THE SEAT OF LEARNING

By Mike Connely

Key Point: You will not bring about change in education without considering the cultural context of teaching and also involving the teacher’s concerned in the process.

Many years ago when I was keen young teacher in a secondary school in Cyprus I asked the headmaster if I could arrange some sessions for the other English teachers during which we could share ideas and hints on teaching. On hearing this he smiled (he had been a head teacher for many years) and said, “Yes, go ahead – but don’t expect miracles to result from your efforts”.

Sensing that a story lay behind his remark, I asked him why he appeared skeptical about the possibility of change and improvement in our teaching methods. He told me that, some years before, the Ministry and the inspectorate had decided to make teaching methods more up-to-date and so had published a decree that students no longer had to stand up and formally address the teacher when answering a question, but could remain seated instead.

A few weeks later he was going round the school with an inspector of English when they had occasion to visit the classroom of an elderly and very experienced teacher of English. They were rather surprised to see an empty desk prominently placed a the front of the class. When they asked the teacher what it was for, he replied with a puzzled look that his methods were now up-to-date, and this desk was the seat of learning where students came and sat when they were answering the question.