The industrial visits that we attended (e.g. Samsung D’light, Sulwhasoo Flagship shop, MBC World), it seems that these area focus on customers experience. That include the organised tour where the staff showed us around, the staff is ready to answer questions regarding their product that their company offers. This made me think back to our school context. We are in our own department, expert in that area. How confident are we when we need to talk about our school as a whole unit, how do we present our school as such that the ‘dots’ are connected. The programmes that our school have, are they related or are they just program that runs by itself?

Prof Ng Pak Tee talked about System thinking on connectedness which is essential to gel things (units) together. We have to be / stay connected to ensure success in a system. The challenge is how? By talking to people, listen and accept other members’ viewpoints, the initiative (heart) to find out more. One of team members brought up that sometimes it is not how good the other country is doing regarding the tours, it is ourselves that we do not even know it exists in Singapore. I would like to highlight that it is the connectedness we have among one another. If just one small portion in the system is not linked or gel, the vitality in the system will not flow.

Again, I would like to use this picture taken at Dorasan train station, the rail way line from South Korea to Europe can be possible, if and only if North Korea opens its rail network to connect up the rest of the World.

1) As MMs, we are expected to see things at a broader aspect. We want to drive our programmes successfully and sometimes we need to work collaboratively.  But how many a times do we see things from a different perspective, from another's person's angle?  Not much, but I must say, after this trip, it has to be deliberate, so that it is a win-win for all parties within the organisation.

2) Be flexible in all that we do. There has to be more than 1 way of solving/ approaching the issue. There is no need for me to be adamant about how something has to be done.

3) To be adaptable in different situations is especially true in my area of work. In this technology age, there is no absolute promise that something can work for sure.  If Plan A fails, plan B has to be activated. In one of the scenes of the HK show - Triumph in the Skies, the actor said, as a pilot, there must always be a plan B in our pockets.  Putting into perspective, as a MM, in all programmes we plan, we need a Plan B for just in case.  I do not want to fail my team, I do not want my programme/ production to fail.  While I can cover all possible aspects with Plans B, C or D, there is still a possibility of failure.  When this comes true, I will then have to think quickly on my toes already.  To be really adaptable is then the ultimate challenge.

The students in Youngil High were very authentic, candid and confident; they were given the liberty to speak their mind and chose how they would learnt in the classroom.  The school is quite flexible in its discipline.  On the contrary, our students are “very well- trained” and go through a few rounds of rehearsals before a presentation or performance.  

Sungrye Elementary employed innovative practices in its curriculum such as ICT-based lessons.  The school is well-supported in terms of financial resources.  The classrooms were well-equipped with a large, suspended monitor, two desktops (one monitor facing the students), a printer, a long L-shaped teacher’s table and sturdy, student-friendly tables and chairs; and simple things like hooks at the side of the table and on the ledge of the whiteboard.  All these, I believe aid in teaching and classroom management.

I find the alternative education in Sungmisan School, a refreshing idea and a courageous one.  It certainly needs a lot of buying-in from the community and the government.  The school prioritizes authentic and hands-on learning.  In my previous school, we did farming with the Primary One students.  We grew groundnuts in a plot outside our ground floor classrooms.  The students learnt to loosen the soil, sow the seeds, water the plants, remove the weeds, cultivate the plant and harvest the groundnuts at the end of three months.  We integrated English, Mathematics, Science, CCE and SEL competencies in the activity.  Personally, it was a joy; teaching and learning were meaningful.  Unfortunately, it was not followed up with other authentic learning at the progressive levels.  For Sungmisan to actively take the students through authentic learning from elementary to high school is no mean feat. Kudos to Sungmisan!  

Benjamin Franklin supposedly once said “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” But I think that does not mean that we need to come up with the perfect plan. The only constant in life is change. Things do not always go according to plan and we often need to adapt to last minute challenges hurled at us. If everything is so predictable, where would the fun in life be? Are our students equipped with the ability to handle change and rebound from failures?

I think that in Singapore, we are a bit too obsessed with not failing. Failure seems a taboo and we try to plan our education to allow smooth paths of success for most. Often, many valuable lessons are learnt from our own mistakes. By overly protecting our students, are we limiting their learning? Looking at the children from Sungmisan swinging from the still rings with just a thin cushion below them triggered me to think about how cushioned our Singaporean children’s lives have become. Playgrounds nowadays do no have sand in them and have cushioned flooring. You can hardly find swings nowadays, and playground slides are far from exciting. Looking at students from Youngil High School take ownership of their own presentations made me think about how we might have over prepared our students with extensive rehearsals whenever they need to make presentations for a major event. Looking at the harshness of the Korean work industry made me think about how Singaporean graduates can go to a job interview with no prior work experience and expect a $4000 salary. Has the life of Singaporeans become more and more sheltered and are we contributing to creating a Durian generation in Singapore?

I think we need to break away from the thinking that failure is always bad. Sometimes you can plan and consider a problem from every possible angle but you will never know unless you physically try. If we are tied down by fear of failure, we will have difficulty progressing. As MMs we need to be open to exploring new ideas. Dare to try, dare to fail, for the sake of teaching our students better. Of course we do not need to risk everything we have like Johnathan from On the Grill. Sound planning, coupled with calculated risks should make learning more exciting for both teachers and students. The concept of “Productive Failure in Mathematical Problem Solving” by Dr Manu Kapur is an example of an interesting approach of using failure to enhance learning.

Only when you have experienced failure, can you better appreciate the sweetness and the value of the success you have achieved. Only when you have tasted disappointment from Two Two Chicken, can you learn from your prior experience and be spurred to work hard, towards the Kyochun Chicken in life, and be able to better cherish the flavour of success.

1) Students

Prior to this trip, I had heard of the stressful Korean education system from my Korean-language Teacher, Korean students and friends. As it turned out, the sharing by high-school students from Young-il High School, verified what I had been told. The reality of the stiff competition to get to good universities and the attendance at after-school academies to level up, are facts of life that the students had accepted. In many moments of the school visits, I had to remind myself to listen and watch the sharing by the students, and not being over-empathetic in my response. Notwithstanding that it was the student leaders who spoke to us, the sincerity of the students’ concerns for their future and the voicing of the need to give their best in their academic pursuits, and the ambition to want to make a change to the education system –

all these painted a positive picture of intrinsic motivation in the reality of external pressures. As I looked back at the way my colleagues had to push the unmotivated students of the tail-end classes to work hard for the upcoming national examination, I cannot help but wish they could just have a bit of such motivation of the Korean students. Yet, we are constantly reminded not to add (examination) stress onto them.

2) H.O.T. educator

Given that the Korean teachers’ career development pathway is not as diverse as ours, salary package is not as wide-ranged as ours, promotion is tied to seniority in service and the posting is decided by its Ministry of education, I can imagine that one must really be passionate in teaching and grounded in the mission to be an educator, in order to continue in the profession. A sharing from a Happy-Ordinary-Teacher in Sungrye Elementary School was heartwarming. She explained she had given up the opportunity for promotion with little pay difference so that she could spend more time with her family. We saw her passion in her teaching and enthusiasm in hosting us, and that to me, was a portrait of a H.O.T educator. It challenged me to think if I would still be H.O.T like her if my salary and PD or posting opportunities were to be reduced one day. 

3) Small-eatery owner and worker

Prior to the trip, I had heard that some restaurants do not welcome solo-diners and some restaurants designate areas for solo-diners. The dinner at a small unattractive eatery in Namdaemun market was an intriguing experience. True enough, I was not allowed to enter the main dining area and I was asked to sit at an unattractive spot supposedly for solo-diners. However, that also created opportunity for conversation with the owner and her assistant. The owner initially looked fierce and I was a little nervous being the eatery alone. With my limited Korean and the assistant limited chinese, the conversation started when I thanked them (in Korean) for the meal. That immediately changed the atmosphere and we managed to strike an interesting conversation on the food and how I got to know about the restaurant through internet recommendation. The owner and assistant became friendly when we could communicate. I think I was given extra food and I think they take pride in what they serve; I could not finish my dinner and had to apologise for wasting food. In a few separate encounters in the trip, shop owners showed friendliness when they hear that I could speak their language. Language broke the barrier and common means of communication is so important in bringing people together and preventing misunderstanding.

 

4) Singaporean who lives in South Korea

We met a Singaporean who has called South Korea home. It was from our conversation with him that we gained insights on the real day-to-day challenges of the Korean people in things like employment, education, cost of living, administration styles, hierarchy in the work place. All of these were compared to how things are in Singapore. There is indeed no perfect economy, no best society and no ideal world that we can hope to set our homes and families in. We learn to thrive in where we are put, try to work with people who cross our paths and adapt in order to survive in the environment. The thing that holds us rooted in the changing and harsh environment is our values and beliefs. Those are things that should not change.