Joseph's Learning Reflections

Reflection 7 - Strategies for workshop

2006-04-24T10:35:00.000+08:00

Finally, the last blog to submit!

As I was conducting the workshop with the CPDD for the cluster. They uses very powerful media to capture the attention of the participants and the video resource can be found on http://www.learner.org/

The video helps teachers increase their expertise in their fields in various subjects and assist them in improving their teaching methods. Many programmes are also intended for students in the classroom and viewers at home.

Reflection 6 - Google Mars

2006-04-24T10:27:00.000+08:00

Better get this over and done with as my conscience keeps 'nagging' me all these weeks!

Well, you already learned that there is google earth but now comes google mars. Mabel thought I was joking when I shared this so I thought it is a good idea putting it down in black and white.

As for the use of this resource, perhaps with Upper Primary Science when they touch on "Interaction within the Environment" or any levels relating to mars eg Project Work.

Reflection 5 - TLLM

2006-03-13T16:25:00.000+08:00

Wow very sick today as I have stomach flu, wonder who passed it to me!! It actually happened last night at about 9 + pm when suddenly I felt the urge to go to the loo. I thought it is the usual detox until it occurred again in the morning. Was not very comfortable on the train to work and had to get off twice just to get "cleareance"! Wow stomach pain and a bit of a fainting spell.....decided to go back to see my GP. Informed my pal, Sherwin (Thanks, huh!) as all the Heads were not around. GP wanted me to rest for 2 days but I told him one day should be sufficient for me to recover. I have been resting for the whole day so I decided to do some work although my stomach is still complaining. That's life.... no such thing as "Work Less, Earn More"! Work will pile up when it is not done.

Aiyah! But there is "Teach Less, Learn More - TLLM"!

When I looked at TLLM, I was quite sceptical. Wow another initiative? Another acronym? How to teach less and get pupils to learn more? Oh, does it mean I would be more relax now? Not true! As mentioned in Bluesky, TLLM is about teaching better, to engage our learners and prepare them for life, rather than teaching more, for tests and examinations. It is not a new initiative but an over-arching one.

We were so used to dump information into our pupils head hoping that a higher percentage of the info gets into them and it could be relative to the results they will obtain. This is very wrong as eventually, pupils will forget them when they leave school...speaking from experience as both a teacher and pupil. As a pupil, I don't think I can remember the knowledge that was imparted from my beloved teachers but I could remember some experiences I had. You see, the process in education can imprint much better than the knowledge itself.

With whitespace and content reduction, teachers are given more time to infuse quality teaching and learning for the pupils rather than content quantity. We should encourage more active and engaged learning in our pupils and so far ETD has done quite a bit to support that in terms of introducing IT-based learning environment.

Pupils should learned to be more independent and should take the ownership of their own learning. The challenge for teachers today is take some of them thru if they do not understand the importance of education. This problem is still very real in most neighbourhood schools and I am sure we can find a handful in the better schools. We must perservere and believe that they will realise it ...hopefully not too late! We must work towards our common vision....Thinking School Learning Nation!

Some concerns...Teachers who have taught for many years realised that in order for pupils to do well in exams is to do a lot of drill-and-practice when the exams draw near. Would the problem still continues if pupils are still made to sit for the national exams? Are we comfortable moving from exam mode to daily work? How can we have a fair test if it is not done nation wide? Easier said than done ......

Reflection 4 - SAIL

2006-02-28T14:31:00.001+08:00

This really reminds me of Star Cruise but it has nothing to do with sailing, right? Hmmmm... Interestingly, MOE does have very relaxing acronyms like SPA and now...SAIL.

SAIL is the the acronym for Strategies for Active and Independent Learning. It is an innovative teaching and learning approach that seeks to develop students into reflective, life-long learners. There are various tools of SAIL such as open-ended tasks, rubric for self-evaluation and the use of exemplars.

There is a need to emphase the use of webquest for SAIL. A webquest is a learning activity whereby most or all of the information used by the student is obtained from the Internet. With the information gained, students would be able to reflect on the given task and seek resolutions. With the rubrics given, they are to pace themselves comfortably and realise where they stand according to the standard given and work towards it.

Based on TLLM, teachers should teach less and allow students to find out more. As the saying goes - teach a man to fish and he will depend on you for the next meal. But rather, teach him how to fish and he will be independent. Teachers, including myself, are always trying to forec feed as much information as possible and hopefully, a higher percentage of these info gets into their heads. The dependency on drill and practice is still very real in the current context as eventually, students still need to take exams! I can see the transition using SPA as it focuses much on the learning rather than the teaching. However, there are still some knots to tie even when it has been rolled out already.

As SAIL is relatively new, the formation of a CoPs for SAIL is very necessary. Aha! You can see links to what I have learned, huh! Teachers and experts can use the platform to share resources and lesson ideas. Through CoPs, the ideas can be evolved into some marvelous lessons and that is certainly beneficial to all educators. Who knows? Another new initiative with a more relaxing acronym might even start to formulate..................

Refection 3 - SEED

2006-02-28T14:31:00.000+08:00

This really reminds me of the P5 baseline lesson plan that I was doing on Germination. It was tough for me initially as I had never devoted myself so much time developing one lesson plan before. Moreover, I have been in the secondary school teaching physics for quite a while and now I have to design a primary school lesson. However, I must say that I have much to learn and gain. I can see the obvious incline in the quality of the science lesson plans as compared to the previous ones! Hooray!!

Oh back to buisness..... Again, I must remind you that I was in a secondary school and has never heard of SEED until I was assign this task. Therefore, my experience and knowledge is based on what I can find from the internet.

My goodness! There is nothing much on the internet except seedings and planting ......oh gosh!

OK! Found something now.....phew!!

To begin with, SEED stands for Strategies for Effective Engagement and Development of Pupils in Primary Schools. It leverages on school/teacher experience to design their desired learning environment and teaching and assessment approaches. It is important to note that it not a teaching package developed by MOE, or a new programme to be implemented in schools. Rather, SEED is school-based in nature. Schools design their own teaching/learning programmes, pedagogical approaches and assessment modes, based on the specific needs, abilities and learning styles of their pupils, to engage and develop their pupils.

Well, I suppose that since the autonomy is given to schools, each school would naturally evolve some new programmes and the school environment would start to change for the better. Now I remembered viewing a very unique classroom in Woodgrove Primary just a couple of weeks ago while observing a lesson on baseline. It was very well decorated with colourful walls, puppets and interesting teaching and learning aids. I was told that it is for the primary 1 students and without any tables and chairs, the pupils are really given the freedom to sit anywhere, it seems. I guess this is a good transition from the kindergarten to primary schools.

And since this autonomy is given to schools, speaking from ETD point of view and actually personally also lah, I would like to see computers to be brought into the classroom. Eventually, students should be able to logged into the computer as and when required during lessons without the hassle of going to the computer labs. Class size should reduce .....since the birth rate is declining(unless the baby bonus helps to put it back on track)...it is naturally heading that direction. I would look forward to more physial space and larger tables to accommodate the computers. Wow!!!!

Reflection 2 - NIE paper on Engaged Learning: Making Learning an Authentic Experience

2006-02-27T14:57:00.000+08:00

Wow...another one before end of Feb. I really would like to continue with the article but I must be at the edutorium now...sorry leh! Will try to complete it either today or tomorrow...Oh dear, Reflection 3 and 4 too? AHhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

I thought "tomorrow never come".

Ok, I will have to write about the article.

The whole idea of the paper is to promote teaching and learning in an authentic form in contrast to the traditional way of teaching. In this case, pupils actually take responsibility for their own learning and with an authentic situation, they can relate better and find meaning in their learning. Pupils will act like scientist or even private investigator in a problem-based learning environment.

As it is self-regulated, there is a need for the learner to investigate a problem, construct explanations, collaborate and use IT to support inquiry. IT can support the scaffolding of the entire task, find information from the internet etc.

For PBL, he emphasied that the starting point must be a problem, a query or a puzzle. Learning that it originated from medical school is new to me but it really make sense as they really deal with real-LIFE situations. He further illustrates the 3 reasons for addressing real issues.
1. Pupils are open to exploring all dimensions of the problem.
2. Real problems tend to engage learners more.
3. Pupils want to know the outcome of the problem.

He mentioned some conditions for PBL to be facilitated. For the appropriate tools used in CoP, he again did not state any real tools and I would again assume that it is the discussion forums. As for experts' consultation, do we really have that many who are willing to spare the time? So far, I have seen lecturers consulting the better schools but do we really think that everyone of them would even be interested. Like what I have mentioned, there are very good examples from some institution assisting schools but do we have sufficient to go around if we were to have every school embarking on this? Alternatively, we can depend on the teachers to place this "expert" role.

As for technologies that support Engaged Learning, he mentioned the use of mind tools, collaborative tools and the use of videos. The science section also has webquest for IT in fieldwork and IT games on top of those mentioned.

Can I end here? I have to complete my baseline lessons by today, work on N5 cluster workshop, MMPDA websites etc etc etc etc etc and Shoo Soon just gave me another task to do!

Reflection 1 - David Hung's talk on 27 Jan 2006

2006-02-27T14:26:00.000+08:00

"She bangs, she bangs!!"...Oh, not William Hung, huh! It's David Hung and his Communities of Practice(CoP) talk. Sorry....

Frankly speaking, I was almost at a lost when I attended his talk on that day, especially when it was after lunch. On second thoughts, I don't think it will make much of a difference with a change in timing or venue. Not much gained really perhaps due to my lack of involvement or ignorance. However, I must say that he did a marvellous job in capturing my attention with very informative stuff (seems unrelated in some ways to CoP..at least to me) and great PowerPoint slides.

I did not know much about CoP but it was mentioned repeatedly in one of the KPIs. Oh gush! Then, I realised it is something like a forum...or is it? For example, our very own MOE's - My Forum and the other forums which I am sure you have come across in the web. I will stick to that unless proven wrong. It would be great if he could show some explicit examples during his talk for LLB like me. (LLB - Low Level Being)

Well, I have never response to any forum before but I guess I will need to create one real soon...hmmm...when, huh? For Science workshops?

Some concerns....how can it be kept alive for a long period? Is it something which can be sustained for a long period of time? Would teachers, due to there other commitments...wow busy people leh..been there done that...., just ignore it after a while? Is there a way to create that spark and add more fuel in it constantly to keep it going?

"I have already done my best and I do not have any profesionnal trainning"

Still ground Zero

2006-02-27T14:25:00.000+08:00

Wow .....changed my template and everything seems to work. OK got to do some serious reflection now....oh forgot to publish this! Doing it now. Mine oh mine!!

Reflection Ground Zero

2006-02-27T14:03:00.000+08:00

Well, I have viewed a couple of blogs before and this is my first time trying it out. Most of these blogs are very personal ones...most used it as a diary and for storing some wonderful pictures. Hmmmm... being a very private person, I would keep it just for reflections for the learning reflections..if you don't mind. However, if you are interested in my life, I would not mind telling you more or upload some pictures in here.

Hmmm...there was a problem setting up a link back to our "mother blog" so try the link ...somewhere around here(if you can find) or just hit the back key if you came from there. Sorry, leh!! I have already "hired" experts but it doesn't seems to work....ahhh!