Lucille, a bubbly secondary English teacher, has been in the same school in Kuala Belait since 2013. She jokingly added,
“I am not a teacher tourist! As our former principal would sometimes describe people, and my current principal calls me almost Bruneian, even though my Malay is still in the works”
Lucille reflected,
“I think being here for that long, sums up in itself on how great the school is and working with CfBT and you become immersed in the culture and the values”
She enjoys working in a close-knit, small school where students who she doesn’t even teach come up to her for support.
“Bruneians place a high value on education. For example, in my school, we have under 60 teachers, but we have 10 teachers in our school who have done their studies in the UK. So, they’ve brought back some invaluable knowledge and wisdom with them that they can share now with others.”
There are several areas in her job that she feels proud of currently. First, having been the HOD of English department and now, Associate Teacher allows her to expand her capacity to support others, beyond those in her classroom. She also enjoys informal ways of chatting with her colleagues, including Malay language teachers and often exchanges ideas on effective teaching strategies.
She takes special pride in supporting new teachers, drawing from her 12 years of experience of teaching in Brunei. She understands that adapting to a completely new environment can be challenging.
“I have to remind teachers that they will evolve as a teacher here. I’ve been here for 12 years, and I’ve had to change (as a teacher). The good thing is that nowadays teachers are less rigid; they show their individuality more which leads to creativity in their teaching. It’s not reinventing the wheel but creating schemes of work that are relevant and contemporary. For example, I have included the Olympic games in my lessons while keeping the main objectives in mind”
Lucille’s advice to new teachers is to absorb, accept, and adapt – the key to thriving in Brunei. Despite her long service in Brunei, this year she has had to absorb, accept, and adapt anew. Differentiation and adaptability have come to the fore this year with her Year 7 class, where there are students with a range of learning impediments.
“The students are wonderful; it has nothing to do with behaviour. So, I thought I need to find some way to help them because it’s not just one person but a group of them. So, luckily, I attended a conference in April that empowered me with further strategies to assist them”
Six experts offered a range of strategies with the theme:
‘Today’s Techniques for Tomorrow’s Triumphs: Making Differentiation Doable’, organised by Singapore Principals Academy.
So, she went to the conference during the school holiday that refreshed her perspective – rather than learning something completely different and new.
One of the key takeaways from the conference was the concept of beginning the end in mind. Dr Carol Ann Tomlison, known as the ‘Queen’ of differentiation shared in her keynote speech that impacted Lucille:
“You already have the confidence, or you would have not chosen to become a teacher. So, it’s your confidence in thinking. At the end of each lesson ‘What is it that you want them to be able to talk about?’”
Lucille thought this was interesting.
“You are not changing anything; you are still teaching the same thing and just need to adapt to what they know and their level. It’s just a case of how you are even expressing it in your lesson plan.’’
“It’s really positive to hear from these professors and writers of 50 books, whose expertise came from real life experiences and have experienced firsthand teaching students in class whose first language is not English”
Another perspective that she thought was important was from Dr Jim Wagstaff’s workshop titled ‘Generative AI and Differentiated Instruction’. He said,
“By the end of the year, some of the things I have said right now, are going to be outdated. We are not talking about the good or the bad bits of it – but just to show how fast AI is developing. Keep with what you know and keep with what you like doing. It’s the same with differentiation. Once you become comfortable with it, you might want to try it”
As a result of this workshop, her school will have a one-month trial of Generative AI program – utilising AI to encourage engagement and the best practices for responsible Gen AI use.
Not only that, but she immediately applied what she had learned from the conference to her class.
“One of the techniques that I’ve been doing with my low attaining students in a D class is to have the same questions as the other students. I know it’s going to take them longer to work on it, you know, and they asked me to come over and help. You sort of aim to those students who you’ve given the differentiation to speak or share first, and then you’re expanding it around. In other words, you can ask students who you know are comfortable in English first, and then follow up with another student and so on. You can see them developing the confidence overtime”
“The low-attaining students are not just struggling with English but other subjects, so my aim in class would be to hope they get their personal best, you know, more from a low mark to just a little bit higher”
“I have 2 students who both say they know they don’t understand it. So, the cognisance, the awareness of their learning is also a win. I would say “Well, you just told me ‘You don’t understand English’ in English’ and they would look at you with that realisation.”
So, Lucille’s approach has been to gain the students’ confidence and make the students appreciate what they already know and build on from there. She embodies sincerity in impacting her students’ lives, always returning to the core mission of helping children.
“Everything we do here is about the students. Spelling bees are about the students. The writing competition is about them. Even being an associate teacher, is about supporting the newly arrived teacher to bring out the best in their students.”
Although Brunei education is exam focused, when individuals achieve their personal best, seeing improvement, that is success and should be celebrated. Watching students aspire to anything they wish, is not about what I did, but what they achieved with the knowledge gained over the course of their schooling.
Even her future aspiration involves seeing her students succeed.
“At the moment, I would like to see my year 7s goes to year 11. So that’s going to take me through to 2028.”
Lucille also demonstrates the values that CfBT upholds, summarising them as,
“I relate to integrity the most as it underpins everything, and it is the glue to the other four.”