Classroom Management
It is indeed true that teachers have to be firm at the outset. Seeing that this was only the second time that he was seeing his JC1 civics class, he was firm with them about handing in essays. However, the class was generally well behaved and enthusiastically participated in the discussion that transpired. That itself took me, and even Nanda, by surprise. For those who seemingly weren't paying attention, Nanda utilized peer pressure to make sure the student paid attention in class. I also managed to see his lecture with the J1s and J2s. It is a little bit of balancing that needs to be done with students from the H1 stream and the H2 stream. I noted that teachers can drive the students in H2 a little harder while those from H1 need to be handled with more delicate hands as they face a lot more work from other subjects. One runs the risk of losing their interest and enthusiasm for the subject if one were to slave drive them too hard in the discipline of History. Hence, a balance must be sought between these two. I also got to see Weilun conduct his tutorial with his J1H1 class. He was firm with them at the outset before relaxing his grip on them. Class discussions were frequently carried out and though he was not familiar with all their names (or so I thought), he engaged certain students to call out their classmates to answer his questions.
Lesson Plan/ Strategies/ Pedagogies
He issued a task of a short essay, no less than 300 words, about which event was the most important, to the student, in starting the Cold War. It was intended to see where the students stood in terms of their argument skills, essay writing skills as well as their content mastery. I reckoned that it was because the topic (Origins of the Cold War) was rather familiar with the students and hence, they had no big issue with the content.
It was the way they delivered it and argued it that was a problem. First and foremost, they seemed to be very narrative and descriptive in the events. It was as though they copied and pasted whatever they learnt from the secondary school textbook and regurgitated everything here. It is a rather chronic issue amongst JC1s that must be altered. I pointed out to Nanda that it would be good to explicitly lay down the difference between a secondary school essay and what is required in an 'A' Level essay. These are the skills that must be drilled into our students right from the outset. Nanda also did talk about the skills of argument in an essay such as a general point, elaboration, evidence and then elaboration. He also relayed to the students about the crucial need for a criteria to compare factors and reasons upon. Another pedagogy he taught the students is about perspectives. While some students asked for his perspective on the question, I thought he handled it well by indicating that he should not prescribe the students' own perspectives and skew them to his, seeing that he is their teacher. What was important was their own point of view and how they argue and support it.
More importantly, the students did question one another and Nanda's points, exhibiting critical thinking and analysis. While some of them did not seemed to be paying attention in class, they were also just facades as they still asked some pertinent questions pertaining to the topic, showing that they were paying attention. The level of participation and questioning took Jasper, Nanda and I by surprise for we all concurred that if each class was to show such levels of understanding and participation, we would be very happy.
One point that I raised up for Nanda's lecture is that we can always insert the meaning of tougher words that students may have trouble understanding. This idea was coined from the fact that I noticed a couple of students asking about the meanings of certain words. It is good that the students make an effort to ask. However, it would also facilitate their understanding of sources and lessons if tougher words have their meanings written down, perhaps in a smaller font at the bottom or side of the lecture/tutorial notes.
During Weilun's tutorial, I also pointed out that his tutorial was rather teacher-centric, a trait that I myself am often guilty of as well. It is easy for us teachers to get carried away with our own chains of thoughts, making our own links with the dots about the topic or subject at hand. It becomes more explicit when we start to lose the interest and attention of our students, especially when they become confused with our own chain of thought. We must always remember that they are not at our level and are unable to keep up or even see our perspective. I suggested a remedy that the vice principal in Northbrooks Secondary School gave me. It was to constantly involve the students to share with their own thoughts, getting them to answer the questions that you might ask, even if they are intended to be rhetorical. This would keep students on their toes and ensure that they are continuously thinking and tuned into the lesson. Also, if they were displaying lackluster behavior, involving them in the discussion would bring them back into focus on the lesson as well.
Summary
On the whole, it was yet another fruitful day because of the large variety of teaching that I got to learn from. What I noticed thus far is how I have been noting down the lesson structure of both lectures and tutorials and see how I can synthesize what I learnt in NIE with what I am learning here. It is certainly crucial that I get a sense of how things are like here, how the general student culture and abilities are like, how their responses and thinking processes are like before I start on my lesson plan. The issue that I am concerned about is how I can alter and change my lesson plans to suit to the needs to the students for effective learning. Hence, I do hope more observations within the next two days will help me understand this better.
Another thing that has made these two days beneficial is how Jasper and I always sit down with Jamie to reflect about our lesson observations and relay our concerns to her. It is also great that Nanda and Weilun constantly ask us to feedback to them how their lessons were and whether there is any improvement that they can make. More importantly, they are very approachable and helpful in clarifying our doubts and concerns. The reflective culture of teaching was certainly not exhibited during my time as a student but it is very much prevalent now in the teaching world. Without a doubt, it does help teachers to revise and improve in the way they deliver their lessons, plan their lessons and the strategies they use.
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