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The Educational Setting and Impact on Teaching and Learning

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The Educational Setting and Impact on Teaching and Learning

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My anticipation was rising as we moved through the hustle and bustle of the streets of Chiang Mai. As we drove on, the tangled power lines began to diminish and we were slowly exposed to the lush green countryside on the outskirts of the busy city. We turned a corner and drove into the school and I immediately fell in love with the campus. The modest buildings intertwined with majestic Rain Trees create a sense of a community wrapped amongst nature. I believe it is this, the space in which the school sits amongst the world, that is the anchor of the teaching and learning experiences at Prem Tinsulanonda International School.

Initially I perceived Prem to be a relatively relaxed environment with its roots in with nature. This can be observed almost instantly when exposed to the school's character. The trees that wrap themselves amongst the buildings, the lakes that flow through the grounds, the farm animals that trot around the fields, all of these characteristics guide the school's connection with the earth. I believe, from my experiences that this is what assists in establishing caring students who aspire to be the best person they can be. This is a notable attribute that was displayed by all students I interacted with at Prem; a caring nature.

The educational experience at the Traidhos Three Generations Community Farm was an opportunity to see this connection in action. During this experience, I was able to understand the importance of the farm and how it runs programmes for the students to assist their understanding of sustainability. By having the farm on campus, attached to the learning environment, the students are more able to view the impacts on sustainable living in action. Observing the direct impact of this arguably allows the students to be more aware of their human footprint and their effect on nature. This farm also provides the students with a connection to the local community that surrounds the school as it offers opportunities for community members to take part and assist in the learning experiences.

Prem prides itself as a four-programme International Baccalaureate (IB) school. The International Baccalaureate Organisation's (IBO) mission is to 'create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect' (IBO, 2018a). During my first few days at Prem I was able to immediately see this aim being put into action through a range of methods and practices that are particular to the setting of the school. Amongst the students themselves approximately 38 nations are represented and the staff are from a range of countries across the world. Through this, the staff and students work together to promote and encourage 'International Mindedness' in the school environment to further embed the IBO's mission in daily practices. However, regardless of being known as an 'International School', Prem is continually embedding Thai culture into their daily actions. This is displayed through a range of ways including calling the teachers by the word 'Arjan', meaning Teacher or Mentor in the Thai language. Additionally, the Thai national anthem is played daily and is respected amongst all staff and students despite their own nationality to which they identify. The way in which Prem includes the Thai culture into their day-to-day practices is integral as it ensures that students have an understanding of the national culture in which they are living during their education experience at an International School.

Additionally, students are exposed to a range of other experiences that are particular to the school. Through these experiences international mindedness and cultural understanding are evident through a range of ways. In my first few days at the school, I was grateful to be a part of a year ten drama class that was ran by a guest resident artist from the UK, Yolonda Mercy. In Yolonda's class, the students were asked to become comfortable in the space, they were encouraged to explore their surroundings and feel as though they were a part of their environment. During this class, the students shared a personal story through an item that was important to them. Throughout this exercise, I was able to see the caring and supportive nature that is embedded within the students at Prem through their ability to share such vulnerable information with their classmates. The conversation was completely honest and uncensored, the students were sincere and candid and the class was supportive and accepting. This experience was incredibly special to be a part of and I believe it was extremely enriching for the students to be able to connect with themselves, their environment and others. A week later, the students in this class performed a monologue each in relation to these items that they had brought in. This was performed in front of a large audience and was a fantastic exemplification of international mindedness and cultural understanding in action. During the performance the students displayed a part of their own identity. Some students spoke in their mother tongue, some students spoke of the cultural importance of their particular object, some spoke of the struggles they have had with their family dynamics. All of the stories that were told were a complete and honest reflection of the person and the significance of their particular object. This experience, I believe, was a true demonstration of different cultures and identities sharing the same educational setting.

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“I didn’t even know what an International School was! I was just travelling around South-East Asia, I needed some money, and I had a teaching degree. So I just applied” – Sarah, Middle School

“I just happened to be teaching English in a nearby local school, but needed something more stable. I looked online and there just happened to be a job a Prem” – Cara, Junior School

“I was living in Beijing for years and decided that teaching could be a cool profession. So I got qualified, taught a few years in China and then moved here, and why would you want to leave, it’s beautiful” – Alan, Senior School

When chatting with staff about why or how they were teaching in the International circuit, a commonality that occurred was that they did not plan to be there. Most of the teachers with whom I spoke were more or less introduced to the world of International Schools by a moment of chance.

However, another commonality that was prevalent was the interest for the IB framework for learning. The way in which the teachers spoke about their particular learning area and the approaches that they have been using in class indicated genuine passion for the IB. Each teacher was explicitly interested in their teaching methodology, their learning area and their impact on student learning. This was at the heart of the school, the passion for teaching and learning.

My impressions of the teaching staff at the school were exceptionally positive. I have never been exposed to a schooling environment in which kindness, positivity and mutual respect was fostered to this degree. Each teacher was willing to engage professionally with me as a pre-service teacher, by offering advice, personal anecdotes about their experiences and by providing insight into the world of international schooling. I believe these informal interactions were extremely valuable to both my understanding of the IB but also informed my interest in working in such a dynamic, intercultural environment.

By professionally engaging in classes, meetings and co-curricular activities such as the Exploria programme, I was able to engage with all of the aspects of school-life at Prem. This was an important aspect of the school environment as there were some great opportunities for students to further enhance skills, commit to community services and to balance out their academic education. This programme further reflects the IBO's ideology to create well-rounded students who strive to participate in a global community.

In addition to professional engagement and communication with the staff at Prem, I also had the opportunity to engage with the other pre-service teachers. This engagement may have simply been chatting about different learning approaches or interesting classes that had been observed. However, when visiting a local Thai school we were required to utilise and implement our professional engagement and communication skills in a formal setting. This experience was one of the most rewarding and eye-opening experiences I had while in Chiang Mai. Located only five minutes by bike from Prem, the local school seemed a world away. A group of four of us had prepared an English Second Language class for year nine students. This in itself was the perfect opportunity to utilise skills of collaboration and communication as we all had different areas of expertise and no idea of the language level, ability and interest of the students we were about to teach. We assumed that the students' English language level would be high, we assumed they would have been aware of our home country and we assumed they would be able to partake in the activities that we had planned. However this was not the case. The students did not have a high-level of English and therefore we had to improvise as a group and plan a lesson on the spot that would be more appropriate. We were able to work together and facilitate a conversation with the students to explain to them a bit about Australia. By the end of the lesson students were asking questions in English and a discourse was evident. This experience was extremely valuable as it required the four of us to work as a team in a dynamic, unfamiliar environment in order to create and implement an effective lesson.

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Educational Philosophies, Values and practices

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Educational Philosophies, Values and practices

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Since beginning my teaching degree, I have always been interested in the IB. This interest stemmed from having friends who had attended international schools and hearing about their requirements during their final years of schooling. The element that particularly interested me was the idea of creating a holistic student that must critically engage with a range of disciplines. This ideology has since been central to my own teaching philosophy as I aim to assist in creating well-rounded, informed people.

An issue that can occur in the language classroom is rote learning content. This can be problematic in language learning as students are learning grammatical concepts in one particular setting and therefore are not able to easily transfer this knowledge in different contexts (Thornbury, 2001). There is no room for inquiry, there is no room for critical thought; the teacher teaches a concept and tells the learner to learn it. However, while at Prem, I was able to observe the most immersive, dynamic, interesting grammar lessons in the French classroom. Not only was this facilitated by the IB's framework but it also reflected Communicative Language Teaching methods. For example, the year six class consisted of students who had been learning French for four weeks, they were very much in the primary stages of language learning. Despite their ability, the entire class was spoken and taught in French. Although this sounds confronting, it was evident that productive learning was taking place.

During my experience at secondary school it was evident that languages were not valued within the school environment. There were only a handful of students in my year 12 class, there were minimal languages offered at the school and there was only a small amount of funding going into the learning area. Unfortunately, languages were not important. As a pre-service language teacher I am a strong advocate for language learning. I strive to educate people in the importance and relevance of language learning in today's globalised world. This genuine passion is reflected strongly in my teaching values and philosophies. The IB programmes promote languages, it is a requirement to undertake a second language and communication is reflected within the IB learner profiles (IBO, 2018b). I aim to base my educational approach in the classroom through these ideologies that are promoted by the IBO and those I have seen being implemented within an IB school.

Additionally, another aspect of educational philosophy that was evident at Prem was the idea of critical thought. As my second learning area is Media Studies, I am extremely interested in the way in which the media influences and shapes society. In the Victorian Curriculum, media is represented from F-10 and there is a VCE course for Media Studies, however, throughout my experiences on placement I have not observed the aspect of critical thought in classes. Alternatively, the IB Diploma Programme requires each student to undertake the subject Theory of Knowledge. Not only is this subject a fantastic way to encourage students to question philosophical questions, it also provides an opportunity for students to think critically about a range of issues, subjects and practices within the world. I believe this aspect of critical thought is what the VCE and other higher school certificates in Australia are missing. In the media classroom, there is so much room for students to critically think about the way in which they themselves interact with media on a day-to-day basis. By questioning their reading of a news article, or particular motives of technological companies, the students will become more active in their media consumption and therefore more informed about their interactions. As the world moves progressively to an online environment, I believe that it is integral that we, as educators, are equipping students with the skills so that they safely engage with these technological tools.

An example where I observed this critical thought was in a Theory of Knowledge subject that was based on the idea of science being subjective. Science is predominately perceived to be black or white, however in this class the students were encouraged to think critically about scientific facts that we know to be true and to question these. The teacher displayed a range of examples where truth cannot be proven, so truth is assumed. The students were then required to undertake an experiment that was based on assumptions and estimates. They were then required to discuss why the results may be subjective, to then find out that the method they just used is in fact utilised in real-life settings. By critically thinking about these assumptions that are made in society allowed the students to observed the subjectivity that exists in daily practices.

It is this ideology, that lies at the heart of my teaching philosophy, to create students who are critically engaging with content, not just regurgitating facts onto a sheet of paper in an examination. This experience at Prem was extremely beneficial to my teaching as it has demonstrated to me the opportunities to implement my educational philosophy in a practical way. I have seen learning taking place that embodies what I believe education should embody. This opportunity to observe and be a part of an international school is an experience that has further informed my teaching philosophy. Not only has it given me a valuable insight into the world of International Schooling, I have also been provided with the opportunity to observe another educational curriculum. Through this, I am more able to critically reflect on the Victorian Curriculum and compare a range of teaching approaches. It has been the most beneficial placement throughout my degree and was the perfect way to commence my journey as a graduate teacher.

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International Baccalaureate Organisation [IBO]. (2018a). Mission. Retrieved from https://www.ibo.org/about-the-ib/mission/

International Baccalaureate Organisation [IBO]. (2018b). The IB Learner Profile. Retrieved from https://www.ibo.org/benefits/learner-profile/

Thornbury, S. (2001). Uncovering Grammar. Oxford, England: MacMillian Heinemann English Language Teaching.