“What we want is a
curriculum for being and, more importantly, a curriculum for becoming.
Yes, we want students who are smart in subject matter, but we also want good
people. Our world depends on it” (Henderson & Gornik, 2007, p. 136).
If you are not familiar with 3S understanding, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3S_Understanding
How do you think it
can be possible for teachers in your situation/ context to teach for deeper
understanding that not only students’ lives are affected but also their communities, now
and in the future?
I'm not familiar with 3S understanding, but I can say it sounds like a dream in my country where I am teaching. I don't think it can work in my country. To teach subject and self is possible, but the idea of social teaching is very difficult because you will have some political ramifications. politics and teaching are separate in my country.
ReplyDeleteI am not familiar with this also and this is the first time I hear about 3s understanding, but in teaching, it can be applicable if the teacher is supported by the administration and the community. I think it takes a lot of effort and a lot of people and their agreement to apply this kind of teaching.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHi Moussa! Hi Jeong!
Thank you very much for your priceless contributions.
Moussa, I agree with you that teaching for 3S understanding is not an easy task. It is a challenge, and it will definitely take some time and collective effort, as Jeong mentioned. Nevertheless, it is important for us as educators to understand the depth and breadth of our teaching practice because every class day is a chance to effect some change.
This 3S understanding is actually a wonderful strategy. If students adopt it, they will be independent learners and will, therefore, benefit from their learing experiences
ReplyDeleteMr. Mustapha,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your participation. As a teacher of English in the Moroccan public education system, do you think you can teach for 3S understanding in your context? And if yes, how would you do it? If no, what are the obstacles?
I just understand the general concept of 3s understanding and I feel that this is what we really need to get the most of people' thoughts and contributions to their communities. However, I think it is too difficult to apply this since it involves more than one component. I really hope that we can apply this method in our teaching in the near future which, to be very honest, I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteAs i said previously, 3s is great. Yet, Unfortunately, this 3S is hard if not impossible to be applied into our context unless there is support from the ministry and the community.. As far as English is concerned, Ss here are stuffed with huge materials; they are not let to think of and make their own ways of learning.
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean. Teachers have to comply with what the Ministry of Education tells them to cover. Students have to gobble down what the teachers give them and spit it out on the test. That is what Freire, a Brazilian educator and thinker, described as the "Banking model of education".
DeleteAlso, in this model, there is no room for imagination and creativity.
DeleteFirst of all, I think that we all can agree that teaching for 3S understanding is not an easy task especially for teachers, nor should it be. This is because we are looking for a transformative education, a kind of education that helps learners reaches their highest level of intelligence. Accomplishing a goal like this would indeed require an extensive work from the teacher, as well as learners.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view, I think that we can teach for deeper understanding by many ways. One of the ways is that we could have a deliberative conversations with students about what we are doing, why we are doing it, what it will help us to do, how the new lesson fits with the previous ones, and how what they have learned can be shown (Henderson & Gornik, 2007). Addressing these questions would help teachers and students alike go deep and realize that teaching and learning is more than test scores and mastering subject matters.
From my personal experience, I remember asking myself questions about the goals behind teaching some courses. Of course, I still have not figures out why I had to take some of the classes. All I knew that they were core classes and I had to take them to get my degree. As a result, I did not care at all about deep understanding because my goal was to only get a good grade and pass the class. I know that I am not the only one who has undergone this experience. I am sure that many students would agree with I wrote here.
Abdulrahman,
DeleteThanks for your insightful input. Deliberative conversations would surely pave the way for fostering democracy in class and promoting deep understanding. I would also add that 3S Understanding goes beyond what the teacher and students are to cover in class. To me, it is an understanding of education that can take a course of study to unexplored territories and unexpected discussions. The beauty of 3S is that it is, in essence, holistic and democratic, which makes it unpredictable, just like life!
In my context as a government high school prof of English, it is possible to teach for deeper understanding. However, the problem will be to reach all the kids. What I wanna say here is we can connect with the kids who have motivation and enthusiasm to study and learn but we cannot touch those kids who don't wanna learn. In a class of 30 students that meets twice a week for few hours, it's almost impossible for me to engage all students. some students only come to class because there is no other place for them to go. It's either school or the street and we all know what the street brings with it for teenagers (drugs, problems, fights, jail, etc.). But going back to teaching for 3S understanding, I can say that to alter Moroccan government education to match the hopes of this deep understanding, as a starter, we need the help of the government: financial and educational. First, we need more teachers, small student numbers and more schools, and that means more investments. Second, we need better educators. For example, many of the teachers who teach English in high school don't even master the subject, so how can they teach beyond the subject matter? In conclusion, I think education in Morocco is still in need of strong reform, a reform that really changes things to the best, but slightly alter them.
ReplyDeleteMariam El Gharbaoui, High School Educator, Morocco
What I meant to say is we need a true reform that changes the entire nature of education and NOT a reform that slightly changes the outside look of education.
DeleteMariam,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your response. You raised very important problems that face educators in many countries and not just in Morocco. I would like to comment on what you said about what most teachers struggle with in their daily life, which is having students who are not motivated to learn in the classroom. It is a huge problem for teachers. Palmer in his book "The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life" calls those disturbing students "The student form hell. In his words, he describes them as "many students have no direction and lack of motivation. These students have little knowledge of the social skills necessary for teamwork and negotiation. They're bored and passive in situations calling for action, and belligerent destructive in contexts requiring reflection" (2007, P. 41).
I think that schools fail to meet those students' needs and aptitudes. As a result, they became the way they are because they feel that they are neglected. They create problems to their teachers and peers inside and the outside the classroom settings to stand out in front of everyone. Palmer (2007) states that "the student from hell is not born that way but is created by conditions beyond his or her control" (P. 45)
I think that the students from hell need special treatments from teachers and this what 3S pedagogy all about, accommodating students' personal needs to improve their subject, self and social understanding.
Thank you Abdulrahman for your great ideas. "Students from hell" that is what exactly what they should be called :)))
ReplyDeleteI have one question and I hope you can help understand this. You said that "the students from hell need special treatments from teachers and this what 3S pedagogy all about, accommodating students' personal needs to improve their subject, self and social understanding." My question is as follows: "How do you picture the teacher doing that while he or she has to teach 30 more other students? In theory, it sounds the right thing to do, but in practice it is really difficult, especially if you're having many these disruptive students from hell as you called them.
Mariam,
ReplyDeleteI totally understand what you and most teachers go through in their daily life. I myself have been through that when I taught English in an elementary school in my home country (Saudi Arabia). I know that your plate is full especially when you are a full time teacher and you have more than 30 students in the class, but that is our job as teachers is to try to help all students whether they are good students or bad students. Palmer thinks that the reason for why students from hell became the way they are is because they are full of fear and their ear is driven from "an adult world in which they feel alien and distempered” (P. 46). I personally agree with him. I think students from hell are afraid in schools and they use those disturbing behaviors as a defense mechanism.
Palmer (2007) states that dealing with students from hell is not an easy task, but it is very rewarding. He proposes that the best way to deal with those students by listening to their voices and concerns. In his words, listening to students’ voice “means entering empathetically in the student’s world so that he or she perceives you as someone who has the promise of being able to hear another person’s truth” (P. 47). I know what Palmer suggests is very difficult to implement in the classroom, I also think that if you as a teacher would like to make a difference in a person’s life, you would do whatever it takes to help him or her.
In my view, while we may not reach all students, our moral duty necessitates that we do our best to reach all without reservations. It is a challenge that we accept by accepting the job itself. If you start your practice believing that you won't reach some students, chances are you won't reach any. It is our humanity that moves us and guides us to do what we think and feel is the right thing. After all, teachers are humans; we are not superheroes, but the fact that we are humans gives us that extra push to go above and beyond and make positive change in the most seemingly helpless causes.
ReplyDeletethat is very true. teachers are not superheroes, but guided by morality we can only do our best.
ReplyDelete