real inquiry object with intrinsic interest to 15 year old boys! Later I was introduced to the idea of negotiated curriculums, where I let go of the reins and discovered the wealth of untapped knowledge already residing in the brains of my assigned students. Soon, real inquiries into astronomical Quasars with 13 year olds became a reality.  In recent years I was fortunate enough to interact with Dan Buckley from the UK (certainly worth an extended Google). His work with   students responding to  real tender scopes to achieve real solutions to real problems, struck another cord with me.  Dan’s innovative approach to curriculum  motivated students as authentic learners whilst responding to  skills and concepts demanded by the agreed curriculum.

Isolated examples are fine, but what is the potential to authenticate the curriculum in our everyday real world of technology?

I randomly selected the Grade 3 Australian  Science Curriculum to apply my ideas of a  real learning framework. I was  first challenged by the science content areas of biology, earth, chemistry, and physical science areas as I read the curriculum scope. These areas contained  dry, important things we need to know. So, I ventured across to the science inquiry skills list. Ah ha, here was the stuff of real science in my mind. Experiments, observation, data, reporting etc… But, alas the creative juices could still not conjure up a real life inquiry for my imaginary  Grade 3  learners.

I opened up a digital skill link that took me to some Scootle learning objects and ideas. Here I found the seed of an authentic learning plan in amongst the suggestions on Shadows. The shadow inquiries had a clear link back to the earth science content field of planet rotation, seasons, day and night etc…

Now applying a little imagination here is my initial thinking for Grade 3 Science authentic inquiry.

“Our town council is processing a new application to allow for the building of a single 4 story office block in our main street. As part of the planning approval process, the councillors want to know what the shadowing effect will be on neighbouring buildings, the streetscape and people at various times of the day and the year. Currently the maximum height of buildings is limited to two stories. The council requires a 5 page report and a concise 20 minute presentation of your findings for a full Council Planning meeting in June.”

My class would work in 7  groups of four students and present to a genuine town planning engineer at a future time.  My invited engineer would be asked to give feedback to each group and perhaps provide real written responses from his council division. My planning will involve the science, literacy and numeracy outcomes from Grade 3, an even some history outcomes.

I am keen, Grade 3 science is being applied to a real life problem,  where we don’t know  a prepared “proper” answer. The detailed planning, teaching and negotiation with people from outside my school needs to be done. The scope of the inquiry may change as my planning develops.

Learning can be (more) authentic, more motivating for students (and teachers) and integrate various   discrete curriculum areas (as happens in the real world).

The results of research are speaking loud and clear: Thai are having a lot of trouble speaking English.

Thailand is ranking 55 (out of 60) on EF’s English Proficiency Index (EPI)

And Thailand scores lowest in South-East Asia in the JobStreet.com English Language Assessment (JELA)

Some examples

Among many other research results there are my own experiences of the (the lack of) English skills among the Thai after living here for the past 3.5 years.

First there is the, to Thai, most famous English sentence that all Thai kids are taught to use when greeting their English teacher: “Good morning teacher”.

In English speaking countries teachers are never addressed as “teacher”, but as Mr/Mrs/Ms (given name). This of course, is just a literal translation of the the Thai way to address a teacher as “(คุณ)ครู”.

Another, painful example is how Westerners in Thailand are addressed as “you” in situations where the Thai person is calling them because they forgot something.

When forgetting my receipt at 7 eleven or my change at a gas station the cashier will call me back saying “you” which sounds rather aggressive. Of course it’s simply a literal translation of the Thai word คุณ which is a polite way to call somebody you don’t know. In English speaking countries you would use the word Sir or Miss/Ma’am.

These two examples are simple conversation mistakes that are caused by a lack of exposure to the English language. If people would have been given the opportunity to be exposed to English speakers, they wouldn’t have made this type of mistake.

Then there are the pronunciation problems with sounds that are difficult or don’t appear in the Thai language such as the difference between cheap and sheep (the ช sound can be pronounced as both “sh” and “ch”) and the problems with “l” and “r” sounds in words like pleasure and pressure.

Again if people would have been given the opportunity to be exposed to native English speakers, from a young age, their accents would have been much better as human beings learn accents and the set of sound we can make from what we are listening to when we are young.

A lot has already been done

In the past years many things have been tried to improve the quality of English language education in Thailand both by the Thai government and by governments of English-speaking countries such as the British Council.

Skills in general are improving. EF measures scores of 5 points higher in 2012 on their proficiency test compared to the scores in 2007-2009. But the trend is too slow with the opening of ASEAN coming closer and closer.

So why are some countries doing better?

Looking at countries that scored high on EL’s EPI test, it  seems obvious to assume these countries have just simply better education, and this is probably true, but next to that there is something else that influences English skills in general and, more important, listening and conversational skills.

It’s television and movies.

Although, I have to mention that the EF Test of English (www.eftestofenglish.org) only tests reading and writing skills.

Data in South-East Asia

Let’s have a look on the available data of the South-East Asian countries.

Countries with the highest scores: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam

Singapore: Almost all English television and movies are broadcasted and shown with their original soundtrack. Chinese films are subtitled in English

Malaysia: almost all English television is broadcasted with original soundtrack and subtitles

Indonesia: almost all English television is broadcasted with original soundtrack and subtitles

Vietnam: almost all English television is broadcasted with original soundtrack and subtitles. Programs and movies for young children are dubbed.

Country with very low scores: Thailand. Almost all television programmes and movies on television are dubbed. Some movies shown in the theatres in the bigger cities are shown in English with subtitles, but most are dubbed.

Worldwide more and more people start to prefer subtitling over dubbing. Francesca Riggio states in her article that this trend might be the result of the rise of available video content through new media. http://www.1stoptr.com/admin/

So what should Thailand do

The easiest, cheapest, most effective and most elegant key to better English skills for the Thai people is simple. Thailand should show more, if not, all English movies and television programs in English with Thai subtitles.

It will increase the English skills, and especially the listening and conversational skills dramatically for almost 100% of the people as almost everybody (even people in rural areas) have access to television.

It’s a very cheap, quick and easy to execute way to educate almost all layers of society. It’s almost the only way to save Thailand from falling back as soon as the borders of ASEAN are opening up.

Sources

Developing English Speaking Skills of Thai Undergraduate Students by Digital Storytelling through Websites
Manussanun Somdee & Suksan Suppasetseree, Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand
http://www.fllt2013.org/private_folder/Proceeding/166.pdf

Ways to Develop English Proficiency of Business Students: Implementation of Content and Language Integrated Learning
(CLIL) Approach
Dr. Wipanee Pengnate
College of General Education and Languages
Thai-NIchi Institute of Technology
http://www.ijern.com/journal/August-2013/39.pdf

AN INVESTIGATION OF THAI STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROBLEMS AND THEIR LEARNING STRATEGIES IN THE INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM AT MAHIDOL UNIVERSITY
http://www.gits.kmutnb.ac.th/ethesis/data/4880181542.pdf

QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE VIEWS OF THAI EFL LEARNERS’ LEARNING ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Attapol Khamkhien
Kasetsart University
http://www.savap.org.pk/journals/ARInt./Vol.1(1)/2011(1.1-08).pdf

Omniglot
The online encyclopaedia of writing systems and languages
http://www.omniglot.com/language/pronunciation.htm

Education First
http://www.ef.co.th

DEUS EX DATE
Musings on Data, Science and Behavioral Economics
http://deus-ex-data.com/2013/03/dubbing-movies-and-english-skills/

Wikipedia
Dubbing (filmmaking)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubbing_(filmmaking)

Possible disadvantages of subtitling.

-Some of the spoken language will get lost.

People read slower, then they listen. So some of the things said in movies might get lost and will not be translated in the subtitles.

Counter argument: in dubbing even more get’s lost in translation. Word jokes for example are just hard to translate. When people’s English skills improve, less and less will get lost, because people will simply start listening more to the sound track.

-Dubbers will lose their jobs.

Counter argument. In Thailand only one very small company is doing all dubbing of all films and television. These people will still have to do dubbing for films and television for children who are not yet able to read.

-People working in education will loose business and jobs.

At this moment a lot of people in Thailand are making money teaching either on public or private schools, or in the many tutoring businesses all through the country. When more and more people are getting better in English these people might loose jobs and have less customers.

Counterargument: as we’ve seen from the data in Europe, it’s not just subtitles that help improve the English skills of a country. It’s just a means to better conversational and listening skills and accent might be less thick. But in all these countries that score high on the EPI test, much is done to improve English skills all throughout all the different forms of education. People working in education will not loose their jobs. Their jobs will just get a little easier.

-Dubbing is part of Thai culture.

The small group of people that dub all movies and television in Thailand is somewhat famous in Thailand. At least their voices (and rather funny way of speaking) is famous all over the country. People like to imitate their way of talking as a way of joking. The dubbing team also likes to add Thai word jokes to the movie.

Counter argument: Many Thai people who ones started watching movies with its original soundtrack don’t ever want to go back to watching dubbed movies. They think it’s awkward and sounds stupid. When more and more people will start watching movies with its original soundtrack they will look back to those old days when movies were sill dubbed thinking “why did we even like that?”

-People don’t like to read

Yes, watching television with subtitles might be a little bit more tiring and people just want to relax when they watch television. Entertainment business might get less viewers for those programs.

Counterargument: This is why this can only work if the government enforces all the organisations and companies by law as to what movies and television programs should be subtitled and may not be dubbed. It will benefit both the people of the country as the country as a whole.

Is a Text just a Text?

Dr Don W Jordan and Ms Ellen Cornish

This article by two of our regular contributors, Ms Ellen Cornish and Dr Don Jordan, continues the discussion about Child Centred, learning as it provides a practical example of how to change an original English text to different levels of complexity, allowing for the different levels of ability within a class. They also demonstrate ways to develop multiple activities from a single information text, allowing students with different levels of understanding to engage positively in the learning process.

Is a Text just a Text?

Text books are often the mainstay of university, secondary and primary school classrooms throughout the world, either in print or online. Ideally, effective teachers use them as one of many resources to support what is becoming a more complex curriculum, rather than just as the one authoritative source of information to be taught to students.

There is a danger in only just following the sequence outlined by textbook publishers and the activities they provide are one size fits all regardless of student ability, then we are likely at times to be irrelevant to the interests and needs of a significant number of our students. There is an urgent need for educators to devise strategies to help students develop the skills to be able to analyse, synthesise and evaluate information, working cooperatively with each other, rather than just passing tests by memorising the facts and accepting it at face value[1].

Our classroom teaching experience as well as our conversations with beginning and experienced teachers, has demonstrated to us that if our students do not have sufficient background knowledge or vocabulary to help them make necessary cultural connections with the topics presented in the textbook, then it is likely students at all levels will disengage from the learning process. This in turn often means students are bored, therefore can be disruptive to the teaching and learning program. We are mindful in our selection of English language material that it is on topics that are culturally relevant to participants.

An effective strategy for us is to develop additional and different activities from the English text books available in the institutions in which we are working. Two such activities are as follows:

1.     Deconstructing Available Text to Engage Learners with Different Abilities.

Using a section of culturally relevant writing from a teaching English text book, (The place to Stay) we demonstrated to teachers, how to alter the level of difficulty by offering examples of three pieces of writing as follows:

(The Place to Stay 1).The following example is the original text from the text book. For more capable students the text can be made more complex, with more complex questions.

The Place to Stay 1

Nowadays most of the young people travelling around the world are backpackers or travellers on a low budget. They want to see the world, but they can’t afford to pay for regular hotels. So youth hostels are the perfect solution for travellers without a lot of money to spend.

The accommodation in the hostels is inexpensive because guests usually share rooms and bathrooms.

Most hostels have a laundry room, telephones, internet connection, lockers and a breakfast service. Some hostels offer individual rooms and cooking facilities, such as a kitchen complete with pots and everything else you need.

Some hostels are in interesting places such as old churches, in old prisons and even boats. Hostels in the most famous cities and in popular resorts can be fully booked during peak seasons, so it is a good idea to make online reservations for them.

Hostels are definitely the place for socialising. The guests are usually young people from different countries and there are plenty of opportunities to meet other travellers. Some hostels organise parties or have an area in the building where people can meet and talk with other guests and to share experiences and travel tips. When you are travelling alone, hostels are one of the best places to make friends.

After Reading:

Answer yes or no

1.           Backpackers travelling around the world like to stay in accommodation called youth   hostels. ___________

2.         Youth hostels are usually much more expensive than hotels. _________

3.         You cannot cook in youth hostels because there is usually no kitchen. _______

4.         Youth hostels are good places to meet other people and to share travel tips. _________

(The Place to Stay 2). For middle ability students, less complex than original text, with slightly modified questions.

The Place to Stay 2

Today a lot of young people like travelling around the world. They do not have a lot of money so they travel with backpacks and are called backpackers. Backpackers stay in youth hostels which are much cheaper than most hotels.

Youth hostels do not cost a lot of money because people share rooms and bathrooms. Lots of hostels have a laundry, a telephone, internet and a kitchen. Backpackers can cook their own food in the youth hostel kitchen which saves them money.

Youth hostels can be in interesting places such as a church. Sometimes you can just arrive at the hostel and get a bed but sometimes you need to book a bed in the youth hostel before you get there. This happens when the youth hostel is in a popular city or town.

Youth hostels are a good place for meeting people from other countries. Some hostels have a meeting room where they organise parties so that you can meet other people. This is a good way to share travel ideas. Hostels are very good places to make friends.

After Reading:

Answer yes or no

1.         Backpackers do not stay in youth hostels. _____

2.         The rooms in youth hostels usually cost a lot of money._______

3.         You can cook your food in the youth hostel kitchen._______

4.         Youth hostels are not good places to meet other people. ________

 (The Place to Stay 3).For less able students we prepared a shorter and easier text with simplified questions.

The Place to Stay 3

Today a lot of people like travelling. They do not have a lot of money so they stay in youth hostels which are cheaper.

Youth hostels do not cost a lot of money because people share rooms and bathrooms. They can cook their own food in the youth hostel kitchen. This also saves them money.

Sometimes you can just arrive at the hostel and get a bed but sometimes you need to book a bed in the youth hostel before you get there. This happens when the youth hostel is in a town that tourists like a lot.

Youth hostels are a good place for meeting people from other countries. Some hostels organise parties. You can make friends at the hostel.

After Reading:

Answer yes or no

1. A lot of people like travelling.  _________
2. Rooms in youth hostels cost a lot of money. _______
3. You cannot cook in a youth hostel. _________
4. You meet people in a youth hostel. ________

This deconstruction activity allows teachers to engage their students in the same activity but at their level of understanding.  To illustrate the activity, we chose to follow the same assessment question format at the end of the original article in text book in our deconstruction activities. This assessment format however, is at the lower end of Bloom’s levels of thinking, as it only requires students to remember basic information from the text.

2.     Developing Multiple Activities from an Information Text.

A more engaging strategy is to demonstrate to teachers how to develop multiple activities from a single text; this enables their students to engage in their own learning in their preferred way, whether through written text, creative arts (music, dance, visual, or the spoken word)[2].We demonstrated how to develop an enriched teaching program by using an information text in this example, based on food.

This information text was from Level 2 in the Kingfisher Reader series; ‘What We Eat’ includes chapters on the following:

• What, when and why we eat.
• The different food groups.
• Where food comes from.
• Buying and cooking foods from around the world.
• and food for feasts and festivals.

We have demonstrated in our example below that rather than just using a text at face value additional activities can be developed to provide a broader range of learning opportunities for students.

What We Eat

Objective:   To use “What we Eat” information text to demonstrate how additional activities can be developed from a single text. Some suggestions are as follows:

Activities;

• Read the information text “What We Eat”.
• Choose a chapter and rewrite it with a cultural focus.
• Glossary: type a list of words for your students to find and write the meanings.
• Sentence matching.
• Type (write) a sentence, make 2 copies, cut up one to remake the original sentence.
• Food words, type (write), cut them up and remake e.g. b/a/n/a/n/a.
• List the meals you eat in a day, make a sub list of what you eat for each meal.
• Food groups, list and categorise.
• Make a chart for food groups, draw pictures and label.
• Make a chart showing food crops which are grown in and around your place of living, sort, group these.
• Make a list of your favourite foods.
• Make a poster to promote healthy eating.
• Make a list or poster to show foods that can be eaten raw as opposed to being cooked.
• Design a label for packet or canned food.
• Festivals – Create a menu for a wedding, funeral, other festival.
• Create a list to show the foods eaten for different types of festivals.
• Write a recipe for your own birthday cake.
• Draw your cake and label the different parts.
• Design a poster to promote your street or market stall.
• Make labels to price the items you are selling at your stall.
• Make a page of fact boxes. “Did you know?”

Assessment Activity: 

You are a farmer with produce to sell. Develop a marketing plan to sell your produce.

These are just some of the things you need to consider (not in a particular order)

• Design and advertise your market stall to sell your produce.
• What materials will you need for your stall (tables etc?)
  • How will you get your produce to the market?
  • Who will run your stall?
  • When is the best time to sell your produce?
  • How will you target your customers with your advertising?
  • Where is the best location for your stall?

The activities described above can be modified to suit the content of any information text being studied by students. This enables teachers to offer their students the opportunity to extend their thinking beyond the limitations of a ‘one size fits all’ text book, to give them the skills to become critical and creative thinkers. Text books often do not take into account the different levels of understanding of students in the classroom, or take into account the cultural difference between the intended students studying the text and the text book authors. Offering students a variety of activities and ways of learning based on a given text will give students the opportunity to engage in the learning process, in their preferred way.

by Bandhit Samtalee, M.Ed
Former Deputy Dean
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,  Yala Rajabhat University

The local dialects throughout Thailand are rich and beautiful. It is meaningful and precious to people who use the dialect and share a common language bond with their neighbors and friends. Many dialects and even different languages reflect the richness of Thai diversity. These dialects and languages should be celebrated. Unfortunately, all too often the dialects are made fun of and the different languages are ignored or worse, disparaged.  In my own case, I have seen my mother tongue, Jawi, ignored in the Thai education system despite research that shows that children who are introduced to reading in their mother tongue learn to read better and are better able to make the transition to reading at a young age in the national language.

A survey by OBEC (The Office of Basic Education Commission) on the language of the students, teachers and community from 21 offices located in 9 provinces along the Thai border in 2008 found that students have been using more than 30 different dialects in 940 schools, with the number of 3,72 schools or 25.26 percent of the students in other dialects in their daily lives. In some schools the students use the same dialect where in some schools the students use 4-5 different dialects. Many of these dialects of course are completely different language such as Hmong, Yao, Musar, Jawi, Burmese and Chinese.

Although children and youth along the border and in outlying areas have the opportunity to attend school, most of these children are more familiar with their local dialects/languages. It is the mode of communication in everyday life. More often than not there problems and difficulties in learning with these children who use their own dialect or language rather than the central Thai language.

A surveys conducted by the Ministry of Education in the past have showed that groups of children with low learning achievement compared with the national standard were the children who live along the border of Thailand and did not speak Thai language in daily life. Family education was not high and the main cohort of low achieving students were from poor families. These studies indicate a weakness in the whole Thailand educational system that has existed throughout the 20th century and continue today. By not providing a bilingual approach to early learning, Thailand is losing valuable human resources that it badly needs to be competitive with other ASEAN countries.

I attended a meeting with many persons from different kinds of institution chaired by Professor Dr. Suwilai Premsrirat from the Institute of Language and Culture at Mahidol University. And I was very glad to know that Dr Suwilai was going to run a pilot project called the Bilingual Project for the Southern Border Provinces of Thailand. Therefore, a few years later there was a pilot project on the implementation of the development of language teaching schools along the border of Thailand namely Yala, Pattanee, Naratiwat and Satul, one school in each province., This pilot project brought together learning the local language and Thai language to ensure that the child has the courage to enjoy learning more and to make the transition to first learning to read in his mother tongue and then transition to learning to read central Thai.

Bilingual programs can provide a teaching process that is sensitive to the child’s cultural and linguistic context. There is an opportunity in this approach to honor the child’s mother tongue and culture. In my own context of Yala, we speak Jawi at home and are proud of our Muslim heritage. It will mean a great deal if Thai policy experts recognize the value of honoring our culture and include our language and culture in our children’s public education curriculum.  I am sure the same can be said of the many hill tribe groups located in the north of our country.

Development programs for bilingual schools along the border of Thailand using Bilingual project is a good beginning. It is a different approach from the process used with children who use Thai central language in everyday communication and at home. I believe that children are not able to develop critical thinking skills if not using language that children are familiar at first. It is vitally important to start children learning to read and solve problems first in their mother tongue.ภาษาถิ่นที่มีอยู่ทั่วประเทศไทยนั้นนับว่าเป็นสิ่งที่มีเสน่ห์และมีความสวยงามที่นอกจากจะใช้สื่อความหมายกับบุคคลที่อยู่ในท้องถิ่นเดียวกันให้เข้าใจตรงกันแล้ว  ภาษาถิ่นยังมีความโดดเด่นเป็นอัตลักษณ์ของท้องถิ่นที่สะท้อนถึงความหลากหลายด้านภาษาของประเทศที่สมควรได้รับการยอมรับจากทุกคน  บ่อยครั้งที่เมื่อมีการใช้ภาษาถิ่นแล้วถูกมองว่าเป็นเรื่องตลก แม้แต่ภาษา ยาวีซึ่งเป็นภาษาแม่ของผู้เขียนยังถูกละเลยในระบบการศึกษาของประเทศไทยไปเป็นเวลานานทั้งๆที่มีการศึกษาวิจัยพบว่าการเริ่มต้นฝึกอ่านให้กับเด็กที่จะเริ่มเรียนภาษาที่สองโดยการฝึกอ่านภาษาแม่ก่อนนั้นได้ผลมากกว่าเริ่มเรียนโดยใช้ภาษาที่สองทันที
สำนักงานคณะกรรมการการศึกษาขั้นพื้นฐาน (สพฐ.)ได้มีการสำรวจข้อมูลการใช้ภาษาของนักเรียน  ครู  และชุมชน จาก 21 สำนักงานเขตพื้นที่การศึกษา  ใน 9 จังหวัดตามแนวชายแดน เมื่อปีงบประมาณ 2551  พบว่า นักเรียนใน 9 จังหวัด มีการใช้ภาษาถิ่นแตกต่างกันกว่า 30 ภาษา มีโรงเรียน 940 โรง  จากจำนวนโรงเรียนทั้งหมด 3,721 โรง หรือร้อยละ 25.26 ที่นักเรียนใช้ภาษาถิ่นอื่น ๆ ในชีวิตประจำวัน  เกินกว่าร้อยละ 50 ซึ่งบางโรงเรียนนักเรียนใช้ภาษาถิ่นเดียวกัน บางโรงเรียนนักเรียนใช้ภาษาถิ่นแตกต่างกัน 4-5 ภาษา และภาษาถิ่นแต่ละภาษานั้นแตกต่างกันโดยสิ้นเชิง ตัวอย่างเช่น ภาษาม้ง  ภาษาเย้า ภาษามูเซอ ภาษาพม่า ภาษาจีน และ ภาษายาวี เป็นต้น
แม้ว่าเด็กและเยาวชนตามแนวตะเข็บชายแดนและในพื้นที่ห่างไกล  ได้มีโอกาสเข้าเรียนในโรงเรียนมากขึ้น  แต่เด็กเหล่านี้ส่วนใหญ่มีความคุ้นเคยกับการใช้ภาษาถิ่นซึ่งเป็นภาษาแม่ในการสื่อสารในชีวิตประจำวัน  จึงมักมีปัญหาและอุปสรรคในการเรียนรู้มากกว่าเด็กในพื้นที่อื่น ๆ ที่ใช้ภาษาไทย
จากการสำรวจของกระทรวงศึกษาธิการพบว่ากลุ่มนักเรียนที่มีผลสัมฤทธิ์ทางการเรียนต่ำ เมื่อเปรียบเทียบกับมาตรฐานการศึกษาของชาติ ได้แก่กลุ่มนักเรียนที่อาศัยอยู่ตามแนวชายแดนและไม่ได้ใช้ภาษาไทยในชีวิตประจำวัน ครอบครัวมีพื้นฐานทางการศึกษาต่ำและมีฐานะยากจน ซึ่งสะท้อนให้เห็นถึงความอ่อนแอของระบบการศึกษาไทยที่ปรากฏให้เห็นมาตั้งแต่ศตวรรษที่ 20 เรื่อยมาจนถึงทุกวันนี้  ผู้เขียนเห็นว่าการที่รัฐบาลมองไม่เห็นความสำคัญของระบบทวิภาษาของการเรียนรู้ของนักเรียน จะทำให้รัฐสูญเสียทรัพยากรมนุษย์ที่จำเป็นในการแข่งขันกับประเทศอื่นๆของสมาชิก ASEAN อย่างน่าเสียดาย

คราวหนึ่งผู้เขียนได้มีโอกาสเข้าประชุมร่วมกับผู้ทรงคุณวุฒิจากหลายถาบันการศึกษา ดำเนินการโดยศาสตราจารย์เกียรติคุณ ดร.สุวิไล เปรมศรีรัตน์ จากสถาบันภาษาและวัฒนธรรม มหาวิทยาลัยมหิดล ได้รับทราบจากที่ประชุมว่าจะมีโครงการนำร่องโรงเรียนทวิภาษาสำหรับ 4 จังหวัดชายแดนภาคใต้ ได้แก่ ยะลา ปัตตานี นราธิวาส และ สตูล  จังหวัดละ 1 โรงเรียน โครงการดังกล่าวเป็นโครงการที่ให้โรงเรียนที่เข้าร่วมโครงการใช้ภาษาถิ่นและภาษาไทยในการเรียนการสอน โดยเด็กจะเริ่มเรียนโดยการใช้ภาษาถิ่นก่อนแล้วค่อยๆเติมภาษาไทยเข้าไปทีละน้อยอันเป็นการเชื่อมโยงการเรียนรู้(Learning Transition)ในการเรียนภาษาไทยต่อไป

โปรแกรมทวิภาษา สามารถช่วยให้กระบวนการเรียนการสอนที่มีความไวต่อบริบททางวัฒนธรรมและภาษาของเด็ก  นอกจากนี้ยังเปิดโอกาสให้ภาษาแม่และวัฒนธรรมของเด็กให้ได้รับการยกย่อง ในบริบทของผู้เขียนเอง ในจังหวัดยะลาเราพูดภาษายาวีที่บ้านและมีความภูมิใจในมรดกทางวัฒนธรรมของชาวมุสลิม ของเรา ดังนั้นหาก ผู้เชี่ยวชาญด้านนโยบายของประเทศเห็นคุณค่าและเคารพวัฒนธรรมของเรา ได้บรรจุ ภาษาและวัฒนธรรมของเราในหลักสูตรการศึกษา ผู้เขียนแน่ใจว่าจะเกิดผลดีเช่นเดียวกับโครงการที่ได้ดำเนินไปแล้วกับชนหลายกลุ่มบนพื้นที่สูงที่ตั้งอยู่ในภาคเหนือของประเทศของเรา

การพัฒนาโปรแกรมให้กับโรงเรียนทวิภาษาตามแนวชายแดนของประเทศไทย โดยใช้โครงการทวิภาษา นับว่าเป็นจุดเริ่มต้นที่ดี ซึ่งเป็นวิธีที่แตกต่างจากกระบวนการที่ใช้กับเด็กที่ใช้ภาษาไทยกลางในการสื่อสาในชีวิตประจำวันและที่บ้าน ผู้เขียนเชื่อว่า เด็กจะไม่สามารถจะพัฒนาทักษะการคิดวิเคราะห์ ถ้าไม่ได้ใช้ภาษาที่ เด็กมีความคุ้นเคย และเป็นสิ่งจำเป็นอย่างยิ่งที่จะเริ่มต้นการเรียนรู้ของเด็กในการอ่านและการแก้ปัญหาโดยใช้ภาษาแม่ของพวกเขา

MOM’S WAY TO SUCCESSFUL STUDENT CENTERED LEARNING: THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING AND IN RESEARCH

By Peter J. Foley, Ed.D, editor and chief

My mom, Jackie Turner Foley, was a teacher who collaborated with her students. She taught children from ages 8 to 16 years old who had never learned to read properly and subsequently fell far, far behind their peers in academics. When schools no longer felt they could help such students stay in school and learn something, they called Ms. Jackie, the teacher of last resort. She was remarkably successful in teaching these children—many times labeled “unteachable” by the referring public schools, not only in getting them to read well but in them getting them to love learning.

When going through some of her papers recently, I came across this short piece of writing:

The learning process should be saturated with warmth and empathy. The key (to the successful teaching of reading) lies in allowing the student to reach out for the information he or she needs and develop his/her own ideas. As one youngster put it: ‘Mrs. Foley didn’t teach me a thing; I did it all myself.’

Dated March 1973

Educational Research over the last 40 years since my mom wrote this, has confirmed the wisdom of my mom’s student centered learning approach.

Let’s start with empathy in teaching.

Researchers have found that students who have caring relationships with their teachers are more motivated and perform better academically than students who do not have such relationships (Foster 1995; Gay 2000; Irvine, 1990). The renowned educator, Ted Sizer, had a similar prescription in calling for teachers acting as coaches and guides instead of the all too often, the one way communication of teacher to student.

A decade after my mom’s memo on education that I discovered in her files this week, Ted Sizer started the Coalition of Essential Schools in the United States. This educational movement included more that 1,000 schools and the principles of the schools were the same principles my mom espoused: high expectations; students constructing personalized meaning in their learning; teaching kids first and subjects as second, giving kids a part in the decision making on what was to be learned, and, of course, the teacher acting as a coach and mentor.

This is a good summation of principles of student centered learning.

Where my mom got her inspiration (and perhaps Sizer too) was in the methods of Marie Montessori. Like Montessori, my mom had high expectations for her students, and she made her lesson exercises in learning by doing. She was also influenced by John Dewey and thus believed in using democratic methods in her small groups in making decisions about learning or how the class would be conducted. Mom liked to stimulate conversation with her small groups of students about their thought process in solving a particular problem or having arrived at a particular idea after reading a passage. She was fond of saying to her students: “What shall we do next?”

Again, research has borne out that students’ learning improves with such participatory strategies (Biemiller&Meichenbaum, 1992).

Mom, I recall, insisted that her students concentrate on how they arrived cognitively at their conclusions or answers: “Tell me how you come to that conclusions?”; “Tell me how were you thinking?”; “How did you do that?”. Mom was teaching her students what is frequently referred to as metacognition skills that is, teaching students how to monitor their thinking and using these observations to guide them in strategies for solving problems or completing tasks. Research has shown that these skills boost students’ performance both in the classroom and on tests (Dunlosky, Serra, and Baker, 2007).

Mom also was careful to build on what the child already knew. I am not sure if mom was familiar with Lev Vygotsky’s work that became a base for educational psychology in the 1970’s even though Vygotsky died in the 1930’s. It was Vygotsky who postulated that learners had what he called the zone of proximal development( ZPD), the distance between what children can do by themselves and the next learning that children can be helped to achieve with competent assistance. It is out of Vygotsky’s work that the present day popular teaching method of scaffolding grew. One way of defining scaffolding as a teaching method is when a teacher models a desired learning strategy or task and then gradually shifts the responsibility to the students.

Mom used this technique over and over again, by giving her students help with only the skills that were new or beyond their ability. Research indicates that scaffolding minimizes failure, which decreases frustration, especially with special learning needs children (Van Der Stuyf, R, 2002).

The proof of mom’s methods was shown in the success she had in teaching children with special needs how to read with comprehension. Research 40 years after her note on her methodology shows just how right she was in employing the principles of teaching that have been touched on in this article. They are principles incorporated in the rubric student centered learning. Sadly, both in the United States and in Thailand, many public schools still teach by rote with a one way communication, that is, teachers lecturing to students. Student centered learning in both Thailand and the United States has yet to win the hearts and minds of teachers and administrators.

In the words of folk singer Bob Dylan: “when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn”.MOM’S WAY TO SUCCESSFUL STUDENT CENTERED LEARNING: THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING AND IN RESEARCH

By Peter J. Foley, Ed.D, editor and chief

คุณแม่ของผม, แจคกี้ เทิร์นเนอร์ โฟลีย์ เป็นคุณครูที่ทำงานช่วยเหลือกับเด็กนักเรียนของท่าน ท่านสอนนักเรียนตั้งแต่อายุ 6 ถึง 16 ปี ซึ่งเด็กนักเรียนเหล่านี้ เป็นเด็กที่ไม่เคยเรียนรู้วิธีการอ่านหนังสืออย่างถูกต้อง และยังเรียนได้ช้าตามหลังเพื่อนๆ เมื่อทางโรงเรียนรู้สึกว่า ไม่สามารถช่วยนักเรียนกลุ่มนี้ที่อยู่ในโรงเรียนเรียนรู้ได้ จึงเรียก มิสแจคกี้, the teacher of the last resort คุณแม่ประสบความสำเร็จอย่างน่าทึ่งในเรื่องของการสอนเด็กๆเหล่านี้ ที่หลายๆครั้งได้รับนามว่า “ unteachable” จากโรงเรียนของรัฐบาล คุณแม่ไม่เพียงแต่สอนพวกเขาให้อ่านได้เท่านั้น แต่ยังทำให้พวกเขารักในการเรียนรู้ด้วย เมื่อได้อ่านบางส่วนของบันทึกของคุณแม่ ผมได้นำบางส่วนสั้นของบันทึกของแม่ไว้ว่า:

กระบวนการเรียนรู้ควรเริ่มต้นขึ้นด้วยความอบอุ่นและเอาใจใส่ เป็นสิ่งสำคัญ (เพื่อความสำเร็จในสอนเรื่องการอ่าน) ในการทำให้เด็กนักเรียนเอื้อมถึงเนื้อหาที่พวกเขาต้องการและ พัฒนาแนวความคิดของเขา เหมือนอย่างเช่นเด็กน้อยคนหนึ่งว่า “ มิสซิส โฟลีย์ไม่ได้สอนหนู แต่หนูเรียนด้วยตัวเอง”

วันหนึ่งในเดือนมีนาคม 1973

งานวิจัยด้านการศึกษา 40 ปีหลังจากที่คุณแม่ของผมได้เขียนสิ่งนี้ไว้ ได้เป็นสิ่งยืนยันถึงภูมิปัญญาของคุณแม่ เรื่องการเข้าถึงนักเรียนเป็นศูนย์กลางกาเรียนรู้

เริ่มจากความเอาใจใส่การสอน

นักวิจัยได้ค้นพบว่า นักเรียนที่มีรับความสัมพันธ์แบบห่วงใยจากคุณครูของเขา จะมีแรงจูงใจและทำงานได้ดีกว่านักเรียนที่ไม่ได้รับความสัมพันธ์ดังกล่าว(Foster 1995; Gay 2000; Irvine, 1990) Ted Sizer, นักวิชาการที่มีชื่อเสียงคนหนึ่งมีมาตรการในการให้คุณครูทำหน้าที่เหมือนเป็นโค้ช และให้คำแนะนำแทนบ่อยๆ ซึ่งเป็นวิธีหนึ่งในการสื่อสารระหว่างคุณครูและนักเรียน

หนึ่งทศวรรษ หลังจากที่คุณแม่เขียนบันทึกไว้ ซึ่งฉันได้ไปค้นเจอบันทึกนี้ในไฟล์งานของท่านในสัปดาห์นี้  Ted Sizer ได้เริ่มก่อตั้ง

Coalition of Essential Schools ในสหรัฐอเมริกา การเคลื่อนไหวด้านการศึกษานี้ได้รวบรวมโรงเรียนต่างๆมากกว่า 1000 โรงเรียน และหลักการในการดำเนินการของโรงเรียนเป็นแบบเดียวกันกับคุณแม่ผม คือ ความคาดหวังที่สูง, การสร้างนิยามส่วนตัวของนักเรียนในการเรียนรู้, สอนเด็กๆก่อนแล้วค่อยสอนวิชาการ คือ ให้เด็กๆเป็นส่วนหนึ่งในการตัดสินใจว่า ต้องการเรียนอะไรในหลักสูตร และคุณครูควรจะเป็นเหมือนโค้ชและพี่เลี้ยง นี่คือผลรวมที่ดีของหลักการนักเรียนเป็นศูนย์กลางการเรียนรู้

คุณแม่ของผมได้รับแรงบันดาลใจ (และอาจ Sizer ด้วยเช่นกัน) มาจากวิธีการของ Marie Montessori เช่นเดียวกับ Marie Montessori คุณแม่ของผมมีความคาดหวังสูงในตัวนักเรียนของท่าน และท่านทำแบบฝึกหัดบทเรียนของแม่ในการเรียนรู้ด้วยการลงมือทำ ท่านยังได้รับอิทธิพลจาก John Dewey ซึ่งเชื่อในการใช้ประชาธิปไตยในกลุ่มเล็ก ๆ ของเธอในการตัดสินใจเกี่ยวกับการเรียนรู้หรือวิธีการเรียนในห้องเรียนควรเป็นในรูปแบบใด คุณแม่ชอบที่จะกระตุ้นให้เกิดการสนทนากับกลุ่มเล็ก ๆ ของนักเรียนของคุณแม่ เกี่ยวกับกระบวนการคิดของพวกเขาในการแก้ปัญหาเฉพาะหรือมีความคิดเฉพาะหลังจากที่ได้ผ่านการอ่านบทความต่างๆ  คุณแม่มักจะพูดกับนักเรียนของท่านเองว่า “เราควรจะทำอะไรต่อไปกัน”

ทั้งยังได้มีงานวิจัยเกี่ยวกับการพัฒนากาเรียนรู้ของนักเรียนขึ้นอยู่กับกลยุทธ์ของการมีส่วนร่วมดังกล่าว(Biemiller&Meichenbaum, 1992).

ผมจำได้ว่า คุณแม่ของผมยืนยันที่จะให้นักเรียนของท่านให้ความสนใจในการรวบรวมองค์ความรู้จากทีเป็นข้อสรุปและคำตอบของพวกเขา “บอกครูว่า นักเรียนได้ข้อสรุปเช่นนี้ได้อย่างไร?” “บอกครูว่า นักเรียนคิดได้อย่างไร” “นักเรียนทำได้อย่างไร”  ซึ่งคุณแม่ได้กำลังสอนนักเรียนของท่านในทักษะที่เรียกว่า อภิปัญญา ซึงเป็นการสอนนักเรียนให้ตรวจสอบความเห็นของเขาและจากทักษะการสังเกตเหล่านี้จะนำให้พวกเขารู้จักการแก้ปัญหาหรือทำงานให้สำเร็จลุล่วงได้ มีงานวิจัยได้แสดงให้เห็นว่า ทักษะเหล่านี้ทำให้เพิ่มศักยภาพของนักเรียนทั้งในห้องเรียนและในการทดสอบแข่งขัน (Dunlosky, Serra, and Baker, 2007).

คุณแม่ยังคงระมัดระวังในสิ่งที่นักเรียนรู้อยู่แล้ว ผมไม่แน่ใจว่า คุณแม่จะคล้ายๆกับการทำงานของ Lev Vygotsky ซึ่งงานนี้ได้กลายเป็นพื้นฐานของจิตวิทยาด้านการศึกษา ในปี 1970  ถึงแม้ว่า Vygotsky เสียชีวิตในปี 1930 ซึ่งเป็น Vygotsky ทีเป็นผู้ตั้งสมติฐานว่า ผู้เรียนจะมี zone of proximal development( ZPD) ซึ่งเป็ช่องว่างระหว่างสิ่งที่เด็กๆสามารถทำได้ด้วยตัวเองกับเพิ่มการเรียนรู้ต่อไป เพื่อให้เด็กนักเรียนสามารถได้รับความช่วยเหลือและนำไปสู่ความสำเร็จ สิ่งนี้นอกเหนือจากงานของ Vygotsky ซึ่งเป็นวิธีการสอนที่เป็นแบบ scaffolding grew เป็นวิธีที่เป็นที่นิยมในปัจจุบัน วิธีการหนึ่งในการกำหนด scaffolding เป็นวิธีการสอน คือ เมื่อคุณครูสร้างแบบจำลองกลยุทธการเรียนรู้ หรือโครงงาน จากนั้นให้มอบหมายให้เป็นความรับผิดชอบของนักเรียน

คุณแม่ใช้เทคนิคนี้ซ้ำแล้วซ้ำอีก โดยการมอบหมายให้นักเรียนได้มีส่วนช่วยเหลือตามทักษะและความสามารถของนักเรียนเอง นักวิจัยชี้ชัดว่า scaffolding ลดความผิดพลาด ซึ่งลดความยุ่งยาก โดยเฉพาะ เด็กที่ต้องการการเรียนรู้แบบพิเศษ (Van Der Stuyf, R, 2002)

สิ่งที่เป็นการพิสูจน์วิธีการของคุณแม่เห็นได้จากความสำเร็จจากการสอนเด็กที่ต้องการการเรียนรู้แบบพิเศษ สามารถเรียนรู้ที่จะอ่านหนังสือได้ด้วยความเข้าใจ งานวิจัย 40 ปี หลังจากที่คุณแม่ได้บันทึกวิธีการของแม่ไว้ ได้แสดงให้เห็นถึงความถูกต้องของหลักการการสอนของคุณแม่ งานวิจัยได้ขึ้นทะเบียนสำหรับการสอนโดยมีนักเรียนเป็นศูนย์กลางกาเรียนรู้ เป็นที่น่าเศร้าใจ ทั้งในสหรัฐอเมริกาและไทย มีหลายๆโรงเรียนที่ยังคงสอนนักเรียนให้จดและท่องจำ โดยมีการสื่อสารเพียงทางเดียวในห้องเรียน ซึ่งคุณครูจะเป็นคนบรรยายให้กับนักเรียน หลักการเรียนรู้โดยมีนักเรียนเป็นศูนย์กลางการเรียนรู้ ยังคงไม่สามารถชนะใจครูและผู้บริหารได้เลย

จากคำกล่าวของนักร้องเพลงโฟล์ก Bob Dylan  “when will we ever learn, when will we ever learn”.

  Ellen Cornish is a very experienced Early Childhood and Primary School teacher from Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

Dr Don Jordan had an extensive career in Tasmanian schools and completed his doctorate at Curtin University in Western Australia. Both Don and Ellen have had experience in other countries, either as visiting teachers or consultants. They have contributed several articles to SCLT.

Student Self-Assessment: what I ask myself

Our classroom teaching experience has demonstrated to us that whilst our own teacher-made and standardized tests gave us information about our student’s learning, these tests did not provide us with all the information we required or to allow our students the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of what it is they had learnt. Nor did these testing regimes give students feedback on their own learning.

Student Self-Assessment.  Feeling Good Feeling Great. The Human Body.

  References. Armstrong, T. (2009). Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Bloom, Benjamin S. & David R. Krathwohl. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals, by a committee of college and university examiners. Handbook 1: Cognitive domain. New York, Longmans. Gardner, H. (2006a). Multiple intelligences: New horizons in theory and practice. New York: Basic Books

Principals Be[a]ware!: Student centered learning also requires teacher centered learning and it must permeate every aspect of schooling, even discipline!

By Dr. Barbara Kameniar

After spending nearly 20 years in teacher education I decided to “put my money where my mouth was” and return to teach in schools in February this year. I had spent 2012 undertaking the role of a “clinical specialist” supervising teacher candidates during their placements in schools and had become increasingly enthused about returning to high school teaching.

Having taught across a good part of the teacher education program at three different Australian universities and in subjects ranging from ethics and education, to educational psychology, sociology of education and subject specific pedagogical studies, I had developed a strong sense of what was possible within the classroom. I was aware of many of the inhibitors to student-centered practices as well as some of the ways in which to address those inhibitors. I had also become increasingly convinced that one of the best ways to effect change in education was for expert teacher educators to return to school classrooms at frequent intervals to share their expertise and to learn.

I quite deliberately chose a school in a disadvantaged area where national literacy and numeracy assessment results were low. For example, approximately one in four students were below the national benchmark in literacy and one in three below the national benchmark in numeracy at one of the year levels. The school had a principal who had held the position for four years and by all accounts the school had moved from being unwieldy and, in some cases, unsafe, to being an orderly and well-kept place with increasing enrollments.

However, a quick glance at the publically available literacy and numeracy results suggested that while order and discipline had improved, learning outcomes for many students had declined. So what happened and what can be learnt from the example of this school?

First, it is important to note that the principal was no doubt well intentioned, and that this school is not unique. Australia’s decline in international test results over the last ten years suggests that performance outcomes for many Australian students have fallen. This fall has happened at the same time that there has been a shift to private education, an increased emphasis on uniforms and discipline, and a focus on a single national curriculum and agreed standards. That is, the more governments, education departments and schools have focused on uniformity and control, the greater the decline in outcomes. It is important to note that this decline has not been universal. Some students still do well but overall outcomes have fallen.

The reasons for this change are multiple and complex. However, I would like to focus on three elements of school leadership that are not often spoken about in a field of literature that emphasizes policies and procedures; trust, freedom and respect. Before discussing these I will briefly outline a key practice within the school in which I worked for a few weeks and highlight how its apparent success had negative implications for trust, freedom and respect, and ultimately for student and teacher learning.

The Practice

As noted above, four years ago the school had significant problems with violent, aggressive and dangerous behavior. Like many principals in Australia and Thailand the incoming Principal acted decisively to “take control”. Quite appropriately the Principal established clear boundaries and clear consequences for any breach. The Principal insisted on a “whole school approach” to discipline. This entailed the identification and articulation of behavioral expectations among students that were to be systematically applied by all teachers. Behavioral expectations were reinforced through clearly defined rewards and punishments.

At the center of this system was the use of a school diary. Behavioral expectations were reduced to four (and later three) core values that were printed on every second page in the diary. At the beginning of the week, all students commenced with a grade of C+ for each value. During the week teachers were encouraged to record a student’s adherence to the values through notes in the diary that specified “good and respectful” behavior and “bad or disruptive” behavior. At the end of the week the pastoral teacher went through each diary, undertaking a calculus of “good” and “bad” notes, adding up or down from the C+ to derive a grade for the week. Students would then take the diaries home with the opportunity to share their success or otherwise, with their parents or guardians.

Teachers were expected to adhere to this process and were followed up by senior staff if they didn’t identify or manage a specific breach of behavior – particularly those breaches related to uniform, lateness or being out of class. Teachers were also expected to sign-in when they arrived at school and sign-out when they left (an unfamiliar but increasingly common practice for teachers in a traditionally liberal society like Australia), and clear expectations around arrival and departure times were set for staff.

An array of experts was brought in to undertake performance development with the teachers, and teachers were supported to undertake professional learning outside the school. Most teachers’ workloads were high (in part, as a result of needing to pay for a growing number of administration and non-teaching managerial staff) and teachers who were not deemed competent (or in some cases competent but not compliant) carried workloads that were so heavy they inevitably made the decision to seek employment elsewhere or they asked to go part-time. At times requests for part-time employment were refused and teachers subsequently left.

After four years of these processes being rigorously applied I arrived to find students who wore their uniforms well, were generally very polite, arrived at class on time and with the books that were required for the lesson. I also found a school in which teachers arrived early, worked at their desks in between lessons and stayed late. If the mark of an effective school is order then this school might be deemed to be effective.

However, I also found students who were passive learners and who saw the teacher as the locus of control, not only for their behavior but for their thinking as well. Most of the students saw “getting the right answer” as the purpose of learning and “remaining quiet while completing a required task” as the mark of a “good student”.

I found teachers who deeply loved and cared for the students and who were prepared to engage in their own professional learning so that student outcomes were enhanced. However, their teaching loads limited planning time and the idea of planning as a team, was foreign to most. The application of rigid rules around behavior, compliance and obedience meant the teacher’s creativity and effectiveness was reduced.

While creative pedagogic practices occurred in some classrooms, they often appeared to be used as engagement tools rather than learning tools. That is, students enjoyed the classes because the activities were fun but the activities were not necessarily organized to enable building of deep knowledge and discipline-specific skills over time.

Because the principal frequently asked students questions like “who is your favorite teacher?” and student dislikes and complaints had implications for the teachers, some teachers inevitably sought to “keep the peace” by not asking anything too demanding of the students. The rather dangerous practice of emphasizing “favorites” was one of the few examples of seeking students’ feelings about their schooling. However, it acted more as a way of “catching teachers out” than as genuinely seeking student feedback regarding their progress and learning experiences. In short, the attempt to create a safe and orderly school environment encouraged students and teachers to be silent and compliant. They effectively became disempowered.

When I arrived at the school the Principal recognized a problem existed – “the students in this school are not active learners and the teachers need help”. However, the Principal was unable to see that the discipline policy that had been so successful at stopping unruly behavior four years earlier was now a big part of the problem. While we would all agree that an orderly school is important in terms of safety and learning, when orderliness becomes control, active, deep and insightful student centered learning is severely inhibited.

The discipline practices described above are reminiscent of Pavlov and his dog. B.F. Skinner, the often-maligned behaviorist, criticized simple reward and punishment approaches to learning arguing instead that positive and negative reinforcement, provided at indeterminate intervals, was more effective. Given that Skinner’s behaviorism has itself been severely criticized over the years for its de-humanization of students and narrow outcomes, one does have to ask why this, and other schools, continue with practices that are pre-Skinnerian and that Skinner himself described as ineffective.

Certainly there may be times when behavior in schools is so dangerous, or obstructs learning to such an extent, that it becomes justifiable to utilize a strict behaviorist approach. However, once the immediate danger is over it is imperative that a school quickly moves to more humanist and restorative sets of practices. That is, practices that are commensurate with the education of active and responsible citizens must always be a priority. Narrowly defined behaviorist practices that render students and teachers passive and compliant must be resisted as much as possible.

Truly student-centered practices require trust, freedom and respect for students and teachers. Below I outline very briefly where each of these qualities were missing and what practices might have assisted in developing them. I also argue that there needs to be coherence between expectations for students and the support that teachers are given.

Trust

One of the most basic human needs is to be able to trust and be trusted. According to Erik Erikson (1979) we must first learn to trust and then to know others can trust us if we are to become autonomous, independent, industrious people who are able to take initiative and be active, powerful and productive citizens with a sense of social justice for ourselves and others. However, for all intents and purposes, there appeared to be a lack of trust in the students and teachers at this school. Why else would so much about their daily lives need to be itemized and administered? Why else would surveillance be normalized and reporting on infractions have had been so valued? Teachers and students were corrected and controlled, and this affected learning.

Teachers were expected to engage in student-centered and constructivist practices in the classroom because they were told to do so. However they, themselves, were treated as passive recipients of the wisdom of others. They were exposed to “experts” who were either brought into the school or encountered in professional learning days away from the classroom. Much of the professional learning was abstract or limited because it focused on what others thought the teachers needed rather than what the teachers identified as important for their immediate and long-term practice. Later, when the teachers were asked what they needed, they identified simple and affordable practices – time to plan together, fewer interruptions to classroom time, support for extending their pedagogic content knowledge that was relevant to their current needs, the opportunity to watch others teach and to have others watch them and give them feedback. They wanted feedback! But feedback for themselves and their growth as teachers, not feedback for a performance review that would result in a judgment being made about them as a teacher.

It seems like common sense to say that student-centered learning will be most effective when teachers understand “from the inside” what it means to be valued and trusted themselves, when they are acknowledged as learners, as much as they are understood to be teachers. Recognition and negotiation requires a situated understanding of what recognition and negotiation looks like, and feels like. Teachers tend to know what they need and they must be trusted to be able to identify and articulate these needs. Like students, not all teachers may know the best way to achieve their identified needs, however, they are usually open to suggestions that are respectful of their freedom.

Freedom

Paulo Freire (1972) calls education the “practice of freedom”. For Freire, if education does not lead to freedom then it is not education, but instead, another form of repression.

Freire articulated a view of student centeredness that was reliant on a reconceptualization of the teacher as teacher-student and the student as student-teacher. This reconceptualization is dependent on structural enablers within a school that do not control the teachers’ practices through excessive focus on minutiae.

It has become increasingly common in Australian schools to document almost every detail of each student’s learning. The documentation often has regulatory intent insofar as it records not only the student’s progress but the teacher’s practices as well. The increase in documentation has occurred at a time when classroom contact time is also increasing, leading to an emphasis by some teachers on record keeping of results rather than on student learning per se.

Knowledge and skills are also broken down into minute detail and arranged hierarchically with an assumption that progress is reliant on the successful completion of preceding stages. While there are some clear advantages to understanding various steps along the way to expertise in any area, focus on the steps as an end in themselves is problematic in the extreme. For example, in Discipline and Punish, Foucault (1991) wrote that attendance to “little things” is an effective way of training individuals and groups in “correct” practices that are defined by people who have authority and power.

Attention to minute detail is frequently engaged as a practice to render people passive. If student-centered education is ever going to fulfill its aims, teachers as well as students must be given the freedom to negotiate with one another about what learning is valuable, what learning outcomes are appropriate, and how learning should proceed. The ideas of teachers and students must be respected and valued as importance components of successful education.

Respect

When an excessive adherence to similitude first gave way to an understanding that difference was not only a part of life but also something of great value, “tolerance” was considered the most appropriate response. The idea of tolerance lost favor because of the way in which it reproduced an imbalance in power between those who were tolerant and those who were being tolerated. More recently “tolerance” gave way to the much more radical disposition of respect. Respect entails recognizing the inherent worth of something or someone. Teachers and students should be respected by one another and should also be respected by and respect Principals and other education leaders. It is only in a climate of deep respect for one another that all participants in education will grow.

Recently I spent time in another school in a disadvantaged area not too far from the school I described above. This school approached disadvantage in a different way, through trust, freedom and respect for teachers, students and the local community. The school has a long history of adapting teaching and learning to the interests and needs of students in the school and of taking students out of school to meet the requirements of the curriculum in alternative settings such as farms and industry. However, most impressive was the way in which teacher learning is seen as a vital part of student learning.

Rather than the Principal being seen as someone who must control outcomes for students through controlling teachers and their practices, the Principal in this school works with other senior staff to sit alongside teachers in their classrooms and help them with their planning and practice. Working more as a coach or mentor than a supervisor or judge, the Principal and senior staff work with teachers to help them identify the learning needs of the students and to ensure that their practices help to meet those needs.  Teachers are trusted to be able to engage in professional conversations about their own practices and given the freedom to experiment with alternative ideas. All teachers I spoke to indicated that their practice was becoming more student-centered in response to the opportunity to engage in non-judgmental professional conversations that are the result of direct observations of their practices.

There are probably no distinct sets of practices that will meet the learning needs of all students and teachers in all schools. Whatever practices are engaged in should be driven by a desire to trust both teachers and students, value freedom and be prepared to live with the “risk” of freedom, and be prepared to respect teachers’ and students’ understandings of their needs and also their desires. This is a story for Principals because they are, in the end, the people who limit or permit the shape of learning in schools. It is an Australian tale but, as someone who has spent quite a number of years visiting schools in Thailand, it is a Thai tale too. Our desires for positive outcomes must always be underpinned by a commitment to trusting others, being prepared to accept their right to freedom, and respecting the decisions they make. This does not diminish the role of the Principal. Instead it frames the Principal as a wise and knowledgeable Ajarn who gently guides, rather than a bureaucratic administrator whose chief role is to assess.

A LITTLE DIARY FROM THE SCHOOL FOR LIFE –

PART II

26^th July to 13^th August 2012

Hanseatic School for Life, 26^th July

A conversation with Sommart Krawkeo. As educational manager, he wants to bring the concept of the Hanseatic (formerly Beluga) School for Life to the far reaches of the coast which was ravaged by the tsunami in late 2004. Since August 2011, when the turbulence surrounding the collapse of the Beluga Group in Bremen slowly subsided and it became clear that the Beluga School for Life could survive with new sponsors and under the name of the Hanseatic School for Life, I have been acting in an advisory capacity for the project which I founded in 2005 after the tsunami and for which I acted as educational leader until 2010. My role is a voluntary one, for which the School for Life receives an annual compensation of €20,000 until my contract ends in July 2014.

Among other things, Sommart and I discuss a problem which is evident not only in Thailand after the tsunami, but also further afield – the fact that humanitarian aid projects, especially those of a prolonged duration, must be careful to ensure that people do not become dependent on external aid. Entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship, the approaches of the Schools for Life, represent good methods for preventing this tendency, instead teaching the children to stand on their own feet.

Thalang, 28^th July

1. First stop: Bremen: I am here on a visit, and go for a stroll through the town. I come across a shop which repairs shoes, copies keys and sells a few watches. I have owned a Swiss watch for the past twenty years, not an expensive one, but reliable – but now the glass cover has got a crack in it and the battery has given up the ghost. I ask the man behind the counter to replace the battery and the glass cover. He manages to open the paneling on the back of the watch, but is unable to close it again. After half an hour of concerted effort, he gives up, and I take back the glass cover, the watch, and the panel, I am about to pay for the battery, but the man says that this is against his code of honor, which find very friendly of him.

1. Second stop: Berlin: With the components of my watch in my bag, I head for Berlin’s finest department store and find the section for fancy Swiss watches. I show them the individual pieces and tell them what I would like: a new glass cover and the paneling put back on. I am requested to come back in an hour. When I return, the expert behind the counter tells me with a dour face that the watch will have to be sent back to the manufacturer. They will contact me if the repair will cost over €200. Gulp!

After quite some time, I receive a message to say that I can come and pick the watch up. Back at the counter of this distinguished establishment, I am told that the watch is irreparable. I am somehow relieved – better the components of a watch than a dizzyingly extortionate bill for a glass cover and a panel which has been screwed back on.

1. Third stop: Thalang/Thailand: This is a place that you really only drive through if you are going from the mainland of the coast province Phang Nga to the town of Phuket on the island of the same name, via the long Sarasin Bridge. In Thalang there is a covered market selling all kinds of paraphernalia, and not far from the entrance sits an old watchmaker at a little table. I give him the parts of my watch and ask whether he can help me. He nods. I sit down on a stool opposite him and wait, expecting him to give up. First he checks the battery, and says it’s new. Then he holds up a magnifying glass to his eye and barely five minutes pass before he has replaced the glass cover, having bent the minute hand back into place (it was a little bit crooked), screwed the cover back on and attached a sealing ring. He then turns around and reaches for a little polishing machine to give the watch a glossy finish. I ask the price, and he says 280 baht – which is about €7.36.

Vivat Thalang! Long live this watchmaker! And if our Swiss friends don’t shift up a few gears in their watch repair service, and indeed their price-performance ratio – whether it’s up to incompetence, arrogance, indifference, laziness, or urging people on to consume? – then at some point they will find out that you don’t always rise in the market, but can also fall.

Chiang Mai, 6^th August

Ott, who went from ‘Bad Boy’ to polo player, has returned from Argentina. While he was there, he was trained as an up-and-coming professional. Ott is overwhelmed. He learned more there than he had learned in the rest of his life put together. He has now understood what it means to learn, and wants to learn about everything – religion, philosophy, politics – he has a multitude of questions that want answers. Dominique Leutwiler is the right person; she listens and answers with great patience. After a few days’ holiday in Chiang Mai, Ott is back at the Pattaya Polo Club and it’s onwards and upwards.

The owner of the club, Harald Link, has donated the school three beautiful horses and commissioned some stables to be built in a traditional style on some land on Lamphun Road in Chiang Mai. Now the way has been paved for offering equine therapy. There will be no lack of demand.

Chiang Rai, 7^th August

A mother and father belonging to the Karen people tell me that their daughter, who goes to school in the border town of Chiang Rai, has been reprimanded by her teacher for dying her hair brown, which is forbidden. She hasn’t though – her hair is naturally brown, like her mother’s – yes, there are brown-haired people in Thailand too. The teacher, however, doesn’t believe this and has continued to scolds her. So the daughter now dyes her hair black every morning so that it looks as if it hasn’t been dyed.

School for Life, 8^th August

On the lower part of the campus, the area which is being used for organic farming is increasing. Chanmongkol, the manager of the Center of Organic Farming & Animal Husbandry, accompanies me around the grounds. Down at the creek, tightly-woven bamboo boxes lie in the water protruding by about 30cm, and teeming with fish. I ask whether the especially agile fish are still jumping over the edge of the baskets on a bid for freedom. Well yes, replies Chanmongkol, but there are also immigrant fish that jump in when the fish inside are fed, eager to join the meal. All told, with emigrants and immigrants, numbers remain more or less stable.

On the field below the sports facilities, all manner of vegetables are growing, including beans and cucumbers. At the start, Chanmongkol had been wondering where they were all disappearing to, until he noticed that the children were eating them straight from the field. He toyed with the idea of putting up a fence, but decided against it – the children’s bellies is where the food is intended for anyway.

Half a dozen piglets are grunting in the spacious pigsty. A big, fat pig holds its mouth open wide because Suchart the farm worker is spraying him with a hosepipe and the happy pig can shower and drink at the same time. We carry on, and call in at Suchart’s hut. I want to see something there that I have never seen before: Suchart is rearing three large geckos that will grow to be much larger still – about 40cm long and weighing 400 grams. Chanmongkol explains that they can then be exported to Arab countries and sold for 200,000 baht (€5260) each. Apparently, a medically coveted serum would then be extracted from them, from one point on their head and one on their tail. This is not (yet) a project which involves the children – rather an expression of Chanmongkol and Suchart’s desire to experiment. They assure me that they have heard about these dream prices from reliable sources.

I can see three geckos of half an arm’s length each, who have nothing to do in their separate, barred boxes than to flick their long tongues at the live grasshoppers which they are fed every evening. Chanmongkol and Suchart get the grasshoppers from Kru Tomsri, the teacher who – as well as having a lovely vegetable garden – keeps a whole menagerie of animals including a rat. The rat likes to eat grasshoppers, so these are being bred carefully and expertly in Kru Tomsri’s little queendom.

Namsom, whose mother was sentenced to imprisonment in the women’s prison in Chiang Mai for 25 years, also has a pet rat. It has become vegetarian because it is only fed vegetables. Namsom loves the rat, so it’s allowed to go everywhere and join in with everything. Namsom’s new family teacher finds this rather unhygienic, so the question arises of how to accommodate the rat appropriately. Namsom would probably enjoy the blockbuster animation film “Ratatouille”, a humorous call for a better status for rats in the animal class struggle; she hasn’t had a chance to see it yet though.

While the feeding up of the geckos is still in its early stages (the two breeders give me the reassuring information that geckos are neither a protected species nor subject to a ban on exports), another more advanced experiment is running in a dimly lit room adjacent to the auditorium. This has been conceived of by Khun Anchana, who works at the School for Life to guarantee thorough and transparent financial management, and has sought advice for this experiment from scientists at a university in Bangkok.

A small team of children and teachers show me the room in which silk worms are being bred. On a table are the cocoons from which the silk worms have now emerged as butterflies. In a corner behind this is a box, the open sides of which reveal a number of little hanging threads on which the butterflies have laid eggs. Having eaten their fill of mulberry leaves when they were caterpillars, the butterflies then live on a diet for the seven short days of their life, with time only to mate, ensure the existence of their offspring, flutter around the room and then die. A very short flight on the wings of love. As I watch these dark, large-winged beings, I think of opening the door and letting them escape to freedom, but am reminded that I wouldn’t be doing them a favor because it would make it difficult for them to find a partner and they wouldn’t be able to produce the next generation. Better then to leave them to their short moment of happiness in the little room.

School for Life, 9^th August

The first installment of €20,000, paid by the Hanseatic School for Life gGmbH in Hamburg, is on its way. This money is desperately needed because the subsidies from Germany have decreased. Lots of sponsors have remained loyal for many years, but quite a few of them have now retired from professional life, and living on a pension, have to budget their limited resources.

The internationally experienced manager Maik Fuellmann has taken on the problem, and hand in hand with representatives of a major insurance company has thought up a way of motivating many customers to support the School for Life with small monthly sums of 6, 12 or 15 Euros. We are optimistic, and hope that this will be a success story.

In Germany, the team that looks after the School for Life has been reinforced: Andreas Dernbach, who was in development work for many years in Vietnam, has taken over the baton from Rita Haberkorn to become the new director of the School for Life Institute at the International Academy (INA), Free University of Berlin. Other members of the institute include Christian Luther, director of the Digital Print Centre ‘Laserline’ in Berlin, who will be responsible for setting up a support group, especially made of businesses; Dr. Julian Bomert of the Berlin University for Further Education, which – along with the Robinsohn Foundation – takes care of the collection, management and forwarding of donations and advises the School for Life;  Ulrich Griesdorn, from the German Foundation Center, a longtime adviser and supporter of the project; Dr. Berndt Tausch, CEO of the Step Foundation in Freiburg, which has promoted physical education at the School for Life for many years; and Rita Haberkorn, whose commitment from the beginning of the project helped secure its existence and whose advice is still in demand. Dorothea Schrimpe and Kathrin Ebel have founded UMIWI together, selling beautiful colored glazed bangles made from mango wood, produced in Chiang Mai under the supervision of Dominique Leutwiler – the proceeds go to the School for Life. Dr. Diethelm Krull has also joined the team, under contract from Barbara Hunz Personnel Management Ltd., and has taken on the task of fund-raising for the School for Life.

Of all institutions, the Shaul and Hilde Robinsohn Foundation is our oldest and most loyal supporter and competence companion, with their board members Prof. Dr. Götz Doyé, Rita Haberkorn, Dr. Gerd Harms, Dr. Hans-Henning Pistor and Dr. Wolfgang Schirp. The commitment of these people as well as the many others in Germany and Thailand is very moving, and I am very, very grateful to them all.

School for Life, 10^th August

The publishing company ‘verlag das netz’ has sent a proposal for the cover of my book, “Semi-Controlled Chaos – 50 Years of Reports, Essays and Portraits”, which will appear in Autumn 2012. 600 pages of text, lots of illustrations and a title that is borrowed from a text by Herman Melville. In “Israel Potter – His 50 Years in Exile”, he writes:

“The career of a stubborn adventurer is obvious proof of the principle that those who desire success in the bigger picture should not wait for smooth seas – which have never existed and will never do – but rather begin making their way blindly towards their goal with the random methods they have to hand and leave the rest to fortune. For all human relationships are messy by nature, as they both stem from and are maintained by a kind of semi-contained chaos.”

The printing of the book will receive substantial financial support from Laserline and the publishing company, and both the profits and my author’s fee will be used to benefit the children at the School for Life.

In the early 1960s, I began writing a lot for the newspaper ‘Die Zeit’ in Hamburg, and later also for other newspapers and magazines, and found that curiosity about the immediate and wider world can lead to getting entangled in situations of semi-controlled chaos – and that it can be important to keep the goal in mind and to develop good ideas along the way. I have encouraged my students to approach different realities from different perspectives and to choose a lively language for their description rather than fall to the assumption that abstract jargon is necessarily enlightening. I remember a story told to me by ethnopsychoanalyst Mario Erdheim, who once visited a colleague in a remote part of the world – perhaps Borneo? – and was fascinated by the stories he heard in the evening by the fire. His colleague then presented him with an article as a farewell present, said to contain the stories he had told his friend, so that Erdheim could read everything again on his flight home. When he did, however, it was unrecognizable. All the vibrancy and color had fallen victim to icy sheets of technical jargon.

Our condition is part of the process of realization, as indicated years ago by a doctoral student who wrote her research about the Pinochet regime in Chile and the transmission of the traumatic experiences of torture victims to the next generation. She wrote down her fears, doubts and unanswered questions in a research journal, which added a second complementary level of commentary to the actual research process. The “semi-controlled chaos” can be conceived of as a biography – translated into camera movements – of my curiosity about the world, the risks that are taken and the attempts to capture and hold on to threads of a real utopia.

School for Life, 11^th August

In Thailand, Mother’s Day is on the Queen’s birthday. At 9am, we gather outside near the entrance gate, in front of her picture. The headmistress, Siriporn, reads out a list of good intentions with her face turned to the royal image. This is done by all of the head teachers of all the schools in Thailand.

Today, the children are wearing what in this country is called “national dress” – the costumes of the Lisu, Lahu, Akha, Hmong, Karen, Thaiyai and the Thais of the North. A colorful picture. Celebrating Mother’s Day with children who often have no mother, either because she is no longer alive, or is not in a position to take care of her child, is a difficult and sometimes tearful affair.

I tell the children the story of the chalk circle: many, many years ago, two women both claimed that they were the mother of the same child. They quarreled violently and finally, went to court. Only one of them could be the real mother. The judge listened to both women, and then said he didn’t know who was the right or the wrong mother, and then he drew a big circle on the ground in chalk. He placed the child in the middle of the circle and ordered the two women to pull the child until one of them succeeds in pulling the child out of the circle – this mother would be the winner. The women began to pull, but then one of them let go. The other woman was triumphant, thinking the child was now hers. However, the judge took the child away from her and gave it to the woman who had let go, with the words: “You are the real mother, because you couldn’t bear your child to suffer.”

While I tell the story, which has spread since ancient times in different variations throughout various cultures, two young women who have come with a group of twelve from Kolping to do a work camp at the School for Life, play the roles of the two mothers. They take a kid and pretend to pull with all their might. Then one of them lets go. Now in the role of the judge, when I take the child away from the woman who held on and give the child to the real mother, this makes a big impression on the children, and some of them come running up to me and hang on me like grapes.

Later that morning, as every year on Mother’s Day, an Abbot comes with his monks and neighbors who live near his temple. They bring the children’s favorite food, and the Abbot shows them that Mother’s Day can be a good day even without mothers.

School for Life, 12. August

A few days ago, lightning struck the school. Nothing bad happened – no fire, and no one was hurt. The flash just broke the TV, DVD player and computer system. It will take a while until they’re repaired. I use this as an opportunity to spend the evening reading KurtTucholsky, volume 7 of his collected works. Tucholsky in 1929 on Bert Brecht, the copyist; Tucholsky on the Ten Commandments, which he no longer remembers; Tucholsky’s leaflet for jurors.

A few days after the lightning struck in the evening there is another storm. Now there is a power cut for hours. By candlelight, without music or film, it’s almost like being back in Wasserburg on Lake Constance in 1945, when we lived in a small, 15 square meter shack without power and water. We could hear the wind and the waves on the nearby lake. And I learned to pick up the cigarette butts dropped by the occupying forces and store them in matchboxes, exchanging them with the former German soldiers for a piece of bread or a corncob.