July 2015

Tao-Yuan Primary School’s Humanistic Approach to Teaching

A story of one teacher’s inspiring efforts to make change, one class at a time…

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats

Traditional education in Taiwan has the teacher lecturing, and students listening. It emphasizes on examination results encouraging students to learn through memorization rather than understanding, losing the true value and meaning of education. Yi-Wen Yang, 6th Grade teacher at Taitung County Yanping Township Tao-Yuan Primary School, challenges herself to try a different approach to educate her students. Every child is a unique learner; Yi-Wen introduces humanistic education to her class, allowing each student to develop at their own pace, providing an equal opportunity for growth.

Yi-Wen often takes her lessons beyond the classroom; she believes that not only can her students learn from nature, they are also the happiest amongst it. After 13 years of experience teaching, she learned that nature is her greatest textbook. Yi-Wen encourages students to apply what they learned in class to their daily lives to gain true understanding of what is learned.

To demonstrate corrosion prevention, she brought her students to a bicycle mechanic, who shared knowledge of mechanical structures, metalworking, and maintenance. To teach her students the importance of social responsibility, she brought them to an organic plum farm to learn about ecofriendly farms and to make preserved plums. When the indigenous Bunun tribe celebrated the Millet Harvest Festival, Yi-Wen took her students to participate in the annual ritual where they weeded millet fields, and learned tribal traditions and taboos believed to ensure bountiful harvest for the year.

To commemorate the school year, Yi-Wen took her class on a 3-day 2-night graduation field trip. Students were responsible for planning and executing – from transportation, meals, accommodation, to sightseeing, and more. Tasks were distributed evenly; final decisions were determined by vote. Yi-Wen also guided students to make travel budgets, and assess possible risks.

To help fund the field trip, the 6th Graders organized a fundraiser selling cipula, a popular deep fried local sweet made from flour and jam. Using only local organic ingredients, students visited mulberry farms after school to pick berries for the jam, and learned to make the dessert with the help of parents. Within ten days, over NT$10,000 was raised; the true reward, however, was the experience. To further fund the trip, the class applied for additional funding from Delta Electronics Foundation; the theme of the field trip was energy conservation, Delta Electronics is a corporation that values sustainable business practices. Students visited the Kenting Nuclear Power Plant to learn about its operations, South Bay (Nanwan) for water sports, Mala Bay – a sustainable waterpark, and the Kaohsiung National Science and Technology Museum.

Through planning and execution, students learned a breadth of life skills, applying geography, social science, mathematics, communication, logistics, and effective financial management into real life situations. They learned to work together as a team, to sustain a democratic committee, to negotiate, compromise, respect and trust one another.

Yi-Wen believes that an excessive time spent within four walls of the classroom often leads to a loss of interest. Through a humanistic approach, bringing students beyond the classroom to apply what is learned to real-life scenarios, it is when students are able to truly understand what is taught. Every student has their individual strengths, and teachers should recognize their potentials and help nurture their talents – this should be the true purpose of education.

Yi-Wen hopes that through her humanistic approach of teaching, her students will be able to think critically, independently, intelligently; she hopes to be able to give them the tool to exercise judgment and responsibility in all aspects of their lives.

“It’s the journey, not the destination that truly matters.” – Yi-Wen Yang