Questionnaire – Headwise

1. What makes Headwise unique?
The Headwise brand inspires people to ‘Think for A Change!’ We provide a service which helps people dig deeper, think critically and make changes necessary for sustainable success.

2. What is interesting about how Headwise was founded or about your founder?
Headwise was founded by default: Like a computer, the brain can only provide output depending on the input. Very few people are head-wise. As little as 1% of the human brain is used to think. Using just 1% more creates change. The tools we use and the skills we develop, improve thinking and related choices. South African tertiary education is currently seeing an 86.7% drop-out in the first year. This very concerning statistic has led us to research and develop our training in a way which identifies the origin of this drop-out and provides the skills necessary to address and reduce it.

3. Describe your three most pressing business concerns:
a) Apathy in education
b) Lack of attention to teacher development
c) Persistent racism

4. If you have unlimited resources, what would Headwise look like in five years?
Headwise is committed to eradicating poverty and the only sure way to do this is through education. We are driven to deliver excellence in every aspect of education and the only way to provide excellence is to inspire educators with the necessary “fuel to fire the passion” for the profession of teaching. Five years’ unlimited resources would take our mission statement from reaching 1 000 teachers annually to reach 5 000 learners annually, to reaching 5 000 teachers annually to reach 25 000 learners annually.

5. How has Headwise evolved?
We exist to inspire educators to deliver better results from the same curriculum. We heed the specific needs of educators and learners and pitch our service specifically at these needs rather than delivering ad hoc programmes.

6. What are the biggest obstacles South African education faces?
• Apathy in educators and learners
• Lack of resources in spite of the education budget being the largest of all National Budgets
• Lack of leadership in schools

7. How do private schools differ from government-owned schools in terms of the quality of education?
The obvious differences are the educator/learner ratio which allows for more time per child and availability of resources but, in my experience, private schooling does not necessarily imply a better-quality educator.

8. What is the importance of professional development for teachers?
Every profession requires that its members be kept up to date with new developments but teacher development does not seem to be taken as seriously by teachers themselves or by their Leaders in spite of SACE-requirements. It is imperative that teachers be kept abreast of new research in human dynamics so they are better able to develop a WHOLE child. Discipline is much more than classroom management and even current classroom management skills appear to be lacking.

9. How does the dynamics in a classroom affect discipline?
Personality, communication, learning preferences and IQ and EQ-levels are all dynamics which affect discipline but these cannot be managed – these dynamics require a thorough understanding so that the teacher gains the co-operation of every single learner in order to have significance in the delivery of the academic subject. Classroom management is a process and cannot be effectively handled unless the educator has this co-operation from the learners.

10. Why has discipline become such an unobtainable task for teachers in the classroom?
There is a distinction between discipline and classroom management. Discipline is intra-personal and classroom management is extra-personal. Few educators understand this and confuse the two which accounts for even more disruption.

11. When it comes to the focus places on different personality types that may affect discipline in the classroom, what has changed so much today compared to 20 years ago?
Ongoing research has offered new opportunities in human and group development and technology has been beneficial in many ways but behaviour attached to personality types, has not changed much over centuries. Without application of updated skills development based on this research, nothing will change.

12. How does a teacher practice effective discipline in a classroom if the consequences aren’t as severe?
By investing in professional development based on the latest research findings and applying alternative methods.

13. Is dictatorship in a classroom the only way to get good behaviour and respect out of today’s youth?
Most definitely not!

14. In your opinion, what processes do schools need to implement to constantly stimulate the growth of teachers professionally and emotionally?
At the very least, a termly investment in professional skills development sponsored, funded by the school or paid for by the Department and Unions.

15. How will the course on discipline empower teachers?
1) They will understand their part in the discipline issues in their classrooms
2) Their personal relationships outside of their classrooms will benefit positively as much as the relationships with their learners
3) Their curriculum will achieve better results
4) Their stress levels will be drastically reduced
5) They will be inspired to enjoy teaching
6) They will WANT to make a bigger and bigger impact on society
7) They will get in tune with their creative genius

Questionnaire compiled by Inge Liebenberg
Questionnaire completed by Dr. T. Stewart 19/04/2017