BLOG 1: MY ENHANCED SCHOOL EXPERIENCE (ESE)

I was assigned Fajar Secondary School for my ESE. One of the classes that I observed was 3E3 Pure Chemistry class, under the mentorship of Mr Chew C.B. The class contains students of higher caliber across the level, and is the only class that does pure science subjects. The class size is about 38 and students are arranged to sit in pairs or triplets. During the class, a laptop was used and the screen was projected onto the whiteboard. Microsoft Powerpoint was the software used to show information about the topic: Periodicity.

At the beginning of the lesson, a slide with different headings was projected on the board while students were different strips of paper containing little pieces of information pertaining to the heading. The class was to co-operate as a group, work hand in hand to complete this activity, which is to complete the concept map on the board with the strips of paper. After each paper is placed onto the board, Mr Chew would ask the class if the position of the paper is correct and at times, ask for explanation for the students’ placement. After the activity was completed, the correct answer was shown on the screen and Mr Chew proceeded with using visuals, such as images of the elements in their physical forms and also the blown up version of the periodic table to show the class.

The use of color patterns and categorization of information allow the students to grasp the concepts more easily. This helps to enable the lesson to run smoothly and teacher is able to pack in more details in just one period of lesson. At the end of the presentation, an interesting science video featuring the reaction of group 1 metals with water was shown to the class, which attempts to arouse interest in the students, to look forward to the next lesson. Also, Mr chew would upload the video onto the online class education portal, where the students will be able to access, post comments and also discuss about the video. Not only that, Mr Chew can also upload the presentation slides and other information onto the portal.

As for my general observation, I spoke with some of the teachers in school. I came to a conclusion that the use of ICT actually reaps different impacts on students. At the same time, this actually corresponds to one of the aims of MP3, which is to design the use of ICT that is exclusive to different type of students, in hope of achieving the best effect. Probably because that the students from 3E3 are more motivated to study on their own, Mr Chew is able to make use of this trait of the class, to allow them to go research independently and present to the class. They were given the liberty and opportunity to use their own means to discover the topic on their own.

I attended a professional sharing meeting for teachers to discuss about an upcoming event or project. On this particular meeting, a few teachers were discussing about problem based learning (PBL), which will be introduced to the secondary three chemistry students, during the final week of term 3. Over this week, which is roughly six periods of lesson, students will be given a scenario of a problematic nation, which encounters the consequences of pollution caused by anthropogenic activities. Students will need to find out the reasons behind the pollution and provide solutions for the nation. Students will be able to use laptop provided to research and create their solution plans. In this week, the topic on “Our environment” will not be taught from the textbook or by the teacher but through the learning as the students solve the problem in the scenario.

I learned an invaluable lesson during this meeting regarding how teachers need to think for their students and how they will respond to the exercises given to them. For instance, students in the normal stream and the express stream will approach the situation differently. The students in the normal stream may require more guidance from the teacher to prompt and engage them before they could get down to something. They would need more motivation and encouragement as compared to the other students. Besides, they respond better to more interactive activities. On the other hand, the students in the express stream may be able to get into their groups, read the textbook on their own and do research to find out more. Hence, the way that the teachers facilitate or engage the students need to be revised for different students. Later on, we decided on providing a worksheet with the prompting questions and key points which will aid the students in getting close to the solutions. After the students presented the solutions, the teachers will then provide the suggested solutions and bring out the points that are important in the topic of “Our environment”.

I feel that this PBL will be a great experience for the students as they will be given the chance to make use of ICT for their own learning. As they proceed on with the project, they will acquire skills in the use of the research tools, presentation creation and also teamwork with one another.

As for the graduating classes whom have completed their syllabus, they are doing their revision with past year papers. Hence, it can be pretty dull and rigid. However, it is quite hard to bring in ICT for replacing the going through of papers’ solutions.

I remember that in Unity Secondary, a school I was attached to a year ago, remote controls were used during lesson. Mathematical questions were posted on the screen and students will be given time to solve the question. Once they are done, they will key in their answer using the remote control, which are numbered according to their index number. The correct answer will be flashed and explained by the teacher and the score of the students will be tabulated. An analysis will be done by the software in the computer, which let the teacher know which question require special attention and need to be taught in depth again to the class. The teacher will also know which of the students do not understand the topic enough and would need special help. At the same time, the students are well engaged in using the gadgets for class time, and would be curious to find out how they fare. Since the score will be revealed at the end of the lesson, the students will be curious and stay attentive throughout the lesson. To encourage the students further, my mentor actually handed out rewards to those who did well in the quiz.

Hence, I feel that the use of ICT for education is important so as to engage the students better and at the same time impart certain traits, habitual and skills to the students, such that they will not feel unfamiliar when working using ICT again in the future. At the same time, ICT has to be constantly updated to suit the needs of the students and have to be tailored to fit students of different strengths and weaknesses, to obtain the optimum positive impact on the output.