Wide curriculum knowledge an asset
A teacher with practical experience in two or three education curriculums is an extraordinary asset to any school.
So John McGlashan College has struck gold in its newly appointed assistant principal, Brendan Porter, who has rare experience in five different curriculums.
The 38yearold started his career at Bayfield High School, teaching NCEA mathematics and information and communications technology.
But after 10 years at the Dunedin school, he was ready for new challenges.
‘‘I felt like the next thing to do was to try to understand a new curriculum.’’
He already had a working knowledge of the international baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, but he wanted to get firsthand experience at teaching the curriculum.
So he went to South Korea to teach at Gyeonggi Suwon International School — an International Baccalaureate Organisation World School, offering the primary years programme, the middle years programme and the diploma programme as its overall educational framework.
Four years later, having mastered the IB curriculum, he was again looking for a new challenge and moved to Shanghai, where he became the head of mathematics for the Shanghai Singapore International School (SSIS).
‘‘The move to Shanghai presented an opportunity to learn about the British education system — the Cambridge inter national general certificate of secondary education (IGCSE).
‘‘Singapore is very British by nature, so they do Cambridge IGCSE.’’
Along the way, he has also picked up experience in the American education system, which uses common core state standards. .
His own education was done through the school certificate and bursary system in New Zealand.
After teaching the different curriculums, Mr Porter said he had noticed some of the curriculums could educate pupils to achieve at much higher levels than other frameworks.
He said a good example was the Singapore education system, which was teaching pupils to learn up to two years ahead of pupils in western society.
‘‘Before I did this, I would have only thought a 14yearold was capable of a certain level, but now I can see what a 14yearold can be.’’
Mr Porter started at John McGlashan College this week and already has longterm plans to take some of the best parts of all of the curriculums he has studied and worked under, and amalgamate them across a wide range of subjects at the school.
‘‘The different philosophies on education, pedagogy, andragogy and how you approach that teaching and learning in the classroom is really what I’m going to be bringing.
‘‘It’s exciting to think about how I can affect the youth of today.’’
Alongside that, he also plans to study a sixth curriculum — the German curriculum.