What could we be learning from education styles and approaches in other countries? Emma Drury talks to teachers around the world to find out what tips they have to share

David Green, head of science, Bhutan

The Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan is perhaps most well known for two things – the philosophy of gross national happiness and for being the last enclave of Tibetan Buddhism. When I came here, I was

fascinated to find out how the values of these two cultural aspects would filter into education.

Public speaking is highly valued. Students deliver speeches in assemblies with topics that reflect the values of GNH, with titles such as 'why we must keep our forests', 'compassion – the most important quality'.

Mindfulness exercises are practised throughout the day, beginning with five minutes of silent reflection in assembly. Every class begins with a few minutes of the same, with an opportunity for the teacher to guide the mind training. Classes settle and the mental noise of the previous lesson dissipates. When teaching the water cycle, we became rocks in a river, feeling the water pass by, following it to the ocean, up into the sky, down as rain and back into the river. A brilliant starter.

It might seem hard to imagine this in the UK, but the kids here enjoy it and they feel the benefits. It can be fun. I met a teacher who practices mindful chocolate eating; the kids have to keep the chocolate in their mouths and focus on it for 15 minutes.

Brett Hetherington, secondary school teacher in Catalonia, Spain

If I could point to one idea that I would bring back to the UK from overseas it would be that that awful corporate-speak word 'innovation' - though I would call it creative teaching, rather than anything else.

In Australia, where I was blooded as a teacher during my first four years, educators were encouraged to take risks with their teaching methods, whether this was bringing in sometimes slightly unpredictable guest speakers into the classroom or just simply reading poetry outside in the sunshine.

Also, one or two states in Australia have not relied so heavily on exams and testing to assess students' knowledge and abilities. This has given teachers better flexibility and lets students produce work not purely for regurgitation in an exam.

In Spain, it's uplifting to see how older kids treat and care for younger ones, and this is done naturally and informally, not with prefects or head boys or head girls. The quality of school food is generally good there, and Britain can learn from the health benefits of this.

It's easy to say that we should take personal and collective responsibility for our schools, but in Japan you will see teachers and students every afternoon, side by side, mopping and sweeping the corridors, classrooms and toilets. Admittedly, the low level of attention often paid to this ritual meant that the school was more spiritually clean than physically clean but there is a lot to be said for 'doing the dirty work' together.

Gill Hedworth, food technology teacher, Auckland, New Zealand

I came to New Zealand in 2006. I came for experience of another country's education and worked at Rangitoto College which is the largest secondary school in the southern hemisphere. My position in the school at that time was head of food and textiles. I taught at the college for two years and then returned to the UK in 2008 as an advisor for North Tyneside. However, I decided I wanted to return to teaching and also I needed some sunshine, so I returned to Rangitoto in January.

There are many things we do here that I like and appreciate and would like to bring with me back to the UK.

The school has whole school professional development, so this is done in small groups of mixed departments all with the same theme for the term. This term it is VARK (visual/aural/read-write/kinaesthetic) and the whole school is buzzing with this as all the students are having their awareness raised in all lessons. Therefore professional development is being transferred immediately to enhance learning.

We also have professional development for staff identified as potential leaders - there's a breakfast presentation from an inspirational speaker twice per term and then this is followed up with an educational paper and book club. It's an excellent strategy for developing staff within the organisation.

I also value a scheme that sees boys in years 12 and 13 mentoring boys in years 9 and 10 that are underachieving and we also have an athlete performance academy where students that excel in a certain sport use lesson time to have extra coaching. They also use time out of school.

Student representatives are used here well too - they organise at least two events each term for students - things such as House Idol or a beach day. It's amazing, they take responsibility for the whole event.

Michael Cunningham, English language teacher, Guangzhou, China

One aspect of language learning that I've come to appreciate the most here is

that of treating it as a skill rather than knowledge. You can study about riding a bicycle and be able to explain it to someone but until you get on the bike and practise it for yourself then you won't be able to do it when you need to. In the same way, learning a language is about practice. Vocabulary and grammar can't be studied in isolation either. Learning a word as part of a phrase or sentence is far more helpful than learning a list of words. So the students here will never hear 'book' but rather 'a book' or 'this is a book' or 'I read a book about England.' Learning a language in a natural way, that of learning by doing through practice, benefits the students more as they are able to use what they learn beyond the classroom.

Amanda Barragry, art teacher, New York, USA

I trained as an art teacher in the UK and taught there briefly before moving to New York.

I quickly discovered that the arts are considered luxury extras in many US schools. The goal of most urban charter schools is to provide a long day of instruction in math, English, science and social studies, so they can get their students through exams essential to college acceptance: the American educational gold standard.

It's taken me five years to find a school which truly values the arts and which infuses them into the rest of the curriculum to encourage the kind of deep noticing and practical problem solving children need to become flexible and creative thinkers. My school's partner, The Lincoln Center Institute, sent us a wonderful dance teacher who introduced our math students to Flamenco, teaching them to use their own bodies to map the formal patterns of the dance and connect the patterns to the idea of constants and variables in algebra.

So this is my lesson from teaching abroad – the importance of the arts in schools, but I would want to apply it to the rest of America, which badly needs it. Also, British art teachers please note: never asks a class of American adolescents to take out their rubbers - that won't go so well.

Sarah Powell, reception teacher, Qatar

At my school, which is mainly for Qatari children, we close the school an hour early on a Tuesday. This is for INSET for teaching staff. It works brilliantly. We are still geared up in teaching mode (and awake) so that our INSET sessions are actually productive rather than being after school when you are just ready to go home.

Also, we have workshops whereby teachers can put forward ideas for an INSET session which they then lead. It encourages sharing of ideas and good practice. These workshops are also provided to our teaching assistants with areas that we think need covering. So for example as many of our teaching assistants are Kenyan, Ghanaian or Sudanese and don't have English as their first language I have just run a workshop on phonics which they enjoyed as it helped with the pronunciation of letter sounds and understanding of how we start teaching reading and writing.

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Sign up to the Guardian Teacher Network to get access to more than 100,000 pages of teaching resources and join our growing community. Looking for your next role? See our Guardian jobs for schools site for thousands of the latest teaching, leadership and support jobs