Don't turn schools into 'learning factories'

Domestic and foreign experts share their views on happiness in education, to help students see that school is truly home, a 'touch point of happiness', not a 'learning factory'.

Today, November 23, at the Scool Primary School System, an international conference on the topic "Happiness in Education" took place. The conference had the participation of domestic and foreign education experts, sharing ways to create a happy learning environment for students, emphasizing the training of a generation of teachers to create happy lessons, not turning schools into "learning factories".

The workshop "Happiness in Education" had the participation of many international experts in education (in the photo is Professor Yong Zhao, University of Kansas, USA)

" Touch of happiness"

At the opening session, Dr. Ngo Tuyet Mai, Flinders University (Australia), shared her memories of her youth, every time she came home from school she bragged to her father that she had a great day. It turned out that the joy did not come from the content of the subjects, but from the recess.

"In Vietnam, we often say "every day at school is a happy day". To truly do that, teachers must make sure that students feel happy while sitting in class as if they were playing", Dr. Mai shared.

Quoting the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, "Educating the mind without educating the heart is not education," Dr. Mai believes that focusing only on the mind and grades will inadvertently create pressure for students, teachers and all those involved in education.

In Australia, before starting a lesson, teachers pay a lot of attention to the mental health of their students. Therefore, teachers often do "emotional check-in" activities. Instead of immediately talking about the lesson, teachers often prioritize asking students to describe their feelings that day. "Every time I go to class, I often ask myself, what will I put into the students' emotional bank today?", Dr. Mai said.

Ms. Thai Huong, founder of TH School System, believes that schools must become "a touch of happiness".

Ms. Thai Huong, founder of TH School System, expressed her opinion on the concept of "school": "It is not by chance that "home" is always associated with "school", because a happy school environment will always evoke love, a sense of familiarity and strong connection - where each member is like "a family member". What I want to emphasize is to build schools into "a happy touchpoint", a place to connect the quintessence of knowledge, traditional culture and future vision; orient and empower students to be ready to become global citizens".

Arguing is an important part of learning to cooperate.

Other international speakers also provided insights into integrating happiness and personal goals into the educational environment by sharing their own experiences in holistic education, personalized learning, and building joyful learning environments.

Mr. Martin Skelton, founding advisor of TH School, a renowned educator and co-author of the International Primary Education Program IPC, shared his reflections on his journey at TH School. The lessons that Mr. Martin, as an educator, has learned include: student learning depends heavily on the mutual support between colleagues in the teaching team; repeated experiences and cognitive overload both play an important role in learning, in which repeated experiences create positive impacts and cognitive overload creates negative impacts in the process of knowledge acquisition...

Mr. Martin Skelton, founding advisor of TH School

Teacher Tom (Thomas Hobson), a world-renowned early childhood education expert and education blogger from the US, talks about how children's play helps build habits and principles of community in the early childhood classroom. Accordingly, child-led learning (play-based education) helps foster curiosity, self-motivation, community, empathy and purpose. Education should focus on curiosity, joy and community, and the classroom as a community is more important than the classroom as a "learning factory".

Mr. Thomas Hobson: Educators must be able to accept that "sometimes it is necessary to be messy" in play as well as in learning

Tom also shared some interesting observations about education, such as how children don’t really need toys, they need opportunities to interact with the real world. Or how in children’s education, arguing is an important part of learning to collaborate with others, and how risk-taking is necessary for healthy intellectual and social-emotional development. Or how play teaches children about the connection between failure, perseverance, and success. Educators must be willing to “sometimes get messy” in play as well as in learning…

Professor Yong Zhao, University of Kansas, USA, believes that "true happiness and well-being come from doing meaningful work rather than just learning how to be happy". Accordingly, what education needs to do is to engage students in meaningful and important work, as well as how students can develop their unique and wonderful talents, and use those talents to create value for others, thereby achieving a happy and meaningful life.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/dung-bien-truong-hoc-thanh-nha-may-hoc-tap-185241123171116056.htm