From Teacher to Leader: Steering Teacher Education with Heart

For Professor Liu Woon Chia, the calling was clear. By age 18, she had already decided to become a teacher. “Seeing that I was quite a capable student at CHIJ Primary and Nanyang Girls’ High, my parents had wanted me to be a doctor or lawyer,” she began. “Although my dad was a teacher, his expectations did not surprise me. Many in his generation would have viewed going into medicine or law as a means to a good life. He wanted the same for me.”

Having breezed her way into National Junior College (NJC) with excellent results, Professor Liu was complacent about her performance at first. She embraced her adventurous spirit, exploring different sports and interests with the newfound freedom of her junior college timetable. “At one point, I had seven CCAs,” she counted proudly, ticking off activities like basketball, softball, track and field, harmonica band, and even lion dance. “So much to experience, but so little time! My JC grades really suffered,” she lamented.

Through the setback, Professor Liu came to understand the impact a good teacher could have. “My Chemistry tutor, Mrs Kor, used to single me out and challenge me because she believed in me. I also remember my PE teacher, Miss Elizabeth Poey, who took time to meet with us individually, making me and my classmates feel really special.” The late Miss Poey is well-remembered for leading the first NJC Himalayan Expedition to Nepal. Although Professor Liu wasn’t part of Miss Poey’s expedition, the trip taught her an indelible life lesson: never limit your imagination.

Looking back, Professor Liu laughs whenever she recounts the story of her “academically unglamourous time at NJC”. “I was extremely playful, but my failures and successes in class, along with what I learned as an athlete and basketball captain, helped me discover who I wanted to be. These experiences strengthened my resolve to teach and inspire young people to dream big and believe in themselves,” she said.

If you can’t reach, you can’t teach

Declining an offer to return to her alma mater after graduating from the Institute of Education, Professor Liu chose to teach at a mainstream government school. “I thought I could focus fully on being a good Chemistry and Maths teacher. Instead, being part of the discipline committee, I found myself running around HDB blocks, catching students who were smoking and playing truant. It soon became clear that Chemistry and Maths wouldn’t be the most important things I had to teach,” she recalled.

She also remembers a poignant conversation with a student who said, “Cher, you must be really lousy, because a good teacher wouldn’t get sent to our school.” This cemented her conviction that all teachers must connect with the learner before teaching the subject. The idea that every child deserves a quality education was no longer just a cliché.

When the opportunity for pursuing her Masters and PhD arose, Professor Liu promptly shifted gears to focus on Educational Psychology, delving into topics like self-concept, student confidence and motivation, and teachers’ expectations. “While I had a sensing about these issues as a beginning teacher, my postgraduate research revealed that teachers’ expectations are a stronger predictor of student confidence and performance than even stream membership.

“That’s why meeting with my students one-on-one was intuitively important to me. Telling a child who has never passed an exam to do well only perpetuates the feeling of helplessness. To empower weaker students, we must scaffold their learning — or as we say in Chinese, ‘积少成多’ — allowing small achievements to blossom into confidence,” she explained.

Paying it forward

Professor Liu would spend time, before and after school, working with students who needed help. She even opened her home to groups of students who needed a place to study. Decades later, while serving as the Dean of Teacher Education at the NIE, she would come across a teacher turned PhD student whose teacher had done the same for him. “To my utter surprise, his teacher was one of my former students! And she shared with me how she had strived to be the kind of teacher for him that I was to her.”

Her active support for the NTU-NIE Mount Everest Expedition in 2017 was another example of paying it forward in mentorship. “Nepal holds a special place in my heart because of Miss Poey. So, when a student teacher, Yusrina, sought my support with her Everest quest, I was eager to help. As the Dean of Teacher Education at the time, I rallied for staff support through fundraising and other events, and I encouraged Yusrina to keep on dreaming big and not be held back by limitations.”

Charting the path ahead

Turning to the future, Professor Liu discusses her priorities as the new NIE Director, and what the NIE vision of “leading the future of education” means to her.

“I’ve inherited from my predecessors an institution with a stellar reputation and an exceptional system of learning, teaching and research. My goal is to build on their achievements to enhance the NIE’s impact on teacher education in Singapore and beyond, sharing our research findings and expertise with regions that could benefit from our experience.

“At the same time, we need to keep abreast with the evolving education landscape and strengthen teacher competencies in response to rapid technological advancements. While I don’t see technology replacing teachers, those who do not embrace technology may find themselves being left behind. Thus, the pace of technological change will influence how we design our programmes and equip teachers to use technology effectively.

“Personally, I believe that teachers must be the logos, ethos and pathos of their students’ world. Logos (or logic) is about helping students understand their world, themselves and their role in humanity. Ethos (or ethics) is about shaping characters. Teaching requires us to hold a mirror to our soul: we can’t teach what we’re not. Finally, pathos (or passion) is about instilling hope and the passion for life and learning,” she said.

Embracing the challenges and joys of teaching

Notwithstanding the challenges facing today’s teaching professionals, Professor Liu remains optimistic, believing that teachers continue to embody key values like kindness, empathy and inclusivity. “Teaching is the foundation of all professions; therefore, we must continue to uphold and recognise our educators. After all, only those who can, teach,” she highlighted, emphasising the attributes she holds dear as a teacher.

Professor Liu ended her interview by referencing a speech from the former Nokia CEO, who had said, “We didn’t do anything wrong, and yet, we lost.” She noted, “Today, we live in a cautious society, where it’s easy to stick to familiar methods. But we’ll have to ask whether what we are currently doing is enough to not just ride but drive the next wave.”

She added, “Innovation would be crucial, but wisdom and courage are just as important — i.e. understanding what is fundamental, and knowing the risks we can take to seize opportunities.

“I hope that every student who passes through the NIE’s doors would have a sense of Agency that they can make a difference; a Belief that there is potential and good in everyone; as well as Courage to make mistakes and Creativity to experiment and do things differently. If we can all achieve this, then I think I would have done my job,” she concluded.

Read the original article here.