Teaching selflessness -- an essay, and request for ideas

[Mipi]

I understand, Mipi. That is why I'm trying to explore these ideas: is it possible to teach and learn about selflessness and sacrifice in a secular sense? If so, how?

Me, as an educator, and you as a parent, what advice would you give me on how to address this question, without getting into religious ideas, since in public school, it would be inappropriate to take such a tack? And the more fundamental question: is it even possible? ith:

What I'm trying to say to you is that in college it's to late, IMHO.

[mull]

"I have students in this group who are functionally illiterate, completely unmotivated, and absolutely disinterested in any subject matter aside from fast cars and sports, enthusiastically discussed..."

I guess I will dissent a little. Your students do not lack in motivation. They are simply motivated in other ways and by other ideas than you. You can try to force them to accept your views or you can teach and lead them by using theirs.
Joe

[CDNSushi]

I guess I will dissent a little. Your students do not lack in motivation. They are simply motivated in other ways and by other ideas than you. You can try to force them to accept your views or you can teach and lead them by using theirs.

Yes, I wondered if someone would bring that up. As my original post was sufficiently long and asked a different fundamental question, I figured I would address this only if it came up. But seeing as it has, I'll discuss it as briefly as I can, but as are many things in life, it's not quite so simple.

Let me first assure you that this concept is not lost on me. Even when I was a young, inexperienced teacher, I was a big fan of the teaching philosophies of John Amos Comenius. He is regarded by many as the first educational reformer in Europe, and lived and worked in the 1600s. One of his major tenets was that children learn language (specifically) but even extrapolating to a broader sense, through natural means. By "natural" he meant those activities that children would do on their own, without adults telling them what to do... Which was playing. When children are left to their own devices, they play. It is the most natural thing for them to do. In response, Comenius adapted his theory of teaching technique to incorporate very playful methods, like playing games, singing songs, and basically what Dr. James Asher at San Jose University popularized in the 1970s as the TPR (total physical response) theory of language acquisition -- something he also derived from the direct observation of the natural state of children and how they communicated.

In short, I do understand the relationship between motivation in learning founded in having an interest in the subject matter, as there is some very good evidence to show its value. It would be erroneous to say that I have not (or don't) incorporate what you speak of at some level. Having said that, however, there are some major limitations. We have had mixed degrees of success with directly catering to the students' interests, and there is enough experiential evidence is this particular circumstance to incorporate it only to a limited degree.

First, I have not yet observed a common enough passion among the students to merit a wholesale switch to a certain theme or topic. While I might have a group of students talking cars in one corner, no one else cares... So if I created a lesson with cars as the central theme, they might be engaged, but I will lose the rest of the class -- they will disengage.

Second, interest and passion do not equal engagement and motivation to learn. Interest and passion in a theme can actually be more counterproductive to the educational goal even more than disinterest. As an example, let's say that I DID manage to find a topic that an entire class can get behind and be passionate about, and in that class I incorporated certain language learning goals, tying them in with activities designed to practice those concepts. The students are SO focused on this really, cool, really neat theme, that they will completely abandon the English language-learning aspect, and simply get into a spirited discussion in Japanese, and it would take an act of Congress (or in this case, an act of the Diet) to get them to actually focus on the task at hand...

Next, I am often bound by metrics and objectives. Just like in the West, the pencil-pushers in City Hall and Board of Ed. insist on certain guidelines. This year they've mandated teaching to the TOEIC test, which, while not an unreasonable request, is 90% business English-related. The tools the students need to succeed on a TOEIC are not found in the things THEY would prefer to discuss, unfortunately.

Finally, you have to remember that teenagers are very fickle when it comes to their interests. Just because they are passionate about something doesn't mean they will be passionate about it around YOU. That is to say, if a couple of students are having a spirited discussion about J-league soccer, and I figure, "Okay... They like soccer. I can work with that!" and I create a J-league centered lesson custom tailored just for them, that doesn't mean they will extend their passion to the lesson. Because now that the crusty, "old" prof is involved, it's no longer fun.

Again, that's not to say that you don't have a point about catering to what the students like and what gets their gears going... I have done so, and continue to do so. As I said, I've seen mixed results, some quite good -- but it does have some very real limitations as well.

[CDNSushi]

There have been some really good reflections on this issue in these pages thus far. I'm glad that we have such a interesting variety of opinions. My previous response was really directed at one particular question, so herein I just wanted to mention a few of the other topics that came up.

TheBrus: I cannot really say much about the students' parents. As in any school, they are a mixed bunch. As college instructors we really have NO direct contact with them. The class advisors do (kinda like homeroom teachers in lower grades), but we ARE dealing with people in their late teens, going on 20, which is the age of majority in Japan. While parental roles in education certainly do deserve discussion and consideration, it's probably a more appropriate topic for K-12 than it is in post-secondary. While knowing more about the parents could reveal more info about the students' backgrounds, motivations, and problems, it wouldn't necessarily be effective use of time in devising solutions.

Father Bill, I apologize for pulling you out of retirement, but I was hoping you would comment, and I'm very glad you did. I will certainly look at the link you've posted... You're right that some things may be adaptable in another context.

Cygnus: I run a very fine balance in my classes, between permissiveness and strictness. One thing to remember, is that the Japanese concept of what is permissive and acceptable also varies greatly from what Westerners see as permissive and acceptable, so I must always be culturally aware and sensitive. Punishments in Japanese schools are also VASTLY different than those administered in the West. And in my 9+ years living and teaching here, I've found that it's highly ineffective to try and impose Western discipline here -- it's just not appropriate, nor is it effective. On the other hand, I will be adopting a few more control techniques that I hadn't had to utilize in the past, like assigned seating. At the beginning of the year, like in MOST colleges (I dare say), the prof walks in and tells everyone to "grab a seat." This is the case here too, especially given that the first class of the year (and the first week, for that matter) are extremely busy and we just don't have time to take 10 minutes out of a 50-minute lesson to take attendance and ensure that students are seated in a specific order.

In other ways, like with cellphones and games, and magazines in class and whatnot, I do try to minimize distractions and disruptions, but I also have to be careful to choose my battles. If a student sits in the back of the class reading a comic book and his buddy is reading over his shoulder, it's far more disruptive for me to stop the class and chastise them than it is to simply ignore the behavior.

ForresterModern: Great comments! The general philosophy here is to "teach to the willing" and try and ignore the unwilling. In a low-level college and a largely broken system, it IS a fairly successful strategy, up to a point. Even just a few years ago I used to wake up the sleepers in my class. Now, I just can't be bothered. It is when the unwilling start disrupting and ripping off the willing when this strategy starts to breaks down... What do you do with the unwilling then? Either you beat them into submission (figuratively, of course), or you try and engage them. I choose the latter, because I guess I'm just an optimist that I can still impart SOME knowledge into the unwilling, and I would have too guilty a conscience to simply shut out and exclude certain students -- that is EXACTLY what everyone else has done to them from elementary school onwards, and I just can't bring myself to be a part of the problem.

[CMcG]

<snip>
This year they've mandated teaching to the TOEIC test, which, while not an unreasonable request, is 90% business English-related. The tools the students need to succeed on a TOEIC are not found in the things THEY would prefer to discuss, unfortunately.

...

Again, that's not to say that you don't have a point about catering to what the students like and what gets their gears going... I have done so, and continue to do so. As I said, I've seen mixed results, some quite good -- but it does have some very real limitations as well.

Good to know that you try to cater to the students' interests, but that must be especially difficult if you are bound to teaching a TOEIC curriculum. What are the students hoping to get out of this class? Have you asked them what their own learning objectives are?

<snip>
Punishments in Japanese schools are also VASTLY different than those administered in the West. And in my 9+ years living and teaching here, I've found that it's highly ineffective to try and impose Western discipline here -- it's just not appropriate, nor is it effective.

In order to teach to the willing or even get a minimum through to the unwilling, there cannot be disruptions in the classroom. If the students ARE selfish then you will have to force them to at least ACT selfless. What are culturally appropriate punishments in Japan?

For a Canadian university, the threat of failure -- or at least poor grades -- is a real one. Apparently in CDNSushi's case, this is not so. I have been known to kick people out of class, which counts as an absence. I have also been known to shout and berate as necessary. Works for me

On the other hand, there are other pedagogical techniques being espoused by my university's Teaching and Learning unit. The two biggest ones recently have been integration of technology and participatory learning.

Students today can be thought of negatively as having no attention span or positively as being good multitaskers. In order to deliver sufficient stimulation to keep them engaged, effective use of technology becomes necessary.

This means two things. The first is that a traditional oral-only lecture is boring and a multimedia delivery of course material becomes more effective. In some cases, teachers are nearly doing away with lectures in order to focus on participation: small group work, class discussion, exercises, etc.

The second is to use social networking, smartphones, and the internet -- the typical modern youth's natural habitat -- as teaching tools. Are the student's talking in class? Make them text or instant message each other instead, especially if you get them to do it in English. The required text is not interesting to the students? How about including some internet-based work that can be tailored to individual interests? My university even has a software environment sort of like an internet forum with the prof as the mod. At the minimum, this keeps the slackers quiet, so the willing students can work...

Never having been in CDNSushi's situation, I'm just throwing some stuff out here. My lass is doing English as a second language teacher training as part of her linguistics degree, so I fear she may soon know exactly what he's talking about

[CDNSushi]

Some really good reflections. Let me address a few of the questions.

What are the students hoping to get out of this class? Have you asked them what their own learning objectives are?

I have done this before, but just not with this particular group, where I've had 1-on-1 meetings with each student to discuss their goals and hopes. It's really difficult to say how effective it was, but it did require a lot of time. To generalize though, the GOOD students have a fair idea what they want, the not-so-good ones don't possess enough tools to really know what they could or should want.

But just last week, (because of the new TOEIC curriculum that was newly instituted just this year) I actually got a student to complain. I was THRILLED (because Japanese students NEVER complain. At least not to their instructors). He told me that he wished there could be more speaking and conversation taught (rather than the TOEIC goal of listening comprehension). I told the student that I would see what I could do in the second semester -- I have a few things I plan to try. But I've been looking for an alternative test to the TOEIC that the higher-ups would be satisfied with as a quantifiable metric, but that didn't focus on just one skill so unilaterally. Again, I've got some thoughts on this too.

In order to teach to the willing or even get a minimum through to the unwilling, there cannot be disruptions in the classroom. If the students ARE selfish then you will have to force them to at least ACT selfless. What are culturally appropriate punishments in Japan?

For a Canadian university, the threat of failure -- or at least poor grades -- is a real one. Apparently in CDNSushi's case, this is not so. I have been known to kick people out of class, which counts as an absence. I have also been known to shout and berate as necessary. Works for me

I agree. We are on summer break now, but when second semester begins, ALL my students will find that their seating assignments have changed so that they are no longer sitting with their groups of friends.

Threat of failure is highly ineffective here, as are poor grades. Kicking people out of class is not unheard of, but very rare, as it is culturally not permissible to do so. The Japanese see education as a fundamental right, and they interpret removing a student from class as taking away that fundamental right from them (in spite of the fact that they are neither learning themselves, nor allowing others to learn). But I HAVE sent students to speak with the principal during class in a few extreme cases.

I've used other different tactics at different times. In spite of what I see as selfishness, most Japanese students are still sensitive to their cultural norms. One of these is belonging to a group, and that the needs of the group supersede those of the individual -- a very Eastern mindset. As such, the most effective methods of punishment involve censorship by the group. A very powerful motivator in Japan is the fear that one's actions might inconvenience another.

I've taken a few lessons from the Sgt. Hartman school of education (Full Metal Jacket). Remember the scene where "Private Pile" has a doughnut in his foot locker? He has to eat it while the entire group has to do push-ups to "pay" for it. Yeah. Like that. One causes problems, and the whole group gets punished with extra homework, for instance. Then I don't have to discipline the student at all. Either the student realizes very quickly that he's become a burden to the group and will change his behavior, and if not, the rest of the class takes care of letting him know that they don't appreciate his crap causing THEM inconvenience.

Let me tell a story... At the beginning of this year, I had a student who consistently refused to pay his textbook fees. Each day he would come up with some stupid excuse why he didn't have the money. Finally, when he told another instructor with whom I share the class (we teach on alternate days) that he didn't have the money because he didn't have time to go see his mother, I got mad and called him into my office.

I sat him down, and asked why he wasn't paying his fees. He apologized and said he would pay next week "for sure" -- the same story he had already been telling for several weeks now. So even as angry as I was, I calmly and quietly explained to him ALL the people he was inconveniencing. I wrote out a list, actually. I put the list on the table... It said this:

Dunlop-sensei
Kobayashi-sensei
Akazawa-sensei
the bookstore rep.
the college
Kocho-sensei
the bookstore
the supplier
the publisher
the author

I explained it like this: When you don't pay your fees, it's a burden on me because I have to waste time (like I am right now) talking to you about this -- time that I don't have because I've got a lot to do today. It inconveniences Kobayashi-sensei because I charged her with collecting the money from you to give to me, and she had to take time to try and do that, and then write me an explanatory note why she couldn't when it didn't happen. It inconveniences Akazawa-sensei because he has to waste time HE doesn't have to translate this to you (my Japanese is alright, but I will call in some help when I need to explain long, complex, or difficult things). It inconveniences our bookstore rep because he's been charged by his company to collect our school's fees and he cannot until everyone's paid. Not to mention the fact that he is forced to apologize to his superiors when he can't get the job done. It inconveniences the college because when companies cannot get paid from us on time, we develop a bad reputation for non-payment... Which inconveniences the kocho-sensei (Japanese word for principal) because he has to deal with the fallout of this bad reputation and apologize on our behalf (Yes, he actually does a LOT of apologizing to local businesses, the community, parents, etc)... It inconveniences the bookstore because they are expecting this money in order to pay their monthly "accounts payable" account. You should know this from your bookkeeping class how important that is. When they cannot clear accounts payable, that causes a delay in their payment to the distributor, which inconveniences them. That delay in payment inconveniences the publisher, who actually had to special-ship these textbooks from the U.K. at OUR behest. And it even inconveniences the author you see on the cover of the book because he won't get paid (with royalties) until the rest of the value chain is satisfied. Do you understand what I'm saying to you? (He said he did. But at this point I was on fire, so I kept at it a bit longer). Do you believe that it is fundamentally right for people to get paid for the work they do? (He said yes). Do you believe that it's proper for them to be paid on time? (Again, he said yes). Do you have a part-time job? (Yes). Where? (7-11). So, how would it make you feel, if on payday, your manager walked in, apologized to you, and said he couldn't pay you because he didn't have time to speak with his mother? (I'd be angry). Exactly. In the real world, people don't care about excuses and WHY they can't get paid... Even if we here at the college were sympathetic that you didn't have the money because you didn't have time to speak with your mother, do you think the bookstore rep. cares about that? Does the publisher care? Does the author care? If you receive a credit card statement, do you think they care that you can't pay it because you didn't have time to talk to your mother about it? How do you think that conversation would go down if you called their customer service department and told them that? As adults, we have to take responsibility for taking care of our obligations to others. If I know that I have to speak with my mother to get the money I need, then I make SURE to schedule myself in such a way that it gets done. (At this point he looked about 2 inches tall, so I figured he got the message). Okay. Now that you understand what's at stake here, I will ask you again. When can I expect your textbook fees? (Tomorrow). Great. Before you go, please take this list that I wrote to remind yourself why it's important.

He took the list, and indeed, the very next morning, wouldn't you know it, 0900 on the NOSE he was in the office paying his fees. The neat thing is that since my co-worker did the translation work for me, he took in my entire "motivational" speech, and told me later that he used it (pretty much verbatim) in one of his own classes, and managed to mow down all the non-payers in one fell swoop. They also all paid the very next day. He was chuffed! So yes, sometimes it's possible to come up with novel methods to deal with problems that no one has tried before, but that prove to be quite effective, especially given the cultural context.

On the other hand, there are other pedagogical techniques being espoused by my university's Teaching and Learning unit. The two biggest ones recently have been integration of technology and participatory learning.

I am a huge believer in participatory learning. I would say that about 50-75% of my classroom content is done as group work, and only the remaining portion is spent in "lecture mode." The biggest challenge is getting them to listen and understand long enough during the "lecture" portion in order to be able to do the group work correctly and properly. But I do have some potential strategies that I hope to be able to implement come next semester.

[cormacmacguardhe]

I am not sure how this will apply, but I have been of the opinion that, at least in western culture something is missing. There is no longer an initiation into adulthood. We have created this artificial being, known as a "teenager". Our younger citizens are not transitioned into adulthood from childhood, they are instead dumped into teenage, they are not taught about the responsibilities of being an adult, nor what their place in adult society will/should be. We kind of let them drift, to find their own place within the societal structure. Tribal cultures had their ceremonies after which the individual knew where they fit in that culture. Except for some religious groups, these ceremonies are gone from today's western society. We also no longer have apprenticeship programs starting at the young ages that they used to. I am not advocating a return to child labor, but we did lose some structure when programs like that were eliminated.
It is possible that at the age of late teens early twenties it could be too late to instill the values that we are talking about, but something like enlightened self interest could taught.