Secrets of a good teacher

海峽時報 (新加坡)
Prime News | By Sandra Davie, Senior Writer 2011-06-01

Secrets of a good teacher

Global management consulting firm McKinsey, which studies top-performing education systems, concluded that the key to educational achievement is hiring the best teachers and getting the best out of them through training. Can Singapore gear its teachers up for the 21st century and remain tops in education? Professor Lee Sing Kong, who heads the National Institute of Education, explains what it will take.

AS ANYONE who has stepped into a modern classroom knows, the tools of teaching have changed - blackboards and overhead projectors have been replaced by LCD screens and multi-sensory presentations.

But as one of Singapore's leading educators knows, if the teacher is second-best, the students will still suffer.

It is a universal truth National Institute of Education (NIE) director Lee Sing Kong, 59, picked up during his own primary school days in Port Dickson, Malaysia.

Whizz-bang technological gadgets were pretty thin on the ground, but his Primary 3 teacher, Mr T.S. Yau, not only knew his maths, science and English well, but more importantly, knew how to teach those subjects.

His skill had the young Professor Lee hooked for life on science and the joy of learning. Yet, for all the innovations that have come to schools since - teaching theory, the Internet, digitalisation - Prof Lee notes the person in front of the class still holds the key.

'Teachers still encourage, enable, guide and shape young minds. Lighting the fires of learning and discovery will always be what a good teacher does,' he says.

And some, like Mr Yau, go the extra mile, quickly sizing up the backgrounds of his young charges and offering help.

In the case of Prof Lee, whose parents were farmers, he noticed the young boy's worn-down pencils and how he maximised the use of his exercise books by writing on the covers. The next day, for good work done, he rewarded him with new pencils and exercise books.

Prof Lee recalls: 'Good teachers impart knowledge, but great teachers, as they say, are able to ignite the love for learning, and that is what Mr Yau did for me.'

The spark Mr Yau ignited brought Prof Lee international acclaim for developing the scientific know-how to grow temperate vegetables in sunny climes using aeroponics, where plants are grown suspended in air.

Prof Lee made his breakthrough discovery while engaged in research at NIE. He took over as head of the teacher training institute, which is part of Nanyang Technological University, five years ago.

He has witnessed huge changes in education, has been at the forefront of many of them at NIE, but recognises that much remains the same.

'The mastery of content, the ability to teach it well, being able to size up their pupils' needs - all these qualities are still needed in teachers today,' adds Prof Lee.

What has changed in the wake of technological advances is the ever-increasing complexity of the challenges facing students in the modern world, and that makes it harder for teachers entrusted with their care.

'At the heart of a teacher's work is the student. Every teacher must equip his students well to survive and succeed in the new global landscape,' says Prof Lee.

'And the new landscape demands that teachers develop the 'whole child', not only intellectually, but also socially, morally, physically and aesthetically.'

He notes that advances in information technology have redefined the traditional nature of teaching and learning.

After all, students can get information from any number of outlets and search the Web for anything under the sun, which all serve to raise the skills bar for the 21st-century teacher.

The mastery of the core knowledge in a discipline is still important, but Prof Lee adds that with the 'knowledge explosion', teachers have to become expert 'curators of information'.

'With the Internet, the role of a teacher has changed. He is no longer the sole purveyor of information, though it is still important to pass on to his students the core knowledge in the different subjects.

'Rather, the teacher's role now has become one of the facilitator who guides his students on their learning, how to access, evaluate, organise and use information from a variety of sources.'

The actual mechanics of how to teach, call pedagogy in the trade, also remain crucial and form a big part of NIE's teacher training programmes.

'You can have all the knowledge in a discipline, but a good teacher must able to transfer that knowledge to her students,' he says.

Good teachers, he notes, balance how and what they teach.

'In science, for example, they prepare students both to understand key concepts in science and to engage in scientific investigation,' he says.

But needless to say, advances in communication technologies mean the process of passing knowledge on to students has changed.

Prof Lee shows off the state-of-the-art classrooms at NIE - he dubs them 'kindy classrooms' - where the multi-coloured tables and chairs can be easily moved around for students to pair up or work in larger teams.

There is not just one whiteboard, but several around the room, allowing the teacher to move from one group of students to another. There are also LCD panels for the teacher to stream different resources to different groups.

The classroom design reflects not just how the traditional mode of teaching is a thing of the past, but also how a teacher's role has changed.

The 21st-century teacher must be able to facilitate learning, stimulate students and control, moderate and manage communication and collaboration.

There is no running away from the fact that teachers have to be digitally literate.

'Our students are digital natives. Teachers must be able to use technology in ways that enhance their teaching and 'speak' to students,' he says.

There is also the important element of values and character education, which the Education Ministry has been emphasising. Prof Lee agrees that teachers have a crucial role to play in moulding their young charges.

'All the knowledge and skills we pass on to our students must be anchored by values,' he notes, adding: 'Our children need to be brought up with the right values and to be able to make ethical decisions to guide the application of science and technology in society.'

'Cultural literacy' is another value teachers must help nurture to allow young people to thrive in a wired-up world with fewer barriers between nations. 'In such a global economy, there is a greater necessity for knowing, understanding and appreciating other cultures,' he says.

Prof Lee adds that in order to teach values, teachers must model the behaviours they expect from their students.

'The 21st-century educator must model values such as tolerance, global awareness, sensitivity to the environment and the love for learning,' he says.

This shifting, sometimes bewildering landscape of change and innovation is posing huge challenges on every front for those taking up teaching, yet these universal truths remain.

He noted it earlier and it bears repeating: 'Lighting the fires of learning and discovery will always be what a good teacher does.'

sandra@sph.com.sg

NATIONAL Institute of Education (NIE) director Lee Sing Kong, 59, is a horticulturist by training and a professor of biological sciences at Nanyang Technological University.

After a career in the civil service, Professor Lee joined NIE in 1991 and held various leadership positions. In 2000, as dean of the Graduate Programmes and Research Office, he implemented various programmes to enable teachers to develop professionally and to acquire postgraduate qualifications.

As NIE director from 2006, he launched many key initiatives, including the publication of a report outlining NIE's strategic directions from 2007-2012, which is aimed at propelling the institution towards becoming a teacher education institute of distinction. He also heads NIE International, the consulting arm of the institute.

In 2007, he co-founded and served as the inaugural chairman of the International Alliance of Leading Education Institutes, putting NIE firmly in the global league of teacher education providers.

Prof Lee studied horticultural science at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, on a Colombo Plan Scholarship, and received his PhD in plant biotechnology in 1985 from the National University of Singapore.

His passion for agrotechnology has led to several national initiatives, such as developing new technologies for food production in the urban landscape.

He researched aeroponics at NIE, developing and adapting ground-breaking technology to produce temperate vegetables in the tropics, work that has earned him national and international recognition.

He is widowed and has two children.Are good teachers born or made?

Both. There is no such thing as a born good teacher. However, by nature, some people possess a combination of personal qualities that would predispose them to become good teachers, such as the love for children and learning, patience, and being good communicators.

Nevertheless, even the most genetically blessed teacher must be trained to become a good teacher.

Should teacher appraisal be tied to performance?

Teachers, not textbooks or exams or syllabuses, are ultimately what make education succeed.

You cannot ignore the effect that a good teacher or, for that matter, a bad teacher, can have on her class. Research has shown that the difference can be substantial.

Educational researcher William Sanders, for example, found that all other factors, such as class size, ethnicity, location and poverty, all paled into triviality compared with teacher effectiveness.

His research also showed that students unlucky enough to have a succession of poor teachers lagged behind.

So, yes, good, well-qualified teachers make a difference. We should try and assess them in a fair, objective and transparent manner, and reward them accordingly.

When selecting teachers, what is the one quality you would look for, that is essential?

Love of children. If they don't like being with children, teenagers and interacting with them, and nurturing them, then how can one become a good teacher?

You are a great advocate of 'action research', where teachers conduct research in their classrooms to hone their teaching skills or to understand their students' learning needs better. Why do you think action research is important?

It is part and parcel of what good teachers do. To test out their teaching strategies, what works with a certain group of students and what doesn't.

A good teacher is constantly looking for more effective ways to teach and learn.

It is something we emphasise in teacher training and hope it becomes an in-built thing in teachers we send out to schools.