Teaching Professionally - Bell

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Teaching Professionally: Be Flexible or Stick to the Scripts?

Luong Kim Chung (Bell)

Academic Writing – CORE006 G3

Instructor: Professor Shirley JAMES

Date: 02/04/2009




Back to my academic years, from primary to senior high school, there were experiences

that keep me thinking about creativity in teaching. We were taught to do things exactly the way

teachers told us to – for example writing essays or doing math exercises. No other solutions or

styles would get a good mark. The result is, the works of we pupils in most subjects were nearly

the same from years to years, since the teachers’ lesson contents stayed the same. No creativity,

no innovative idea. There were no one to blame; the teachers were just trying to do their job well.

However, we are living in an era of continuous revolution. The modern youth are exposed to

various information, and creativity plays an important role in anyone’s career. Such rigid way of

teaching would discourage student’s confidence in having and developing new ideas and

methods. In order for teachers to be successful professionals, they should not be script-only

teachers, but be creative and be open to the creativity of students.

So what is the Stick-to-the-Scripts method of teaching, and who are using it? Scripts are

composed by teachers with the concrete basis given as a frame stating what is inside and what

should be outside. By preparing the scripts for themselves, teachers clearly form what they

would and what they would not teach during class time. Teachers who employ the Script-Only

method will apply what they prepared with high discipline. They work their best to keep the

class inside the frame of scripts, and do not allow themselves or students to digress.

Improvisation or sudden ideas appearing – either from them or their students – would often be

thought of as threats to the result of teaching. Script-Reading method exists in various subjects of

learning. Teachers of academic subjects are often closer to the scripts, as the progress for

academic subjects is more like a chain of advancements. However, the method is employed by

art teachers and university professors as well.

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Why is Script-Reading method so popular? What benefits does it bring to the education?

Firstly and most important, it assures the speed of the progress. Composed on the basis of certain

goals to be achieved, it guarantees the progress of students once the scripts are applied

meticulously. In the article Teaching Classroom Educators How to be More Effective and

Creative Teachers(Summer2000, Vol. 120 Issue 4, p675-630), Joseph S.C. Simplicio mentions

about an “overwhelming amount of materials” that teachers must make sure their students

understand in the end of every class period. With such tight timing, Script Reading works well to

keep everything under control, since what happened in the classroom are all planned and

rehearsed time to time, in many classes every year. Teachers are sure that they will not break thetime limit if they employ the Stick-to-the-Scripts method. Secondly, keeping the method

employed during the career provides teachers with years of experience in teaching the topic.

Because they are prepared, teachers know clearly what they are doing and what they should do.

They know how to solve ordinary problems that students may have. They are sure of giving the

best explanation they can do for the matters they have to teach. Last but not least, Script-Reading

is the easy way to teach. It only requires the teacher to learn the scripts, rehearse them, and then

interpret them in class. Script-Only teaching can be done well “even without understanding

anything” (R. Keith Sawyer: Creative Teaching: Collaborative Discussion as Disciplined

Improvisation , Educational Researcher, v33 n2 p12-20 Mar 2004). This, along with the

experience, gives teachers the confidence in class. They know they will do it well, just like every

time they did the same thing in other classes before.

Those advantages of the Script-Only strategy are parts of the reasons for advocates of this

method. Most of the teachers who stay loyal to the Script-Only method do so because of the time

issue: they say that creative elements in a lesson are “a waste of time” (Sawyer, 2004). Another

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reason for critics of the creative method is the difficulties. Being a creative instructor requires

significant skill to manage the improvisation of students and himself or herself as well.

Moreover, creative lessons need a hard work of preparing in order to succeed (Simplicio, 2000).

Why does a creative method need preparation? It is because a teacher can neither allow too many

failures nor allow any failure to go too far. Strategies of teachers affect students greatly, and it

would be dangerous if an unsuccessful method make students fail to understand – or even worse,

misunderstand – the expected knowledge. Therefore, creative instructors have to prepare their

lessons with extra care, so that to limit the bad effects and get ready to face any potential

problem (Kaoru Yamamoto, Does Teacher Creativity Make a Difference In Pupil Learning?,The Elementary School Journal, 1967 , Simplicio, 2000). Simplicio (2000) also stated that failure

of creative methods not only affect the students but also discourage the teachers greatly. As those

teachers lost the confidence in employing new strategies, they come back to the old lecturing

way, but it turns out that their lessons become even less interesting and less effective than before.

So why should teachers be creative? Firstly, Script Reading makes it hard to keep the

content up to date. We are living in an era when everything changes rapidly, therefore the

content taught to students must have changes as well. Simplicio (2000) wrote that the youth are

living in a world of technology which affects their lives and exposes them to massive

information. For this reason, modern youth have the thirst for up-to-date information. They want

the new things, not the things which were good 10 years ago. This characteristic of the new

generation brings out the need for more creative tactics to be employed in education. If teachers

do not change to fit the students, they will simply be “left behind”. Simplicio (2000) later talked

more about this idea to mention that creative approaches then brings the students more of the

things they need instead of the things expected by previous generations of students. The new

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generations are more “sophisticated”, have harder troubles to deal with. Creative educators

understand student needs, and are ready to update their method to assure best development for

the students (Yamamoto, 1967). Moreover, contrary to what Script-Readers usually expect, the

years of experience employing the Script-Only method cannot know so clear about the effect on

their classes, or the reaction of the students. Though they may have experienced most of the

cases, they still cannot predict exactly how their class would respond (Sawyer, 2004). Especially

when the students are changing rapidly every year, being too dependent on the experiences in the

past may lead the teachers to confusion, and they may even be perplexed by the young

innovative students.

Secondly, creative approaches have many good effects on the students. Modern students

pay more attention in a creative class than a lesson scripted years ago. The reason is mostly

because modern youth are active, and creative teaching allows the room for their action. Instead

of sitting still, keeping quiet, listening to every word from the teachers and taking notes, they can

do the things they prefer: try to comprehend the ideas, analyze the contents taught in class,

respond to instructors with their own views, and receive the ultimate knowledge – which is now

their own. For this reason, creative teaching can make students want to go deep into the topic,

find the things they want to know and ask questions. Thus, creative teaching brings not only

greater joy in learning but also deeper understanding for students. The ultimate goal of education

is to see students make the knowledge their own, and with the creative approaches, they “co-

construct their own knowledge” (R. Keith Sawyer, 2004). Moreover, the knowledge brought by

creative approaches are objective: instead of teaching only the idea which the teacher thinks is

right, it shows the view to the problem from different sides (R. Keith Sawyer, 2004). Creative

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teaching helps the students develop their creativity, which has the great role in most – if not

every – career nowadays.

Thirdly, creative methods help teachers in their jobs. First, it allows the space for teachers

to develop, instead of framing them inside the scenario which was believed to be excellent in the

beginning. Out of the planned scenario, teachers can have a more objective view of themselves

and their teaching method, and then find a better method they may need. Yamamoto (1967)

wrote that all teachers are encouraged to self-evaluate for their own development, and creativity

helps in finding the best method they may have. Second, new and creative methods provide

teachers with advanced tools for their work. We have witnessed the change in education tools in

recent years: from blackboards to slides and videos on projectors, from searching tons of books

in some libraries to using online search engines and online resources… The new tools has

improved classrooms very much, since they help instructors save lots of time, increase

effectiveness and create more joy for students as well as teachers themselves. When teachers are

ready to expose themselves to new methods, such useful tools can be found and applied to

improve their working performance greatly. Ignoring the use of advanced tools may be

considered as outdated and unprofessional.

Last but not least, creative methodology makes the profession. According to Laura

Morgan Roberts ( Creating a Positive Professional Image , June 20, 2005), a professional should

know what his or her constituents appreciate from his or her performance in the work. For

educators, as the modern youth prefer creative teachers and enjoy creative classes more, it is

reasonable to say that more creative educators are more professional ones. They know how to

change themselves to fit their constituents and meet the new needs for their career. Another

reason why creative teachers are more professional is stated by researchers: when the teacher is

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more skilled, they apply more creative approaches. Most professional educators plan each day’s

lesson according to the result they get from the students on the prior day (R. Keith Sawyer,

2004). Simplicio(2000) also said that “the most elite of [teachers’] profession” are not too

confident on what they achieved in the past and apply them directly in the future. This is

reasonable, since professionals are flexible in their jobs and are ready to change their methods to

fit the environment.

In addition to all the benefit above, the creativity of educators can bring us many long-

term good. As Sawyer (2004) cited in his article, the world is becoming more and more

dependent on knowledge workers, who are not only knowledgeable but also creative. As the

economy needs innovative people to develop, educators must take the responsibility to train such

people. Therefore, creative methods should be used if educators want to be successful in their

career. Moreover, the students are not the only beneficiaries. Creative teachers can positively

affect their colleagues, both by inspiring the trend and sharing the experience. This will help

completing and updating the methodology of innovative education and spread its benefit widely.

Sawyer (2004) also mentioned that the advantage of creative teaching can take its role in training

new teachers, encouraging them to develop more about this area. All together, by employing the

creative method, educators can – in a long-term aspect – benefit the development of their society,

their nation and the world via the development of their students, their present colleagues and the

next generation of teachers.

In conclusion, educators should not be relying too much on the scripts. With proper

training, new approaches can help the content of teaching fit the students, the students find their

excitement in lessons and get to make them their own, and the teachers become more

professional as well. By being open to the creativity of students, teachers can open for them the

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world of unlimited abilities, which would probably never show if teachers just let them stay

obedient. Success in using creative methods not only helps in the clearly seen result, but may

also benefit the society in the long run. Scripts are a helpful tool for teachers, but it is not the

only and ultimate tool they have. It should not be all that they include in their teaching. Although

difficulties of staying creative in class exist very challenging, teachers need to cope with them to

become real professionals.

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REFERENCES:

Joseph S.C. Simplicio (2000). Teaching Classroom Educators How to be More Effective and

Creative Teachers (Summer2000, Vol. 120 Issue 4, p675-630).

R. Keith Sawyer (2004). Creative Teaching: Collaborative Discussion as Disciplined

Improvisation , Educational Researcher, v33 n2 p12-20

Kaoru Yamamoto (1967). Does Teacher Creativity Make a Difference In Pupil Learning?, The

Elementary School Journal, 1967.

Laura Morgan Roberts(2005). Creating a Positive Professional Image , June 20, 2005. Q&A by

Mallory Stark.

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Teaching Professionally - Bell