...and it's off to school again! My mother used to croon this - mockingly - up the stairs during the first few days of a new school year. She would be the third alarm, as I would have already slapped snooze and then seven minutes later unplugged the alarm clock. Even though it is January, I went back to school again this week and was fortunate enough to start shadowing in dutch schools. I attended three levels; HAVO, VMBO and MBO. In American terms; a comprehensive jr/sr high school, a sort of jr/sr high vocational school, and a vocational post-secondary/junior college. The two vocational/CTE schools were for agricultural studies.
Teachers and Teaching
On January 18, the Fulbright squad attended a meeting at the ministry of education, and received a presentation providing an overview of dutch education, followed by a question-and-answer session. In the Q&A, the dutch educators shared with us that some of the greatest concerns for dutch students were motivation and classroom discipline. The dutch are very proud to boast that students in the Netherlands are the happiest in the world - and I guess that makes sense if a national educational concern is discipline. Of course the kids are happy - they are running the classrooms! As the dutch folks explained their concerns, I was looking at the charts provided earlier in the discussion, that shared student performance in multiple countries. The Netherlands did not have the highest performing students, but they were several percentage points better than American students. This prompted the questions for me; what exactly is lack of discipline for the dutch, and how are our classroom management techniques in the US truly serving students?
With these queries on my mind, I bicycled my way to Cals College, a HAVO school that serves students age 12-18. An American could think of this as an honors high school. These are high performing students that intend to go on to university. Students take core content classes in both dutch and english, and many students are also in Atheneum, Gymnasium or Technasium. One could imagine these as honors tracks that prepare students not only for college - but specific areas of study. For example, a student in Gymnasium is probably looking to go on to become a doctor. They take their regular courses as well as greek and latin. While at Cals, I observed two experienced teachers and one teacher intern. In all three settings, discipline as a US teacher would consider it, was lacking. Children were talking while the teacher was giving instructions, students were rough-housing during the class activity, and one group of students had YouTube up behind the work they were supposed to be doing. In the image below, the teachers post consequences for poor behavior. Teachers in the Netherlands share classroom space, much like the model in New York City.
Reflection
Despite these distractions, the teachers really did not make a fuss over the students being focused, and everyone - for the most part - was on task. I was instantly comparing my own classroom management style with what I was experiencing and was wondering if I over- manage my class. Clearly it is not a one-to-one comparison; I was observing 13-year-old students, and I work with 16-18 year-olds. I'm in a different country, and I have no knowledge of these students' socio-economic background or if any are considered "exceptional learners". What I did take away from this lesson, and the lesson I was able to shadow on Thursday, was that the dutch teachers were getting roughly the same performance that I get from my students, without anyone getting frustrated or the teacher scolding the students. I have often felt that classroom discipline is a tight-rope walk, between being too harsh and having the students take advantage of the teacher. It seems even more so the case in the Netherlands.
What does this mean for my practice? As I observe more teachers in their classes, I may be re-thinking my style and intensity level in the classroom. Maybe.
I have oodles of observations to share, and in trying to curb the over-thinking and over-sharing impulse, I want to take my time to really refine my thoughts and produce thorough reflections on my time in schools. I will continue to incorporate multiple school visits into various posts as I "unpack" what I experienced, and not necessarily where I experienced it.