You can’t teach old dogs new tricks?

There is a saying that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. To what extent is this saying applicable to teachers who have been in the education system for many, many years?

The educational landscape is continually changing as a result of changes in the wider environment. Let us briefly examine three changes in the educational landscape here.

First, the educational landscape is changing in terms of modes of disciplining students. This is a major change in some educational systems. There was a time when teachers, mostly in the primary schools, would punish misbehaving, inattentive students by issuing corporal punishment. Some teachers swear by the efficacy of this punishment in getting students to display the desired behaviour in the classroom.

Corporal punishment, today, is deemed by the experts to be cruel and inhumane punishment. Instead, these experts suggest that teachers use positive reinforcement to get the desired behaviour from students. However, it seems that for many students being whipped is positively correlated with performance because now that corporal punishment is removed from the classroom, many students have put down their pencils and pens.

According to one teacher, she offered incentives to students in her low performing class in an attempt to encourage them to do the work she had assigned to them. Most students rejected her effort by saying that they could buy their own treats. Taking these students to the principal and calling in their parent/s yield the same result, no change in behaviour.

Probably the advocates of using positive reinforcement in the classroom need to hold practical workshops with teachers in schools where they demonstrate to teachers in lessons they conduct with these students how to get results without the use of force. Because, many teachers have mentally given up on students who are disruptive and inattentive and who do not display any desire to learn. These teachers are still harping on the “good old days” when the strap was king in the classroom.

Second, another change in the educational landscape is the change in teaching tools. Teachers have not found it too difficult to transition from blackboards to whiteboards. However, many teachers still have a difficulty incorporating Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into their classes.

Third, the educational landscape is changing in terms of the proliferation of knowledge(s) on issues in education which have been informing methodology in the classroom. While I take issue with a government agency sending down a prescribed teaching methodology to the schools which every teacher is expected to faithfully follow, I welcome the ever expanding knowledge base in education. This research can help teachers to gain insights into the issues with which they are grappling in the classroom.

How are teachers coping in this environment? Are “older” teachers willing to adapt to these changes, or are they allowing these changes to pass them by?

A number of teachers are, indeed, allowing these changes to pass them by. They can do this when they work in environments that have remained traditional and where there is no emphasis by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the school leadership on continuous professional development (CPD).

The MOE has been hinting at introducing CPD into the schools. A number of teachers with whom I spoke would like to have their schools introduce regular seminars where they can upgrade their skills. Some teachers, however, are wary of the introduction of CPD in schools. Some argue that after one leaves college with a diploma and goes on to do a first degree and later a Masters degree that person has upgraded. It does not matter that these degree were done ten years ago. These teachers seem to be ignoring the word “continuous” in the name of the activity, CPD. Another concern of teachers is the cost of this CPD. Who will bear the burden of this cost? After all, teachers are not being paid much now to afford to invest anything in training, some say. Furthermore, some teachers ask, when will these sessions be held? If the idea is to have these training sessions over the summer break, these teachers will not be onboard.

The MOE has, in all its efforts to improve educational output, left CPD out of the equation. Teachers have been used to doing things their way, without much monitoring for a long time. To get them to embrace the idea of CPD, whatever programme which is developed cannot be generic, but should be specific to the issues with which teachers are currently grappling in the schools and it must be subject specific. It should also involve the sharing of “new” methodologies and information. Otherwise, the MOE will be wasting its resources.

So, can old dogs be taught new tricks? The jury is still out on this one.