Why Educational Psychology is important to a teacher (HZH)

Why Educational Psychology is important to a teacher

Psychology is the study of people's behavior, performance, and mental operations. In addition, it refers to the application of the knowledge, which can be used to understand events, treat mental health issues, and improve education, employment, and relationships. There are sub-areas of psychology, including: Sports, Education, Business, Media, Physical conditions and Human development. It also involves other areas of study, including humanities, natural sciences, and the social sciences. Psychology studies people—who and what they are. It looks into why they act and think the way they do and how someone can improve himself or herself. Therefore, everything a person does is connected to the subject. It can be said that psychology is a must for all people to study. Education is one of the most important components of human society. Teachers, parents and students, who are all crucial in education, are human beings. Therefore, they should all have the knowledge of psychology. Among them, it is teachers who spend most of time with students and also mold students into good or bad ones in education. Therefore, Psychology is one of the basic needs to become a teacher. Psychology specialized in education area is termed as educational psychology.

In the institutes of education and education colleges throughout the world, Educational Psychology is prescribed as a compulsory subject for all prospective teachers to study like Educational Theory and Methodology. As our teacher, Professor Dr Tin Maung Win always said, Educational Theory focuses on what to teach, Methodology focuses on how to teach and Educational Psychology emphasizes when to teach. When a work is done, it is important to be able to do it exactly at the right time. Otherwise, what we do and how we do it may be good, but it will never be effective. Similarly, it is more important to teach students at the right time, when they can absorb what is taught, than what is taught and how it is taught. Teacher is like a philosopher who guides his student. He is responsible to be aware about growth and development of the students. Only when he understands well his students’ growth and development, he can correctly choose what to teach at the right time. In addition, Educational Psychology studies various factors which have impacts upon students, which may include home environment, social groupings, peer groups, his or her emotional sentiments, and mental hygiene etc. In this way, a teacher can realize why teaching-learning process fails if he or she finds it fail. As a result, he or she will be able to fix his teaching-learning process well in time. Educational Psychology helps a teacher to know that how learning takes place and enables him or her to know that how learning process should be initiated, how to motivate, how to memorize or learn. Therefore, it is undeniable that the teacher who studies well Educational Psychology will help his or her students’ learning best. Moreover, Educational Psychology informs a teacher, about the nature of the learners and his or her potentialities, intelligences and aptitudes. For example, Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory claims that every child is special and they are differently good at different areas. As a result, any student cannot be recognized as idiot ones and teacher will realize that students’ performances should be assessed by using alternative assessments than traditional paper and pencil tests to polish students’ abilities right in the fields they are talented. As a result, students are less likely to be specialized in the subject they are not really interested in as they have to do in the here and now. In this way, productive citizens who are rightly good at their fields can be produced more and it will help the education of our country to become better and more reliable.

It is not enough to present why Educational Psychology is important to a teacher only in an essay. This is just the brief presentation which highlights that Educational Psychology is a must for a teacher. It is like a weapon which a soldier must use to win a war or like an oar of a rower. Without studying Educational Psychology, a teacher can never accomplish his or her teaching-learning process effectively. Therefore, it is vital not to let anyone enter to teaching career unless he or she has studied Educational Psychology yet. In conclusion, Educational Psychology is important for every teacher and each and every teacher had better utilize what they have studied in educational psychology to implement an effective teaching-learning process.

Htet Zaw Htoo

TEACHERS ARE WINNERS (Htet Zaw Htoo)

TEACHERS ARE WINNERS

According to Myanmar belief, the word ‘Saya’ (teacher) comes from ‘Sar Yar’, which means ‘shadow’. Shadow makes everybody cool and fresh and gives strength to continue their work successfully. Similarly, teachers welcome every pupil friendly and warmly. Besides, they teach them what is right or wrong to be successful in their life. It is teacher who has a chance to do teaching between humans. It is lucky for a teacher to help a person’s life to be successful. There is always a teacher behind a successful story. There are lots of examples in which teachers help their students to get success. Therefore, it is said that teachers are winners. 

One of such famous stories is Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan. Though Helen used to be a happy and intelligent girl until she got a mysterious illness, she became blind and deaf after the illness, which she suffered from when she was two years old. Her whole world became dark and lonely. However, the light of hope appeared in her life after five years. Her father, Captain Arthur Keller, contacted the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston. Then he asked the director of the institute help for Helen. The director requested Annie Sullivan, a young woman teacher, to help Helen to learn language, the key to the world, and open the treasure in Helen. After she thought about it many times, Annie agreed to help Helen. Long story short, Annie tried her best to teach Helen not only language but also good manners. However, the Kellers themselves felt disappointed at her teaching method because they did not think hers was not on the right track. Besides, they thought that Annie made Helen unhappy and tired. However, Annie never felt depressed and never gave up her effort. As a result, she helped successfully Helen learn language, the key to the world. Later, Helen kept learning to read and write. She graduated from Radcliffe College, one of the best colleges in America. Later, she became a world-famous writer and appeared in some films though she was blind and deaf. It is Annie Sullivan, Helen teacher, who stayed together with Helen till her last breath and helped Helen’s life not to die itself and lose her best value. If Annie did come to Helen’s life and was not her teacher, it is frustrating to think how Helen spent his whole life. When Helen became famous, everybody wanted to know who was her teacher and praised at her all over the world. It is like a coach of the team which won the champion cup. Accordingly, it can be said that teachers are winners.

People said that there are most important and noble professions in the world. Medical doctors, teachers and lawyers are those who do these professions. As people said, teaching is a noble profession and it is a kind of art. It is art that makes people either good or bad and so is teaching. Teaching by teachers makes people good but it can also make them bad. Therefore, it is very important for teachers to teach their students only good things. Teachers are winners but they may be losers if what they teach and how they teach are not on the right track. It is important to notice that there is a teacher in every successful story but there is a teacher in a bad story too. In conclusion, teachers are winners if what they teach and how they teach are on the right track. Otherwise, they might become losers who produce people who are good-for-nothing for our society. Therefore, every teacher ought to try what they teach and how they teach are on the right track to be winners.  

Htet Zaw Htoo

All Work and No Play Make A Dull Life (Htet Zaw Htoo)

All Work and No Play Make A Dull Life     

                      

How would you feel if you eat the same meal every day or if you listen to the same song repeatedly? There is totally no doubt that everything becomes boring if it continuously happens or is done without any change. Similarly, when the same work is done all the time, life becomes a dull one, which is neither challenging nor happy. Therefore, play is also necessary for people in addition to work which they have to do to fulfill their basic needs; food, clothes and shelter.

The more work people feel loaded with, the more tension and worries they have got. Like an engine found in a machine, it becomes hotter when it is used continuously for a long time. Then, it will stop working finally. Likewise, people are living things who are made up of blood, flesh, cells, tissues etc. As a result, their bodies become tired or exhausted when they work for a long time. To give their bodies a rest, people go to bed and sleep. However, people are not like robots, so it needs to put their mind at rest. Through play which is done for amusement rather than work, worries, anxiety and tension they have become less serious because they have got a chance to do what they love to do as a change. After that play, they can work and solve the problems more successfully than ever before because their minds are clear and fresh. In the same way, students had better not study without a pause for a long time. The longer they study, the less their brains work. When their brains get tired, their studying is not totally effective. Therefore, they have to give rest not only to their body but also to their mind. Throwing themselves down onto the bed and listening to music is a good kind of play they should do. In addition, traveling together with family of friends is also a good kind of play that all people should do.

When a person has to do the same work for a long time, he or she may feel doubtful that what he or she has been doing is on the right track. He or she may feel bored with things he or she has been doing and they think that they are meaningless for them. Last Wednesday, a friend of mine who is older than me and a Ph.D. candidate as well as a headmistress of a middle school at present told me that she thinks that life is meaningless and she cannot manage to do works as others can and before the work she is doing has not finished, another one is ready to get done. She was overloaded with too much work. As a result, she thought that her life is just a dull one. Therefore, I told her about the book I had read, the monk who sold his Ferrari written by Robin Sharma, which was translated to Myanmar by Saya Moe Shin (I.M.T). The book takes the form of a fable about Julian Mantle, a high-profile attorney with a crazy schedule and a set of priorities that center around money, power and prestige. As such, Mantle represents the values of our society. The story is told from the perspective of one of his associates, who admires Mantle’s great success and aspires to be like him. But when Mantle has a heart attack, he drops out of the game and disappears. He sells all his possessions and goes to India to seek a more meaningful existence. When he comes back, he becomes a changed man. Really, it is as if he was a completely different person. He was learned from some mythical Himalayan gurus who give him mystical and yet practical advice, which he shares with his former associate (and the reader). Although it is not easy to give up all and restart a new and different life as Mantle does, it is important not to let our work occupies all of our time. Otherwise, life is not interesting because it runs always on one way. In addition, anything we do will never be effective if we feel tired and bored with it.

In conclusion, the most important thing to get a work done is the fresh mind and body. It is not how long somebody works, but the concentration that counts. Any good concentration cannot be got if they work all the time without any play. The work they do becomes a dull one because they feel bored with it as it lasts longer. Eventually, their life itself becomes a dull one, which is not challenging and fascinating anymore. All work and no play just make a dull life. 

Htet Zaw Htoo (S.U.O.E)

Courtesy is home-brew (Htet Zaw Htoo)

Courtesy is home-brew     

Theodore Roosevelt said, "Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage". Sophie Turner also said, "Courtesy is a lady's armor". As they said, courtesy is very important like courage for a man and dress for a lady. Courtesy is like a great equipage of the polite society. However, it is not behaviour that is set aside for special occasions. According to Robin Thompson, "Behaving politely is a way of life, not just something you pull out when you are at a wedding or a fancy restaurant". Courtesy should be automatic in a person's life that is, people need to be used to it as naturally as they do everyday chores. 

    Most people would define courtesy as polite behaviour that reflects good manners and respect and kindness to others. As much as most of the parents would desire, courtesy and respect are not traits that are innately ingrained in a child. However, children can be taught to be polite and courteous from the time he or she is young. By raising courteous children, their courteousness will help them feel comfortable and confident in any social setting. Besides, teaching courtesy to children is part of parent's five responsibilities for their children instructed by Our Lord of Buddha. Therefore, children should be taught good table manners and polite behaviour since their childhood. It is said that parents are the very first teachers for a child. So whether a child is courteous or not directly depends on his or her parents and environment they live. Children should be taught systematically how to live, talk and behave politely since their childhood. According to William Wordsworth, the child is the father of the man. It means that all what we do in childhood hardly change when we become adults. Therefore, courtesy and mutual respect should be taught at home since children are young. Home is the very first place where all of good and bad behaviours start to be rooted in. Besides, parents should send their children to the schools or organizations which are open to everyone to learn good manners and courtesy. Such kind of school is Dhamma school by Buddhist orgabization. Especially in today's high tech world of computer, tablets and smart phones, children learn quicker become smarter at a younger age. These advances in their intellect, however, will do them little good if parents fail to teach them social skills, courtesy and respect needed for getting along with others. These reasons show that why children should be taught to be polite and courteous since they are young and at home. 

    As Shinshi Suzuki once said, "Children learn to smile from their parents". So it is clear that a child always learn and imitate what to do from their parents. It is their parents who a child sees and lives closely since he or she was born. It is their home that starts all of their behaviours. Therefore, it can be totally said that courtesy is born at home and it is home-brew. Parents needs to be courteous and polite themselves and should be role models for their children.In this way, children can turn courteousness into a lifelong habit till they become adults and they will be able to discover that common courtesy offers in their personal and professional lives.

- By Htet Zaw Htoo 

Are entrance exams a must to select students for every course? (HZH)

Are entrance exams a must to select students for every course?

Nowadays, entrance exams have to be widely taken as a must all over the world in order to join the courses. It is widely accepted that entrance exams are the gateways to the courses students want to join. The world itself is a mixture of good and evil and entrance exam is not an exception.

Firstly, one point in favor of entrance exams is that they help examiners to reduce the element of bias and ambiguity in selecting the students. Examiners have to check the answers written by the students without knowing their identity numbers. Therefore, examiners have no chance of showing favoritism to any students. Besides, objective test items also reduce the element of bias and ambiguity.

The next argument for entrance exams is that they help students study regularly. The sense of having to take entrance exams always reminds students not to waste their time for no reason. Students need to spend more hours preparing for entrance exams. Otherwise, they will not be selected for the courses they want to join.

Another argument for entrance exams is that uniform standards are maintained in entrance exams. Examiners set a uniform syllabus and enable students to prepare accordingly to achieve certain set standards. Thus, entrance exams reduce confusion about the type of syllabus, the topics covered and so on.

The first argument counter to entrance exams is that they encourage exam-oriented study culture. Entrance exams develop exam-oriented study culture. Instead of students learning to make meaningful contribution or learning with critical-thinking, they are pressurized to study in order to pass entrance exam.

What is more, entrance exams encourage rat race and competition instead of collaboration. While deciding the cut-off scores to choose the selected students, a comparative system is used. The more points the students get, the more chances they have to pass the entrance exams. As a result, students develop the idea of competition with each other instead of collaboration.

Last but not the least, another counter-argument against entrance exams is that they make creativity and innovation take a back seat  among students. Students have to spend most of their time preparing for entrance exams. As a result, they become weak in others which encourage creativity and innovation. On the other hand, they do not have enough time left to do what they like such as their hobbies.

To sum up, it is undeniable that entrance exams will be used longer as necessity for any courses because no method is so easy, objective and effective as this one. However, they also have drawbacks, so they need to be followed by the one which reduces their drawbacks. I think that one of the best ways is using viva test. I think that viva tests will be able to polish the qualities of entrance exams.

Htet Zaw Htoo

Appreciate the gratitude owed to somebody (Htet Zaw Htoo)

Appreciate the gratitude owed to somebody

In the history of our country, there once lived a soilder who had to spy for the king of the enemies and assassinate him. After hiding in the king's palace for many days, he got a chance to kill the king, but actually he came back without killing him because he had eaten some rice and curry while he was hiding. As a saying goes, once one has eaten a mouthful of food from someone one remains indebted to him. That soldier's action becomes an ideal for all of us. It is wise to appreciate the gratitude owed to somebody. In the heart of somebody who never forget our gratitude, we can find the pleasure again as we can hear the song , which we have ever sung, from beginning to end. It also makes good and deep-seated relationship throughout our life and it may continue exsiting to our future generation. Long story short, appreciate each gratitude owed to somebody at least by replying "thanks". It will bring good consequences.

Htet Zaw Htoo

The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world (HZH)

The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world

It does not matter where people live or what kind of ethnic group they are. People all over the world have at least one in common with other people. It is that they all have mothers who gave birth to them. Mother is like a place where a river rises. No one is born without her. From the highest authority to the layman, no one is escaped from the greatest gratitude of mothers. Besides, mothers are the persons who keep in closer touch with their children than everyone including fathers. As a result, how a child will live in the future depends mainly on his or her mother. Mothers are the very first teachers who teach informally how to eat, how to talk, how to walk, how to behave and every basic manners to their children since the formative years of their children. In addition, children themselves imitate the way their mothers talk, behave, think and interact with others. Therefore, it is mother who can mould a child into a good or bad person as well as a successful person or a failure. It is like a fountain from which its streamlets stream.

In the poem, ‘the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world’, which was composed by William Rose Wallace (1819-1881), he composed; 

“Infancy’s the tender fountain

Power may with beauty flow,

Mother first to guide the streamlets,

From them souls unresting grow —

Grow on for the good or evil hurled,

For the hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the world.”

It is obviously clear that mother can mould a child’s life into a good or evil one. There are lots of evidences to prove that. In a Burmese story, there once lived a thief who burgled other people’s houses and stole their properties. One day he burgled the King’s palace and stole his jewelry. However, he was caught by the King’s soldiers and finally he was sentenced to death. On the way to the place where he was about to be killed, the thief requested the King to let him meet his mother as the last chance. The King thought for a while and made up his mind to take his mother and allow him to meet her. When his mother arrived in front of him, the thief told her to come closer to him and bit her ear instead of saying something as his mother had thought. To make a long story short, the thief believed that he became such a thief who dare steal even the King’s properties because his mother ignored minor cases of stealing which he did in his childhood instead of punishing him to stop it. This story highlights how much a mother influences her child. Even her minor ignorance can end a child’s life with a terrible ending.

On the contrary, there are many evidences in which children become successful owing to their mothers’ incredible guidance. One of the best examples is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s success, which started under the systematic control and guidance of Daw Khin Kyi, her mother. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, our State Counsellor, had to grow up only under her mother’s guidance because her father, General Aung San, was assassinated when she was only a two-year-old girl. Therefore, she had to depend only on her mother for all. It is sure that her mother’s behavior influenced her a lot. Since Daw Khin Kyi was an incredible and ideal woman, her daughter becomes a worldwide famous leader and gets admired by people all over the world. This highlights a mother’s importance and the idea that the hand that rocks the cradle can rule the world.

As William Rose Wallace composed in the last verse of his poem, ‘the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world’;

“Blessings on the hand of women!

Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,

And the sacred song is mingled

With the worship in the sky—

Mingles where no tempest darkens,

Rainbows evenmore are hurled;

For the hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the world.”

It is obviously true that mother is the key person to mould a child into a good or evil person in the future. Mother themselves need to realize their importance. Besides, they need to try their best to guide their children as an ideal person. They need to be knowledgeable and have to read lots of books in order to put their children on the right track. As William R. Wallace composed, it is mother who can make a child’s life bright like sunshine or a rainbow. Moreover, it is mother who can make a child’s life darken with tempest. All things to be considered, every mother should realize their importance for a child’s future and need to try best to become ideal persons for their children because the hand that rocks the cradle can rule the world.

Htet Zaw Htoo (SUOE)