Focusing on practical learning

Korea International School (KIS) Director Stephen Cathers observes a chemistry class on the school’s campus in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, where his high school students use spectroscopy to determine the percentage of copper in brass. / Courtesy of KIS

KIS helps students develop creativity, problem solving, global awareness

Stephen Cathers, director of Korea International School (KIS)

By Chung Hyun-chae

Stephen Cathers, director of Korea International School (KIS), said the school has been focusing on involving students in real world issues by providing practical education which he calls “applied learning.”

“All conceptual learning we believe must be used by students in practical ways so they understand how concepts or theories really work in their lives,” Cathers said.

A case in point is a greenhouse project which KIS middle school science teachers launched two years ago.

“Using a greenhouse on the KIS Pangyo campus, students are conducting research to understand food supply issues,” Cathers said.

What they do is learn how to solve world hunger by growing plants themselves under two systems with different approaches ― an aquaponics system using tanks with fish in it and water circulation pumps to provide nutrients to the plants, and a hydroponics system only using circulated water to do the same thing.

Besides science, the school tries to have other humanities subjects to adopt real world applications as well.

“Applied learning in writing means students do things that have a real audience,” Cathers said. “We quit having students write essays that only the teacher reads; we have students in the elementary school write letters about political issues to government officials.”

With writing lessons like this, some of the students showed outstanding performance. Park Jae-hyun, a graduate who was accepted to Harvard this year, is among them. He was featured in the nation’s press for starting the independent news site “The Young Post (TYP)” that has gone global now. This unprecedented publication represents the young.

Including Park, the school sends quite a few students to Ivy League schools every year.

“Ivy League schools have thousands of top students applying but schools like that keep saying ‘we want students who are doing real things and things that are world-changing,’” Cathers said.

“I think what our students do in class have the real world application and our students typically are all involved with things that could be considered at an adult or professional level.”

Behind the school’s diverse hands-on projects is its special team called “the design and innovation team” that is responsible for designing and promoting programs and activities that get students involved in real world projects.

“The school’s emphasis on hands-on learning using real world projects is intended to help its students develop 21st century skills including creativity, problem-solving and global awareness,” Cathers said.

Using technology is essential in 21st century

KIS is the first foreign school in Korea to launch a one-to-one student laptop system. Every student from grades six through 12 has his or her own laptop and all students in grades three through five have iPads.

“What we are focusing on is making our students highly capable professionals in the world,” Cathers said. “We all know the world uses technology. If you don’t use technology you can’t be in the world.”

He described technology as a mixed blessing, though, stressing that it is more important for students to know how and when to use technology effectively.

“We want to make our students true high-tech global citizens,” Cathers added.

Teacher training

The school takes advantage of having multiple campuses. It has campuses in Seoul, Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, and Jeju Island.

The Seoul campus provides K-5 education while the other campuses offer K-12 education.

“We send many teachers from here to KIS Jeju so that they experience different students and a different environment to get new ideas,” Cathers said. “KIS Jeju teachers come here also and the Seoul campus teachers exchange places with them to learn about those campuses to understand how the activities work there.”

According to the school director, teachers request the exchange and then the school sets up their airfare and lodging.

Every year each campus selects 14 teachers to be exchanged for four days.

“We require them to come back with an action plan for how they are going to implement new ideas they learned while they were at the other school,” Cathers said. “The purpose is not to give them a vacation but to improve everything we are doing.”

Besides the teacher exchange program, the school has another device for teacher training called “fish bowl,” a room with glass windows all around it.

“The purpose of that is to have teachers being trained in that space so students can walk by and see their teachers being students,” Cathers said.

Also the school has sessions going on all year long every day for teachers.

“What we try to do is give teachers every week small doses of training and then encourage them to use it immediately in their teaching,” Cathers said. “That way, this becomes true professional development. This is the model we use.”

Given that the school has invested a lot for teacher training, it puts great efforts into faculty retention.

“We also invest heavily in professional development in training teachers and giving them opportunities to become great teachers,” he said.

Nurturing global citizens

Global citizenship is one of KIS’s core values.

“Global citizenship means having all the important character values like honesty, integrity, dependability, but also helping others. We discourage people from being self-centered,” Cathers said. “What we are trying to teach our students is ‘your life and education is not valuable unless you can use it to help others.’”

This is why the school has almost all of its experiential education trips to include service components.

“Our eight graders will be going on a trip in the spring. They will be helping in Thailand in a poor area, and will be doing science activities and other outdoor adventure things,” Cathers said.

The school’s music clubs practice every week and perform at hospitals and homes for senior citizens. The school also sends a large group of as many as 40 students to third world countries to work for Habitat for Humanity.

“We want students to see that part of a good healthy fulfilled life is giving back to those who are in need,” Cathers said.

KIS will host an Open House event at the Pangyo campus on October 22 at 12 p.m. and the Seoul campus on October 23 at 11 a.m.

For more information, please contact the admissions office at 031-789-0505.