The findings connected to this theme explore how learning is conceptualized in the schools of Pakistan. The overwhelming majority of respondents in all groups mentioned the importance of examination results as the indicator of quality of learning but emphasis was also given to social skills.
Headteachers
In this first area most of the headteachers acknowledge the importance of examination results for better future prospects as one of the indicators of good learning, but all of them speak about learning to be a social process which offers learners an experience and opportunity to understand their role and responsibilities in the world that exists outside the school. The majority of this group spoke of the learning to be a process that caters to the social and cognitive skills and needs of the learners but equally important is the skill for their professional life. Four out of six respondents believed that the learning process in their school was a blend of all of these processes. It is considered important that teachers have knowledge of students‟ emotions but it is also important that teachers have knowledge of their own emotions as these are passed on to the students through their excitement and motivation to teach. This in turn promotes a cognitive learning environment where the teachers are simultaneously bringing in real-life experiences to make the learning process more compatible
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with society. Hence, according to these respondents, learning comprises of these processes: social, intellectual/cognitive and emotional and professional (future prospective).
It is shared by the headteachers that schools in today‟s world have to work very hard on many other areas than examination results only:
„Now schools that emphasize the development of the student personality and educate him to be responsible citizen and at the same time, meet with the ever increasing pressure from the parents and students about not only having high grades in the examination but also to prepare them for their future endeavours really make a difference in society‟. (Headteacher Private School 2).
The headteachers of the public schools also highlighted the importance of the examination results as one of the most important aspects of learning and share that:
„Most of the students and parents consider that the most important task of the school is to prepare their children for exams. Most of the families have severe economic conditions and they want to make sure that the future for their younger generation is bright… sometimes parents start complaining if they find their child busy in other co-curricular activities, they think these activities may waste their child‟s time and he may not be able to score high grades in exams‟. (Headteacher Public School 2).
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Teachers
All of the respondents were of the view that learning was a combination of social, cognitive, emotional and real world experiences. Most of them (28/30) considered that schools which offered this type of learning experience to the students were distinguished as effective schools. They also attributed this kind of learning environment to the ability of leaders to the extent they are ambitious and willing to delegate authority to their team to inculcate this culture. The more the teacher is involved emotionally, better the understanding of the social and real life skills and subject knowledge s/he would transfer in her/his students. Their motivation and excitement would make the learning process really effective.
“Knowing your students from inside, their social, emotional and intellectual personality is as important as knowing that they are physically present in class”. (T 12 Public School 3).
At the same time, all of them spoke about the pressure of examination results and said that good results were considered the main indicator of their performance and quality of learning in the senior school. 26 out of 30 teachers mention that the pressure of examination results kept the majority of the teaching learning practices exam oriented and they could not give sufficient time to the social and emotional development aspects of their students. However, private school teachers maintain that their schools have a lot of emphasis on social and emotional growth and grooming of the students as learning remains incomplete without this focus.
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Parents and Students
Parents‟ responses from public and private schools indicate that 63% and 49% of the parents respectively express that the highest expectation from the school is to prepare their children for exams (Figure 9).
Figure 9: Good Results- Parents biggest expectation from Schools in Pakistan
Learning in schools, according to them, is mostly about exams. However, 11% of parents of the private schools feel that schools should have a focus on other aspects such as social, moral and professional skills among students and they strongly disagree with the concept that the main purpose of learning is to prepare students for examinations.
The vast majority of the students (70% of the public and 46% of the private school students) state that their highest expectation from the school is to prepare them for examinations (Figure 10, p. 167).
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Figure 10: Students‟ biggest expectation from schools in Pakistan is to have high grades in exams
Only 11% of the students from public and 39% from the private schools disagree/strongly disagree with this concept.
The school logbook, newsletter and calendars highlight the examination results as performance indicators. Three schools have included examination preparatory activities as an important part of school development plans (two public and one private school). Two of the schools have mentioned activities and achievements of students under different clubs and societies (both were private schools).
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