“No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.” – James Comer
14 February 2015, Kuala Lumpur- It was Valentine’s Day and love is in the air. The room was filled with love songs and cheerful notes to welcome close to ninety educators of SMK Cochrane to their first CCI workshop. The day started with an energiser game, the “Banana Yoga” to induce movements and interactions among participants.
Teachers showing full attention during the workshop.
CCI is not a curriculum nor a disciplinary programme. It is a shift of mindset where educators endow the elements of character and creativity to foster a positive school culture and meaningful learning experience. The result: the holistic growth of a child.
Miss Fong (Character and Creativity Initiative Director) emphasised the importance of relationship, that the presence of trust and love will bring teachers and students closer, which contributes to a meaningful schooling journey which encourages students to learn independently.
Puan Asia, a fellow changemaker witnessed an astounding improvement in the learning attitude of her students in a short amount of time. Restructuring classroom seating arrangement enabled her to deliver the syllabus effectively through more interactions. Such engagements cultivate a healthy teacher-student relationship and a more focused learning environment.
Puan Asia on the right with her fellow group mates.
Encik Yassir, who is a Google certified educator shared insights on key elements in student engagement. He believes no student should be left behind and strives to continuously improve the way he approaches students. He exclaimed: “When teaching, teachers need to be dynamic in bringing out the essence of a lesson. We want students to get excited in the process of learning.”
When positive school culture and dynamic educators as facilitators of learning are in place, the desire to learn out of genuine curiosity will increase tremendously. Encik Yassir started to implement CCI in his classroom less than six (6) months ago and the results have validated that the relationship between teachers and students are crucial.
The genuine relationship between teachers and students are the foundation of a lasting and positive school culture.
What’s next?
Principals of each participating schools will form an innovation team to pioneer, pilot and drive CCI implementation school-wide.
Innovation teams are made up of ten (10) or fewer teachers who have volunteered to make the school a better place for learning. Teams function as an organisation, which consists of various responsibilities such as programme development, communications, stakeholder engagement and etc.