The 5 principles of highly effective teachers: Pierre Pirard at TEDxGhent
Summary
TLDRThe speaker, a former CEO turned teacher, shares his insights on leadership and teaching. He emphasizes the importance of believing in one's team or students, setting ambitious goals, making those goals a priority, and planning strategically for success. Drawing from his own midlife crisis and transition from corporate to classroom, he highlights the transformative power of education and the role of teachers as leaders in guiding students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, towards achieving their potential.
Takeaways
- 😀 Leadership is crucial in both managing companies and teaching in a school, as it helps in guiding teams and students to achieve great results.
- 🎯 Successful leaders apply four basic principles: belief in their team's ability, setting goals and vision, prioritizing these goals, and careful planning to achieve objectives.
- 🌟 The speaker experienced a midlife crisis that led to a career change from CEO to a teacher in a challenging school environment.
- 🏫 The school in Molenbeek, Brussels, serves underprivileged children with low socioeconomic backgrounds, presenting unique teaching challenges.
- 🤔 The speaker questioned why some students achieved poorly in certain subjects but well in others, indicating the importance of teacher impact.
- 📚 Mrs. Anony, a successful teacher, emphasized the importance of believing in students' potential, setting ambitious goals, making these goals a priority, and planning purposefully for success.
- 🔑 A key to teaching is to invest in students' lives, as demonstrated by Mrs. Anony's proactive approach in engaging with students' families to support their learning.
- 📈 The speaker learned that teaching, like leadership, requires hard work, resilience, and a steadfast belief in students' capabilities despite setbacks.
- 🌱 The experience taught the speaker that teaching is not just about humor, authority, or content mastery, but also about restoring students' self-confidence and making school meaningful again.
- 💪 True leadership in teaching involves guiding students to success, ensuring they perform at their best and fulfill their potential.
- 🌍 Education is viewed as a powerful tool for change, with the speaker advocating for access to excellent education for all children, regardless of their background.
Q & A
What are the four basic principles of leadership mentioned in the script?
-The four basic principles are: 1) Believe in your team's ability to achieve great results. 2) Set goals and develop a vision for the company. 3) Make the goal or vision the everyday priority of the employees. 4) Plan carefully and purposefully to achieve objectives.
What was the speaker's professional background before becoming a teacher?
-The speaker had a background in managing companies for 25 years, focusing on making each quarter more profitable.
What prompted the speaker to change their career from a CEO to a teacher?
-The speaker experienced a midlife crisis, which led to a desire to give more sense to their work and to make a difference in the lives of underprivileged children.
What challenges did the speaker face when they first started teaching?
-The speaker faced challenges such as low student motivation, lack of basic knowledge among students, and the reality that teaching was not as easy as they initially thought.
How did the speaker's perception of teaching change after interacting with Mrs. Anony?
-After learning from Mrs. Anony, the speaker realized that teaching, like leadership, requires believing in students, setting ambitious goals, investing in their lives, and planning carefully for their success.
What is the significance of the story about Sadya and the book by Barvel?
-The story illustrates the principle of setting ambitious yet achievable goals for students and how it can motivate them to overcome their dislikes or difficulties, such as Sadya's aversion to reading.
What was the issue with Hannah's spelling deficiency and how was it addressed?
-Hannah had a significant spelling deficiency. Mrs. Anony addressed it by setting a goal for Hannah to stay after school for additional practice and by personally convincing Hannah's parents of the importance of this extra help.
What was Mustafa's goal and how was it tailored to his interests?
-Mustafa's goal was to be able to summarize a difficult article in 200 words every week. Mrs. Anony tailored the goal to Mustafa's interest in football by giving him articles related to the sport to help him concentrate and improve.
What is the secret to Mrs. Anony's success as a teacher according to the script?
-Mrs. Anony's secret to success is a combination of believing in her students, setting ambitious and meaningful goals, investing in their lives, and planning carefully for their success, along with the understanding that hard work is required from both the teacher and the students.
How does the speaker describe the impact of education on changing the world?
-The speaker quotes Nelson Mandela, stating that education is the most powerful weapon to change the world, and emphasizes the importance of ensuring access to excellent education for all children, regardless of their socioeconomic background.
What personal realization did the speaker have after their midlife crisis and change in career?
-The speaker realized that leading as a teacher involves the same principles as leading in business, and that there is immense satisfaction in seeing students who were expected to fail succeed in life, such as opening their own businesses.
Outlines
🚀 Transition from CEO to Teacher: Leadership in Business and Education
The speaker reflects on their 25-year career as a CEO, highlighting the importance of strong leadership through four basic principles: belief in team potential, setting goals and vision, prioritizing these goals, and careful planning. After a midlife crisis, the speaker shifts careers to become a teacher in a challenging school environment, realizing that the same leadership principles apply. The speaker's initial expectations of teaching are contrasted with the reality of low student motivation and lack of knowledge, prompting a deeper inquiry into the factors that lead to success in education.
🔍 The Impact of Belief and Goals on Student Success
The speaker delves into the varying outcomes of students under different teachers and identifies a key difference: the belief in students' potential and the setting of ambitious, measurable, and meaningful goals. Mrs. Anony, a successful French teacher, shares her teaching principles with the speaker, emphasizing the importance of believing in students, setting clear goals, making these goals a priority for students and their families, and planning backwards from the desired outcome. The speaker learns that effective teaching is about leadership, investment in students' lives, and adapting to their individual needs.
🌟 Embracing the Challenge: Lessons from a Transformative Teaching Experience
The speaker recounts the challenges and rewards of teaching in a difficult environment, drawing parallels between leadership in business and education. Despite the hard work and frequent setbacks, the speaker remains committed to the belief in their students' success. The speaker shares inspiring examples of students overcoming the odds, highlighting the transformative power of education and the role of teachers as leaders. The speech concludes with a call to action for leaders to ensure access to excellent education for all children, regardless of their socioeconomic background.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Leadership
💡Midlife Crisis
💡Underprivileged
💡Vision
💡Motivation
💡Belief
💡Goals
💡Investment
💡Planning
💡Progress
💡Education
Highlights
Leadership is crucial in both managing companies and teaching in a school, requiring strong belief in the team's ability to achieve great results.
Four basic principles of leadership: belief in team, setting goals, making the vision a daily priority, and careful planning.
Speaker's midlife crisis led to a career change from CEO to a teacher in a challenging school environment.
Teaching in Mullen Bake, described as the Bronx of Brussels, to underprivileged children aged 15 to 22.
Initial challenges faced in teaching, including low student motivation and lack of basic knowledge.
Observation that student performance varies greatly depending on the teacher, indicating the importance of teaching methods.
Mrs. Anony's effective teaching principles: belief in students, setting ambitious goals, making goals a priority, and purposeful planning.
Example of Sadyia's progress with reading, showing the impact of setting ambitious yet achievable goals.
The importance of involving students' families in their educational goals, as illustrated with Hannah's case.
Mustafa's case demonstrates the effectiveness of purposeful planning tailored to individual student's interests.
Mrs. Anony's secret to teaching success: hard work and perseverance despite challenges.
The realization that teaching is not just about humor, authority, or content mastery, but also about leadership and effect.
The speaker's commitment to the first principle of leadership: always believing in students' ability to succeed.
A quote on leadership emphasizing guiding others to success and ensuring everyone performs at their best.
The speaker's personal transformation from a CEO to a teacher and the profound impact on student success.
Nelson Mandela's quote on education as a powerful weapon for changing the world, highlighting the role of leaders in education.
A call to action for leaders to ensure access to excellent education for all children, regardless of their socioeconomic background.
Transcripts
[Music]
what is the common elements
between managing companies all over the
world and teaching in a school in in
Molen
bake Le ship in both job you need strong
leadership to manage
companies and to teach to kids who face
huge difficulties let let me tell you
how I came to that conclusion for for 25
years I've been managing
companies I've tried to make sure that
every single quarter was was more
profitable and and I really enjoy that
I've learned that strong leaders apply
four basic simple principle the first
one they
believe that their team can achieve
great
results and because they believe that
their team can great achieve great
results their team start to believe also
they can achieve great
results second thing they set goals
develop a vision for their
company third to make sure that this
goal this Vision become the everyday
priority of their people their
employee and last great
leaders they plan carefully and
purposefully to make sure they achieve
their objective I mean that's what great
leaders are doing and I've tried to do
that for 25 years I mean it's really a
tough
job four years ago I was in my mid-40s
and and I I fa what we call a midlife
crisis
uh midlife crisis is a very simple
concept I mean suddenly you realize that
living is not forever I mean it's a
little bit like a ghost curve you know
you at the top of the hill and suddenly
you see the end at the
Horizon and you ask yourself this basic
question what do I do now I mean which
track do I take to go down the hill I
mean do I take the same track or do I
take another the route to go down and
personally I felt the need to to give
more sense to what I was doing and so I
totally changed my professional career
from a CEO I became a teacher in Mullen
bake in what some magazine called the
Bronx of
Brussels I'm teaching the professional
section to kids or young adults between
15 to 22 years old mostly coming from
the marican
communities and those children are
coming from low social economical
backgrounds I mean they they are what we
call underprivileged
children I thought that teaching will be
great I mean you know you working what
20 hours per week you have plenty of
vacation you are sitting in front of
people eager to learn from
you well I'm not sure if there are
teacher in the audience today but you
know that the reality is slightly
different I mean the start of my career
was not easy I mean my colleague warned
me they told me Pier well don't put your
expectation too
high I mean their motivation is very low
they don't know
much what I thought they were testing me
or killing me but actually they were
right in my class none of my student
were capable to give me the results of
10% of 100 when I talk about Stockholm
they thought I was talking about a rap
singer and and Ja brell is the name of a
subway station in Brussels you
know and when I face the reality of this
new job I say but how is it possible
that kids who have spent 10 to 15 years
in a bench in a school in Belgium know
so little I mean kids who are far of
being
stupid they have a great sense of humor
good common sense I mean what what
happened to them I mean why are they in
this situation so I also realize that
those
kids who face disaster results in some
classes actually achieve very good
results in some other classes same kids
different results so actually there were
two type of teachers there were the
teacher where the students achieve very
poor results and the other one where the
teacher and the students achieve great
results so this really trigger my
attention so I went to talk to both my
colleague and to the first group of
colleague where the the kids achieve
poor results I asked them this very
simple question what can I do to make my
student
progress and the answer I receive we
always going in the same
direction well Pier what can we
do how do you want to teach to kids
where there's no books at all
where where the parents do not speak
French or flamish
friendly well let me tell you the truth
Pier that's what my colleague told me
there is very little that teachers or
school can
do they even talk to me about a Lost
Generation let me tell you today what
the other group of colleague told me the
one where the kids achieve great results
among those group there was one teacher
Mrs anony
and she she's a French
teacher and in her class the kids were
always
there with high
motivation and they have good grades so
I want to ask her this question but how
do you do it I mean what's your secret I
mean do you pay
them and Mrs anony is a great teacher so
she really took the time that day to
explain to me her principle of
teaching and she told me Pier if you
want your kids to progress you have to
apply four basic
principle the first one she say you have
to believe in
them you have to believe to make sure
that every single one of them can
achieve great results regardless where
he or she is coming from whether her
parents are rich or poor whether he was
called Muhammad or Jean and you need to
make sure that also they know that you
believe in them so they start also to
believe that they can achieve great
results once you deeply and truly
believe in them you have to set a goal
which is ambitious measurable meaningful
for your student and she gave me a great
example she tell me take sadya sadya
don't like
reading and Mrs Antony gave her a very
ambitious goal she said well sadya by
the end of the year by no by
you will read a book of barvel it's not
an easy one and you will do it in two
weeks time and you will enjoy
it by November I saw sadya finishing a
book of am Noto 122 pages and she was
eager to start a new
one so once you set the goal you need to
make sure that the goal that you have
given to your student become the
everyday priority of the student and
their family you need to invest in their
life she gave me another example Hannah
Hannah had a great deficiency in
spelling and because of that Mrs Antony
told her well you need to stay at school
every day after the normal school
time the parents of Hannan will not
allow this so Mrs Antony went to see the
parents of Hanan in her home discuss
with them convince them and told her it
was a right thing to do for Hannan Anan
is now spending every Tuesday and
Thursday at school and she's making
dramatic
progress the last principle that Mrs
Antony told me is probably the most
difficult one you have to plan
purposefully from from the objective
that you have defined you have to plan
backwards to create an efficient path to
success take Mustafa Mustafa is one of
my student I mean he's incapable to
concentrate for more than 2 minutes
unless you talk about football okay his
goal was to receive his goal was to be
able to summarize in 200 words a very
difficult article from the M
newspaper every week Mrs anony gave him
an article a little bit longer a little
bit more complicated so that Mustafa was
capable to see his own
Improvement on that specific day the 10
of October 2009 N Mrs anony probably
gave me the the
best speech lesson on teaching but on
leadership believe in your team set
goals like for Sadia invest in your
student like like for Hannan and plan
carefully like for
Mustafa but like every great
leaders Mrs Antony had also small secret
you know and I remember oh she almost
whispered to me that secret and she told
me
Pier you and your student will have to
work hard because it will not be
easy and she's right I'm working much
more than 20 hours per week you know
much more and I've learned so much in
those last four years I thought that
teaching had to do with I don't know
sense of humor Authority respect
mastering the content of your classes
your courses of course teaching has to
do with all this but for those kids who
have lost so much of self-confidence who
are so far behind where school do not
have meaning anymore teaching as leader
show outstanding effect I mean since
since then I've tried to to apply those
four principles it's not easy I fail
many times I mean sometime my vision is
too high it's not clear
enough sometime I come home very
frustrated because of the lack of
motivation of my student but there's one
thing I don't give up it's the first
principle I always believe they can
succeed there's a great quote on
leadership which said that true
leaderships lies in guiding others to
success in ensuring that everyone is
performing at their best doing the work
they are pledged to do and do it well
this is exactly what great teacher are
doing in
Mig they're probably the best leader
I've
met so so four years ago I've decided to
change my life you know I was in my
midli crisis and but I'm still
leading well there's a big
difference from my previous job as a CEO
there's no better feelings than the one
that you have when you feel and you see
one of your student who was supposed to
fail going to Upper School or open his
shop like like dunia just open a shop a
few weeks ago in Excel number 125 Ron I
told her I will make some advertising
for her okay so please go to
see Nelson Mandela say once that
education is the most powerful weapon
you can use to change the world so let's
make sure that in this country in 2013
all leaders will use this weapon so that
every children will obtain access to
excellent education regardless of their
social economical background thank
you
Посмотреть больше похожих видео
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)