Geology for Teachers in Taiwan
Teaching the educators at a seminar for Waldorf / Steiner high school teachers
Educational questions as a starting point for teaching
I have been spending the last week or so co-leading a teacher training course for about 65 Waldorf high school teachers held in Taichung, central Taiwan. My focus was around the Class 9 (Year 10) geology module that is typically offered in Waldorf schools. My colleague Martyn Rawson is a practicing teacher and also education researcher with a very deep knowledge of history, languages and social science. For most of the time we worked with two separate groups of 30+ teachers each.
The conference included several talks from local scientists on such topics as tectonics, minerals and the historical trails of Taiwan.
The wonderful thing about Waldorf schools is that there is a readiness to explore the deeper human questions in education, and then adapt the curriculum and teaching approaches to foster key competencies in students for their life beyond school. The Waldorf approach has been evolving for over 100 years, and a question we explored in this seminar was around “what should be changed and what should be kept”. Knowing where to be agile with new ideas and where to stay consistent with established good practice is part of what teacher inquiry is about.
Our initial discussions included questions such as
What are the challenges faced by young people today?
How do modern students perceive their future options and what do they relate to in their education?
What are the skills needed to be adaptable and capable in a fast changing world, and can we develop them in young people at school?
Creating a Geology Module
Following these high level questions, we workshopped how to create a geology module for a main lesson of 90 mins to 2 hours a day over three or four weeks. However this was not just about geology. We included strategies and tactics for
gripping the attention of all students regardless of their academic ability
initiating the module with an intriguing high level question that drives the learning towards a culminating idea at the end
planning a sequence of topics that leads clearly and systematically from simple to more complex ideas
using drama and contrast to give the lessons a powerful emotional appeal
nurturing the head, hand and heart in the lessons via a balance of activities during each session
choosing processes in geology that are relatively simple to explain conceptually but are big impact and have a ‘wow factor’
how to teach note-taking to students
using a three day teaching method to introduce, consolidate and embed learning
teaching a range of learning abilities so that all are fully engaged
managing discipline with a class of wily adolescents
some examples of fun hands-on problem solving activities that involve team work
awakening the imagination of students through simple storytelling techniques that lead to conceptual understanding
By working through these ideas the geology module could be used as an example for teaching many other possible subject lessons at the Year 10 level. We also spent some time discussing how the teaching approach would differ for younger or older year levels in related topics. A holistic approach finds linkages between all subjects across a year level (and also through multiple years) and makes them explicit to students so that they can appreciate the interconnectedness between the subjects they are taught.
Designing a Geology Field Trip
If we want young people to feel enlivened by the lessons we offer, then it helps a lot if we can make them relatable, relevant, comprehensible and enjoyable to students of differing abilities and preferences. Taking the students on a field trip allows exploration of features that have been learned about in a theoretical way and see them in the real world.
But there are a few things to sort out if you want to lead a field trip that maximises the value of the learning opportunity. We spent time discussing things such as
working through a risk management exercise using a RAMS form, incuding the students in this process, and maintaining awareness of risk during the trip
visiting the field location in advance and thinking through some practical inquiry tasks for the students that will keep them focused during the trip, and create a record that will allow follow up back in the classroom
ways to ensure all students are attentive to instructions or discussions during the field trip, whilst giving them opportunities to expore in their own time.
How to manage a group safely in an extended area where there are multiple hazards
Geology at the Year 10 level works well as an in depth study because it describes dramatic and powerful natural occurrences where many of the underlying processes can be understood relatively easily in terms of cause and effect. There is something about the ‘down to earth’ nature of geology that works well with young adolescents in my experience, especially when where rock outcrops and landforms can be explored and investigated during field trips.
As part of our programme we visited Huoyanshan Nature Reserve to expore an area of high cliffs and pinnacles of boulder conglomerate with many gullies and a large debris fan, including lots of material that had been eroded from above and deposited in the surrounding forest
Beautiful to look at, but a potential death trap if you get too close, especially if there were an earthquake or there had been a lot of recent rainfall. We had just experienced several quakes in the days prior to the trip, up to a magnitude 6.4 that had destroyed houses near the epicentre to the south of Taichung.
This recent debris flow had travelled down the main gully from the distant landslide scars - giving a great opportunity to think about styles of erosion, transport and deposition. The flow had left two lateral levees (side walls) created when the central material continued to flow away.
A close up view of the debris flow. What was the size distribution of the boulders? It turned out that unlike in a river setting, the average size of the boulders did not get smaller away from the source. This pointed at the dominance of catastrophic debris flows as the main transport process. A great opportunity to set up an inquiry exercise for school students involving observations, surveys, hypothesising and potentially designing some tests to model different processes.
The field trip led to lots of discussions about such possible activities, as well as how to manage health and safety with a group of students in such an environment.
Hello from students at Taiching Waldorf School. These young people are the future and they deserve the best educational start in life that we can provide, including a wide ranging curriculum loaded with rich experiences.
Waldorf High School - An Online Introductory Course for Teachers
If you are a teacher new to Waldorf Education and would like some introductory level practical insights into the approach , using examples from the earth and biological sciences that you can apply in the classroom, have a look at my online course:
The course includes 9 x 1 hour sessions with the following headers:
Overview - from Kindergarten Up - How It All Threads Together
The Lower School - a Closer Look
Lower School vs High School
Overview of the High School Approach
Class 8 - The Threshold Year
Class 9 - The Year of Polarities
Class 10 - The Year of Dynamic Balance
Class 11 - Analysis and Delving Deeper
Class 12 - Synthesis - an Ever Wider and Deeper View
That’s all for now - feel free to comment and/or share this article with anyone who may be interested.
Julian