lessons for the next generation of students - Globe Media Asia

LESSONS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF STUDENTS INCLUDING: HOW MUCH TECH IS TOO MUCH TECH?

CHOOSING THE RIGHT SCHOOL FOR YOUR CHILD

CAMBODIA'S EDUCATION MINISTER ON PLAYING CATCH-UP

HUMAN SKILLS REQUIRED IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

OCTOBER 2017

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ry a d on ch c e S ran N O O B gS in aiju n e Op n Bod nces i ide Res 2 october 2017

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CONTENTS

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06 /Education Shorts Stories, quotes and infographics on education in the region 08/The benefits of being human Why humanity matters in a future dominated by artificial intelligence

24/Learning how to learn A conversation with the creator of the world’s most successful online course

12/Finding a home in the classroom Stateless students find refuge in Kuala Lumpur’s Ideas Academy

26/Tech: how much is too much? Practical tips and advice about your child’s use of technology

14/Children of the World Understanding the challenges of being a ‘third culture kid’

28/Navigating new terrain Q&A with Ali Copple on getting the most out of Cambodia’s international schools

20/Seeds of optimism Cambodia’s education minister Hang Chuon Naron on the urgent need for reform

30/Getting Schooled Guide to finding the right school for your children

Editor in Chief Dene Mullen Editor Colin Meyn Reporter Paul Millar Business Reporter Euan Black Designers Joe Slater, Vathana Phon, Navet Tab

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october 2017 5

Education SpecialN

TASTER SESSION

Short stories, quotes and infographics bringing you the latest on education in the region

DIGITAL EDUCATION FOR ALL

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Even if students become accountants or miners or whatever, art education is really important

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AARON SEETO, DIRECTOR OF MUSEUM MACAN IN JAKARTA, ON DEVELOPING CREATIVE THINKERS AND LEADERS

• Technology has the potential to bridge the urban-rural educational divide

The idea that education is a human right has remained a fantasy in many remote corners of the world. But with the use of digital devices spreading far faster than government services in many countries, the educational resource gap between urban and rural populations is diminishing. Lessons, tests and even teachers can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, and even some places without it. Social enterprise EDEMY is working to provide a quality English education to Cambodians regardless of their financial or environmental constraints. Their current model is able to operate in areas where there is no internet connection or qualified teachers, using a low-cost android tablet and a trained local facilitator. “I think technology cannot completely replace the role that teachers play, such as coaching, but technology is an effective tool to make learning and teaching more efficient,” says co-founder Sovan Srun. “It plays an important role in bridging the gap between rural and urban education as it enables students to attend world-class education at their fingertips.” 6 october 2017

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ALMOST LIKE THE REAL THING

From the quill to the printing press and the personal computer, technology has been upending educational practices for centuries. If you’re keeping your eyes out for the next big thing, strap on a pair of ClassVR goggles and transport yourself to ancient temples, other planets or inside the human heart. Rupert Rawnsley, technical director at Avantis, which produces the teacher-friendly devices, said that his company looks at the curriculum first and then creates the user experience accordingly. “We aim to take the friction out of the experience for the teacher,” he told the tech website ZDNet. “We’ve produced 500 lesson plan notes to start with. The strategy is: adopt, adapt and innovate to bring your own content.” The headsets have a 5.5-inch high-resolution screen, a front-facing camera, microphone, stereo speakers and customised software. The cost for an eight-pack is currently more than $2,500 but, as with all technology, it will only get cheaper.

FOOD FOR THE MIND

Rising obesity rates, increasing food insecurity and the growing recognition across the world that nutrition is critical to the healthy development of young students are coming together to create a sense of urgency around efforts to educate children and their parents about healthy eating. Recent studies have demonstrated that nutrition affects students’ thinking skills, behaviour and health – all factors that impact academic performance. One study found that fifth-grade students with less nutritious diets performed worse on a standardised literary assessment, while another study discovered that fifth-grade students who ate more fast food fared worse on math and reading assessments. Diets high in trans and saturated fats have been found to be particularly damaging to cognitive abilities, while a nutritious diet improves students’ concentration, boosts energy levels and even reduces stress. “Good nutrition impacts children’s health, wellbeing and learning, and if children are not adequately nourished during childhood, the impact can last a lifetime,” said Sara Kirk, a professor of health promotion at Dalhousie University in Canada.

TOP-RANKED UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

HIGHEST NUMBER OF INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Singapore

Vietnam

2 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Cambodia

Malaysia

Thailand

Indonesia

1 National University of Singapore

3 University of Malaya, Malaysia 4 Mahidol University, Thailand 5 King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand 6 Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia Universiti Putra Malaysia Universiti Teknologi Malaysia 9 Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia

190

181

170

114

111

110

10 Chulalongkorn University, Thailand Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings, 2017

Source: International School Consultancy Group

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If the Cambodian government wishes to integrate itself as a worthy competitor to the global educational system and eventual workforce, it needs to start with an innovative response not an imitative one SOTHY ENG, PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE IN COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AT LEHIGH UNIVERSITY’S COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

DISPARITIES IN EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT BY WEALTH AND GENDER YEARS OF SCHOOLING FOR RICHEST MALES RICHEST FEMALES POOREST MALES POOREST FEMALES Laos

Vietnam

Indonesia

Philippines

Thailand

RICHEST MALES (13)

RICHEST MALES (10)

RICHEST MALES (13)

RICHEST MALES (13)

RICHEST MALES (14)

RICHEST FEMALES (13)





POOREST MALES (4)

POOREST MALES (7)

POOREST MALES (8)

POOREST MALES (6)

POOREST MALES (9)

POOREST FEMALES (2)

POOREST FEMALES (7)

POOREST FEMALES (8)

POOREST FEMALES (8)

POOREST FEMALES (8)

Source: Unesco Global Education Monitoring Report team analysis, 2016

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THE BENEFITS OF BEING HUMAN

Opinions on the impact of artificial intelligence in the workplace vary wildly, but experts are reaching a consensus on the human skills required to remain competitive in the years ahead BY EUAN BLACK

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obots can do anything if they put their minds to it . Last year, Flow Machines, a research project funded by the European Research Council and coordinated by the Sony Computer Science Laboratory (Sony SCL), produced the world’s first pop song composed by artificial intelligence. The team at Sony SCL fed more than 13,000 sheets of popular music into a computer, which analysed the rhythms, melodies and structure of the music and then used advanced machine learning to produce its own original melody based on its analysis (the lyrics were later added by a human). The result was “Daddy’s Car”, a song inspired by the Beatles that sounds no more formulaic than other hits topping today’s music charts. While it would be a stretch to describe the song as evidence of a machine’s ability to create original art, the project goes at least part of the way toward undermining the sanctity of human creativity, spoiling the long-held belief that only low-skilled labour is under threat from automation. Today, acquiring strong technological skills may be enough to secure employment over a machine,

but experts warn the same cannot be said for tomorrow. In the eyes of Marc Tucker, president of the US-based National Centre on Education and the Economy and a researcher who has spent the past two decades analysing the world’s best-performing education systems, the rapid rise of artificial intelligence means that we must devote our development “to those things that are uniquely human”. “The people who will succeed in the world ahead are the people who make use of their most human, non-cognitive capacities: their ability to relate to other people; their ability to communicate complex matters clearly; their ability to work in teams effectively [and] to lead others,” he told Southeast Asia Globe during a telephone interview from Washington, DC. Tucker is in good company when he expounds the increasing importance of what are often referred to as ‘soft skills’. In 2015, a report by the World Economic Forum claimed that increasing automation meant that complex problem solving, critical thinking and creativity would become the three most sought after workplace skills in 2020. Earlier this year, a similar report by the SEA GLOBE

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Education Special

• professional services firm Deloitte argued that a new

wave of jobs brought about by automation was creating demand for “higher cognitive skills such as those that depend on management or human social interaction”. To ensure students develop such skills, schools must teach students how to think, not what to think. But they must also understand that some of life’s most valuable lessons transcend the classroom setting and, thus, create environments that mimic real-life situations and encourage students to think on their feet, according to Tucker. “In the West, when people think about schooling, they tend to think about what happens in classrooms, which is really the cognitive development of young people. But they think much less of what happens on the playing fields or what happens in sports,” he said. “In the future, the role of the school [should be] seen more holistically. Schools should develop a student’s character and values, as well as their thinking ability.” Even technologically advanced Singapore, which was recently recognised as having the best education system in the world by the Programme for International Student Assessment, has been criticised for failing to adequately

• Students learn to harness the power of the sun

10 october 2017

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The people who will succeed in the world ahead are the people who make use of their most human, non-cognitive capacities

equip students with the requisite ‘soft skills’ to effectively contribute to the modern workforce. A year-long survey conducted by the Singapore Management University and JP Morgan and published in 2016 revealed that the city-state had for too long focused on teaching hard skills at the expense of nurturing the creativity of its students, undermining its goal of creating an innovationdriven economy. •

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• Computer skills will be no guarantee of success in the high-tech future

Recent policies, however, would suggest that Singapore’s government is well aware of this skills shortage. In 2014, the country introduced a physical education syllabus that committed 10-20% of curriculum time in primary and secondary schools to outdoor education, signifying a commitment to a holistic approach to education. “It is about developing an enduring core of competencies, values and character to anchor our young and ensure they have the resilience to succeed,” the country’s education minister, Heng Swee Keat, said of the approach in parliament in March. A growing number of schools in the region are implementing similar policies and increasing efforts to promote student wellbeing. During early years’ education, this can simply mean providing children with “opportunities to check in with themselves at different points in the day” or setting up areas for children to take time out from a class if they’re ever feeling overwhelmed, according to Kirsty Campbell, wellbeing leader at iCAN British International School in Phnom Penh.

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All the things that people write about as 21st century skills, it’s all nonsense. Those are old skills

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In middle years, Campbell added, iCAN’s students take regular mindfulness classes where they practice meditation or learn other strategies to develop “emotional resilience”. “Obviously the curriculum is rigorous and we talk about academic success,” said Campbell. “We’re just allowing them that space to talk about their feelings. And they’re lifelong tools.” Schools struggling to develop their students’ soft skills need look no further than the history books for inspiration, according to Tucker. “If you go through the list of 21st century skills, they were all alive and well at [revered British private schools] Eton and Harrow in the 1890s, because what those institutions were all about was creating the future leaders of the British Empire,” he said. “They needed to be great leaders. They needed to be great team members. They needed to adapt. They needed to set deadlines for themselves. They needed to have selfdiscipline. All the things that people write about as 21st century skills, it’s all nonsense. Those are old skills.” •

• Students learn to garden at the International School of Phnom Penh (ISPP)

• A student gets familiar with an iPad

• ISPP students gather around a cage housing butterfly pupa

Education Special

FINDING A HOME IN THE CLASSROOM

Kuala Lumpur’s Ideas Academy is providing high-quality education to refugees and stateless children whose families have found life in Malaysia starker than expected

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or millions of students worldwide, a day at school can often be the last way they would choose to spend their time. Terrifying teachers, bickering over popularity and the pressure of achieving good grades often render one’s school days far from memorable, much less enjoyable. Yet many students do not realise quite how lucky they are, or consider, even for a moment, that for millions of others the opportunity for an education has been snatched away by extreme violence and war. In Malaysia, this is where Ideas Academy comes in. The learning centre educates refugees and stateless children aged between 12 and 19 who have arrived from countries such as neighbouring Myanmar or as far afield as Afghanistan. The idea is to reach those who find themselves unable to enrol in the country’s national school system because 12 october 2017

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they do not have legal status or the right to remain in the country. Located in the Pudu area of Kuala Lumpur, the academy opened in 2014 as a joint venture between the Institute for Democratic and Economic Affairs and Stichting Young Refugee Cause, a Dutch foundation that seeks to improve the lives of refugees through education. The school’s six teachers offer an international Cambridge curriculum, which general manager Sopiah Suid said allows students to continue their studies when they move on, wherever that might be. “From a long-term perspective, we would like to see our students succeed in life – not just be gainfully employed but able to take their place as responsible, ethical and empowered citizens of the world,” she said. “We would like

• Clockwise from top left: An Ideas Academy classroom in action; students perform in animal costumes; Sopiah Suid, the school’s general manager

to increase our student numbers as there are many underprivileged and displaced students out there. We have 125 students currently for the September 2017 intake but we have about 60 more on the waiting list.” Ateeba Anjum, 19, joined the Academy two years ago after arriving in Malaysia from Pakistan. She credits the school for giving her the tools to come up with a clear career goal: becoming a fashion designer. “For me, I think education is the only key to success. It’s the only way I can fulfil my dreams and the most important thing in my life,” she said. “Sometimes I feel very helpless when I can’t help members of my family. My responsibility is to get myself educated so I can help them in future. They are building their present, but I am building their future.” • – Madeleine Keck

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THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS Through its uniquely bilingual approach to education, Phnom Penh’s East-West International School develops its students into people capable of taking control of their own lives, according to interim director Samantha Fraser

You’ve described East-West International School’s approach to education as “truly bi-lingual and bicultural”. What does this look like in the classroom, and why is it important? Each Early Years and Primary class has two qualified teachers: one English foreign teacher and one Khmer teacher. Teachers ‘co-teach’ lessons where possible. This means that there will be a language switch during a lesson, covering the same content. Or concepts might be introduced in English and then consolidated in Khmer. Basically, we model to students the positive use of both languages to develop their thinking skills. In this way we are ensuring that we don’t ‘replace’ the home language with English but reinforce development in both. What are some of the advantages of teaching both the Cambodian national curriculum and the British curriculum? What implications does this have for a child’s higher education beyond East-West? The majority of our students are Khmer and do the bilingual programme and we believe this has ensured cognitive and literacy development happens effectively in both languages. The British curriculum – specifically the Cambridge International Exams – is a rigorous, internationally recognized programme. Cambridge “A” level passes, or the

Cambridge AICE diploma, ensure access to most universities across the world. It is a tried and proven programme that is flexible enough to be adapted for use in a school such as ours. Students who can pass AS and A levels are almost certain to succeed at completing Degree courses. Apart from academic development, what extracurricular programmes does East-West offer its students? All our students participate in music, art, physical education, swimming and computer classes. Our music programme is especially well developed and we have a talented team of teachers who offer training in violin, guitar, percussion and vocals. Our Secondary school students have the opportunity to join one of the middle school or high school sports teams, who compete against other international schools in Phnom Penh. We also offer an after-school programme with activities run by our teachers. These could include chess, drama club, dodgeball, paper art and wall climbing. Once a year our Grade 5 to 12 students go on extended field trips to regional areas of Cambodia, or to a neighboring country. Students are encouraged to take part in extra-curricular activities because these help to develop social skills, confidence, greater awareness of the world outside home and the classroom, and an opportunity to explore their individual talents and passions.

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CHILDREN OF THE WORLD

A transient international education is well suited to the world’s increasingly globalised economy, but it’s not without its own challenges WORDS BY EUAN BLACK PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY MEEK

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lyssa has not lived in her home country for more than three years, but the 13-year-old still speaks with an Australian twang. She moved to England with her mother and brother when she was ten years old after her mother took up a job at an English state school. A year later, Alyssa was on the move again, this time to Switzerland, where she picked up a smattering of French and bonded with other children living similarly transient lives. Two years later, Alyssa again had to say farewell when her family moved for a third time in as many years, swapping the order of Switzerland for the frenzy of Phnom Penh. “I had a lot of friends staying for one or two years and then just going because they needed to,” Alyssa said during a conversation at her new school, Northbridge International School Cambodia. “I still keep in contact with them, but when they moved away, I don’t know, it [was] like losing someone; you just get used to it, I guess.” Alyssa is a third culture kid (TCK), a term coined by sociologist Ruth Hill Useem in the 1950s based on research that revealed people living for significant periods of time in a culture outside their original home had a tendency to form a culture distinct from both their home and host countries. The cultural awareness TCKs accrue through early exposure to multiple cultures holds them in good stead for international careers in a world defined by the relatively free movement of goods, ideas and people, according to

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In the third culture kids’ world, grief is often not recognised or dealt with as the losses are often hidden

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• Students read in the library at Northbridge International School Cambodia

recent research conducted by Ibraiz Tarique and Ellen Weisbord from New York’s Pace University. However, the transient nature of their existence means many lack a sense of belonging and, like Alyssa, are forced to say goodbye to friends more than they would like. If left unaddressed, these issues can manifest themselves in anxiety and depression in later life. Ruth Van Reken, an ‘adult third culture kid’ (ATCK) and co-author of Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, characterises the experience of children like her as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, she says, experiencing different cultures leads to “comfortableness with cross-cultural interactions, often multiple languages, 3-D awareness of the world and friends in many places and from many backgrounds”. On the other hand, moving frequently gives rise to identity struggles, as TCKs lack full ownership of any one culture, and chronic grief due to experiencing recurring loss. “After living through so many cycles of separation and loss from friends, family and places they love, the accumulation of loss is high and, wherever there is loss of something you love, there will be grief,” Van Reken told Southeast Asia Globe. “But in the TCKs’ world, grief is often not recognised or dealt with as the losses are often hidden. Also, often there is no permission or time to deal with [loss], because others will point out the blessings of their lives. TCKs • SEA GLOBE

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know this is true for the most part and so to say there is loss feels almost disloyal,” Van Reken added. Fortunately, the strategies needed to prevent the cumulative loss from developing into long-term, unresolved grief are relatively straightforward. In lieu of a permanent geographical home, TCKs are more likely to derive a sense of belonging from reliable relationships than an affinity to any one culture. Establishing strong family traditions, for example, is an effective method of reducing the common stresses associated with living a TCK lifestyle, according to Van Reken. “But, above all, learning the stages of normal transition and the common responses to each, as well as the strategies for how to deal with the challenges of leaving, can go a very, very long way to prevent long-time grief from occurring,” Van Reken said, going on to elucidate on the theory of transition developed by the late sociologist David Pollock. According to Pollock, who co-authored Third Culture Kids with Van Reken, students need sufficient time to tie up loose ends (reconciliation); thank people that may

have helped them (affirmation); say goodbye to friends and places (farewell); and mentally prepare themselves for the move ahead (think destination) to prepare for a smooth transition. Schools also play a major role in this process, which need not be traumatic, according to Lois Bushong, a family therapist based in the US who wrote Belonging Everywhere and Nowhere: Insights into Counseling the Globally Mobile. “[Schools should] tap into the knowledge of the TCK of the worlds they have lived in or visited… yet be careful so as not to set up the TCK as a ‘teacher’s pet’ or a ‘know it all’ and thus alienate the TCK from their peers,” said Bushong. “The best approach is to let the TCK lead the way in what they want to share with their peers.” Given most international schools tend to have a culturally diverse set of teachers and students and experience high turnover rates, many academics view international schools as a third culture in themselves. Consequently, attending international schools helps TCKs develop a more deeply rooted sense of belonging.

• Alyssa, a student at Northbridge International School Cambodia, has lived in three countries in as many years 16 october 2017

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The best approach is to let the third culture kid lead the way in what they want to share with their peers

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“It’s a challenge but it’s also an opportunity. They have such a broad life experience and global perspective, but that can sometimes overwhelm other students,” said Dave Reed, secondary school counsellor at Northbridge. “It’s about getting TCKs to share what they’ve seen without creating an ‘us’ and ‘you’ mentality between international and local students.” For Reed, a global shift towards ‘constructivist’ teaching approaches, which place greater emphasis on studentled learning, has encouraged TCKs to question their cultural assumptions in a way that helps them develop the awareness and critical thinking required to get the most out of their varied experiences. “One of the key concepts that we teach through our programme is perspective. If students can appreciate that there exists a variety of perspectives, that leads to a greater level of understanding” said Reed. By recognising that their opinion is just a perspective too, Reed said, TCKs can channel their experiences into “huge social capital” that could help open doors later in life. •

• Dave Reed, the secondary school counsellor at Northbridge International School Cambodia

New ISHCMC Secondary Campus Designed to encourage collaboration, connectivity and innovation with makerspaces, recording studio, media rooms and an innovation center.

OPENING 2017/18

ACADEMIC YEAR www.ishcmc.com [email protected]

International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme Cohort of 2017 achieve record high results!

Average Diploma Score compared to 29 in 2016

Highest Point Score

Pass Rate

compared to 82% in 2016

compared to 34 in 2016

Number of IB Students

compared to 11 in 2016

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NURTURING AN OPEN MIND Northbridge International School Cambodia prides itself on its academic success. But it is also acutely aware that its teaching mandate transcends the traditional classroom setting

“For most of us, the problem isn’t that we aim too high and fail,” writes the educator Ken Robinson in his New York Times bestseller The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, “it’s just the opposite: we aim too low and succeed”. Astute as ever, the self-proclaimed creativity expert’s words are likely to ring true for many adults who feel they have not lived life to their full potential. In a TED talk that has been watched online by over 60 million people, Robinson blames our lack of ambition on an education that taught us to fear making mistakes and, by extension, “educated us out of [our] creative capacities”. Fortunately, the same cannot be said for Northbridge International School Cambodia’s educational philosophy. Set among twenty acres of greenery on the outskirts of Cambodia’s chaotic capital, the school is a keen advocate of teaching students “how to think, not what to think”, a philosophy reflected in its hands-on, interdisciplinary approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM). Developed in conjunction with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the school’s STEAM curriculum tests students in real-life situations so as to promote critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving, skills that the

World Economic Forum claimed in 2015 would be the three most sought after workplace skills in 2020 as a result of increasing automation. Breaking from tradition has paid dividends. Last year’s cohort achieved the best International Baccalaureate (IB) results in the school’s history, registering a 96% pass rate and an average score four points higher than the global average, a set of results the school’s principal Richard Vaughan credits to “the quality of the teaching and learning experience that exists at Northbridge”, as well as “the commitment of staff across the whole school and how being part of Nord Anglia Education has supported our faculty in attaining the school’s highest academic outcomes to date”. “These IB Diploma results mark our school’s breakthrough to sitting 4 points above the ‘global average’ for DP scores and 16% above the ‘overall global pass rate’. This places the school amongst the highest performing IB schools around the world. The students in this graduating cohort have experienced our full IB continuum curriculum of phases from the Primary Years Program to the Middle Years Program, and on to the Diploma Program, building on the strengths of the teaching and learning that is taking place across the whole school”, he adds.

Education SpecialN

20 october 2017

SEA GLOBE

SEEDS OF OPTIMISM

Often held up as the poster boy for progressive reform in Cambodia, education minister Hang Chuon Naron sat down with Southeast Asia Globe to discuss how a country that is struggling to provide basic primary level education can compete on the world stage WORDS BY EUAN BLACK PHOTOGRAPHY BY LUKE DING

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t’s 8am on a Wednesday and Hang Chuon Naron, an economist who has been Cambodia’s education minister since 2013, has spent the past five minutes discussing the myriad ways in which artificial intelligence will change the world. After pondering the moral ambiguity of killer robots and the inevitable advances in the medical and legal worlds, he turns his attention to a more specific concern: the potentially devastating impact that the so-called ‘fourth industrial revolution’ will have on the country’s 700,000 garment workers. “More and more machines will replace workers, especially in the factories because there are lots of standardised processes,” he says from behind his desk at the Ministry of Education, an Apple Watch protruding from the sleeves of a loose-fitting navy suit. “For Cambodia to catch up, our young people must improve their skills. Otherwise, they will not benefit from these technological breakthroughs. If they don’t work hard and don’t improve, their future will be denied.” Cambodia is not alone in needing to prepare for a future in which technology will transform the role of humans in everything from banking and manufacturing to media and entertainment, and in which 65% of today’s primary school students will be working in jobs that don’t yet exist, according to a 2016 report by the World Economic Forum. But the playing field is far from level: even the harshest critics of Cambodia’s government would concede that the elimination of the country’s intellectual class at the hands of the Khmer Rouge has made rebuilding the education system within a couple of generations a near impossible feat. Having graduated from a low- to lower middle-income country last year, however, Cambodia has started to lose the trade benefits that gave legs to its recent economic growth spurt, a loss compounded by the country’s failure to increase productivity. Now it must forge a new path that veers away from labour-intensive

manufacturing towards knowledge-intensive industries – and education must pave the way. Naron’s first major policy initiative upon taking over the Ministry of Education was to put an end to cheating, which plagued the country’s Grade 12 examinations. After drafting in members of the Anti-Corruption Unit to prevent invigilators from taking any under-the-table payments and students from bringing cheat sheets and mobile phones into exam halls, the exam pass rate dropped from 83% to 26%. The first set of disappointingly low results after the reforms revealed students’ crippling inertia toward studying caused by years of rampant bribery and cheating. But the re-sit a few months later, which only managed to bump up the pass rate from 26% to 40%, pointed to much deeper problems, according to Naron. “We realised the problem might be the teachers. During the Khmer Rouge, 80% of the teachers were killed, so we had to recruit some not-so-qualified people to become teachers,” he says. “The qualification of the teacher is the most important issue, and then how to provide training to the existing teachers. Increasing salaries is also necessary to attract the best and brightest to become teachers.” During his four years in office, the government has more than doubled teacher salaries, a development Naron describes as a “commendable” achievement that will help efforts to stamp out bribery. The education minister has also made efforts to improve the level of qualifications held by teachers, although most still enter the profession without a university education – and some without having completed high school – according to Naron. “Right now, we have primary school teachers that are 12+2. It means they passed Grade 12 and had two years of education to become a primary school teacher,” he says. “Starting from 2020, our objective is to raise the minimum requirement of teachers from 12+2 to 12+4, or •

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For Cambodia to catch up, our young people must improve their skills

• Hang Chuon Naron talks in his office at the Ministry of Education in Phnom Penh

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Education SpecialN

bachelor’s degree. Our focus will be on ne w recruits; they will have to meet that standard. For the existing ones, we will encourage them to take a fast-track programme to add another two years.” Naron says the reform will take ten to 15 years to become a reality, and he admits that it won’t be easy to bridge the urban-rural divide. Some teachers in disadvantaged provinces have as little as nine years of education, supplemented by two years of training, which means poorer students are receiving a lesser education than their urban peers. And while their wealthier urban counterparts can dole out for extra tutoring to compensate for their oftensubpar education, those studying in the provinces usually cannot and, consequently, perform worse in their crucial grade 12 exam. This inevitably reinforces the existing imbalance between Cambodia’s rich and poor. The issue is but one of a long list that Naron must address if Cambodia is to truly compete as an economic player on the world stage. Having tackled cheating and started to address low teaching standards in primary and secondary schools, his ministry is also working to reform the university system to ensure that students graduate with the skills required to be successful in the workplace. Add that to the need to improve the management of schools, update the curriculum and implement standardised testing at grades three, six and eight, and you begin to appreciate the scale of the task facing the man who just four years ago was a secretary of state at the Ministry of Finance. Meanwhile, we are all racing towards a brave new world of automation and machine learning – a topic that comes back up towards the end of our conversation. As I begin to articulate my incomprehension at how Cambodia could possibly prepare for such a future when it is still struggling to provide basic education to its citizens, Naron’s face twitches eagerly, seemingly betraying an impatience at having to wait for his chance to speak. “I think the world will be divided in two,” Naron replies. “Not just in Cambodia, but in developed countries also. Meaning that you can have people that are well-trained and can catch up with the trends, and people that lag behind. But how each country regulates that is very important. “That’s why we have a two-track approach to education. We want to improve the existing teaching and learning, but we have to make a focused investment so that we can catch up very fast because we need people now; we cannot wait. That’s why we’ve created ‘new generation’ schools,” he says, referring to a programme developed with the World Bank to rapidly upgrade critical thinking and tech skills among some graduates.

The minister says that the New Generation Schools programme, which aims to promote the role of technology in schools by building well-equipped ICT labs and to encourage student-led learning by training staff on innovative teaching methods, will soon be rolled out to 200 schools in all 25 provinces. While it may run contrary to his commitment to ensuring “equitable and inclusive access” to education, Naron believes cherry-picking the country’s “best and brightest” is Cambodia’s only chance of remaining competitive in the coming years. Perpetuating the knowledge gap between top students and the general population is not the only criticism that can be levelled at the education ministry, but one of Naron’s refrains is that “reforms take time”, which may be true for some of his more ambitious aims but does little to combat continued accusations of partisanship and misuse of funds within the ministry. However, Naron’s rhetoric is not without results. Under his watch, the Grade 12 pass rate has increased every year since reforms were introduced and now sits at 62%, while the dropout rate between grades ten through 12 fell from 23.8% in 2015 to 19.4% in 2016. The education budget has increased from less than 10% of national spending in 2013 to 18.3% in 2016, suggesting that Naron has convinced his colleagues in government that education is a necessary investment. “Momentum has been created,” Naron says. In the end, of course, he will be graded on whether the push for reform is sustained long enough for some of the most important changes to take hold, giving Cambodian students throughout the country a chance at global success. •

“

We have to make a focused investment so that we can catch up very fast because we need people now; we cannot wait

”

22 october 2017

SEA GLOBE

• Whether Hang Chuon Naron can significantly improve Cambodia’s education system is yet to be seen

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Education SpecialN

LEARNING HOW TO LEARN Schools are failing to teach the basic processes through which our brains produce new knowledge – and one professor has decided enough is enough

‘New’

is exciting. It is also too often conflated with ‘better’. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of education, where teachers are under pressure to teach more effectively, parents constantly search for ways to improve their child’s upbringing and lifelong learners voraciously digest self-improvement listicles in a bid to prepare themselves for the rise of the ‘gig economy’. But in our unending quest for betterment, we often overlook tried-and-tested techniques – and we generally don’t start by building a strong foundation. After volunteering for five years in an urban school district in the US, Barbara Oakley, an engineering professor at Oakland University in Michigan, decided to create a free online course, or massive open online course (MOOC), that offers practical advice to help people learn more effectively. “The kids were great but the structure, the environment and even the teachers were not necessarily optimal in any way, shape or form,” Oakley told Southeast Asia Globe. “It just got me to realise that we don’t teach students how to learn.” The course, filmed using a makeshift green screen studio in Oakley’s basement, uses metaphor and Microsoft 98-era animations to unpack complex topics, such as procrastination, memory and motivation, to give course participants lots of practical takeaways to help them improve the way they learn. To date, more than 1.8 million people from 200 countries have signed up to Oakley’s ‘Learning How to Learn’ course, which is available in English, Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese via the MOOC provider Coursera. According to Oakley, the course has been so well received because it reveals the nuts and bolts of learning but manages to do so in a fun and entertaining way. 24 october 2017

SEA GLOBE

• Barbara Oakley, a professor at Oakland University in Michigan

“

You learn what’s happening in your brain when you procrastinate and how to trick your brain into not procrastinating

”

“It teaches you how to work in a less frustrated way. You learn what’s happening in your brain when you procrastinate and how to trick your brain into not procrastinating, something most traditional ‘theory of education’ classes fail to cover,” she said. The methods and techniques that Oakley advocates in the course borrow from well-established neural science. One example is the Pomodoro technique, which involves setting a timer for 25-minute stretches of focused work followed by regular ‘rewards’ such as listening to a song or going on a short walk. During the reward phase, our brains consolidate the information we have just learned, helping us to order our thoughts and forge stronger mental connections between pieces of information. Initially developed by renowned software developer Francesco Cirillo, the technique is effective because our brains have two modes of thinking: ‘focused’, in which we build on previous knowledge like a pinball bouncing around a machine with lots of bumpers, and ‘diffuse’, in which our brains are afforded the space required to create new neural pathways, and, thus, learn new knowledge. We can’t use both modes at the same time, so taking sufficient breaks allows us to employ both ways of thinking. Unfortunately, according to Oakley, such techniques are unlikely to be taught by professors any time soon due to vested interests in the world of higher academia. “There are lots of wonderful people in academia, but if academic skill centres truly fix [students’ study techniques], then the [students] will be gone and will not be continued users of their service. There’s this sort of crisscross: they want students to learn better but they help them in a way that means students will continue to rely on them,” she said. “They don’t get them to learn how to learn independently, but students want to learn independently. That is why the course has been so popular.” •

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Education SpecialN

TECH: HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH? P

The tentacles of technology have extended deep into our lives, and parents are panicking. But experts say that parents should simply follow their instincts and be mindful of their own device use arents should severely limit the amount of time children spend using technology, as their time would be better spent learning how to develop lasting relationships, says report one. But children should spend enough time in the glow of LED screens to get comfortable with a phenomenon that is likely to play an increasingly significant role in their lives to come, says report two. These are the two main arguments that have been rehashed and republished in various articles over the past few years, leaving parents scratching their heads trying to figure out: how much technology is too much for my kids? But that is the wrong question to ask, according to Scott Steinberg, co-author of The Modern Parent’s Guide to Facebook and Social Networks. In Steinberg’s eyes, too many parents abandon their parental instincts when trying to determine how best to integrate technology into their children’s lives. “A lot of what we’re teaching about parenting around technology is just basic parenting,” he told the New York Times. “It comes down to the golden rule: are they treating others in a respectful and empathetic manner?” Simple household rules, such as no phones at the dinner table or no screens for an hour before bedtime, go a long way towards ensuring children remain grounded in reality and develop the interpersonal skills necessary to function in it, adds Steinberg. 26 october 2017

SEA GLOBE

• Technology can both help and hinder a child’s development

“

A lot of what we’re teaching about parenting around technology is just basic parenting

”

But parents must act as role models and practice what they preach for such rules to be effective. A slew of studies have shown that parents are often more addicted to their phones and computers than their children, disrupting family life and negatively impacting their children’s development. According to a small study conducted earlier this year by Brandon McDaniel, a family and consumer sciences assistant professor at the University of Illinois, parents’ addiction to technology was leading to kids acting out, bottling up feelings, exhibiting aggressive behaviour or regularly crying. The study added weight to similar research published last year in the journal Current Biology, which revealed that parents who looked at their phones or got otherwise distracted while playing with their children were more likely to raise youngsters with short attention spans, widely regarded as a strong indicator for later success in areas such as language acquisition and problem solving. McDaniel told the Chicago Tribune in May that parents should engage in a period of self-reflection in order to prevent technology from negatively affecting their families’ lives. “We need to critically examine our device use,” he said. “Let’s be mindful of how phones can influence us, so that we can be the master of our phones instead of our phones being the master of us.” •

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September 2017 27

Education SpecialN

NAVIGATING NEW TERRAIN What was the private education landscape like when you arrived? I was hired initially to tutor World Vision children – this is in 1990 – and within a few weeks they thought there are other international kids here too, so I was hired to start ISPP [International School of Phnom Penh]. It was a home school at the time. In our first year we went from six at the beginning to 33 at the end of the year, and it just grew. It was mostly NGOs and some embassies that had families, not a lot of Cambodians. How would you describe the international school options now? It’s not changed as much as I would have thought over the past four to five years. There are probably – we think about tiers – there are probably two or three in the top

“

I would recommend going for almost an hour to sit quietly in the back of classrooms – you can learn a lot about a school that way

”

• Ali Copple at Forest Hill International School in Phnom Penh (top); a globe in a classroom in the school

28 october 2017

SEA GLOBE

tier, in the second tier maybe three to four, below that are still good schools, maybe another four. There are also schools that are run as businesses. Lots of these schools hire customer service people, and their job is to sell the school to get customers in, and that’s not wrong as long as they’re being authentic about what they’re saying about the school. How can parents evaluate a school before deciding to send their kids there? I think that as a parent walks in the gate their impressions are really going to help them know if the school is what it claims to be. Is it nice? Is it welcoming? Is it somewhere you would like to stay yourself? Often the reception areas are very nice, but once you get past that, you need to see the rest of the school. What do you hear? What do you see? When you go into the classrooms are the children engaged? Are they busy? Or are they sitting very quietly for long periods of time – that would be indicator number one that you don’t want to be at that school. Can you see that there is mutual respect between the children and the adults? I would recommend going for almost an hour to sit quietly in the back of classrooms – you can learn a lot about a school that way. How do you know if you have found the right school? I think your child is the best indicator for you. Is your child happy to go to school every day? If you have a question, what happens? Can you go see a teacher? What kind of communication are you getting from the school? I think you can tell [for] yourself if you go into the school, like when you buy a used car – you kind of know you made a mistake because you got pushed into something. •

photos: hannah hawkins for sea globe

Many schools with a slick pitch may not be what they seem, according to Ali Copple, who has been an educator in the country since the early 1990s and is a senior partner at Yejj Consulting. She talked to Southeast Asia Globe about getting the most out of Cambodia’s international schools

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Education SpecialN

GETTING SCHOOLED

Southeast Asia Globe’s guide to finding the right school for your children in Cambodia and beyond

Teachers

A school would ideally have teachers with education degrees, but if a school employs some teachers without degrees it does not need to be a deal breaker. If teachers have degrees in other fields related to working with children, or are in the process of earning their teaching certification, that’s a good sign. “It is an indication that the teachers… are lifelong learners as well,” said Ali Copple, an education consultant based in Phnom Penh. “Often in middle-tier schools, there will be lots of teachers hired with TESOL and TEFL certificates, which is great for teaching English but not for a holistic curriculum,” she added. Staff turnover is to be expected at an international school, but if it happens too often that is a clear sign that the school is not going to offer a stable learning environment.

Curriculum

As with teachers specifically trained to teach English, some schools will build their curriculum by cobbling together ESL programmes, making it seem like a general curriculum. However, without a holistic curriculum the school is less likely to have accompanying activities that imbue critical-thinking and problem-solving skills to students. Even middle-tier schools should at the very least be able to explain what standards they follow and what programmes they use in their curriculum. If the textbooks for subjects like maths and science are all ESL-oriented, that is a strong sign that the school is not following a real international curriculum. “We probably have too many [self-proclaimed international schools] that are not actually international schools, which can be confusing for parents,” Copple said.

THE CHECKLIST TEN BASIC THINGS TO LOOK INTO BEFORE ENROLLING YOUR CHILD

• Do teachers have relevant degrees and

experience with children?

•

Is the school following international standards like IPC or AERO?

• Is the school welcoming, with representatives

Accreditation

Any top-tier school will have international accreditation that makes its qualifications applicable to other international schools or universities. As with the qualification of teachers, a school does not have to be accredited to be a good international school, but it does need to have a system ensuring that students are becoming critical thinkers and independent learners. “Children that go through an international programme, even if it’s not accredited yet, they are learning those skills, they are learning how to work in a team and a group, they’re not thinking only about what somebody tells them to do,” Copple said. “If children are actually going to an international school, they will be fully equipped to study outside of the country.”

30 october 2017

SEA GLOBE

Facilities

The quality of a school can often be seen in the quality and amount of learning materials in classrooms, as well as other areas where students can play, learn or exercise, according to Copple. If playgrounds and in-class resources look well-used and well-maintained, that is a good sign, as is having lots of student work hanging up in halls and classrooms. For younger students in particular, there should be lots of practical things in the classroom for them to use and explore. If the school has a range of age groups, there should be different areas for playing or staggered break times. Shared spaces such as cafeterias, gymnasiums, auditoriums or computer labs should be wellused and hygienic.

who are able to answer questions about its credentials?

• Are facilities well-maintained

and well-used?

• Are students and teachers active and

engaged in the classroom?

• Are teaching assistants and

support staff caring and encouraging independent learning?

• Does the curriculum include non-ESL

textbooks and activities that focus on concepts and problem solving?

• Are extracurriculars like music and sports

part of a normal school day?

• Is there a core group of staff that has

been at the school for a few years?

• Does the school have a clear plan for tracking

the progress of students and communicating with parents?

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