Dunia June 2018

June 2018

CELEBRATING THE

CLASS OF 2018

GRADUATION

page 18

UWCSEA

STRATEGY

2018–2023

page 2

SERVICE

LEARNING IN THE

PRIMARY SCHOOL

page 16

There is a quote of Nelson Mandela’s: ‘May your choices reflect

your hopes, not your fears.’ The problem with living in fear is that

it reduces and limits our potential. It’s the enemy of creativity. It

makes us feel insecure and negative towards our neighbours.

I am here to tell you that hope is the right choice. This is what your

UWC inner training has been about all this time.”

Ros Wynne-Jones ’89

Journalist and Guest Speaker at Dover Class of 2018 Graduation

Read more in our graduation report on page 18.

Dunia is published three times a year by UWC South East Asia. Reproduction in any manner

in English or any other language is prohibited without written consent. Please send feedback

to dunia@uwcsea.edu.sg.

Editors: Courtney Carlson, Sinéad Collins, Molly Fassbender and Kate Woodford

Photography: Sabrina Lone and members of the UWCSEA community

Design: Nandita Gupta

UWCSEA Dover is registered by the Committee for Private Education (CPE), part of SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG)

CPE Registration No. 197000825H | CPE Registration Period 18 July 2017–17 July 2023 | Charity Registration No. 00142

UWCSEA East is registered by the Committee for Private Education (CPE), part of SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG)

CPE Registration No. 200801795N | CPE Registration Period 10 March 2017–9 March 2023 | Charity Registration No. 002104

Printed on 100% recycled paper with environmentally friendly inks | MCI (P) 050/03/2018 | 070COM-1718

A NEW

COLLEGE

STRATEGY

2018–2023

Chris Edwards,

Head of College, on

planning for peace and

a sustainable future

MEET THE

HEAD OF

UWCSEA DOVER,

ELIZABETH BRAY

An interview with the

incoming leader

UNDERSTANDING

THE UWCSEA

CURRICULUM

Our concept-based

curriculum comes to

life through Science

TO CORRECT

OR NOT TOO

KORRECT?

Learning in the 21st

century beyond the

ticks and crosses

DEADLINE 2030

Embedding education

for sustainable

development in our

learning programme

A DAY IN

THE LIFE OF

A BOARDER

Join Grade 11 student

Kirti Lamba for a day

in our residential

community

THE WHY,

WHAT AND HOW

Intentional Service

Learning in the

Primary School

GRADUATION

Highlights from

the Class of 2018

graduation on 19 May

GRADUATING

SCHOLARS

Reflections from six of

the 53 scholars in the

Class of 2018 on their

time at UWCSEA

FLOURISHING

PEOPLE-IN-

PLACE

Developing qualities

and skills through

Outdoor Education to

help students thrive

INNOVATIVE

SPACES

Featuring the Dover

Gymnastics Centre

THE SKY’S

THE LIMIT

UWCSEA supports

transformational

education for

refugee youth

ZERO WASTE

INITIATIVES ON

EAST CAMPUS

A snapshot of waste

reduction efforts in

the community

COVER IMAGES

Front: East Campus

Graduation Ceremony

Back: Dover Campus

Junior School Art

Exhibition

AREAS OF FOCUS

UWCSEA

STRATEGY

June 2018

The newsroom of UWCSEA.

Read. Publish. Share. Subscribe.

Visit: https://perspectives.uwcsea.edu.sg

By Chris Edwards, Head of College

I don’t know how many thousands of

books there are on leadership models,

but frankly everyone should save

themselves a whole lot of money and

instead just read the words Shakespeare

gave Henry V on the eve of the Battle

of Agincourt.

The Henry V speech is a trip round

the bay of modern leadership theory,

with Henry, in a single address to

his troops, displaying charismatic,

transformational, democratic,

situational, autocratic and even, I

would suggest at one moment, laissez-

faire techniques. Henry’s words take

only a few minutes to read (much less

time than “Good to Great” and other

corporate manuals), but they resonate

through the centuries. The trick of

Henry’s success, it seems to me, lies not

just in his anticipating the leadership

models but also in his deft use of the

ADKAR model of change hundreds of

years before business leader Jeff Hiatt

thought he’d invented it. For those

unfamiliar with ADKAR it stands for

Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability

and Reinforcement.

Awareness: Do you weary English

peasant-soldiers know why I’ve brought

you to France? Tick.

Desire: Good. Can I then confirm you

are all up for the challenge of a great

battle in the mud in which thousands

might die? Tick.

Knowledge: Okay, that’s great.

Good for you. Now given we are

also massively outnumbered, do you

understand what you have to do to

win through this seemingly hopeless

situation? (Hint: remember those cool

new longbows I gave you?) Tick.

Ability: Er … please tell me you have

actually been practising with those

longbows? Tick.

Reinforcement: Super. So when we do

come through victorious, you will quickly

realise keeping the peace is harder than

winning the war. Stay disciplined and

focussed … and don’t anybody secretly

go back to using those crummy old

spears and swords just because that’s

what you always did. Got it? Tick.

Now, I fear there are few similarities

between myself and Henry V, but the

principles and methodologies above

are all valid in our current context, and

so I segue to the genesis, development

and coming implementation of

UWCSEA’s new Strategy. It may not

resonate in history quite like the Battle

of Agincourt, but for us it starts a

necessary and exciting journey.

We began a year ago with a small,

tight group of senior leaders. Our first

decision was to identify what was

axiomatic to us … I suppose you might

look at it as the “we hold these truths to

be self evident” piece. And we decided

that the guiding principles you see on

our website (the Mission Statement

of course, the Educational Goal, the

Ambition, the Values and the Definition

of Internationalism) were all as relevant

as ever. Whatever might happen next,

therefore, could not in any shape or

form diminish the learning programme:

that was sacrosanct. So, a comforting

start: we had deep, secure foundations.

We knew too that a creative and

long-term financial strategy was also

going to have to be a part of those

foundations. Yes, we were focussing on

the next five years especially, but we

had to ensure were ready for inevitable

changes coming our way further down

the line. Some of the external forces

which act upon us, be they for good

or ill, cannot be controlled: but we

were comforted by the fact that while

you may not be able to stop that big

wave coming right at you, you can

always learn to surf. So we had to

make sure we prepared for waves like:

Singapore’s increasingly dynamic and

volatile climate regarding international

education; the need to be accredited by

various external organisations like the

Council for International Schools; the

increasing compliance and regulatory

requirements from government; and

the fact that both Dover and East have

leases. (Like other international schools,

A NEW COLLEGE STRATE

FEATURE

2 | Dunia June 2018

we don’t own the land on which we

stand. East’s lease expires in 2050;

Dover’s in 2030.) We had to formulate

a financial strategy that secured the

future. With two huge campuses now

running successfully, we were switching

from a growth to a sustainable model

for our finances.

But back to the guiding principles.

In building the strategy on those

foundations, we sought to deliver

a transparent, clearly articulated

process. It needed to honour multiple

perspectives while seeking reliable

evidence and data to inform decision

making, and all stakeholders should

be involved at different stages of

the journey (students, parents, staff,

governors, etc). We wanted the strategy

to be fluid like a river, adapting to

changes and obstacles as required; we

also wanted to ensure it could survive

from year to year while elements

within it might change. As a result we

identified aspirational future states with

specific, actionable projects and tasks

forming the roads and bridges to take

us there. The generative discussions

we sought were often predicated

upon questions such as What are our

assumptions? What information do we

need here? What might be alternatives?

What should we stop doing?

The small group of leaders produced

areas of focus which were then

shared with a wider leadership body,

and thus the scale of collaboration

grew. Our new partners would need

to be champions of the emerging

strategy, but at one point things

actually became too easy. Once, when

there was much congratulatory talk

following a long session in which we

had virtual unanimity, we decided to

halt proceedings and reconvene the

following week with a view to creating

deliberate divergence by playing devil’s

advocate and asking extreme and

potentially divisive questions. If we

were all so well aligned at this stage,

was that not in itself a cause for cultural

concern? Was this, for example, an

indication less of glorious common

purpose than complacency?

By February, our increasingly well-

defined Areas of Focus were ready

for the Governing Body, and the

Board and Executive worked together

productively on the ideas, modifying,

reworking and occasionally casting off

strands of thinking. Say it quietly, but

I think a lot of people rather enjoyed

it. As we looked to find the right

words to introduce the strategy, we

invited parents and all colleagues to

get involved, and so a major rewrite

took place when we realised our first

draft came across as the work of UWC

zealots. Kurt Hahn might have been

proud but the strident diction was

jarring to many. After input from those

parents and colleagues, language was

honed and in some areas softened to

better reflect who we are.

And so, this final term of the academic

year, we presented our strategy with its

four Areas of Focus to our community.

We’re not done yet because from the

strategy we must formulate the two

Campus plans and the one College

equivalent (these plans are where the

Gantt charts, graphs and traffic light

systems will indicate whether we are

meeting schedules and hitting targets).

But the map is now before us and it is

our job to navigate safely and effectively.

We want a true UWC education with

its attendant learning programme to

be available for future generations of

students in Singapore, regardless of

leases, economic flux and external

regulations. And we want to make

that journey without diluting our

quintessence: we are not just an

international school, we are a UWC.

We know who we are, where we want

to be and, we believe, how to get there.

And when the business manuals fail

us, we can fall back on the words of

another character from a different, even

greater, Shakespeare play:

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

AREAS OF FOCUS

UWCSEA

STRATEGY

OUR STRENGTH

AND CAPACITY

PEACE AND

A SUSTAINABLE

FUTURE

A UNITED

COMMUNITY

EDUCATION

AS A FORCE

EGY 2018–2023

June 2018 Dunia | 3

Education as a Force

At UWCSEA, we educate our students to impact on

individuals and society in accordance with the UWC

mission. Through a holistic Learning Programme,

students develop the skills and qualities (which meld

to form the UWCSEA profile) to fulfil their potential

and become life-long learners and ethical agents

for change.

We understand educational excellence to be

manifested by student learning across all five elements

of our Learning Programme. This spirit of excellence,

balanced with a serious commitment to well-being,

will help inspire our community to rich experiences and

high achievement.

Our innovation will align with our values. We will take

scalable, safe-to-fail approaches to probe and test the

boundaries of our strategies and practices.

Within the contexts of Singapore and our Learning

Programme, we will seek to be inclusive and diverse,

in accordance with our definitions of these concepts,

and we will recognise the importance of intercultural

competence.

Strategy E1: Extending Excellence

Strategy E2: Deliberate Innovation

Strategy E3: Diversity and Inclusion

Accountable

Learning Leadership Team reporting through UWCSEA

Board Education and Talent Committee

Peace and a Sustainable Future

Our community is strengthened by diversity and united

in common purpose. On local, national and global

platforms, we will seek to engage with and impact

positively on individuals and communities who hold

similar, disparate and diverse ideas.

All members of our community should understand

Peace to include concepts such as justice, equality

and human rights and to be more than the absence of

conflict. Our Learning Programme will help seed and

nurture these concepts. We aspire to promote Peace in

all of its contexts—for the individual, our communities

and our global societies. We will embed structures

to support learning for Peace and its systematic

implementation across the College, and develop

meaningful links with like-minded organisations that

are in pursuit of the same goals.

Sustainability as a systemic response means aligning

ourselves to the UN Sustainable Development Goals to

end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity

for all within the means of nature. We will engage

with these challenges by deepening our intellectual

and moral capacities, and building our collective

wisdom. We will develop our curriculum to ensure that

sustainability is woven into all five elements of our

learning programme from K–12. We will also develop

our community’s capability in systems thinking.

Strategy P1: Working for Peace

Strategy P2: Sustainability as a Systemic Response

Accountable

Learning Leadership Team reporting through UWCSEA

Board Education and Talent Committee

PEACE AND

A SUSTAINABLE

FUTURE

EDUCATION

AS A FORCE

4 | Dunia June 2018

A United Community

A strong College community, based on shared values, is

fundamental to our success. Our community members

will demonstrate respectful attention to diverse needs

and perspectives, and compassionate engagement

with others.

We seek to promote the educational significance of

UWC residential life and will seek to harmonise the

best of the day and residential experiences. We will

strengthen relationships with one another, between

campuses and with those outside our immediate

community of students, staff and parents. We will

build strategic relationships that extend our reach and

deepen our impact. We will intensify the focus of the

UWCSEA Foundation, enhance Alumni engagement,

and continue to dedicate an agreed percentage of our

annual turnover to scholarships.

Our fundamental responsibility to our community

members is to keep them safe, well and secure at all

times and in all situations. We will continue to develop

robust safeguarding practices, and empower our

community to identify and respond to safeguarding

situations. We will implement policies, practices and

programmes to support staff and student wellness and

safeguard everyone in our community.

Strategy C1: Strengthening our Community

Strategy C2: Keeping People Safe and Well

Accountable

Head of College with members of senior leadership

teams (LLT, DLT, ELT and OLT) through UWCSEA Board

Governance and Engagement Committees

Our Strength and Capacity

UWCSEA puts people, not systems, first. Our plan for

sustainable growth will be transparent and support our

community, while reflecting and responding to current

realities and future possibilities. We will guarantee

the financial security of the College while balancing

present and future educational, environmental and

organisational needs.

In order to retain education as our focus, we recognise

the necessity of humane, sustainable and effective

systems.

We will develop operational systems that set a

positive, data-informed culture around rigorous

practices, adhering to all external regulatory

requirements. In adapting to any changes, we will

support our community and protect the College’s

ethos and values.

We will establish decision-making processes and

leadership structures that enhance operational

effectiveness while retaining flexibility to adapt to

changing circumstances.

Strategy S1: Ensuring Long-term Financial

Sustainability

Strategy S2: Embedding Effective Systems

Strategy S3: Establishing Effective Decision-Making

Structures

Accountable

Head of College with members of senior leadership

teams (LLT, DLT, ELT and OLT) through UWCSEA Board

Governance, Finance and Infrastructure, and Audit and

Risk Committees

OUR STRENGTH

AND CAPACITY

A UNITED

COMMUNITY

June 2018 Dunia | 5

Elizabeth Bray joined Dover Campus as a Science and Mathematics teacher in 1996 and has held various leadership roles in the

subsequent years, most recently as Middle School Principal from 2015–2018. As she transitions into her new role as Head of

Dover Campus, Dunia sat down with her to reflect on her time at the College and her new position.

The first 100 days in a leadership role are always very

exciting. What are you most looking forward to?

This is a really interesting question and made me wonder

exactly how many days I have already worked at UWCSEA.

Since I joined in August 1996 I think I must be closing in on

4,000 days!

The exciting part of my new position will come from working

with new teams of people. For the next academic year,

the Dover leadership team will have a new Middle School

Principal and two new Vice Principals (Middle School and

Junior School); it is always a good thing when new educators

join the school with fresh ideas and approaches that align

with the values and vision for UWCSEA.

I am also looking forward to getting to know more about our

Residential Boarding community. Many, many years ago I was a

‘non-resident assistant’ in the boarding houses that were located

on the land that Anglo-Chinese International School now

occupies. I know that things will have changed since then and I

can’t wait to learn more about this important part of the College.

What has kept you at UWCSEA for so many years? You

joined in 1996—that’s a long time!

Like many others before me I signed a contract fully expecting

to work at UWCSEA for four to five years, as I had at previous

international schools. I am always a little bit surprised to

realise that 1996 was not four to five years ago. If I had to

narrow it down to one thing that has kept me at UWCSEA it

would be the professional challenge of teaching in a school

where the values that underpin our mission statement are

more than just words. I loved teaching Mathematics and

Science but making the concepts within these disciplines

authentically connect into the Service, Outdoor Education

and Personal and Social Education programmes was

important work that pushed me to be the best teacher for my

students. Every year new and exciting professional challenges

have allowed me to work alongside outstanding colleagues

who relentlessly ask tough questions about best practice and

what it means to teach at UWCSEA.

What drew you to the field of education?

My undergraduate degree was from the Department of Earth

and Planetary Sciences at McGill University in Montreal,

Canada. I studied the physics, biology and chemistry of our

planet during the day and paid the university fees by coaching

synchronised swimming in the evenings and on the weekends.

It wasn’t until after I graduated from university that I started

to think about combining my scientific understandings with

my coaching skills towards a career in education. The first

‘real’ teaching job I had, took me to Yellowknife in northern

Canada where I was teaching Middle School Science in French.

Being able to teach in either English or French was a huge

advantage as a young teacher looking for a job in Canada.

In hindsight, maybe I should have seen education as the path

that I would inevitably pursue. Both my maternal and paternal

grandmothers were teachers. My maternal grandfather

was a school principal and my father was both a practising

neurologist and a full professor of neurology at McGill.

Regardless of how I got here—I remain grateful for everything

I have learned and continue to learn about how to effectively

support the development of young people in our rapidly

changing world.

Meet the Head of UWCSEA Dover

ELIZABETH BRAY

6 | Dunia June 2018

Tell us a bit about your connections to East Campus and

how you and Graham Silverthorne, Head of East Campus,

work together.

I have been very lucky to be connected with the growth of

UWCSEA and the East Campus since the beginning. As a

staff-elected Governor many years ago I signed my name to

an official document saying that we would open a second

campus; it’s hard to believe that we are already approaching

the tenth anniversary of East. As part of the College’s

Curriculum Articulation project (from 2010–2015) I worked

with many talented colleagues across both campuses to

develop the Learning Principles and our UWCSEA Profile.

Professionally it was a very exciting project and it also helped

to develop relationships and common understandings that

will be crucial to my new role.

Welcoming Graham Silverthorne to UWCSEA has been a

pleasure. Graham and I have quickly established a good

working partnership; he is an invaluable resource for me as

I come to understand the differences between leading an

entire campus and leading just the Middle School. Equally,

I like to think that I am able to provide some context for him

when he is trying to understand the College culture and how

our Learning Programme has been developed over time. We

are currently engaged in deep conversations about further

synergies between East and Dover and how the new UWCSEA

Strategy will be brought to life across both campuses.

After many years on Dover in a few different roles, how

will you re-orient yourself to the Head of Campus role?

And what will you miss most?

The re-orientation process has already started and I can

already spot the things that I will miss the most. Our Middle

School is full of talented and caring teachers working with

amazing young people. The Head of Campus role puts me

at some distance from these people. I know that I will miss

those close connections the most. But I am busy establishing

stronger connections into other parts of the school—for

example, with Finance and HR, which are big focus areas for a

Head of Campus.

How would you define your leadership style?

I know I should have Harvard Business Review jargon at my

fingertips to answer this question; ready to explain my

collaborative, pragmatic and empathetic leadership style—

and I am reasonably certain those would have been the words

I used to describe myself in my interview for this position. The

words are accurate but in the same way that I would struggle

to describe my style of teaching and learning, I struggle to

explain my leadership style. I think that over time, what I

have learned is that whether it is teaching and learning or

leading, I am much more successful when I know the students

or adults with whom I am interacting. No human being is

one-dimensional. We are complex and complicated creatures;

taking the time to understand another perspective makes

all human interactions more productive, and hopefully in

the long term, more successful. So I guess you could say my

leadership style is humanistic.

Any final thoughts?

It is an enormous honour to become the Head of UWCSEA

Dover. When I think back over my many years at the College,

I see a community that has continually adapted and changed

while staying focused on our true north, the UWCSEA

mission. I feel a big sense of responsibility to the past, but I

also feel very excited at all the possibilities that are ahead of

us. I know that the people in our community—parents, staff

and, above all, students—are what make us who we are, and

my main responsibility is to make sure everyone benefits from

our collective wisdom. I really can’t wait to get started.

INTERVIEW

June 2018 Dunia | 7

FEATURE

Understanding the UWCSEA Curriculum

By Carla Marschall, Head of Curriculum Development and Research, UWCSEA and

Vice Principal Infant School, Dover Campus

Developed from our mission, the concept-based curriculum at UWCSEA enables students

to embrace challenge and take responsibility for shaping a better world. This is achieved

through all five elements of our holistic learning programme—academics, activities, outdoor

education, personal and social education and service.

Concept-based curriculum explained

Our concept-based curriculum organises learning around the development of transferable

ideas, which may be disciplinary or interdisciplinary. Knowledge and skill acquisition is vital,

but not the end goal in a concept-based curriculum. Using their knowledge and skill learning,

students construct and express conceptual understandings, which transfer to new contexts.

This allows our students to apply critical thought in any situation, now or in the future.

Standards

Standards are the significant concepts from each learning area, articulated into ‘conceptual

statements’. These apply to all grade levels from K1 to the IB Diploma Programme (IBDP). This

ensures that these concepts are revisited in developmentally appropriate ways as students

transition from grade to grade.

Conceptual Understandings

Under each standard are conceptual understandings, which are conceptual statements

written for specific developmental stages. These may be grade-specific. This allows students

to access the broader concepts in the standard, while simultaneously developing an

understanding of specific concepts appropriate to the grade-level.

Benchmarks

Benchmarks are attached to each conceptual understanding in each grade. These describe

what a student should know or be able to do at each stage of their learning in order to develop

understanding in each subject.

In the High School, the standards, conceptual understandings and benchmarks specifically take

into account the requirements of the external examining bodies that set the (I)GCSE and IBDP

examinations that students sit at the end of these two-year courses in Grade 10 and Grade 12.

Science:

energy and its

transformation

In this Science

example, all students

work towards a

Standard related

to energy and its

transformation.

The Conceptual

Understandings in

each grade outline

what students should

understand at each

stage—in early

Primary School this

consists of conceptual

understandings

around light and

sound energy. By

Middle School

the conceptual

understandings widen,

asking students to

understand electrical

and thermal energy.

This is further refined

in the High School

as students in the

IBDP are asked to

investigate, within

their chosen area

of science, myriad

concepts in-depth

such as electricity,

magnetism, wave

phenomena and

nuclear energy.

Developing the

UWCSEA Qualities

and Skills: across all

grade levels, students

also learn about the

scientific process and

the attitudes required

to be a scientist,

for example being

a critical thinker,

a communicator,

resilient and creative.

8 | Dunia June 2018

Conceptual Understanding:

Substances and surfaces can reflect,

refract or absorb light, changing its

pathway.

Our approach to science learning in the Infant

School is to harness students’ instinctive

curiosity by designing rich, open-ended activities

that connect to ‘big ideas’ from our curriculum.

In order to build students’ conceptual

understanding, teachers engage them in

activities that ask them to question, wonder and

hypothesise. At the beginning of the Grade 1

Light and Sound unit, teachers create a ‘light lab’

in the Pod where students can tinker with their

ideas. The space is filled with myriad objects to

explore: mirrors, transparent blocks, coloured

cellophane, torchlights and prisms. With these

materials, students make observations, develop

testable questions and engage in scientific

experimentation. Teachers listen to students’

thinking and ask probing questions, changing the

Pod space over the course of the unit to provoke

further investigation and support learning.

At the same time, students learn about the

scientific process and attributes of being an

effective scientist such as perseverance and

open-mindedness. Part of this process involves

the accurate recording of one’s thinking. In

Grade 1, we do this by introducing students to

their own science notebooks. Through Writing

Workshop mini-lessons, students learn to

create observational drawings, use arrows and

labels, and embed scientific vocabulary into

their writing. Teaching students to engage

intentionally with their notebooks shows them

how important their work as scientists is!

Links to UWCSEA Qualities and Skills

Critical Thinker

Creative

Communicator

Conceptual Understanding: The

transfer of heat energy occurs through

conduction, convection and radiation.

In Middle School students are introduced to

more sophisticated scientific concepts. These are

relevant to their lives, interests and experiences,

and presented in ways that spark their curiosity.

Grade 7’s unit on heat transfer links to the

Standard being illustrated. Wanting students

to see how the particle model applies to ideas

in their lives, teachers engage students in a

variety of learning activities that go well beyond

rote learning. These activities build on ideas

introduced in Grade 6, expanding students’

understanding by presenting learning in a new

context. After forming an initial understanding

of the heat transfer concepts of conduction,

convection and radiation, students are placed

in expert groups to investigate a particular

form of heat transfer. Each group then teaches

students from other groups about their topic.

In this way, Middle School students engage in

scientific discourse and experience the value of

collaboration in deepening their understanding.

Scientific knowledge is powerful, but only if it is

used to understand and interpret phenomena

from the real world. To nudge Middle School

students to develop their metacognition and

transfer their understandings, teachers engage

students in a number of novel demonstrations.

Students must then explain these using their

prior knowledge of conduction, convection and

radiation. This stretches student thinking and

reiterates the importance of using one’s learning

to make sense of the world. Throughout Middle

School, theory and hands-on application are

balanced to ensure that students view their

learning as something which empowers them.

Links to UWCSEA Qualities and Skills

Critical Thinker

Collaborative

Communicator

Self-Manager

Conceptual Understanding: For

simplified modelling purposes the

Earth can be treated as a black-body

radiator and the atmosphere treated

as a grey-body.

In Grade 11 IB Physics students explore solar

radiation and the concept of black body radiation

(radiation emitted by a perfect emitter). After

students form an initial understanding of a black

body, and compare it to the related concept

of emissivity, they use an online simulation to

investigate further. Using the simulation, they take

measurements and extrapolate the relationship

between temperature and peak emissivity,

represented by the equation P = eσAT4, where

e has values from 0 to 1. This helps students

acquire specialised concepts within the area of

solar radiation, and begin locating relationships

between them.

In order for our students to become scientists,

they need to see the applicability of science

ideas to a variety of situations. To support

students in making connections between unlikely

contexts, teachers present case studies and ask

students to link them to ideas studied. In the IB

Physics example, students apply the concept of

‘peak emissivity’ to an incandescent light bulb

and a low-energy LED light bulb. Using their

understanding, they see that the incandescent

bulb’s temperature means that most of its

emissivity is in light which is not visible. Hence

these bulbs are less energy efficient. The LED

light bulb, in contrast, is fixed to have peak

emissivity in the visible range, thereby reducing

the amount of energy needed. Such case studies

help students see the usefulness of specialised

scientific knowledge to solving some of the most

critical environmental, sociocultural and economic

problems we face.

Links to UWCSEA Qualities and Skills

Commitment to Care

Critical Thinker

Creative

GRADE 1

GRADE 7

GRADE 11

K–12 Standard: Energy comes in different forms which can be transformed from one to another, the total amount of energy

remaining constant in the universe.

This Science Standard related to energy and its transformation is illustrated by the vignettes below. Note how the learning

activities align to the grade-level Conceptual Understanding, as well as to the overarching Standard.

June 2018 Dunia | 9

CORRECT

or not too

KORRECT?

By Andrew Denney, Head of High School EAL,

Dover Campus

How should teachers (including parents) respond to

multilingual learners’ errors in written English? If that sounds

like a silly question, read on!

The answer is obvious, isn’t it? Surely, we should correct

errors, shouldn’t we? How else will students learn from their

mistakes? Duh!

A study in Hong Kong, for example, found that the majority

of students surveyed pushed for complete and comprehensive

correction of all their errors by the teachers, and they

complained when the teachers fell short of this. What

wonderfully keen and dedicated students!

Reportedly, they would settle for nothing short of total

correction so that they could redraft their work to perfection

… more easily.

And there lies the crux of the matter. If the objective of the

teaching is to facilitate the production of perfect display

pieces in English, then the more the teacher corrects, the

better the final copy will be. In fact, teachers might as well

do the whole piece of work themselves, and thereby save

everybody heaps of fruitless time and effort.

Unless, of course, the more proper aim of learners’ writing

tasks is not to manufacture perfect display pieces, but rather

for learners to develop their own control and learning. If this is

the case, then things get more complicated.

Firstly, it is useful to distinguish between mistakes that could

have been avoided and errors that simply lie outside the

learner’s competence zone.

With the former, ‘mistakes’, perhaps the learner has been

careless about the language in her eagerness to express her

ideas and demonstrate her understanding of the topic. After

all, the main point of using language is to express thoughts

rather than to show off grammatical accuracy. So what would

be the point of teacher correction here? There is even the risk

of sending the wrong message: “It’s not your ideas that count;

show me you can get those blessed verb agreements right!”

Ah, that’s all very well, but nevertheless, accuracy of language

does remain an undeniably important factor in successful

communication of ideas, doesn’t it? Yes, it does, and if

avoidable mistakes are undermining the quality of the ideas

being expressed, then we should have no compunction in

telling the learner to go away and write the work again with

proper care and attention to accuracy so as to do justice to

her ideas. If the mistakes were avoidable, then the learner

should be able to identify and correct them with minimal or

no further prompting from the teacher.

So, after all, there does not seem to be so much scope for

actual teacher corrections here, in the case of avoidable

mistakes.

What about with those unavoidable errors, then, where

the learner has plainly not yet mastered the vagaries of the

English prepositional and tense systems, but is nevertheless

earnestly wrestling out solutions to important global issues?

Surely here, at least, the teacher’s pedagogical input through

the red pen is helpful? Well … yes and no. No, because here

again the idea content is paramount, and to slash in red at

a learner’s ideas probably does not do much to engender

independent thinking or to boost confidence. And no again

because for every possible red slash there are likely to be

Learning in the 21st century

beyond the ticks and crosses

OPINION

10 | Dunia June 2018

immeasurably more green ticks deserved for all the aspects

that have been effectively executed.

Besides, errors can stand as a healthy sign that the learner

is trying to go beyond what he comfortably knows, which is

exactly where we want the learner to freely venture.

However, as we most definitely do want to guide the learner

from can’t-do to can-do, then yes, sensitive and discretionary

use of the red pen (to whatever extent red is compatible with

sensitivity!) might work.

But why use red? And don’t forget to balance the critical red

with the congratulatory green. After all, learning is all about

carrots and sticks, isn’t it? Hit the wrong with the red stick

and reward the right with the green carrot (if you’ll bear

with the miscoloured metaphor). Um … well, actually, such

pseudo-Skinneresque donkey doings, for all their lingering

intuitive appeal, have rather fallen out of (current) fashion and

favour among the boffins.

But we have to do something, don’t we? A resounding “yes

indeed” to that. There is so much we can and should do to

capitalise on the learning opportunities presented by errors.

There is so much we can do that seems immeasurably more

constructive and engaging than plain old correction.

Here are a quick half-dozen of the favourite technology

supported approaches taken by Dover’s EAL Department:

• Using a list of codes for error-type identification,

encouraging the learner to work out for herself how to

correct each specific error.

• Alerting the learner to just the location of errors, and letting

the learner do the rest of the work.

• Selecting only target items for correction, based on their

importance to the task and their frequency.

• Collating whole-class common errors and using these as a

resource for teaching, quizzes and competitive correction

games in the next lesson.

• Conferencing in real time, or using other technology, to

initiate a learning dialogue on the work, through comments

and replies.

• Using screencast recordings in which the teacher talks

through the work line by line and shares the recording with

the learner.

The list does not end there by any means; and with today’s

resources, there are all sorts of creative options at our

disposal when we respond to written work.

We could, moreover, flip the whole issue on its head and

prioritise what happens before the writing begins. Prevention

is better than cure, and one of the most powerful error-

preventative techniques we can employ is something called

frontloading, where we seek to pre-empt the errors before

they are committed, by priming the learners carefully with

the key language features they should focus on, before they

set finger to keyboard.

So, to correct or not too korrect? Perhaps yes, correct, but not

too korrect.

Reference 1 Lee, Icey. “Error Correction in the L2 Classroom: What Do Students Think?” TESL Canada Journal Vol. 22 No. 2. Spring 2005.

Web, 5 June 2014: http://www.teslcanadajournal.ca/index.php/tesl/article/viewFile/84/84

June 2018 Dunia | 11

By Nathan Hunt, Director of

Sustainability, UWCSEA

As outlined in the first article in this

series (Dunia, December 2017), which

looked at the conceptual framing the

College has adopted in order to more

purposefully meet its mission, for

UWCSEA making education a force

to unite for ‘Peace and a Sustainable

future’ is now aligned closely to the

five pledges of the UN Sustainable

Development Goals. Our adopted

definition of “Well-being for all within

the means of nature”1 sums up our aim.

But if these grand aspirations are to be

more than just mottoes on the walls

and are now the clear purpose of each

day at the College, how do we embed

them within our education?

Building blocks for innovation

Sustainable Development is not a new

concept and for a long time has been

taught explicitly in many parts of our

curriculum: the Grade 5 Exhibitions,

in Middle School Humanities, and

in (I)GCSE and IB subjects such as

Geography and Economics. However

the UN’s educational research2 over

the last 20+ years, has shown that

to be effective the concept must

be integrated into all areas of the

curriculum, and embedded in the

operations of the school itself.

The building programmes of the last

10 years provided the College with

many opportunities to address both

operational targets (to be discussed

in a later article) and to enable our

facilities to contribute to the education

of our students. The K–12 curriculum

articulation project, begun in order to

ensure our education was enabling us to

fulfil our mission, has likewise presented

a unique opportunity for us to map and

embed concepts and skills related to

sustainable development through all five

elements of our Learning Programme3

(refer to the curriculum framework

outlined in the article on pages 8–9).

Guided by our Learning Principle that

students learn best when they are able

to link concepts from one discipline to

another, we explicitly and repeatedly

refer to these concepts throughout the

programme, across all relevant disciplines.

Beyond conceptual tagging, this process

will in time guide our choice of texts, case

studies and the Conceptual Questions

that teachers use to structure their

teaching of each unit. Instead of being