Last summer, I worked in a summer camp in China. It was a
camp for elementary students. Most summer camps in China are different from
ones here, they are usually operated by some certificated education institutions
other than schools, the camps usually play a role that is similar to summer
schools, where students can take classes. The content of classes can be either
be an advance of school courses, or reviewing of school courses.
I taught English and Math to elementary students. The class
size was 8 to 12 students, which was small, and not hard to control. It was an
enjoyable experience, because I always like to work with children. Despite I
liked my job, I’d encountered some problems. I would have to admit that some of
the problems are caused by my lack of experience as a teacher, for example, did
not know how to deal with children when they were getting moody, and some of
the problems were caused by the triangle arrangement.
Despite I worked as a teacher, I’ve been so used to consider
things from a student’s perspectives, especially when I was working with
elementary children, I did not want to push them too hard on studying during
their summer break. Besides, they would have the class very day for one hour
and a half (with a ten minutes break in between) for a month, it would be hard
for them to stay for one hour and a half. So I went a little slow while
teaching my students, and added some educational games, and video-watching in
my teaching. One of the games was role plays in English classes, students could
write their small English plays using words we earnt, and act them out. My goal
was too let them have fun while learning.
My students, and most parents liked my classes, but there
were some parent complained that the children did not learn as much stuff as expected
in the camp. My boss understood my concepts, but she also thought that I should
make the course more efficient, so parents would believe that paying for the
camp was worthy. She and I talked to the parent who was complaining, and
solution we had after the talk was to cut down the time for games and video watching.
There will be one game/video watching every two classes instead of in every
class, and I also promised the parent to finish the teach content I supposed to
teach every single class.
In this case, I made my lesson plan majorly based on students’
needs, which was not completely consistent parents’ expectation for the camp. We
solved the problem by negotiation, and each of us gave in a little bit to make
things work. I would believe that was the best solution I could think of, and
in contrast, if I tried to satisfying the students while ignoring parents,
parents would be less likely to choose our camp.
Before commenting on your post let me note that in my own teaching I've never had a parent of one of my students communicate with me about my class - good, bad, or indifferent. I've had students communicate outside of class, the most common scenario is that they lobby for a higher grade than what I've assigned, but never have I had a parent or somebody else in authority tell me how to teach. So I have no experience on which to base my response to you.
ReplyDeleteBut I have had a rather long and extended conversation with students who took my course previously. You can read about it in an essay I wrote for Inside Higher Ed that describes the experience. Since this discussion group had one Korean and two Chinese students, I got some sense of what school is like in China and Korea. On that basis I would say that what you did went against the culture, and many people may not be ready for that, even if you had the children's welfare as your foremost concern and even if you were right about that. It is very hard to be nurturing in a system that values exclusively performance - measured by tests.
The issue then is whether you accommodate the system in your approach or if instead you try to change the system. Truthfully, as a summer instructor only it would seem like folly to try to change the system. For a full time teacher, it would be a different matter.
I also wonder whether going to college in the U.S. influenced your approach as a teacher. I suspect that school here is quite different from school in China. If what you were trying to do is emulate the better aspects of the approach in the U.S. that you've seen as a student, that is understandable. But it is equally understandable that people who haven't experienced education in the U.S. would push back against the approach - a culture clash if you will.
It surely is an interesting triangle. It suggests that parents don't always have the best interests of their children at heart, even when they say they do. In that sense it is like the difference between Argyris and Schon's Model 1 and Model 2.
Actually the place I worked, and actually a lot of summer camps as this in China, are trying to do a little different than the tradictional Chinese education system. Many of them would hire teachers from other countries -- U.S., Europe, etc, to make parents believe that the institution is international/ professionl, and try to teach a little "western". Actually many other teachers in the place I worked did similar things as I did -- as a commericial education institution, we did care what students think about us and what parents think. That was why I tried to do my teaching a little differently, but it was not completely odd in where I worked.
DeleteI think my education in the U.S. did influence my approach as a teacher, I would generally value test scores less than a traditional Chinese teacher, but I am not sure if it is a good thing or not, because living under this culture that test score is important, and population is large so you have to be really outstanding to go to domestic college, it may not always be a good idea to teach like it is here.
I think the field I would like to go is early childhood education, because test scores would not be valued that much during early childhood, and young parents would want their children to build social skill, learning skills, and have a general interest to learning new thing. I think in this case, the American education system would be more helpful.
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