MOE Work Plan Seminar: Life Transforming Project @ 21-Day Challenge

Dear Principal,

Greetings from an Educationist-at-heart.

My email dated 18 Oct 2019 distilled the key challenges posed.

To recap, these challenges were outlined:

Challenges Posed

  1. Helping students discover more joy and develop stronger intrinsic motivation in learning. (Para. 8 of the Work Plan Seminar)
  2. Helping students to have excellent learning outcomes without encouraging an overly competitive culture (Para 9)
  3. Enabling students to achieve different learning paces regardless of academic inclination (Para 10)
  4. Re-shaping the social environment that will boost your students’ self-confidence (MOE Budget Debate 2019, para 67). 

How to Tackle Them

  • PCAN Model which is a Complex Problem-Solving methodology 
  • Problem Reversal Technique: This technique gets your creative juices flowing by just viewing your problem in the opposite direction to what everyone else is thinking. 
  • SCAMPER-Plus Technique: This technique enables you to leverage on time-tested solutions to generate numerous creative ideas promptly.

For more information and diagrams, please visit: www.SkillShifu.com/MOEworkplan1

This email dated 25 Oct 2019 shares innovative and implementable solutions.

Challenges Posed

  1. Helping students discover more joy and develop stronger intrinsic motivation in learning.

2. Helping students to have excellent learning outcomes without encouraging an overly competitive culture 

3. Enabling students to achieve different learning paces regardless of academic inclination

4. Re-shaping the social environment that will boost your students’ self-confidence 

Innovative and Implementable Solutions

  • “Letters to My Future Selves” Initiative

  • Tapping into the Subconscious Mind

  • “Student Mastermind Group” Initiative
  • The “Caring-Plus Scheme”

Challenges Posed

Innovative and Implementable Solutions

  1. Helping students discover more joy and develop stronger intrinsic motivation in learning.

  • “Letters to My Future Selves” Initiative

2. Helping students to have excellent learning outcomes without encouraging an overly competitive culture 

  • Tapping into the Subconscious Mind

3. Enabling students to achieve different learning paces regardless of academic inclination

  • “Student Mastermind Group” Initiative

4. Re-shaping the social environment that will boost your students’ self-confidence 

  • The “Caring-Plus Scheme”

For more information and diagrams, please visit: www.SkillShifu.com/MOEworkplan

This email dated 1 Nov 2019 has come about after much intense discussions with various educationists.

The “Life Transforming Project: 21-Day Challenge”

Why this is a Life Transforming Project?

The diagram above explains how a student can develop a wholesome self-image.

We must know who we are and what we are. This is our self-belief, self-image. We feel and act in a certain way because of this self-image. It is something at the core of our minds that determines how we see ourselves and how we act, feel and behave. Our capabilities and potential all stem from this self-image. Developing a wholesome self-image is the key to transforming your life.

Why it is a 21-Day Challenge? 

We believe that students need time to form life changing habits. The 21-day period is a guide to help student jumpstart their journey to develop a wholesome self-image. We also believe that participation will enable your school to achieve the outcomes of the MOE Work Plan Seminar:

  • Students will discover more joy and develop stronger intrinsic motivation in learning
  • Students will achieve excellent learning outcomes without encouraging an overly competitive culture 
  • Students will helps to develop a more caring the school environment

“Letter to my Future Self” initiative

This initiative helps students to develop stronger intrinsic motivation in learning.  

The idea is to select high achievers to write letters to their future selves and use these letters to inspire other students.

This approach will spur students to take ownership of their own future.

I believe this is a brilliant brainwave. Students who write to teachers or friends are prone to exaggeration and even untruths. But if they write to themselves, they will certainly try to be honest to themselves.

Learning from My Past

Students can work on either of the two options.

Option 1: Life Transforming Messages

Remember your struggles and learn from your mistakes.

Students will review their past and ask themselves, “What struggles did I go through?”

Students reflect on how they coped with one specific struggle. They are expected to write a life transforming message.

This will help them reflect on their actions and the possible repercussions. This self-reflection on how they struggled through the difficult moments of their lives will help them to understand and empathize with others facing similar problems.

Values & Benefits

Why we must develop Empathy?

When we can understand the thinking, the feelings and what another person is going through, we have empathy for the person. Thereafter, we will act to care for that person.

When we are empathetic, we are to accept that humans err and to forgive others. We would try to be more understanding.

Training students to be more empathetic will help them to withhold judgement until they have heard the other person out. It will help students to put themselves in the other person shoes and understand his situation.

How would you improve the social environment?

In one sentence – help students develop empathy! With empathy, one has a better capacity to care for another. The social environment poser as stated in (MOE Budget Debate 2019, para 67) 

Psycho-Cybernetics

This is our key to unlock student potential. It explains the mechanisms used to create a positive self-image.

What is Psycho-Cybernetics?

“Psycho” refers to the mind.

“Cybernetics” refers to a self-regulating feedback system.

“Psycho-Cybernetics” refers to steering your mind to a productive and useful goal.

Value of Psycho-Cybernetics

A strong, positive and wholesome self-image is the foundation for all personal success and achievement. Current capability and future potential are consistent with self-image.

Students with poor self-image are more likely to be cynical when told they can achieve something. They don’t believe they can do it.  You cannot motivate someone with poor self-image.

In order for students to discover joy and develop stronger intrinsic motivation in learning (per Para. 8 of the Work Plan Seminar), we must help them develop a wholesome self-image.

Option 2: Solving Complex Problems Creatively

Values & Benefits

Students will review their past and ask themselves, “What were my struggles in the past”

  • How did I solve them?
  • Are solution still applicable to me today?
  • Can they help other students with similar problems?

Complex & Creative Problem-solving Techniques

These techniques will  enable students to generate innovative solutions at a snap of their fingers.

PCAN Model is a Complex Problem-Solving methodology.

SCAMPER-Plus Technique will enable you to leverage on time-tested solutions to generate numerous creative ideas promptly.

Value of Solving Complex Problems Creatively

These techniques will help students to think out-of-the- box. Students will learn to generate creative ideas easily and readily. Mastering these techniques will also boost students’ self- confidence and help them overcome challenges in their daily lives.

Problem-solving technique will help students develop mental toughness and self-confidence to deal with whatever problems they will face in future.

Looking into the Future

What is Your True Purpose in Life & How to align it with your goals?

Crystal ball gazing is part of the journey into the future. The aim is for students to discover their “True Purpose in Life” and discover joy in learning to develop a stronger intrinsic motivation in learning.

What is Creative Visualisation?

This is the cognitive process that makes use of imagination to create and visualize scenarios in the mind’s eye. You create a mental picture of something and then focus on this image or scenario for periods of time.

We are employing 4 Approaches:

  • Imagination – The First Key to Your Success Mechanism.
  • The Failure Mechanism – how to make it work for you, instead of against you.
  • How to Remove Emotional Scars and Give Yourself “An Emotional Face Lift”.
  • How to Turn a Crisis into a Creative Opportunity.

Value of Creative Visualisation

What we conceive ourselves to be, we become.
Believing you can DO it, believing you DESERVE IT & believing you’ll GET IT.

“When you see a thing clearly in your mind, your creative success mechanism within you takes over and does the job much better than you could it by conscious effort or willpower.” Maxwell Maltz, author of Psycho-Cybernetics

These 4 approaches will enable students to creatively visualize their future and set their own goals. When aligned to their True Purpose in Life, they will be more motivated to achieve excellent learning outcomes. (MOE Work Plan Seminar, Para 9)

What is a Vision Board?

The outcome of the Creative Visualization exercise is a Vision Board. It is a collage of images, pictures, and affirmations of one’s dreams and desires, designed to serve as a source of inspiration and motivation.

Value of the Vision Board

It will be a constant source of motivation to achieve goals in different areas of their lives: academic and non-academic goals, relationships goals, goals in co-curricular activities, self-improvement goals, goals in doing-good, etc.

Instant Information Mastery Technique

This technique enables students to instantly mine data from cyberspace and integrate information from numerous sources: Search engines, YouTube videos, SlideShare to enrich subject content.

Value of Instant Information Mastery Technique

Before you can master any skill, you need to gather the information. There is no lack of data online and everywhere. However, to extract and distill only the relevant information is always very challenging and could take a huge amount of time. 

Nowadays, we need information on demand. This technique will help us search for information instantly and effectively.

This technique can be used for:

  • Complex and Creative Problem-solving
  • Creative Visualization

Using this technique will help students to achieve their learning at different learning paces, regardless of academic inclination. (MOE Work Plan Seminar Para 10)

The Proposed Life Transforming Project consists of two stages:

Stage 1:

Pilot Project for 30 Student Achievers

Select 30 student achievers to embark on a self-discovery journey. (“Letters To My Future Selves”)

  • Option 1: Life  Transforming Messages
  • Option 2: Solving Complex Problems Creatively

Stage 2:

Organize a Contest on “Letters to My Future Selves” for the rest of the student population.

To attract participation, selected “Letters to My Future Selves” from student achievers will be used to inspire other students to join the contest.

Value of the “Letters to My Future Selves” Contest:

  • it will spur students to strengthen their intrinsic motivation
  • it can be used to showcase their talents
  • it will leave a positive footprint for future student cohorts to emulate

Student Mastermind Groups

Form Student Mastermind Groups for all contest participants.

For more information, please see: www.skillshifu.com/MOEworkplan

Benefits of the Student Mastermind Groups:

  • Students challenge, motivate and learn from one another
  • Students solve problems together
  • Students build self-confidence and gain support from their peers

Students setting their own goals will align them to their academic capability. Hence, the Student Mastermind Groups will enable them to learn at their own paces. (MOE Work Plan Seminar, Para 10)

    Each school is unique with a different culture and set of problems. No solution is tailored to solve all problems. That’s why a discussion will help to pin down relevant problems and to refine the techniques to suit your school’s needs.

    Do contact me if you are interested. Let us work together to address the challenges posed by the MOE Work Plan Seminar.

    Thank you for your kind attention. Looking forward to your reply.

     

    Warmest regards,

    Richard Mak
    Email: mak@skillshifu.com
    Mobile: 96693600
    https://www.richardmak.net/ 

    My Profile

    I was a former Director of Business Studies with a post-secondary statutory board and an award-winning lecturer. I have lectured extensively in world-renowned MBA programmes in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta with the University of Leeds, Open University, Maastricht School of Management and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

    For more information, please see https://www.richardmak.net/

    MOE Work Plan Seminar:

    Challenges Posed & How to Tackle them Effectively

    MOE Work Plan Seminar:

    Innovative & Implementable Solutions

    MOE Work Plan Seminar:

    Life Transforming Project @ 21-Day Challenge

    MOE Work Plan Seminar:

    One Integrated Project for 4 Challenges/Solutions

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