My Hong Kong Adventure 2012: Week Five: Professional Blog (25/2/12)

“Teachers play a critical role in enhancing the ability of the next generation of young people to better understand the world around them and to be able to collaborate with others in the resolution of global patterns. The degree to which teachers can do this is dependent on their own knowledge, experience and ability to transmit this knowledge and skill-set to the students in their class.”

(Lewin, 2009, p.151)

Reflecting on our decision to study the particular modules that we are doing was useful this week, as we have been able to see that they are each specifically targeted towards education related pathways, and each one is beginning to shape us more and more into better teachers. Interestingly, Heather and I are the only international students who are studying primary education, with the vast majority of the others studying business and finance related degrees. This was a genuine shock to me, as I assumed that because of the name of the university (Hong Kong Institute of Education) that all students would study education in some shape or form.

One of our modules, ‘Ethnic Identity’, discusses the importance of developing more culturally and ethnically aware citizens in the classroom. This is one of the objectives of the Northern Ireland Curriculum as it aims to empower young people to achieve their potential and to make informed and responsible decisions throughout their lives, through developing the child as an individual, a contributor to society and a contributor to the economy and environment. I can see so much potential for my professional development with this module, as I will soon be working and teaching in a very diverse classroom scenario: one made up of children from various backgrounds and ethnicities. If nothing else, this experience of learning first-hand about other cultures will help me to include ethnic minorities in my classroom and to encourage an appreciation of diversity amongst the other learners.

We have a group assignment in our ‘Self and Personal Identities’ class, so this week we met up with our group. We discussed what topic area we would study, and decided to select drug abuse amongst adolescents here. Being a volunteer counsellor with ‘Child Line’ I have developed a real awareness of the issues which today’s young people face in the UK and I feel, that sometimes, the pastoral aspect of the teaching role can be overlooked. In Hong Kong, the use of ecstasy and ketamine has increased by 25% in teenagers over the past year, with the main reason for this increase being peer pressure (Hunt et al, 2011). Teachers play such an important role in a child’s holistic development, and being more aware of these issues will allow me to be more of a support to my students and to help guide them in making the right decisions.

We explored the library further this week. Just like Stranmillis, the library has a specific area filled with resources for primary school children, which we will definitely make use of during our placement. We have not yet started our teaching placement, but we are both really looking forward to getting into the classroom and getting first-hand experience in teaching the children here, and comparing this with our previous placements in Northern Irish schools. We know that the time we spend in school is going to be the time that we will see ourselves develop the most professionally, and we really look forward to this incredible opportunity to continue to better ourselves for our future teaching career.