Fresh out of university and halfway into her course at National Institute of Education (NIE), Bian Yu Wei radiates all the enthusiasm and passion one would expect from a promising teacher-in-training. Listening to her share her thoughts and experiences, you are swept along by her optimism. This is one lady who truly believes that things can change!

Where does this passion come from? Recounting her short stint as a relief teacher in a neighbourhood school just after her ‘A’ Levels, Yu Wei remembers the heartwarming feeling of establishing a relationship with her students, who were notorious for being angst-ridden, impenetrable teenagers. “It energised me,” she says with a smile.

The here and now
While teaching was not her childhood ambition, the decision to take up the teaching scholarship, was fuelled by the promise of a meaningful job that would sustain her interests; something that she could look forward to every day. And, of course, she was excited to get the chance to pursue an overseas education.

Explaining her decision to read History at the London School of Economics in London (LSE), Yu Wei feels it was the one subject that “excited my mind and made my heart beat faster.” To her, History is not just a witness to the passing of time; it is also about the Here and Now — because we are constantly creating “new” history everyday. She believes that while we have not necessarily learnt from our mistakes, the past does help us become more self-aware. It is only with this awareness that we can change the future for the better.

During her three years at LSE, Yu Wei was not one to sit back and let life float by. She is grateful for the various opportunities that the scholarship has given her, including a posting (involving policy work) at MOE Headquarters and a one-month teaching attachment in Chile during her school holidays. Together with her time overseas, these stints have taught her many valuable lessons, the most important being empowerment.

“I have traveled to many countries and met a lot of people, and it is not the differences that stand out to me — it is how everyone is essentially the same,” says Yu Wei. “This universality reinforces my personal purpose for going into education. As teachers, we are given the power to level the playing field for our students. And I want to empower them so that they can discover this universality for themselves.”

Excited to learn
On her own initiative, Yu Wei registered as a student volunteer to teach underprivileged children at schools in London’s East End. Seeing the hunger that the children had for knowledge and education inspired her to achieve the same with all her future students — to fill them with a sense of excitement when it comes to learning.

Yu Wei intends to accomplish this by giving her students the freedom to explore options and express themselves. This, however, does not mean that she will stand for any form of misbehaviour. As an authority figure, she feels that it’s important for her students to know when they have crossed the line.

That said, she believes that a good teacher should not enter a classroom with any preconceived notions, because that will affect the way she teaches. Other attributes that a good teacher should possess include patience, empathy, confidence, leadership, passion and creativity.

Of course, having had limited teaching experience, Yu Wei admits that her plans to “empower and excite” her students might sound overly idealistic.

However, she is still full of hope, especially with what she is currently learning at NIE. She is particularly excited to learn that different students have different modes of learning — some may learn best through reading, others may prefer listening to the teacher explain concepts, whilst others learn best from discussion. Yu Wei is eager to try these methods in her own classes!

Go for it!
While her immediate goals are to be as good a teacher to her students as she can be, Yu Wei hopes eventually to explore education from a more macro level — including but not limited to policy and syllabus planning.

Yu Wei’s advice to anyone considering a teaching scholarship is to “Go for it!” Her advice is for candidates to make sure that their priorities are in the right place. She recommends relief teaching as a good way of sussing out whether it would be a good career fit.

Lastly, she has one pithy advice for all newbie teachers: “Don’t reveal your age!” Doing so would just open a can of worms you would rather not want to deal with, she explains with a laugh.