Marcus Gosling – Meet our Teachers

What do you love about working at Bangkok Prep?

I love being part of the Bangkok Prep community as a whole. From the support you receive from fellow teachers; line managers, leadership and staff, to working with amazing students who come from a variety of backgrounds, have differing opinions and have entrusted you with their education.

As a Head of History, which is a new role at Bangkok Prep, how do you encourage your students to care about events that happened long ago?

The vast majority of students already have an interest in the past as they know that it helps us understand how we got to where we are today and what it is that makes us ‘human’, and of course, history has a habit of repeating itself . In class, history teachers have to make learning relevant and enable students to draw links between the past and present. For example, learning about the Black Death of the 14th Century in Year 7 has links to the current global situation with Covid 19. Likewise, students can see links between Nazi Germany and faschism of the 20th Century with the growth of authortarian regimes around the world today. Only this week in a lesson on Hiroshima, conversation progressed into why we still have nuclear weapons today and why haven’t nuclear weapons been used since then.

How do you bring history alive for students?

Firstly, the teacher has to have a passion for history; students see this and respond accordingly, and whilst they may not continue with history into Year 10, they will at least be engaged in lessons in Key Stage 3. Secondly, there also has to be a reason for studying history other than learning about people, events and phenomena from the past. One way of doing this is by framing history lessons in terms of an investigation whereby students answer a question or come to a judgement whilst learning about the past. This introduces students to historical concepts such as significance, cause and consequence and interpretations. Students don’t just learn about an event like Dunkirk from World War 2; it forms part of an investigation as to whether it can be seen as a success or failure. This introduces students to the historical concept of interpretation. These historical concepts, like interpretation, and the skills it takes to understand and explain them are transferable and really valuable in further education.

What was the reason you initially decided to start teaching?

When I was young I always wanted to travel, so I took this option after school instead of university. I travelled around Asia and Australia for 5 years until I decided to go back to the UK and complete my degree at Lancaster University.   After university I didn’t immediately go into teaching; although, one of my lecturers did say I should consider it. I worked in a range of jobs until eventually I got ‘itchy feet’ again and decided to travel. In 2004, I was in Phuket with family members when the Tsunami hit. Through a contact, I was asked to do some voluntary teaching for children who had been affected by the disaster. From then on I fell in love with teaching and decided this was the career for me, so I went back to university and completed my postgraduate studies.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?   

Outside of work I like to travel, especially the South of Thailand. Many of the students know that I love surfing and go to Bali regularly for this. I also try to keep fit and enjoy going to the gym and doing Muay Thai.