Introduction

The evaluation Mountaintop Adult Education Centre (MAEC) received showed that the institution incorporated practises that are supported by various educational theories. Socio-culturalism in education deserves to be examined in this case study as a majority of MAEC’s students are asylum-seekers and migrants wishing to learn English, numeracy, or computer skills. Many learners had high regard for the teachers of MAEC and they believed that genuine care was provided on top of their education. This essay will be split into three parts: an analysis on the observation report, suggestions backed by academic research and a reflection generated from a personal educational context. The author chose to analyse according to theories as opposed to analysing according to inspection areas as multiple educational theories were present in one inspection area. It would be less repetitive when the case is inspected theory by theory.

Behaviourism

To explain behaviourism concisely, it is about understanding the impulse-reaction chain (Meier, 2006, p82). As behaviourism expects people (or animals) to change their behaviour according to the stimuli provided, measurable targets were created to tempt subjects into fulfilling the goal or objective. Some academics believe that behaviourism is strictly empirical in nature and focuses heavily on psychology (Apelojg, 2010, p56). According to the first section of the report regarding the leadership and management, MAEC did not adopt behaviourism as their guiding theory in education. This is due to the fact that MAEC did not set benchmarks and had a decentralised decision-making body as the centre’s goals and the centre’s management’s objectives fail to closely align. Apart from the missing structure in a management level, the centre had yet to produce empirical reports to understand future trends and streamline long-term management decisions due to the insufficient database.

In the later part of this paper, there would be justification to why behaviourism might not be the best or most practical pedagogical practise for MAEC.  

Cognitivism

Cognitivism is present in MAEC’s education design. While cognitivism calls for educators to put focus on understanding the process of how educators and learners’ input gets turned into knowledge, such an effort is evident in the Learning Support and Enrichment part of the report. According to the report, teachers use Dr. Anne Margaret Smith’s Cognitive Assessment to create systems and strategies to specifically address the needs of multilingual students. Different strategies are developed to tackle different problems each learner was facing, and staff organised training to raise awareness as well as provide resources to further support learners with specific learning needs. This meant that teachers recognise patterns and use prior knowledge to provide better education. Cognitivism is not only present in the institution as a method to help learners, but also as a sustained practise to improve educators in MAEC.

Constructivism

Constructivism has an emphasise that people’s learning progress is not predictable as most of the learning depends on the learner’s situation, previous knowledge, and other preconditions (Hasselhorn & Gold, 2009, p. 221). While behaviourism believe that external stimuli can trigger favourable responses and lead to successful learning, constructivism focuses more on the learner’s internal landscape and believe that learners construct knowledge by making sense of their own experiences (Piaget, 2002; Dewey,1916; (Dewey, 1916) Vygotsky, 1962; Driscoll, 2005). In MAEC’s evaluation report, it is seen that learning experiences are catered to the learner which coincided with constructivist’s theory that education should be student centred. MAEC practised constructivism on multiple occasions. Firstly, students of similar levels were paired with one another to learn vocabulary and they were encouraged by teachers to have informal meetups. This is a practise constructivist teachers encourage as members of a community can share and learn from each other (Wenger, 1998). Next, students were given tasks that emulate everyday situations, such as asking for monetary advice in banks. The education they receive at school can be applicable to real everyday tasks, which can provide meaning to their education. Teachers provide regular constructive feedbacks that were tailored to learners’ needs and help them improve their skills as well as employment prospects.

Socio-cultural theory

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory asserts that learning is a social process in which the support of parents, caregivers, peers and the wider society and culture plays a crucial role in the development of higher psychological functions (Vygotsky, 1978). In MAEC, students often worked in groups or with a partner. For example, learners had a partner to practise the vocabulary learnt in class, class partners were reported to maintain a friendship outside class hours. This allowed learners to consolidate their knowledge as transactional relationships are built. Cooperative learning happened as MAEC made education a social process. Learners flourish in small groups to maximise their own and each other’s learning. This shows that MAEC adopted parts of Vygotsky’s theory into their educational practises.

Humanism

Humanism seemed to be the centre of MAEC’s approach in education. MAEC’s main learners were asylum-seekers and migrants, demographics that are systematically categorized as oppressed and often, deprived. However, according to the report, it can be understood that MAEC provided their learners with skills, opportunities, and external network. Furthermore, instructors were not negligent of the inherent difference students have. As explained by scholars, humanism believes that learners are unique individuals and teachers have a role to empower and transform through appropriate guidance (Khatib, et al., 2013).

One of the most prominent humanist scholars is Maslow, who created the Maslow’s hierarchy of need in 1973. Academics generally agree that humanism in education meant that education should be student centred, meaning that human uniqueness should be factored into lesson design (Veugelers, 2011). The goal of humanistic education is to have students develop into self-directed and transformative learners (Mezirow, 1997; Knowles, 1970). MAEC provided classes for learners that fulfilled multiple humanistic scholars’ idea of humanistic education. For example, tasks were given according to the learners’ ability, and the report used phrases such as “appropriately challenging” and “appropriate reminders were strategically placed” to indicate that MAEC provided courses that are mostly student oriented. Such humanism is also present when MAEC provided targeted support for learners with disabilities, allowing all learners to progress at similar speed.

Cultural differences and language barriers proved to be factors that hinder migrants and asylum seekers from integrating into their new host country. However, in MAEC, it seemed like the institution not only provided education, but the staff also created an environment where learners can engage with their peers and local communities.

In all four inspection areas, MAEC had various initiatives helping their learners integrate and engage with the local community. In Leadership and Management, MAEC maintained good relations with employers in the vicinity and offered work placements to learners on a regular basis. In Teaching, Learning and Assessment, learners were given roleplay tasks to strengthen their confidence in using everyday English, helping them overcome the language barriers they may face. Aiding learners in integration was evident in the Learning Support and Enrichment as well as the Outcomes sections as learners reported to enrol in higher education, get employment opportunities and even participated in volunteering programmes for local schools.

Empowerment seemed to be the crux of MAEC’s education as learners were reported to enjoy the benefits of MAEC outside of the classroom. Learners were introduced to local communities, some progressed into higher education while others were given employment opportunities through MAEC. The social network built through MAEC is a notable achievement as learners enrich their lives beyond the institutional setting. MAEC achieved Roger’s goal in education, which is to help learners become full-functioning adults (Rogers, 1969). According to Roger’s characterisation of humanistic education, it is imperative that learning experience is made to be personal, initiative-taking, pervasive, learner-evaluated, and meaningful (ibid.).

It is noteworthy that MAEC adopted a humanistic leadership style as well. Trusting people, upholding moral principles, exhibiting compassion, and engaging in group activities are all aspects of humanistic leadership (Khatib, et al., 2013). The vision, goal, values, and required behaviours of a humanistic leadership system are distinct and consistent (Veugelers, 2011). MAEC has shown great awareness in ensuring that the staff have the training and support to give to their students with their refresher training in equality of opportunity and disability awareness training.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy is commonly learnt as a pyramid where the most basic level of achievement in education is “remember” while the highest achievement is to “create” (Krathwohl, 2002). According to the report, there were evidence of MAEC reaching the “apply” stage where learners can use information gained from the centre and apply them in new situations. This is seen when learners do a roleplay with their partners to acquire new vocabulary or apply their knowledge into other situations, as opposed to merely listening and learning through textbook contents. As understood from the outcomes of learners from MAEC, many learners were able to seek employment or further studies opportunities upon completion of the course. This shows that the education received allowed students to at least reach the level of application. There were other notable examples of the students reaching the peak of the pyramid. In Learning Support and Enrichment, learners created a ‘Student Voice” newsletter and in more formal classroom setting, the ICT teachers use and develop authentic formative activities.

Suggestions

MAEC scored well in Learning Support and Enrichment, as well as Outcomes for learners, receiving the second highest grade on the scale. However, the institution received an average grade for Leadership and Management as well as Teaching, Learning and Assessment. In this part of the essay, suggestions will be made and

As mentioned previously, MAEC did not place a high emphasis on using behaviourism as a guiding principle in their teaching. Similarly, the institution did not adopt a behaviourist leadership and management style. The style adopted in management is humanistic as indicated by the major criticism in the report. The inspection officers expected database to be built in order to run regressions and be able to do other statistical analysis. However, such critique is coming from a behaviourist point of view where individuals are believed to be no different from animals where behaviour can be manipulated with the right stimulation. From a humanistic perspective, as humans are unique, learning progress cannot be predicted through statistical analysis (Zucca-Scott, 2010).

While MAEC focuses on providing humanistic education, the management can set realistic and manageable goals for learners. Setting very basic benchmarks that most learners can achieve can motivate learners towards reaching certain goals. For example, many learners in MAEC were reported to receive one Learning Award or a Certificate of in ESOL skills for Life within a year. MAEC can set goals according to the classes as opposed to setting a blanket goal on every learner to ensure that students do not feel overwhelmed by having an objective that seemed overarching. As teachers provide tasks according to the learners’ abilities, teachers can set realistic goals while maintaining the humanistic ideology that each individual is unique.

However, the report did mention that some staff have yet to achieve the necessary qualifications before entering MAEC. Qualifications often indicate the level or field of knowledge an individual carries. While not having the qualification does not mean that the individual does not have the skill necessary to perform the job, it is risky for an institution to trust a candidate without official recognition. An easy suggestion would be only accepting candidates with the necessary qualifications. As most schoolteachers in Hong Kong are employed by the government, the wages are given according to experience and qualifications. In this case, MAEC can devise a salary list for staff where wage would be given according to the experience and qualifications acquired by the employee.

While MAEC did well in providing learners with education, expanding their social circles, and allowed transformative experience to form, it should be noted that there is room for improvement in the institution’s pedagogical practises. In the report, inspection officers noted that MAEC’s instructors did not check up with every group and made sure that they executed the tasks given during class. This could be due to a miscalculation while lesson planning where the teacher did not expect more time needed to be spent on checking up on learners. Better time management can be achieved by doing lesson plans to ensure all learners have certain level of engagement with the teacher.

Apart from not checking up with the learners’ work, inspectors also found some lessons that had little engagement with the learners. The reliance on textbooks may hamper learning effectiveness as learners may lose interest with the low engagement and spoon-feeding of textbook content. A suggestion would be for teachers to restructure their lessons as the inspectors noted that the learners responded the best when they were given materials that allowed them to exercise their own application of the knowledge. An example would be when teacher in math class taught the learners percentages by asking the learners to create a country park. According to Bloom’s taxonomy, the most fundamental level of education achievable is memorisation (Krathwohl, 2002). A reliance on textbook materials may be beneficial to helping learners recall facts, however, such materials may not allow learners to achieve more. As mentioned, the learners are capable of creating new projects as they have self-initiated projects such as newsletters and other community outreach events. Teachers may want to provide more opportunities for learners to produce and create their original work in order to consolidate knowledge.

My Personal Experience

Scholars that encourage humanistic pedagogical practises mostly believe that adult learners are independant and self-directed with capacity to grow as they can be internally motivated (Knowles, 1996). This can be true in the case of MAEC as the majority of the learners are asylum seekers and migrants. These learners may be motivated to integrate into UK, start a new life by having employment prospects or have a new community to engage with (Morrice, 2012). Such motivation may have been the reason why MAEC found it beneficial for learners to work in groups or in pairs all the time (ibid.). The benefits of having partners and groupmates allowed learners to grow with peers and be part of a bigger community. Organising informal events outside of the curriculum was proven successful as MAEC had learners organise fundraising events for the local community and have talent shows which could be proven to be more difficult in other settings.

As I have been working in the early childhood industry in Hong Kong for years, I have observed that humanism may work in certain settings only. In kindergartens, students may not have the option to choose what interest classes to participate in (Sun, et al., 2022). Local news outlets reported that children were often forced by guardians to participate in classes they do not enjoy (Lin, 2019). Similarly, there were unfortunate observations during my time in local kindergartens where learners were denied the opportunity to partake in the activities they were highly interested in. As a result, some learners may not be motivated in classes, making them more dependant on the teacher. Hong Kong teachers often have less time to tailorise education according to learner’s capabilities due to a huge decrease in teacher population, resulting in higher student-to-teacher ratio (South China Morning Post, 2022). In 2021, the average class size in primary schools is 34 while in secondary schools, the number went up to 37 (HKSAR Education Bureau, 2021).

Hong Kong’s culture is heavily influenced by Confucianism which placed heavy emphasis on respecting authorities, elders and children should have filial piety (Sun, et al., 2022). This meant that children in Hong Kong are used to authoritarian parenting and education style. Behaviourism is the crux of the pedagogical prastice in Hong Kong as most learners are motivated to learn in order to get into better schools and eventually getting a job as they enter adulthood (ibid.). Humanistic leadership is rarely present in local schools as the curriculum is rigidly fixed by the Education Bureau. Teachers in local schools often rely on textbook materials and do not have enough time to create activities to engage students as there can be up to 40 students in one classroom.

Upon reflection, my own experience is an international kindergarten enabled me to adopt more humanistic pedagogical practises. My school assign themes for the month and allowed teachers the freedom to develop lessons according to the learner’s needs. In curriculum design, we set realistic goals for the classes and try to keep engaging learners. For example, during the month about animals, teachers were able to invite a pet shelter to bring trained animals to the kindergarten. Students were able to differentiate the different animals and ultimately, teachers observed that students developed more empathy towards animals.

Conclusion

Upon careful analysis, Mountaintop Education Centre adopted pedagogical practises that were student oriented. The education provided not only improved students’ skills in English, math and computer science, the teachers enabled the learners to become more engaging citizens. This is seen in the outcome report as learners were reported to give back to the community by doing volunteering work. Ultimately, the education received in MAEC can be counted as transformative as some learners even found employment opportunities through this educational experience. It is interesting that despite having a lower score in its Leadership and Management as well as the Teaching, Learning and Assessment, MAEC scored high in Learning Support and Enrichment, as well as Outcome for Learners. It can be interpreted as teachers using unorthodox, or non-behaviourist pedagogical style yet successfully delivering quality education. Shortcomings listed in the observation report were surmountable and the good practises adopted are truly inspiring to other educators.

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