Global Teacher Prize Top 10 finalist, Daisy Mertens is a firm believer in every child’s potential. In an exclusive interview with Edarabia, Daisy talks about how teachers can empower children and treat them as equal partners to improve the quality of their education.
In most schools, teachers are the only people held accountable for the success of the children’s education. They never properly learn about how children want to be taught and motivated, nor what the ideal school environment looks like in their opinion. High5 aims to change that by facilitating, and therefore, empowering children to come up with fresh approaches on how to make positive changes and improve the quality of education. High5 has now started a pilot in which 7 elementary schools in various districts in the Netherlands foster child-participation as a means of improving their educational system. The in-school board consisting of children and adults as equal partners will start co-creating the school educational system, by working together on themes such as student development, motivation, and safety, as well as finance.
In my opinion, schools have to function as an ecosystem. To innovate, it is important to develop from the bottom-up. With this, all education stakeholders will become committed, feel ownership and become intrinsically involved to change together.
I want us, teachers, to listen to children with openness. We need to truly listen to them. Then, we can put their ideas into action. It is important to involve children in decision-making activities such as routines, projects, methods, and strategies. Seeing learning through the eyes of children in the classroom and helping them become their own teachers is also a vision I am hoping to see in the future.
Throughout the course of my career, I have always wanted to express and communicate the values of relatedness, trust, self-confidence, reflection, autonomy, and cooperative learning. These are my teaching values, which stem from a foundation of unconditional love.
In my opinion, being victorious and successful in life is not about achieving high test scores or becoming the CEO of a company, or a doctor. It is about feeling that you are competent, knowing how to relate with others, and having the skills to be an independent person. I made it my mission to contribute to these basic needs each day and ignite intrinsic motivation. As a result, children are becoming better learners, real global citizens, and become happier individuals. This will help them build bridges and create a sustainable and peaceful world.
For as long as possible, and whatever people say, try not to think like an adult or talk like an adult in order to be taken seriously. Your refreshing, far from boxed-in view on education, and the world in general, brings a lot to the table. Adults need to hear what you have to say, even if they don’t realize it just yet.
Winner of the 2016 National Primary Teacher of the Year in the Netherlands, Daisy originally comes from a small village in the south of the country. Raised in a one-parent family, she often found home life difficult, but always felt safe and free at school, and with the help of her teachers, she acquired a sense of direction and self-actualisation at a young age. After qualifying as a teacher, she made a conscious choice to work at a school in a deprived area.
Daisy now works in a large community-based school with 440 students and up to 30 different nationalities represented. The pupils have huge learning differences – children with severe learning problems are mixed in with gifted children –and in addition, her pupils face prejudice from students in wealthier areas, have poorer language skills than the average, and struggle to realise their life chances.
At the heart of Daisy’s teaching is the equal participation of children in planning their own learning. This enables them to ignite their inner motivation and reflectively formulate short and long term goals, making progress by self-regulation of their own personal growth. Amongst other things, this means carrying out their own research projects on a meaningful topic or theme, for instance, designing a sustainable amusement park. Projects on culture and religion have also had a huge effect on widening students’ knowledge.
Since winning the National Primary Teacher Award, Daisy has given presentations at various teacher training colleges across the country, as well as lecturing at the National Teacher Congress. She has also been the recipient of a Learning Development Fund from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Her dream is for child participation to become the new norm in every school around the world, with children as equal partners in dialogue, in the context of a community-driven school. With Global Teacher Prize funds, she plans to expand and promote her High5 initiative, which empowers children to come up with fresh approaches to encourage the school community to improve the quality of education. The higher purpose is that children become happier, better learners, and therefore ultimately better citizens.
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