SILENCE IN SCHOOLS

The enemy of both Outcome Based Education and Standards Based Education is the silence in the classrooms. There are students in high schools who never speak in class either to ask a question or answer a question. 

They just sit like logs and may copy summaries from the blackboard. That is all they do. It is so frustrating for an expatriate teacher who is used to classes in overseas countries that are bubbling with students speaking. I wrote on this in 2011. Please click

frustration of an expatriate teacher - family positive living - aids ...

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Teaching in a rural high school is frustrating for an expatriate teacher. Having ... The teacher tellsclass in Papua New Guinea that they would talk about ...

Many teachers in Australian schools ask questions and students rush to answer. That is the lesson. The students supply the answers and solutions to questions posed by the teacher. 

But not in Papua New Guinea a question by the teacher will often be responded to with silence. The teacher supplies the answers to the question and moves on.

I have been in schools where the progress of students was kept confidential. Test papers were given to students in class face down so that other students did not see the result. There could be jealousy and violence from the less capable students against the capable students. All students remain silent.

Students who answered the teachers questions may be threatened with violence by other students. Clever students are intimidated into silence. In cult schools, the cult leaders sought to ensure that all students were at the same dummo level. Clever students were afraid to speak.

Some students never respond to the teacher. If asked a question, many students will blink at the teacher and remain silent. Or they will put their heads down and ignore the question until the teacher moves on. Some may be illiterate and not understand English.

Some students will plagiarize their assignments out of text books or copy the assignment of another student. So it may be that many low level students have cheated their way through class assignments but the day of reckoning comes with the external exam.

It is good to see schools involved in spelling competitions and debates with other schools. The participants are setting a standard and may become the role models for other students provided they are not intimidated.