DAY 8: Wednesday 15 March 2006
MENTORING AND COACHING: What support do you think you should have to guide, advise and assist you in your learning?
Teachers as mentors
Georgia A.
Australia
Should teachers instruct, mentor or facilitate?
Jessica D.
Australia
Should a teacher in the 21st century teach, instruct, mentor or facilitate?
Laura S.
Australia
Should a teacher teach, instruct, mentor or facilitate?
Maddy U.
Australia
Should a teacher teach, instruct, mentor or facilitate?
Madeleine B.
Australia
What support do you think you should have to guide, advise and assist you in your learning?
Student Aspirations Team
United Kingdom
Should a teacher in the 21st century teach, instruct, mentor or facilitate?
Roshana P.
Australia
Guidance for students
Year 12 SRC
Australia
What sort of advice?
Maggie
Australia
Help and advice
Anika
Australia
Teachers as mentors
Georgia A.
Year 5/6
Canberra Grammar School
ACT, Australia
Education received by children growing up today has changed considerably from the education received by students in the last century. How do I know that? Well, thanks to the internet, a prominent tool used for knowledge and speaking with my parents and grandparents, obvious differences were evident. In my grandparents’ day, you were considered educated and literate if you could read, write and knew basic maths, (they did not even have calculators). You were told what to do and the cane was a constant threat of punishment for misbehaviour. My parents’ generation was similar in that only minimal academic skills were required to obtain jobs. In the 21st century, ‘the age of information’, that is not enough. Today’s child is growing up ‘digital’ and the needs and educational content is constantly changing. We are encouraged to be independent and to express ourselves, and we are the biggest users of computers and the internet. As a result, we require more than basic skills to survive in an ever-evolving digital age. We have amazing technology available at our fingertips, but for technology’s true value to be realised, we need to know how to use it, not just have access to it. The role that teachers play in developing our skills has also changed. They no longer just ‘teach’ us but sometimes fill the role of mentor, instructor or facilitator. The role they undertake varies with the situation or need of the student.
To teach is the process of imparting knowledge to assist in learning. This would apply to knowledge being transferred from a teacher to a student. However, in the 21st century, learning is no longer a passive activity and there is more activity-based and project-centred work included in the curriculum, so that teachers are not just distributing knowledge but facilitating learning. A facilitator is a person who lessens the difficulty of things - in other words, makes it easier.
An instructor is a person who tells you how, and what, to do, often reinforcing a particular strategy. A teacher as an instructor would be providing a student with instructions that need to be followed.
A mentor, on the other hand, provides guidance and support. Teachers of the 21st century must learn to mentor students in their instructional and social development. They have to learn strategies needed to support and guide students through learning experiences and opportunities that will enable them to deepen their understanding of new and different concepts. These are the skills that are needed throughout life.
Throughout the past year, teaching methods that I have been exposed to include all of the above. I personally prefer facilitating and mentoring in conjunction with teaching. During term 1, we studied migrants during and after the war. It was an enjoyable activity that involved each member of the class taking on a migrant role. We were given basic information about the character and, by researching the country they were leaving, the conditions at the time and their proposed destination, we put together interesting portfolios of our migrants. Our teacher facilitated discussions and mentored us when we experienced obstacles or difficulties. She also took part in the role-playing. By role playing and not just ‘being taught’ about migration, we actually got to experience a little of the excitement and fear that migrants may have felt.
Instructing is used for following procedures in lab tests and even math problems; although sometimes particular strategies may not always work best for you. If an alternative strategy can achieve the desired result, then it should be considered and implemented whenever necessary. A student should never feel forced to use a strategy, but rather the teacher should evaluate what works for you and possibly facilitate a discussion as to why that works and what alternative options there may be.
‘Teaching’ as a method of learning is no longer enough, but with mentoring and facilitating included, individual strengths and weaknesses are determined. Custom designed learning environments mean that each child will be able to develop information and communication skills, thinking and problem-solving skills and interpersonal and self-directional skills that are all important and necessary requirements of the 21st century. These skills allow us to become flexible, disciplined, creative, responsible and adaptable in group situations - all valuable and necessary tools throughout our school life and the future.
Should teachers instruct, mentor or facilitate?
Jessica D.
Grade 5/6
Canberra Grammar School
ACT, Australia
In the 21st century the world is very different to the world it used to be when our grandparents went to school. Technology has played a large part in this. Computers are part of everyday school life. Different ways of teaching instructing, mentoring and facilitating are all part of this wonderful world of education. How do we encourage the suitable teachers? Which method works best?
Here are some definitions from the Oxford online dictionary.
‘Teach’
1. Impart knowledge to or instruct in how to do something, especially in a school or as part of a recognised programme. 2. give instruction in (a subject or skill). 3. cause to learn by example or experience. 4 advocate as a practice or principle.
‘Instruct’
1. Direct or command. 2. Teach. 3. Inform of a fact or situation. 4. chiefly Brit. authorise (a solicitor or barrister) to act on one’s behalf.
‘Mentor’
1. An experienced and trusted adviser. 2. An experienced person in an organisation or institution who trains and counsels new employees or students.
‘Facilitate’
1. To make easy or easier
All these methods of teaching are very close and related to learning. Teachers use all of these methods in different amounts and for different subjects.
Long detailed instructions about what you are going to do are tiring and, in the end, no one is listening. This is because it’s difficult to concentrate for a long period of time when you are really excited about the task and want to get on with it. For example, in art this year, one of our teachers gave us this a long lecture about how to make a pinch pot in pottery and we all were thinking, ‘Hurry up you’re wasting time!’ She showed us step-by-step in great detail what we were going to do. If she gave us just a brief idea of what we were doing and let us experiment and work it out, that would have been more interesting. This is more focused on facilitating, rather than instructing.
I enjoy the way our class works today. Our teacher gives us protocols at the beginning of the term and a brief talk about what we are doing this term. The protocols give us instructions. If we need advice or help with our work we can go out and ask individually, so as not to waste time. This is facilitating and individual mentoring. Our class doesn’t waste time getting every question explained in detail. You just move on when you want to and you feel you have done a good job on this particular piece of work. To make sure that the class gets finished on time, our teacher makes deadlines for the pieces of work.
When our parents and grandparents were little they went to school but school was very different. They used different methods for doing things. One of these methods was instructing. The teacher would stand out the front and write on the board what the class had to copy down, or in maths they would chant their tables.
In the 21st century, teachers should try to mentor, facilitate, instruct and teach because all children learn differently. For example, it might be easier for me to learn from mentoring but the girl sitting next to me might learn by getting instruction from the teacher. This is a positive thing about using all of the different methods.
Technology has also affected the way we learn today. Some schools rely on computers, on which they do all their work. They even get their homework sent home on them. This wasn’t the case when our grandparents were at school. They didn’t have computers. The teachers would have had to use other skills and were more involved with their students and classes because they couldn’t send them off to do work on the computer.
Students today cannot spell as well as they used to because of their constant use of the computer to do their work. As for our grandparents, they have much neater handwriting and great spelling because they always handwrote their work.
We can encourage more flexible and knowledgeable teachers by raising the salary and selecting carefully the best people for the job. Higher salaries should attract higher qualified teachers. Better teachers should equal better education. The teachers bring mentoring, teaching, instructing and facilitating skills with them.
Before becoming a mentor, the teacher must gain experience; teachers improve with experience and practice. Teachers can gain mentoring skills from university or may have them from other jobs or careers. For example, in year 4 I had a great teacher, but she was new. She had never taught before. Why was she a great teacher? Our teacher had been mentoring, facilitating and teaching cyclists. This had given her the extra skills and made her a great mentor and facilitator. She also had other qualities that had shown through from this, as well. By working with an experienced teacher, this may also change the new teacher into a more experienced mentor.
Different methods of teaching are appropriate for different subjects. For example, complex mathematics would require instruction and facilitating. As for art, you really need mentoring and learning from your experiences. These methods will help me in the future when I am trying to mentor, facilitate, instruct and teach the people in my future workplace. I can remember our teachers’ role models, examples and the methods they used.
Teachers all around the world have combined all the methods of teaching together to make one great complete method of teaching, which most schools around the world use. This includes aspects of teaching, mentoring, instructing and facilitating.
Should a teacher in the 21st century teach, instruct, mentor or facilitate?
Laura S.
Grade 5/6
Canberra Grammar School
ACT, Australia
The 21st century is very different to other centuries. From the food, to the clothing, to the way we think and go about our daily lives. This makes you wonder if teachers should change their methods. Should they teach, instruct, mentor or facilitate.
The children of this century are very unique to the children of other centuries. Computers have a very large impact on education. In the past students had to look up information in a book or encyclopedia, write a plan for their work, do a draft and then do a final copy. However, in the world of computers, students can look up information on the internet and then type it up and hand it in. Teachers used to have to do a lot more work as they had to locate the appropriate books and then help students find the information they need. Modern teachers only need to help their students browse the internet and then let them print off their information. This is what can cause some question as to whether teachers should change the ways they teach for a new era of students.
Many people do not realise that there is a huge difference to the meanings of the words ‘teach’, ‘instruct’, ‘mentor’ and ‘facilitate’ but, in fact, there is a huge difference. To ‘teach’ has many meanings and they are ‘to impart knowledge or skill’; ‘to provide knowledge of’; ‘instruct in’; ‘to condition to a certain action or frame of mind’; and ‘to carry on instruction on a regular basis in.
To ‘instruct’ has only two meanings and these are ‘to provide with knowledge’ (especially in a methodical way,) and ‘to give orders’ (to direct.)
A mentor is a wise and trusted counsellor or teacher.
Lastly, to ‘facilitate’ means to make things easy or easier.
The differences between these four concepts are great. A teacher has to impart knowledge and/or skill; provide knowledge and he or she must do part or all of this on a regular basis. An instructor has a much simpler job and only has to provide knowledge and give orders on what to do. A mentor has to be wise and trustworthy and a facilitator only has to make things easy or easier. I think the best way to teach is to mentor; the reason I think this is because teachers can’t do all your work for you. You must do most of it, not your teacher.
There was proof of this during this school year. I have studied many things - one of the topics we studied was immigration after World War 2. In this project we were put into ‘families’, then our teacher made up some immigration documents according to where our family was from. Our teacher could have given us all the information we needed to complete these documents and told us how to do our work but then we would have learned nothing. So our teacher made us find out all our own information, but she still assisted us when we were truly stuck.
I think that, as I grow up, if I have mentors instead of teachers, I will get a better learning experience, as I will still be able to get some assistance. Also, if I have mentors later on in life, when I eventually finish school I will have perfected my methods of finding information and will no longer need assistance in finding it.
Should a teacher teach, instruct, mentor or facilitate?
Maddy U.
Canberra Grammar School
ACT, Australia
Children growing up in the 21st century have to be taught differently than they had to in the 20th century because, as one reason, it is more likely that they will meet someone of a different nationality than they were in the 20th century. Because children have to live in a global society, it is important to learn about different cultures so that they do not, without meaning to or knowingly, offend the person. Also they should be taught how important diplomatic communication between countries to reach decisions. They should be taught about the past, so that they can understand and perhaps use it, when they’re older, to help them if they have an important role in the world. The children in the 21st century have to learn that, even if a person does something that they consider odd (for family/religious traditions, and so on), they should accept it and not leave them out because of it. The same goes for racial differences or if they have a deforming disease. A person, especially a child, should not feel bad because of the way they look.
Children in the 20th century had fewer resources than we do and, instead of typing every thing up, they had to write everything in fountain pen. If you smudged the page, you had to start it all over again. The children would have had to do everything that the teachers told them. Anyone from a different country would have been treated differently, like ‘aliens’, and the kids would have been taught that that was true. Their subjects, though, were much the same (religion, English, art, and so on). However, they would not have been able to follow their own ideas. They would have had to do exactly the same thing.
In the 21st century, the laws about education are a lot firmer than they were last century. In some parts of the 20th century, there were reported cases of headmasters who got drunk and on cold mornings hit the children to keep warm. As the 20th century went on, new laws came in to ban this and some of the laws are probably still used.
A few of the many different concepts of teaching are instructing, facilitating and mentoring. Dictionary descriptions of these are: (a) to teach: to impart information or skill to (a person) or about (a subject etc); (b) to instruct: to give (a person) instruction in a subject or skill; (c) to mentor: to give trusted counselling or teaching; and (d) to facilitate: to make easy, to lessen difficulty.
These methods are different, in that some of them give information or instructions while the others give help. To teach is to basically, in written form or in speech, give information from one’s own experiences or from resources. To instruct is similar to giving protocols. To mentor is similar to teach but it is especially for one person and to facilitate is to make a hard problem easier. For example, in maths, it might be changed so that you will get the same answer but work it out in an easier way.
In certain subjects, or circumstances, a few of these would not be the best way to get around hard problems. Facilitating, for example, wouldn’t be the best thing to use in Integrated Studies because it can’t be changed for one person just because they think that it’s too hard and everyone else can do it. Also, everyone needs to be graded the same way. Facilitating would be better for maths because a problem can be made easier and then could be used to help with the harder problem. In Integrated Studies, mentoring would be a good method because, though you can’t change the protocols, you can help one person so that they understand.
Instructing is, in my view, the best method in art because you are freer to do what you want. If you get instructions that don’t tell you exactly what to do (example: draw an animal in any place and colour it with pastels) because then you can basically do anything, as long as you include an animal, in a place, coloured in with pastels.
The different methods will help me in later life because, if there is a hard problem, a facilitation process will make it easier and then perhaps benefit lots of people. Also, especially if I decide to be a teacher, I can use the methods that I learnt from my teachers. It will also help when I go to uni so that, depending on what course I choose, I could use some of the methods to help me study and understand what I’m doing.
As I grow older still and get a job the methods will still help me. If I get a job in which apprentices are taken on, I may be called upon to teach them the skills of the job. These skills and methods will be passed through generations, so that people can get good jobs.
Should a teacher teach, instruct, mentor or facilitate?
Madeleine B.
Year 5/6
Canberra Grammar School
ACT, Australia
The world that children live in today is very different from the world that the previous generation would have had to live in, in terms of education, careers and technological advances in life.
For example, the world people lived in a generation or so ago did not have such ‘luxuries’ as computers, internet and search engines. Indeed, for many students today, these technological assets are no longer luxuries – they are simply part of everyday life.
So, in the words of my mum: ‘My learning opportunities at school were shackled to the poorest and inadequate resources of our under funded school library. Moreover, teachers assumed a directive, tick-the-box style of teaching. They rigidly adhered to the curriculum and never tailored the teaching or learning experience to the student. Students were not allowed to challenge, debate or ask questions ‘outside the square’. It was extremely boring. Most of my learning was from books from a public library. Today I think it is wonderful that most children regardless of which school they attend, in having access to the internet, are not constrained by their school’s resources. And teachers assume more of a guiding/mentoring role along the learning journey’.
Another way of putting it would be to say that the last generation was a lot less developed education-wise and, because that generation was less developed, it was more difficult to find better careers like we can nowadays.
Recently, however, internet, computers and many other technological advances are more frequent and the possession of such assets is more frequent, also. In school, kids can easily go on the internet to look something up and people can also type work up on computers and print it off, instead of writing it all by hand. This is a great asset to education, simply because it makes working much, much quicker and efficient.
The main four different forms of teaching, now and then also, are mentoring, facilitating, teaching and instructing. The definitions of these words (according to http://www.dictionary.reference.com/) are:
• Mentoring: to give trusted counselling and/or teaching;
• Facilitate: to make easy and to lessen the difficulty of something;
• Teach: to impart information or skill to; and,
• Instruct: to give instruction in a subject or skill.
These methods of teaching are different from one another and these differences make them good or bad for different students and different subjects that teachers teach. Mentoring compared to instructing, for example, is a good demonstration of how different two words that are supposed to mean the same thing (teaching) can be.
Mentoring basically means that you offer trusted advice (which is a definition of counselling in a wide sense) and you also offer teaching that students can trust most of the time, at the least. Instructing, on the other hand, is simply offering instruction but not necessarily explaining or discussing the instruction.
Mentoring is desired for most teachers because they want to be trusted by students and it is likely that most students desire the ability to trust their main teachers. Another reason as to why mentoring is desired is that the counselling part of the definition of ‘mentoring’ can be taken (in a broad sense) as offering trusted advice to a student for work and for handling other matters in the classroom.
Instruction, however, is generally undesired throughout the teaching industry because it doesn’t provide enough depth in teaching. However, in some matters (mainly matters of life or death; such as how a teacher might simply instruct someone with snakebite what to do) teachers simply instruct, instead of going into too much depth.
Another comparison between the four methods is the comparison of teaching and facilitating. Teaching, when simplified, means to share information or skills with a student and would occur for quite a few teachers, as well as being moderately desirable for students who can stand teaching without that little bit of depth that mentoring provides. Teaching would have been the main middle ground for teachers to teach upon. This would be because it is good; because it gives students the information and skill-sharing they need to keep up their marks. On the other hand, however, teaching wouldn’t be the most desirable for some students because they would not receive the depth that is brought forth from the counselling component of mentoring.
Then, facilitating is generally not desired for students, with the exception of those who are in ‘learning support’ categories. Facilitating is generally undesired, because it is being too soft on the students. If, for example, a student asked a teacher if he or she could have their work load cut down for an assignment and the teacher said ‘Yes’, then that would be fine for the time being, but what happens when the student gets to a higher and more demanding school and the teachers there are stricter and the work load larger and more demanding? The student wouldn’t be used to it and might go so far as to have a mental and possibly a physical breakdown from the stress they would have been put under.
The methods of teaching and preference as to which is better would have to be divided according to which student was being taught and in which subject. However, to simplify the long list of circumstances, I will simply say which subjects are best suited to which kind of method.
My preferred method of teaching would have to be mentoring because it is the teaching that is most desired for my favourite subject in school – Integrated Unit. Mentoring is ideal for Integrated Unit because students can count on a trusted teacher for teaching and advising them on problems and the protocol of work. Mentoring is good for all students studying for Integrated Unit, because, eventually, all students are going to need to receive some help and advising, and everyone needs trusted teaching.
I believe that, in a typical art class, a physical education lesson or a lesson on safety or during a fire drill, instruction, the best method of teaching would be instruction, simple and straight to the point. In subjects like art, sometimes, the teacher doesn’t need to teach with any depth and the class still enjoys the lesson. The lesson could be like a lesson that a relief teacher took in art the other day. The teacher told us to draw a person in action playing sport and then to draw creative lines around it and blend pastels into the background. The lesson was very enjoyable and, what’s more, the teacher had instructed us in how to do something without going into detail and the class still learnt from that lesson.
The next method on the list is teaching. Teaching would work well for every class but I believe it would be best suited to maths and science. Maths and science usually need the teacher to be on that middle ground of teaching for the students to learn and enjoy themselves. I have had a good experience with a teacher who taught me a lot. In one maths lesson I was being sly and trying to get out of work and so I went up to the teacher who had just told us that we were to do a standard assignment lasting the rest of the term. I went up to that teacher and complained that I couldn’t work out the problem. She explained it but didn’t tell me the answer. Eventually, I got the answer myself when I sat back down, but that was from her teaching, not facilitating or instructing. Teaching was what achieved the answer.
Finally, the last method of teaching is facilitating. I think that facilitating would be best for very difficult subjects, or other classes, such as learning support. I do not have any suitable examples of my own experience for facilitating. However, I do have an example of common sense. Learning support is supposed to provide facilitating for students who cannot find a way to learn properly under the protocol given to them already. So, there is the fact of common sense and why facilitating automatically fits within learning support.
Mentoring and teaching, which are my preferred methods of teaching, would impact people in different ways in later life (depending on the person). However, mostly, that method of teaching, together with a good personality of the teacher, should mix well and create a good student who finds a good career, and discovers that he or she can receive good marks (mostly) and they may find that they grow up to be a very important person for their country. In high school, taking a step back from careers, they should do well from their previous teaching and achieve good goals if their new teachers are the same. Overall, it really comes down to the circumstances of the pupil. A willing and confident pupil, blended with a good teacher, will make for a good learning experience.
The different methods of teaching throughout my experience have been different - good as well as bad for different circumstances. The improvements of teaching and of the internet alongside general technology have revolutionised the world globally. I wonder what’s going to come up in the next generation in the terms of technology.
What support do you think you should have to guide, advise and assist you in your learning?
Student Aspirations Team
12/16 years
Penryn College
England, United Kingdom
Would it be helpful to have an outside mentor/coach who is doing the job you want to do?
I think outside people that are doing the job you want to do should come in to teach us what they know.
We can learn from this.
Mentoring is helpful and can help you get a good job when you finish school.
Mentoring can also be fun with games.
Would you like to have a mentor, such as an older student, to help you?
There should be one older to every three younger students. This gives a chance for younger students to tell older students about their problems.
I would like this because sometimes teachers don’t have enough time for everyone.
Advice from other students is useful, as the older student has been in your shoes and can help with problems.
Should a teacher in the 21st century teach, instruct, mentor or facilitate?
Roshana P.
Year 5/6
Canberra Grammar School
ACT, Australia
Teachers have played a huge part in the life of their students. Students will remember their teachers all their lives because they would have had an impact in the early part of their lives. All students have a strong relationship with their teachers because school is like another home for them and they know that they could talk about anything with their teachers. Teachers have dedicated their lives to their students throughout the years. It’s a bit like if a shepherd leaves one of their sheep behind they’d still go and try and find the sheep, even though they’re leaving all their other sheep behind. Teachers would never look after one student then they look after the rest. The following paragraph will outline the facts about ‘How teaching has changed from the past century?’ and ‘What teaching methods I like’.
The method of teaching has definitely changed from a century ago. Teachers nowadays are more involved in what their students are doing rather then in the twentieth century, where teachers would just read the answers out of a book. When my mother used to go to school she would have to walk three kilometres to get there and then if she misbehaved or talked without putting her hand up she would get whipped. Nowadays parents drive you to school or children catch the bus and if we spoke without the teacher consulting us we would just get a warning. Classroom education is a lot less strict. Children can get away with so much nowadays compared to a century ago.
In this day and age children can actually talk to their teachers about personal issues. If a student needs to talk to their teacher it is very easy to. Teachers can talk to their teachers about family issues or friend issues and teachers will understand and willingly talk about it with their students. A century ago students wouldn’t be allowed to talk about these kinds of things with their teacher. Their teachers were just there to teach and were not there to help the students with their personal problems.
Also the method of teaching is different from a century ago. Back then teachers would just want their students to memorise certain answers to questions instead of teaching their students facts and information on issues around the world. Corporal punishment is banned from most countries now and this type of punishment was accepted a century ago.
The words teaching, instructing, mentoring and facilitating all sound the same but they have big differences.
These definitions were provided by http://dictionary.reference.com/
Teaching: To provide knowledge, to carry on instruction on a regular basis in.
Instructing: To give orders to.
Mentoring: Being a wise and trusted counsellor or teacher.
Facilitating: Making easy or easier, enabling.
The word, ‘teaching’ means to give information; if teachers are ‘teaching’ it means they are giving their students facts. If a teacher was using this method it means that they are sharing information with their students that their students would not have known before. Each teacher needs to be ‘teaching’ their students because the students would need to know new facts about things.
The word instructing means to give orders to. So, if you were instructing how to play a game, it would mean that you would be the leader of the group and you are mostly in charge of the team. Teachers need to use this kind of method because it helps to keep their class in order. Another example of this word would be a gym instructor. They are giving orders to their clients so that it would have a good result on them. Teachers are also trying to do this with their students.
The word ‘mentor’ means that people look up to this person whether it be for guidance or just for a role model. A mentor is someone who is trusted between everyone and someone who achieved a lot of good in their life. Being a mentor is important an important skill for a teacher because without this their students would not respect them and it would be hard to teach. Also, as teachers are supposed to have strong relationships with their students, it would be good for their students to trust them and look up to them.
The word ‘facilitate’ means to help and make easier or enable. If you are facilitating a person it means that you are assisting them; it doesn’t mean you are completely doing their work for them but you are helping them with any problems they have. I think this skill is good for teachers because students need their independence but if they need help they should be able to get it from a trusted staff member. In the 21st century a lot of work is independent so this would help the student think of ideas for themselves.
One of the methods that I prefer is ‘facilitate’. I like this method because it lets students think for themselves instead of someone helping them with every little problem. It also gives the student an opportunity to solve problems they have in their work and learn new things. This method is also good because if a student needs help the teacher will be there to help them. There have been various times this year when I have asked my teacher for help but after she gives me an idea I can go off and branch my own ideas off the idea she has given me. If I need help with any of my work I can just go and ask for help without any trouble at all.
Another method that I prefer is ‘teaching’. I prefer this method because it lets the student take in more information. It is better to learn from a teacher than a book because, in my personal view, you take more in when the teacher is talking. It also is a friendly way of learning because the teacher would have had experience with the subject before, so you could rely on this information. After the teacher has taught you, you can take that information and turn it in to your own way of thinking and write down how you feel or about how the world feels about the certain topic.
I think that this way of learning will benefit me in the future because I like to be more independent in my work, so with these methods it allows me to do that. Also, with these methods, I can have my own ideas instead of taking all the ideas from my teachers. This will also help me in later life because this system does not allow teachers to help with all the work all the time and in high school you have to be much more independent, so not only does this way of education benefit me right now but it will benefit me in later years. This is why this way of learning is perfect for me.
Guidance for students
Aquinas College
Year 12 SRC
Melbourne
Australia
Click here to view the Aquinas powerpoint.
What sort of advice?
 |
Maggie H.
12 years
Leanyer Primary School
Darwin, Australia |
As young children, we can be confused by the number of choices we are asked to make. That often involves choosing between right and wrong.
The choice morality that exists today does not offer guidance, only choices. These choices are often uninformed.
Christian morality and beliefs guide us with a full set of principles on which to make decisions. This needs to be passed from adults to children, from one generation to the next. Faith in accepting what is passed on, and is part of the process.
Help and advice
 |
Anika
12 years
Leanyer Primary School
Darwin, Australia |
The choices you make early in life are important and can shape your future - what advice and guidance do you need, who should give it and how should you access it?
Sometimes I need help and advice. I find I listen to my closest friends.
They help me because they recognize what I’m like and know me best. My friends can help me realise things and let me learn from my mistakes. I talk to my friends about how I feel, they listen to me. My mum is easy to talk to and she is the best person for me to go to for advice.
Teachers can help me, too, but not as well as people who are close to me. The guidance I need usually is when I get confused or worried about something.
Reading books that I can relate to can teach me valuable lessons about friendships and family problems. TV shows that I also can relate to teach me other things about my society and how to cope with things that cause me to grieve or feel unhappy.
