Enriching perspectives: gifted children (16/12/16)

Today we've had the pleasure of having a marvelous talk about a topic which (sadly enough) was rather unknown to us: gifted children. The guest speaker was Mª Luz, the secretary of AVAST, the Valencian association for gifted students, parents and teachers, whose main aim is orientating and helping them to get in touch with experts in the field, so all together they can make the most of the educative experience of those children. Indeed, Mª Luz is the proud mother of two of them, the real reason which arose her curiosity and interest in this field.

Based on her personal experience, her talk has dealt with the stereotypes and false myths that have shaped society's vision of those special learners, such as:

-Gifted children mainly referring to little boys with glasses, dressed like adults and surrounded by books and blackboards (a stereotype which we can confirm after a quick search on the Internet to illustrate the post) 

-Gifted as synonym of over-stimulated children whose parents 'forced' them to learn too fast for their age.

- Gifted in the sense of 'antisocial nerds'

However, she has showed us that in general those scornful stereotypes have nothing to do with the real lives of these special students -for instance, the activity she proposed about identifying gifted teenagers only basing our guesses on their physical appearance demonstrated how wrong we were. What really shocked us was the fact that many of these talented individuals have actually failed at academic levels, whereas they were outstanding in the artistic fields. The frustration they felt inside a school system which limits their cognitive capacities really touched us. Neither did we see as students the purpose of repeating the same kind of exercise one hundred times once we had already learnt to do it. Thus, now as teachers we understand the innate curiosity of these children and their desire of always learning more. Instead of cutting their wings, as educators it is our duty to make available for them all the materials and resources which can better equip their eager minds. After all, curiosity is one of the most powerful tools to change and improve the world!

On the other hand, the idea that also caught our attention was the legal situation of these children and their families, and the lack of resources available for them. As the case of Ena demonstrates, families encounter a lot of red tape and social opposition when trying to find the most suitable educative experience for their children. In general, we tend to pay more attention to the people at the left side of the Gauss curve (people with a lower IC), completely forgetting the ones at the right side. Our point is that the principle of 'catering for diversity' means taking into account all the different types of special needs when designing the syllabus -as it is the core idea of the inclusive school. We believe that it is possible to adapt the educational standards to the particular needs of each student. Thus, we agree with Mª Luz' statement that a system in which all learners, regardless of their innate capacities, are 'forced' to learn the same content with the same level of difficulty has no sense, since ones could get bored while others would feel confused and lost. The ideal model would be an equitable system in which the content is adapted to each student, so every single individual is guaranteed the right of learning something new and enriching every day, something able to stimulate them at all levels.

In conclusion, this talk has completely changed our vision of talented children. We are no longer afraid of having one of them in class, because now we understand this challenge as a unique opportunity of learning more and growing ourselves both as teachers and individuals. 
We hope to be able to identify these special students in the future and to construct together a successful learning experience for everyone!

THE POWER OF EDUCATION (28/11/16)

First impressions are always important. Particularly in education. That explains why we all were so anxious during the first lesson of this module, because we had no previous ideas of what was it about. However, deep inside us we all had a strong feeling that it was somehow related to our maturing as teachers. 

Then came in the new teacher, Maria, with a bag full of energy and refreshing proposals. At first we were shocked by her methodological strategies. She wanted us to take an active role in the course which is what we are supposed to do, though, but sadly enough, throughout our academic life, we have been offered this opportunity in very few occasions. As always, the vast majority of us were afraid of speaking in front of the class. But from the very beginning, she stated clear that what she expected for us was hearing our voices, our real opinions, not how excellent (or not) our level of English was. Thus, step by step, we started to understand her personal vision of education, as well as what was the real meaning of this module based on collaborative tasks. 

We all know that our educational system is not perfect. We have experienced first-hand its failures and shortages. But now we have a real chance to improve it. To begin with, we need to understand that education shouldn't be a fossilized institution -as it has become in the last decades. Just the contrary, it is a field in constant change. As so, we as educators should become a sort of chameleons, individuals able to completely adapt ourselves to any unexpected situations. I don't mean just adapting our teaching to the needs of individual students, but being able to adapt the contents and the materials to the changes of the real world. In our globalized society, technological advances, multiculturalism and international conflicts are going to affect (or disturb) somehow the atmosphere of our classroom, and we need to be ready to cope with that. As teachers, we shouldn't shut the real world out of the classroom, but on the contrary, we need to learn to make the most of the information and the resources available for us. My point here is that if we want to create a significant connection with our students (who are technological-natives), we need to teach them how their reality is directly connected to the content they are studying at school. In a way, we need to make the world and the class itself comprehensible to their young minds. By doing so, we will help them mature both as learners and as individuals. 

On the other hand, we consider that education as a whole shouldn't be taught only at schools. It is a social issue, and as so, we all -teachers, parents, friends, family- have a certain amount of responsibility on it. Education goes beyond books and the basic principles of a successful classroom atmosphere -staying silent when a peer is talking, showing respect to the opinion of others, even if they differ from our own- as long as these principles are also valid for social interactions in the real world. Besides the academic content of each subject, education also means being a good citizen, in the sense of giving your sit up to old people on the bus, saying hello when we cross someone on the street or just respecting the order of a queue and avoid cheating. Small gestures like those make the life of all of us much easier. We all know so, but however, not all of us have been really taught into those principles. Our view is that if we really want to change education, we shouldn't focus only on the structure of the educative system, but also on the structure of society itself. 

After all, education is at the basis of a healthy society. Consequently, if we really want to improve it, we should ask ourselves two sorts of questions: ones directly related to the structure and contents of the educational paradigm nowadays (Which schools are successful and why? What do our students really learn? Is there a coherent succession between the different educative levels?) and others directed to our personal vision as individuals of the role of education in our daily lives (How much do I value education and the role of teachers as instructors? Is there anything I can do to improve it? What sort of changes should I expect from our political leaders?). Only by asking the right questions in both dimensions we will find the solutions to our current problems.

All in all, there are no magic solutions. The answer to our damaged system doesn't consist on importing a successful educational system from a different country (as many people try to do with the Finnish model). Neither we, as future teachers, have all the answers yet. 

But we have the good will and the energy to work hard and to find them! 

P.S, If you want to know more about this issue, here are some useful links:

How to change education. Ken Robinson

Do schools kill creativity? Ken Robinson

On Education and Good Teachers. Bill Gates

Education and Creativity. Noam Chomsky. 

Welcome!

Hello! We are Maria Jiménez, Alba Bodí, Enrique Maldonado, Maria Calabuig and Andrea Fachina and we are really happy to welcome you to our blog. First of all, we are going to tell you who we are. At first, it seems that we have a lot of things in common, but we are different in many ways. Maria, Alba, Enrique and Maria studied English Studies at Universitat de Valencia, so they knew each other when they started this master course. On the other hand, Andrea studied Translating and Interpreting at Universitat Jaume I. She didn’t know anybody at the very first day, but a few days later she became part of a wonderful group of people.

We have different backgrounds and ambitions, but we all love linguistics and teaching. We are here because we want to enter into the amazing and challenging field of education, since we believe that it is the most powerful key for shaping a better world.