Let students have a voice, and let it be heard

Simon Marcus Gower, Jakarta

Sometimes it is possible to ask teachers what they consider to be a well organized and disciplined class and get answers that are, in essence, really quite disturbing. Often for teachers an organized and disciplined class emerges as a mundane and practically oppressive place in which students are required to be little more than passive observers of what the teacher wants them to see and perhaps occasionally do.

Often, it seems that students are not expected to speak up in class. But worse still there is even a tendency for it to be seen as unacceptable and even disturbing for a student to speak. For some teachers the only acceptable voice to be heard in class is that of the teacher. The students are only required to speak when called upon or deemed appropriate by the teacher.

In this kind of setting clearly the teacher is at the center of all attention. The notion of a well organized and disciplined classroom is, then, entirely orientated around the teacher's position and imposition of control. However, it has to be questioned what precisely the teacher is in control of. If the teacher is simply a dictatorial controller of a group or "crowd" of people then a certain amount of success might be seen to be achieved.

However a teacher is, or at least ought, not be just a crowd controller. A teacher should be the creator of opportunities for learning to happen within the classroom. In this way the teacher is the instigator and facilitator of learning for the students. The teacher should be the stimulator of action and involvement from the students.

Quite consistently, though, it is possible to see that teachers are not acting as the instigator, facilitator and stimulator of learning in the classroom. Instead, regrettably, often teachers may act as the regulator of students' behavior in a manner that is, ultimately, oppressive and confining of the students' ability to both participate and, importantly, understand and learn about what is going on in the classroom.

Of course, there are situations that can be highly demanding of the teacher's attention and potentially set up a condition in which the teacher considers it necessary to become a "crowd controller". Large classroom sizes would be one such situation in which a teacher would likely consider it necessary to hold a position of practically dictatorial control.

However, even in seemingly untoward conditions such as having large numbers of students within one classroom, just a little initiative and imagination can go a long way. The teacher, quite simply, does not have to be permanently and endlessly the center of all attention and activity. Indeed activity is a key word here, because students will quite naturally need and benefit from having activity in the classroom.

The teacher can create opportunities for the students to have activities together. By breaking up the class into groups, that will work together, creates a different format for the classroom. Students given a focus for their attention and a challenge to their intellect are no longer merely passive viewers in the classroom. They have become active participants in the learning process and instantly they can become motivated and diligent players in the classroom environment.

A large classroom broken down into smaller groups can become more manageable and livelier for both the students and the teacher. But the classroom divided into smaller groups becomes an environment in which the teacher gets greater opportunities to interact with the students and effectively get to be closer to them.

Students in a classroom should be able to participate in an open and discursive way. They should be encouraged to exercise their minds and powers of critical thought. Naturally enough a key way in which they will be able to exercise their powers of critical thought is by actually being required, and getting the opportunity, to voice a response to what they are receiving. They should not just to be passive receivers but should be active respondents in the classroom.

It can be an extremely sad and frustrating experience to encounter students that are simply not capable of being active respondents to the learning in the classroom. Too often students are simply neither requested nor expected to have a responsive or critical thought when they are attending school.

Similarly, though, it is possible to encounter teachers that do not have room within their minds for responsive and critical students.

The teacher in the classroom should be able to create an environment which combines well disciplined organization with sufficient scope for the students to exercise their natural curiosity which, if appropriately stimulated, will grow into their powers of both critical and original thought.

It was a chairman of the Japanese electronics giant Sony, Akio Morita, that memorably said that "curiosity is the key to creativity". This is something that is worthy of teachers' consideration. Those words "curiosity" and "creativity" should be keywords and guiding words for teachers. Over zealous conformity and confining of students will stifle curiosity and limit creativity.

By giving students a voice and involvement in the classroom, control is not being lost but is being shared in a democratic and productive way. As teachers in Indonesia have to come to terms with the new national competency-based curriculum it will become increasingly important that they find ways of truly including and stimulating their students.

The writer is Executive Principal of the High/Scope Indonesia School. The opinions expressed above are personal.