We started our day taking taxis to Joseph Chamberlain College. College in the United Kingdom is like our high school level education in the United States. The college has a beautiful campus with a welcoming and open atmosphere for its students. It deliberately has one main entrance and exit with multiple safeguards on watch to keep the campus and its students safe. The school is shaped in an oval-like shape with large windows and a lovely courtyard in the center of the oval to create an environment of togetherness and community within the college. There is a display of successful college graduates and which university they are attending on a wall to make sure the students that attend have high expectations for themselves, creating an environment of motivation and confidence. We were enlightened by the assistant principal of the college that this college is in a deprived area where safety can be at risk and where students may have never had expectations for themselves or thinking that they are failures to to their environment. Having a college set up in this way creates the perfect atmosphere for students to thrive and succeed in the future. It is for these reasons that Joseph Chamberlain College has consistently received an outstanding ranking from the OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills).

The assistant principal then went on telling us what to examine and look for when shadowing the classroom dynamics at the college. The first classroom I sat in on was a english class with students who had not passed their exams the previous year so they had to retake it. In turn, the teacher was extremely engaging and held every single student in their accountable when reviewing terms and structure of their exam coming up next week. His voice and tone with all of them was more stern and focused in nature because he is holding his students to the expected standards of passing their next exam. He equally called upon every student assuring each student was fully engaged and partaking in the learning taking place. All students were writing in their notebooks and always listening to the teacher. I loved seeing how technology is not involved whatsoever in their learning. Technology absolutely has its benefits in education, but the learning process can be hindered by the distractions that come with its use in classroom and learning settings. I only saw technology being used by the teacher to project the lesson and teach and as for the students I only saw them using their devices like laptops while they were studying in the library or in the beautiful courtyard. Reading and note taking is done with pens and notebooks. There has been research proving that hand writing is more effective when learning new information and they implement this exactly into their classrooms. They still use the platform of google classroom like we do and other sources to create projects and paper, but when in class learning, it is paper and pen and I love that. The teacher also clearly stated his expectations for their exam. He showed ways to elevate their level of writing to show high competence and comprehension to the exam graders. The culture of setting high expectations for populations of adolescents that my have never been given the chance is absolutely marvelous. It makes these adolescents feel valued and like they belong to the campus community.

I noticed when the teachers I observed were teaching that they employ an open-conversation style and prepare their students for exams that seem not to be multiple choice at all. The open discussion atmosphere engaged every student and made them want to answer to get the answer right and show the teacher they are learning. The love of learning and the love and respect for their teacher filled the classroom, especially in the second classroom I observed. This culture creates effective education and preparation for students obtaining higher education at university or in areas of apprenticeship. Additionally, noticing how their standardized exam set up made me a little jealous because they are mostly open-ended which allow for creative and unique responses from these brilliant students. In my high school (college) experience, I felt bombarded by the multiple choice standardized testing and often felt inadequate if I did not score high. Meanwhile what those standardized multiple-choice questions are measuring is not necessarily intelligence or competence but rather how well a student is at taking a exam or guessing the correct answer. The authentic intelligence and creativeness felt stripped away during these exams. In the UK, they value the answers the students come up with on their own, not picking the most correct answer that has already been pre-determined. I love this way of evaluation and believe it should be more integrated into the U.S. education systems.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed visiting a UK college and comparing it to my high school educational experiences. The assistant principal was brilliant and had such a deep passion and understanding of how to run a classroom effectively. I almost wish I could have brought my family members who are educators today to listen to his lecture and observe the college atmosphere in the UK.