(1) The
Malaysian Experience 3, Part 1: The Eureka Moment,
Khaw Choon Ean
(2) Kay
Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A. Edwards
(3) 5th Annual TOCFE International Conference/First Annual
TOCFE International Student’s Conference, Cheryl
A. Edwards
(1) The Malaysian Experience 3, Part 1: The Eureka Moment
By Khaw Choon Ean,
Malaysia
Another
Silver Bullet, this time coming from Malaysia!
Khaw Choon Ean is going to share her story of how her Special Projects
Team was able to develop a Transition Program that won the Annual Innovation
Award for Education and more importantly help Year One children move smoothly
into the structured school program. Since
this article is quite comprehensive, you can look forward to reading and
learning from it for the next three weeks.
The article originally included graphics,
which you can view by going to our website and clicking “TACTics.” Enjoy!
“Every
problem has a gift for you in its hands.”
—Richard
Bach, American Writer
Kathy
came to Malaysia again in late June 2000 and ran a proper TACT course in Port
Dickson, a beach resort about an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur. The course started on a Monday and finished
on Friday. Two days later, on Sunday,
our Special Projects Team was packing to start a curriculum workshop in Kuala
Lumpur. There was special link between
these two events though it was not fully realized at that point of time.
During
the TACT course, I found myself wondering how the interesting tools, to which I
have been introduced, could be put to practice. The timing of the course was bad, I thought. The revamp of our syllabus had just been
completed and we were in the middle of the year where no new things could dream
of getting a budget. It seemed then
that TOC would be relegated to just another new acquired knowledge to be stored
as “upgrading our professionalism” as such things are euphemistically referred
to.
—Theodor
Reik (1888-1969), American Psychologist.
Revelation
came at the strangest moment. It was
the day before the last day and Kathy had just set a task for the groups of
participants. My group was working
well. We were engrossed but at one
moment I looked up from our table at the back of the conference room. Kathy was standing at the main table,
sorting out her things. On one of the
large white screens was the projected image of Linda Trapnell’s infant school
playground with the cloud formation drawn on it. (Thank you, Linda, for being the inspiration without knowing
it!). Kathy had used it for a second
time to explain something and it was just there.
As
I idly looked at the image, I was struck by the “eureka” moment. It had made me think of the latest of our
critical special projects that had been assigned to my Special Projects Unit
recently with a very tight time frame that was driving us mad with
anxiety. This was called the Transition
Program for Year One schoolchildren who were making the transition from
preschool to a formal Year One education in primary school at 6-7 years of
age.
The
first workshop to build the program was to start in a couple of days and we had
called the experts: child psychologists, university professors, state education
officials, preschool operators and primary school head teachers and
teachers. We knew we had all the right
people, a great venue and plenty of adrenaline (the excitement, and yes, the
fear of failure too!). But alas, we had
no concrete plan of how to go about it except what we normally do, i.e. set
tasks for each group of participants and in this case, we would effect the
spirit of “sama-sama
belajar”,
a term in our Malay language that means “lets learn together”.
Eureka
arrived in two ways. One inspiration
was to introduce TOC in the Transition Program. This was brilliant for a few reasons. First, it took care of a “home” to try out the interesting
tools. Secondly, by using a
“piggy-back” approach, it took care of looking for budgets and acceptance. Thirdly, here was a tailor-made respectable
program full of promise: the right target group, young children of tender ages
who would be at the best period of their lives to acquire simple, effective
thinking and communicational tools to help them all their lives. The second inspiration actually came a bit
later after some exploration. We
realized that we could use the tools to plan the workshop.
I
remember running over to Kathy, abandoning my group to complete the group task,
and excitedly telling her about The Plan! It had no concrete structure at that moment but it had so much
promise.
“First
we have to believe, then we believe.”
If
you believe in what the tools are capable of, finding out how to use them is a
breeze and comes naturally. Considering
that I had had some blind hits before this TACT course, venturing now into
using the tools to design a curricular program needed less courage and more
invention as I was now going to apply knowledge to practice.
Next
week: Khaw Choon Ean will explain how
they applied the Ambitious Target (AT) Tool to help create an interesting and
productive workshop for the Transition Program.
Kay Buckner-Seal, Cheryl A.
Edwards
Khaw
Choon Ean, thanks for sharing your experience.
Loyal readers, follow TACTics for the next three weeks to find
out how Khaw Choon Ean uses the tools to plan the workshop, whose participants
will then use the tools to plan the curriculum. Ean’s account is inspirational!
Are you planning on attending the Annual TOCFE International Conference this
year? If so, details of the conference
follow in Connections. Share
with us. Send your ideas by mail to Cheryl A. Edwards, 2253 S. Hill Island Rd., Cedarville, MI
49719, USA. Or, send hyperlink to
<redwards@sault.com> or <bucknek@earthlink.net.
(3) 5th
Annual TOCFE International Conference/First Annual TOCFE International
Student’s Conference
From Cheryl A. Edwards
“The best way to predict the future is to create it through
TOC."
TOC
for Education, Inc. presents the 5th Annual TOCFE International Conference and
the First Annual TOCFE International Student’s Conference!
Date: June 25-28, 2001
Location: Detroit, Michigan USA
Hotel: Northfield Hilton
5500 Crooks Road
Troy, Michigan 48098
248. 879. 2100
The
Northfield Hilton is adjacent to Interstate 75 at Crooks Road, Exit 72
Reservations: 1. 800. HILTONS
Ask for TOC for
Education’s special room rates.
Single
or Double Occupancy
Per night $139.00 U.S. + Tax (6% Michigan Sales Tax and 7%
Occupancy Tax). This rate includes
breakfast for two.
Transportation: Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW)
To
view TACTics in its intended formatting and to read previous issues,
visit
the TOC website at: www.tocforeducation