How
can Teachers maintain and maximize Gross Classroom Happiness for effective
teaching and learning process?”
Introduction
A teacher who is
constructionist in nature is a happy person with well informed about the learner
and contented, and happy teacher’s teaching is effective and the learning
process is much more effective too, “The good life, as I conceive it, is a
happy life, I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that
if you are happy you will be good” (Russel,
2011). Being happy is to be good
teacher, facilitator and good guide to the learners. To maintain and maximize
Gross Classroom Happiness for effective teaching and learning process, teachers
need to understand the meditations techniques. Happy teacher presents the quality
for effective teaching, happy learners depict the effective learning in the
whole classroom situation and being mindfulness is source of living
meaningfully as said in the article why mindful teaching benefits in students’
Learning?;
“Mindfulness has the potential to
be a very useful component in prevention and treatment efforts because of its
effectiveness in reducing emotional distress and promoting emotional balance,
improving attention, and contributing to motivated learning”.
(Patricia C. Broderick, PhD, 2013)
Meditation
The policy of the Royal
Government of Bhutan is to produce GNH graduates in future, but how could it be
achieved without taming the unstable mind? ‘Practice makes man perfect’ so,
practice of meditations enhances the concentration of the learner and the
teacher to follow the direction. To bring out GNH graduates teachers should
maximize the Gross Classroom Happiness in the teaching and learning environment
of both the teacher and learner, the concept of meditation has to be understood
by learners as well as the teachers to overcome the objectives. Before starting
the lesson, both learner and teachers has to have a clear mindset of meditation
for focusing on the particular subject or topic that has to be discussed. Amongst the meditations technique, the
teacher leads with one of the selected meditation techniques to bring and make
them focus on the topics happily before starting the lesson.
“Deep in the
soul, below pain, below all the distraction of life, is a silence vast and
grand – an infinite ocean of calm, which nothing can disturb; Nature’s own
exceeding peace, which “passes understanding”. That which we seek with
passionate longing here and there, upward and outward; we find at last within
ourselves.” (Bucke, 2013). Conducting
meditation in the beginning of the lesson creates self awareness, knowing self,
silence, stress relieving, peace, being natural and learning to be happy.
Further it provides opportunities to think positively, be mindful, calm with
high self-esteem and civic sense, loyal and faithful, self contended and
finally producing GNH graduates. These qualities arouses since there are the
practices ongoing about effective teaching as well as learning.
“Happiness
can be achieved not only through materials well-being resulting in physical
comfort, but also through inner pace and contentment”
Sogyal Rinpoche
Role
Model or Presentable of Teacher (behaviors)
‘Happiness is a perfume
you can’t pour on others without getting a few drops for yourself’ (Emerson, 2010). From the Gross National
Happiness infused view a happy teachers characteristics determines the Gross
Classroom Happiness and teacher should be happy to have effective teaching.
Since, students mirror the teacher both consciously and sub-consciously. They
learn with less effort by what they see than what they are told to do. In a Gross
Classroom Happiness infused School, students look up to teacher as role models.
The dispositions of beliefs, speeches and behaviors by teacher find lasting
impressions in students. Such impressions go into forming their beliefs and
value system. Teachers are therefore required to live by the values that they
want to see developed in their students. Teachers should be characterized by
their consistent psychological and physical conduct with student and, maintain
a conducive emotional stability, fair and just in their dealings with students
inside class and outside the school, punctual in all activities like monitoring
and assignment and assessment.
Teachers should not only be neat,
well dressed and presentable at all time but also needs to help students do
same. Teachers are morally, culturally and politically correct in language and
speech, participate physically and mentally with the student while carrying out
manual work in the class and maintain confidence, trust and respect for the
students through good examples. Teachers are at all times, professionally
approachable and
welcoming to students, so that
student feel comfortable to clear doubts and share problems and are mindful in
all respects. Teacher should have a high sense of motivation, take initiative
and have a keen interest in teaching and teach the subjects effectively.
Teacher should be organize, systemic, prepared and resourceful in their work
and demonstrate interest and care in students’ development and learning needs.
Teacher should work independently to enhance student performance without having
to be reminded by going out to help and support students at all times.
Tone
of teaching in the classroom and planning
To teach in the Gross Classroom
Happiness situation and to make the teaching effective, a teacher need well
planned and detail lesson including the features of gross national happiness.
Teacher enters the class with clear objectives for students learning, equipped
with various strategies to help students learn better in happiest way.
Therefore, teachers should be mindful of how they enter the classrooms,
starting from greetings and their conduct throughout the lesson period.
Introduction of the lesson should be mindfully involving students through
questioning and providing opportunities for students to ask questions and
prepare them to focus their attentions on the lesson with enthusiastically. Use
of effective communication skills and language were learners love to listen and
make a vase different increasing in learning in the school. Creating jokes and
fun related to topics, proper illustrations and interaction will foster the
learning environment in school and classroom.
Develops a lesson logically and
systematically through interacting and collaborative approach that ensures the learner
centered activities. The learners are challenged with questions that make them
analyze, synthesize, evaluate and reflect to enable it to comprehend the
concepts, develop skills, values and attitudes. This approach will help the
students find connections between what they learn in their real life
experiences outside the classroom, in their community, at the national level
and the world at large. Critical issues relevant to the topic and the values
are raised and opportunities are provided to the students to reflect,
critically analyze what each individual can do to change the way of thinking
and behavior so that they can live by the values upholding the domains to
attain the gross classroom happiness . The teacher consciously practices the
values in the class as she or he
interacts with the students and not only conducts as a role model but also
corrects and reprimands the students.
Any task assigned to the students
about the lesson should be designed to enhance greater conceptual understanding
of the topics, further development of skills, values and attitudes. Thus, the
class work, home work and project work set an individual work groups have tasks
about gaining in-depth knowledge and develop greater skills pertaining to the
topic. Understanding of values, seek values clarifications, gaining in-sight in
values and changing attitudes and behaviors towards the culmination of gross
classroom happiness. Planning for actions at the individual level and in groups
should start with self improvement in class, school and the community and at
national level.
Certain perfect blend of
qualities needs to be considered to generate a truly effective teacher in the classroom that can have everlasting impact
on virtually every student. An
effective teacher loves to teach. The most important quality that
every teacher should possess is a love and passion for teaching students.
Unfortunately, there are teachers who do not love what they do. This single
factor can destroy a teacher’s effectiveness quicker than anything else. Teachers who do not enjoy their job cannot possibly be effective day in and day out. There are too many discouraging
factors associated with teaching that is difficult enough on a teacher who
absolutely loves what they do, much less on one who doesn’t have the drive,
passion, or enthusiasm for it. On top of that, children are smarter than what
teacher give them credit for. They will spot a fake sooner than anyone and thus
destroy any credibility that the teacher may have.
Teachers’ commitment and attitude toward teaching
An
effective teacher demonstrates a caring attitude. Even teachers who love their job can struggle in this area, not
because they don’t care, but because they get caught up so much in the day to
day routine of teaching that they can forget that their students have lives
outside of school. Taking the time to get to know a student on a personal level
takes a lot of time and dedication. There is also a line that no teacher wants
to cross where their relationship becomes too personal. Elite teachers know how
to balance this without crossing that line and once a student believes the
teacher truly cares for them, then there is no limit to what that student can
achieve. An effective teacher can
relate to his or her students. The best teachers work hard to figure out how to
relate to each of their students. Common interest can be hard to find, but
exceptional teachers will find a way to connect with their students even if
they have to fake it. For instance, you may have a student who is a linking
cube fanatic. You can relate to that student if you do something as simple as
ordering a linking cube catalog and then going through it and discussing it
with that student. Even if you have no actual interest in linking cube, the
student will think you do and thus naturally create a connection.
An
effective teacher is willing to think outside the box. There is no one set cookie cutter way to teach. A
cookie cutter approach would likely be boring for both teachers and students.
What makes teaching so exciting is that children learn differently, and we have
to find and utilize different strategies and differentiated
learning to reach every student.
What works for one student, will not work for every student. Teachers have to
be willing to be creative and adaptive in their lessons, thinking outside the
box on a continual basis. If you try to teach every concept in the same manner,
there will be students who miss out on key factors because they aren’t wired to
learn that way. An effective teacher is
an excellent communicator. To be the best possible teacher you must
be an effective
communicator. However, in this area you are not just limited to
being a skilled communicator to your students although that is a must. You must
also be a strong communicator with parents of
your students as well as your faculty or
staff team within in your building. If
you have a difficulty communicating with any of these three groups, then you
limit your overall effectiveness as a teacher.
Classroom Organization/Management
The teaching classroom
should be such a wonderful were our children loved to be and arouses interest
in taking part in learning, appreciating and belief in teachers and to school
atmosphere.
An
effective teacher is proactive rather than reactive. This can be one of most difficult aspects for a
teacher to conquer. Intense planning and organization can ultimately make your
job all the more less difficult. Teachers who plan ahead, looking for aspects
that they might have issues with, and proactively looking for solutions to solve those
problems will have less stress on them, than those teachers who
wait until a problem arises and then tries to address it. Being proactive does
not replace being adaptive. No matter how well you plan, there will be surprises.
However, being proactive can cut down on these surprises tremendously, thus
making you more effective overall. An
effective teacher uses a variety of media in their lessons. We are
in the 21st century, and this generation of students was born in the digital
age. These students have been bombarded by technological
advances unlike any other generation. They have embraced it,
and if we as teachers do not, then we are falling behind. This is not to say
that we should eliminate textbooks and
worksheets completely, but effective teachers are not afraid to implement other
forms of media within their lessons.
An effective
teacher strives to be better. A teacher who has grown complacent in
what they do is the most ineffective kind of teacher. Any teacher who is not
looking for new and better
teaching strategies isn’t being an effective teacher. No matter
how long you have taught, you should always want to grow as a teacher. Every
year there is new research, new
technology, and new
educational tools that could make you a better
teacher. Seek out professional
development opportunities and try to apply something new to
your class every year. An effective
teacher challenges their students. The most effective
teachers, are often the ones that
many students think are the most difficult. This is because
they challenge their students and push them harder than the
average teacher does. These are the
teachers who are often students’ least favorite teachers at the time, but then
later on in life they are the ones that we all remember and want to thank,
because of how well they prepared us for life after our time with them. Being
an effective teacher does not mean you are easy. It means that you challenge
every one of your students and maximize your time with them so that they learn
more than they ever thought they could learn. An effective teacher understands the content that they teach and knows
how to explain that content in a manner that their students understand. There
are teachers who do not know the content well enough to effectively teach it.
There are teachers who are truly experts on the content, but struggle to
effectively explain it to their students. The highly effective teacher both
understands the content and explains it on level. This can be a difficult skill
to accomplish, but the teachers who can, maximize their effectiveness as a
teacher.
Effective teaching of a
teacher only cannot overcome expectations of gross classroom happiness but it
also requires the happiness of the learner to be virtually effective.
Responding to the
questions doesn’t make the learner effective neither writing correct answers.
Challenging with the peers and teachers with positive attitude towards learning
and getting satisfaction at the end of the lesson with a smile on face proves
that it is real effective learning.
Value Based Teaching
In day to teaching,
teachers need to reflect/highlight on value at the end of teaching and every
talk should be value based teaching and sharing. Gross Classroom Happiness
class should possess qualities that would make learning effective for the
learner through making the books accessible, evidence-based, practical
and eminently readable. Readers will find in learning a treasury of learners'
guiding towards the goal of more effective learning in classrooms. So, the
teacher builds a community of learners, make
learning relevant, and let students know that teacher cares of them,
incorporate active learning with high expectations, and make learning fun. As
said by Harold B. Lee, ‘Happiness does not depend on what happens outside of
you but on what happens inside of you; it is measured by the sprit with which
you meet the problems of life.’ Teachers can’t afford the happiness for the
student but can ignite to be happy for the learning purpose and this impression
should be imprinted forever in every learner to learn effectively.
Conclusion
Maximizing the happiness
within the whole classroom invaluably increases the effectiveness of the
teaching and learning. It begins with meditation focusing to bring change
inwardly and changing towards positive attitudes of the learner and the
teacher. Targeting the qualities of effective teacher and effective learner if
they are happy, then it would be a good lesson.
Being good is not happy but being happy means it is good, individuality
of the learner and the teacher’s happiness defines the effective teaching and
learning process in the Gross Classroom Happiness. Other source to infuse GNH
value in school as reflected in Gross National Happiness and Development book;
“One
of the pillars upon which GNH must rest is education. The entire educational
curriculum of Bhutanese schools needs to be infused with the GNH ethos. GNH
values need to be taught at all levels of school system. Textbook and other
training materials that specifically reflect Bhutanese and GNH values need be
written and used. In this way, GNH will become a reality for future generations”.
Karma Ura & Karma Galay.
The GNH classroom/school will be created if
values are reflected in Bhutanese curriculum and to other teaching materials.
Moreover, it should focused more on child friendly teaching as well as
interaction with learners. It can maximize the gross classroom happiness for
effective teaching and learning process is achieved through the produce of GNH
graduates for the country. Lastly I conclude by quoting;
“They may forget
what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel”. (Anonymous)
References
Broderick,
Patricia C. PhD. (2013). Google.
Retrieved 5 12, 2015, from why teaching Mindfulness Benefits Students’ Learning?
http://ww2.keqed.org/mindshift/2013/09/12/why-teaching-mindfulness-benefits-students-learning/
DCRD.
(2011). A Guide to Advancing Gross National Happiness. Paro: DCRD.
DCRD.
(2013). Educating for Gross National Happiness. Paro: DCRD.
DCRD.
(2011). Nurturing Green Schools for Green
Bhutan- A guide to school Management. Thimphu; EMSSD.
Kuensel. (2010). Gross National
Happiness. Thimphu: Kuensel Cooperation Limited.
Ura, K
& Galay, K. (2004). Gross National
Happiness and Development, The Centre for Bhutan Studies; Thimphu
