Pedagogy is the art and science of teaching. The teaching skills vary according to the needs of the society. Pedagogy is essential o ensure students learn appropriate knowledge and understand it. Direct teaching, role playing and group discussion have their own strengths and weaknesses. They should be used appropriately. As we face the challenges of the globalised world, we must alter our teaching methods to fit the purpose of preparing our students better for the century.
Shashita
Christa
Hazimah
Li Ting
Ben
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Yellow group (tutorial 4)
What we've learnt
-importance of catering your lesson to diverse needs of students
-according to John Dewey, student-centred approaches (e.g. dialogue, inquiries) and interactive environment are essential for learning.
-pros and cons of different teaching methods
-critical thinking is encouraged in students
Comments
-interesting blind-fold game but dialogue can be improved.
-1st game (digestive sytem) fairly easy. Can be more challenging.
-colour grouping allows more interaction
Contributed by:
Esther
Charlene
Yusoff
Eunice
Gideon
-importance of catering your lesson to diverse needs of students
-according to John Dewey, student-centred approaches (e.g. dialogue, inquiries) and interactive environment are essential for learning.
-pros and cons of different teaching methods
-critical thinking is encouraged in students
Comments
-interesting blind-fold game but dialogue can be improved.
-1st game (digestive sytem) fairly easy. Can be more challenging.
-colour grouping allows more interaction
Contributed by:
Esther
Charlene
Yusoff
Eunice
Gideon
Blog Post of Group (Blue)
Reflections and Comments:
Activities are fun, varied and meaningful.
Unanimous vote for best activity award is.. *Blindman's Walk* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We learnt about the pros and cons for direct teaching, role-playing, group discussion. And our memories on the digestiive system are refreshed.
We also feel that we have the chance to mingle around with one another instead of being stuck in our own groups. We get to know each others' likings like their favourite food, cartoon characters and where they live.
In this lesson, we know each other's name and what pedagogy is. we recognise the pioneers of pedagogy and understand the ideas behind it. we are able to identify the pedagogical methods used in Singapore. Lastly, we are aware of the pedagogical needs of the 21st century.
Group Members: Kingsley, Shariffah, Agnes, Ain, Vinson, Jasmine
Activities are fun, varied and meaningful.
Unanimous vote for best activity award is.. *Blindman's Walk* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We learnt about the pros and cons for direct teaching, role-playing, group discussion. And our memories on the digestiive system are refreshed.
We also feel that we have the chance to mingle around with one another instead of being stuck in our own groups. We get to know each others' likings like their favourite food, cartoon characters and where they live.
In this lesson, we know each other's name and what pedagogy is. we recognise the pioneers of pedagogy and understand the ideas behind it. we are able to identify the pedagogical methods used in Singapore. Lastly, we are aware of the pedagogical needs of the 21st century.
Group Members: Kingsley, Shariffah, Agnes, Ain, Vinson, Jasmine
Monday, October 6, 2008
Video on Exam Stress
The other video which I would like to comment on is on exam stress. In my opinion, this is a critical issue, and is suffocating a lot of students in Singapore especially. The emphasis of grades, the schools students get into, the different treatment from teachers and parents. It is al too much for the students. I always believe that we go to school for the education and knowledge, not for the grades. Of course we cannot deny the fact that good grades, getting a degree or whatsoever is important in order to get a good-paying job, or at least, "to survice in the society" as what Singaporeans always say, but it does not mean that someone who does not do well in studies do not excel in anything else. It does not mean that all the successful businessman are successful in their studies as well. I feel that as the society places their "interest" on students doing well for studies, they should at the same time encourage and also tryt o discover the other talents of the students as well.
Of course the emphasis here is not on discovering students' talents, it's just to bring out the point that grades are not the more important.
As we can all see from the video, the students are all very stressed up because of their coming test, and their stress mainly comes from the teachers and parents. Teachers should be a good role model in class, who should be able to encourage, motivate and treat every student equally. I feel that the teacher is right in rewarding students who do well, but her method of rewarding is very wrong. She should not make use of material means to motivate her students to study, because students will get the wrong idea of their purpose to study. They may just work for the material rewards. Another thing is, the teacher should not criticise and bring down students morale by scolding them and saying insensitive things to hurt them. In the video, the teacher calls her student irresponsible just because he did not do well for the test. This is very wrong of the teacher as it will not only bring down a student's self-esteem, it may also give the student the impression that he will not be able to do well in future. Moreovoer, we all know that tests and exams are not the best ways in determining whether students learn and understand their lessons. The teacher should instead talk to the student nicely and try to know their problems and reasons for not doing well, whether it's because they did not study, did not understand, or due to other problems. It is only then that they can tailor the best solution to help a student.
The mother in the video is also not doing the right thing by comparing the grades of the sisters. It's firstly demoralising and secondly adds on unrequired stress for the girl. The mother should instead encourage her and get the sister who does well to help.
Personally, I was caught in the above situations above before, and I don't mind sharing with all of you. When I was in JC, I did not do well for my studies. When I say studies, it means all the subjects, and this is especially true when I was in JC1. It's not because I didn't study, apparently I did, but still didn't do well. My Chemistry teacher, who is also my Civics tutor wrote stuff on my test papers because I did not do well. They were things like "Did you even bother to study?", "You get all the reagents and conditions wrong!!!". When she met up with my parent during Parent-teacher meeting, she asked if I have any siblings and what they are doing now. I claimed that I have a sister studying in NUS majoring in Chemistry.
"HAHA!! WHAT? You tell me your sis is majoring in Chemistry and yet you SUCH grades for Chemistry? How come your sister can get such good grades and you can't?" My teacher said this in front of my mother.
Because of that, I can really understand how teachers' words and actions, as well as comparison of grades between siblings can add on to student's stress and how it can hurt a student's confidence and pride. I would definitely not treat my students as machines. Machines that generate good results but may not be useful to the society in future. I would not push my students, at least not giving them the extra stress when they are already under the immense pressure fromthe society to do well. It's really important to guide the students according to their pace instead of forcing them to work according to your pace and requirements.
As mentioned, this is a critical issue which is faced by all students. Hence I think parents and teachers who are pushing children and students too hard due to poor results, it's time to stop doing that, and start thinking of how to help the kids manage their work, help them relieve stress, and most importantly, recognise their efforts and never stop encouraging them.
Lay Jun =)
Of course the emphasis here is not on discovering students' talents, it's just to bring out the point that grades are not the more important.
As we can all see from the video, the students are all very stressed up because of their coming test, and their stress mainly comes from the teachers and parents. Teachers should be a good role model in class, who should be able to encourage, motivate and treat every student equally. I feel that the teacher is right in rewarding students who do well, but her method of rewarding is very wrong. She should not make use of material means to motivate her students to study, because students will get the wrong idea of their purpose to study. They may just work for the material rewards. Another thing is, the teacher should not criticise and bring down students morale by scolding them and saying insensitive things to hurt them. In the video, the teacher calls her student irresponsible just because he did not do well for the test. This is very wrong of the teacher as it will not only bring down a student's self-esteem, it may also give the student the impression that he will not be able to do well in future. Moreovoer, we all know that tests and exams are not the best ways in determining whether students learn and understand their lessons. The teacher should instead talk to the student nicely and try to know their problems and reasons for not doing well, whether it's because they did not study, did not understand, or due to other problems. It is only then that they can tailor the best solution to help a student.
The mother in the video is also not doing the right thing by comparing the grades of the sisters. It's firstly demoralising and secondly adds on unrequired stress for the girl. The mother should instead encourage her and get the sister who does well to help.
Personally, I was caught in the above situations above before, and I don't mind sharing with all of you. When I was in JC, I did not do well for my studies. When I say studies, it means all the subjects, and this is especially true when I was in JC1. It's not because I didn't study, apparently I did, but still didn't do well. My Chemistry teacher, who is also my Civics tutor wrote stuff on my test papers because I did not do well. They were things like "Did you even bother to study?", "You get all the reagents and conditions wrong!!!". When she met up with my parent during Parent-teacher meeting, she asked if I have any siblings and what they are doing now. I claimed that I have a sister studying in NUS majoring in Chemistry.
"HAHA!! WHAT? You tell me your sis is majoring in Chemistry and yet you SUCH grades for Chemistry? How come your sister can get such good grades and you can't?" My teacher said this in front of my mother.
Because of that, I can really understand how teachers' words and actions, as well as comparison of grades between siblings can add on to student's stress and how it can hurt a student's confidence and pride. I would definitely not treat my students as machines. Machines that generate good results but may not be useful to the society in future. I would not push my students, at least not giving them the extra stress when they are already under the immense pressure fromthe society to do well. It's really important to guide the students according to their pace instead of forcing them to work according to your pace and requirements.
As mentioned, this is a critical issue which is faced by all students. Hence I think parents and teachers who are pushing children and students too hard due to poor results, it's time to stop doing that, and start thinking of how to help the kids manage their work, help them relieve stress, and most importantly, recognise their efforts and never stop encouraging them.
Lay Jun =)
My Turn to Speak :)
Firstly, I would say great thanks to those whom came out with these videos. I could see the effort they have put into the videos. Generally, I would like to focus my thoughts on the video of Romeo and Juliet meets Frankenstein. That was the funniest video I have seen. This video is a whole load of creativity. I mean who will think of Romeo as Frankenstein – Romeo’s brain in Frankenstein? However, I would like to comment on the quality of the video. Due to its low pixel, the video is not very clear. As this video has no audio acting, I have difficulty in reading the words on the screen. But overall, it is a good in its content.
I also agree with Ain that this video depicts MOE’s Outcomes of Education and that is to be innovative, which is obvious from the video clip. However, in certain subjects like Civics and Moral Education, students are not given a space to be creative. An example was during my relief teaching experience.
I was a relief teacher for about 3 months – teaching a science module. I was walking pass one of my classes when one of the students just walk towards me and wanted me to call him out for questioning. (This occurred when the teacher-in-charge was not paying attention) I asked him why and he said, “CME lessons are so boring, the teacher just wants us to do the book and hand up to him. If I don’t hand up by the end of the lesson, I will have to stay back after school.” Of course, my reply was he has to go back into the class and finish his assignment. Even though I know that he may have learnt nothing out of that lesson.
Therefore, I feel that probably classes like CME could use such ideas like a role-play to promote learning of morality, allowing them to use their creativity instead of just direct teaching (in the above case, there was no teaching. The teacher just ask them to finish their assigned work)
Hahaz.. Yup that is all I have to say about the this video. Thanks for reading. ^^V
I also agree with Ain that this video depicts MOE’s Outcomes of Education and that is to be innovative, which is obvious from the video clip. However, in certain subjects like Civics and Moral Education, students are not given a space to be creative. An example was during my relief teaching experience.
I was a relief teacher for about 3 months – teaching a science module. I was walking pass one of my classes when one of the students just walk towards me and wanted me to call him out for questioning. (This occurred when the teacher-in-charge was not paying attention) I asked him why and he said, “CME lessons are so boring, the teacher just wants us to do the book and hand up to him. If I don’t hand up by the end of the lesson, I will have to stay back after school.” Of course, my reply was he has to go back into the class and finish his assignment. Even though I know that he may have learnt nothing out of that lesson.
Therefore, I feel that probably classes like CME could use such ideas like a role-play to promote learning of morality, allowing them to use their creativity instead of just direct teaching (in the above case, there was no teaching. The teacher just ask them to finish their assigned work)
Hahaz.. Yup that is all I have to say about the this video. Thanks for reading. ^^V
Sunday, October 5, 2008
E-learning
After watching the first video, I now truly understand the significance of social cohesion. Getting along well with people from different races, and respecting their religions is especially important in a country like Singapore. This is exactly the reason why the government is promoting racial harmony in schools - to allow students to get along and respect friends from other races while they are still young.
In the video, we see that the Indians and the Malays are not really accepted in the society. The Indians are deemed as "smelly", eat curry everyday and will make things "oily", and people are unwilling to share things with them and do not really want to have connections with them. When Carol approached Vanessa to borrow her Math textbook, Vanessa refused to lent it to her, afraid that her book willbe dirtied. But when she needs helps, she turned to Carol hoping that she would help. I feel that it is really insensitive of her to do that, especially after she already hurt Carol. The Malays also are not really respected as we can see from the video that people from other races do not respect the fact that Malays cannot take pork and when the restaurants the others proposed are not halal and are turned down repeatedly, they flared up and blamed the Malay girl.
It's very important that people from different races can care for each other and accept everybody's religions and practices instead of criticising. Hence I think it's very important that as a future edacutor, it is essential for me to inculcate the right values and thoughts in my students and help to promote good relationship between the different races. I would probably get them to reflect on how they would feel should they be treated unfairly by people from other races or seen as different in a society. Personally, I do not have any problems on getting along with friends from other races, and I hope that this will apply to everyone of us.
I certainly hope that in the near future, there will be no more unjust statements about Indians and Malays or perhaps people from other races, like "dirty", "useless" or "stupid". (I do not actually say this, but heard it from others) Everyone should just be more tolerant and sensitive. Don't do unto others what you don't want them to do unto you.
Lay Jun
In the video, we see that the Indians and the Malays are not really accepted in the society. The Indians are deemed as "smelly", eat curry everyday and will make things "oily", and people are unwilling to share things with them and do not really want to have connections with them. When Carol approached Vanessa to borrow her Math textbook, Vanessa refused to lent it to her, afraid that her book willbe dirtied. But when she needs helps, she turned to Carol hoping that she would help. I feel that it is really insensitive of her to do that, especially after she already hurt Carol. The Malays also are not really respected as we can see from the video that people from other races do not respect the fact that Malays cannot take pork and when the restaurants the others proposed are not halal and are turned down repeatedly, they flared up and blamed the Malay girl.
It's very important that people from different races can care for each other and accept everybody's religions and practices instead of criticising. Hence I think it's very important that as a future edacutor, it is essential for me to inculcate the right values and thoughts in my students and help to promote good relationship between the different races. I would probably get them to reflect on how they would feel should they be treated unfairly by people from other races or seen as different in a society. Personally, I do not have any problems on getting along with friends from other races, and I hope that this will apply to everyone of us.
I certainly hope that in the near future, there will be no more unjust statements about Indians and Malays or perhaps people from other races, like "dirty", "useless" or "stupid". (I do not actually say this, but heard it from others) Everyone should just be more tolerant and sensitive. Don't do unto others what you don't want them to do unto you.
Lay Jun
Vid 1: Social Cohesion, Vid 4: Home School Relationship
These two videos caught my attention as they contain issues that are more familiar to me. First up, the video on social cohesion -a problem which I think is quite imminent in our schools today.)
(Part the First) -- Well, isnt it ironic that the person who comes to advise Vanessa (the girl who wanted to lend Carol her Math textbook but backtracked) is Mr Tharman - a person of Indian origin / race. The fact that he is Mr. Tharman Shamugaratnam the (ex) head of MOE only goes to show that Izzah was wrong in putting Indians at a lower level of equality. However, I do think this situation is a permutation of the situations in Singapore schools. For instance, in my secondary three and secondary four class, the Chinese boys called Malays 'useless blacks'. Though my Malay classmates and I did not take any offense then, (these guys also called our tanned Chinese classmates 'blacks'), this video has made me wonder what would have happened if they sincerely judged that Malays were useless because, well, its a 'race thing'. In other words this video really hit home; good in that it uses a light subject as a refute over possession of textbooks and who is deserving enough to borrow their textbooks to explain an important feature that must be present in Singapore schools - racial harmony.
(Part the Second) -- I also think religious tolerance is important in Singapore, where there are people of different religions. The girls in the video were lighthearted and easy in their banter and I think this is what is happening in many of our schools. Through my school life experience, I think students in Singapore schools still have respect for another's religion. I actually do not think this video shows Carol being rude about Izzah's faith, I think she was being honestly non-judgemental . On a different note, I agree that faith is perhaps a touchy spot for many of us. In the 'words' of Mr Tharman, " (respecting one another's faith) is one of the many important facets of having a socially-cohesive society"....Social cohesion is important for all: it brings peace. This can be done through history - meaning Racial Riots and killings. My Social Studies teacher told me about ithe 1964 riots in such an animated way that I remember being really intrigued by her advice on racial harmony. I want to use that as a way to induce students to want to accept people of all races. I can also show it by being equally receptive to my students in the hope that they pick it up from me.
The Home-School Relationship is a nicer video to watch, its funnier. Today, with teachers and parents having to work closer than ever, good rapport between the two is necessary for effective growth of the child. To my mind, the video promotes good values to have by guarding against the undesirable ones. In scene one for instance, it shows Ms Wong being unsympathetically firm towards the parent of an ADHD student; I find that this is a no-no for us as teachers. A more generous attitude (willing to sit down and discuss instead on how to make the student disturb the class less) from Ms Wong would definitely bring forward a more fruitful conversation on the condition of the child.
Similarly, in Scene 2, I learn that patience (and the willingness to sit down and discuss as well) would have taken the conversation further. Mrs Ng was a tad too much since she barges in to the room and demands to be requited. Rude...kinda funny, but rude all the same. Infact, in this scene, because of the threat made by Mrs Ng, the home-school relationship gets strained and Sam's (the son of Mrs Ng who is the student of Mr Goh) education drops to second place.
I think the third scene makes a case for a fruitful home-school relationship effectively. I reminds me that as teachers, we can only do so much to push the student, and we need the cooperation from parents for optimum benefits to the child's education. In this case, since Mdm Lian is apparently tedious to talk to (she seems stubborn on her point), it can be hard to make the student stop the bullying. It will get harder in future for the teacher in this scene, because of this particular student, other students' progress gets jeopardised. Definitely, this is a case we need to keep in mind as teachers, reminding us how important this cooperation is. As awhole, I think that I do need to keep in touch with the parents of my students to learn about them more.
(Part the First) -- Well, isnt it ironic that the person who comes to advise Vanessa (the girl who wanted to lend Carol her Math textbook but backtracked) is Mr Tharman - a person of Indian origin / race. The fact that he is Mr. Tharman Shamugaratnam the (ex) head of MOE only goes to show that Izzah was wrong in putting Indians at a lower level of equality. However, I do think this situation is a permutation of the situations in Singapore schools. For instance, in my secondary three and secondary four class, the Chinese boys called Malays 'useless blacks'. Though my Malay classmates and I did not take any offense then, (these guys also called our tanned Chinese classmates 'blacks'), this video has made me wonder what would have happened if they sincerely judged that Malays were useless because, well, its a 'race thing'. In other words this video really hit home; good in that it uses a light subject as a refute over possession of textbooks and who is deserving enough to borrow their textbooks to explain an important feature that must be present in Singapore schools - racial harmony.
(Part the Second) -- I also think religious tolerance is important in Singapore, where there are people of different religions. The girls in the video were lighthearted and easy in their banter and I think this is what is happening in many of our schools. Through my school life experience, I think students in Singapore schools still have respect for another's religion. I actually do not think this video shows Carol being rude about Izzah's faith, I think she was being honestly non-judgemental . On a different note, I agree that faith is perhaps a touchy spot for many of us. In the 'words' of Mr Tharman, " (respecting one another's faith) is one of the many important facets of having a socially-cohesive society"....Social cohesion is important for all: it brings peace. This can be done through history - meaning Racial Riots and killings. My Social Studies teacher told me about ithe 1964 riots in such an animated way that I remember being really intrigued by her advice on racial harmony. I want to use that as a way to induce students to want to accept people of all races. I can also show it by being equally receptive to my students in the hope that they pick it up from me.
The Home-School Relationship is a nicer video to watch, its funnier. Today, with teachers and parents having to work closer than ever, good rapport between the two is necessary for effective growth of the child. To my mind, the video promotes good values to have by guarding against the undesirable ones. In scene one for instance, it shows Ms Wong being unsympathetically firm towards the parent of an ADHD student; I find that this is a no-no for us as teachers. A more generous attitude (willing to sit down and discuss instead on how to make the student disturb the class less) from Ms Wong would definitely bring forward a more fruitful conversation on the condition of the child.
Similarly, in Scene 2, I learn that patience (and the willingness to sit down and discuss as well) would have taken the conversation further. Mrs Ng was a tad too much since she barges in to the room and demands to be requited. Rude...kinda funny, but rude all the same. Infact, in this scene, because of the threat made by Mrs Ng, the home-school relationship gets strained and Sam's (the son of Mrs Ng who is the student of Mr Goh) education drops to second place.
I think the third scene makes a case for a fruitful home-school relationship effectively. I reminds me that as teachers, we can only do so much to push the student, and we need the cooperation from parents for optimum benefits to the child's education. In this case, since Mdm Lian is apparently tedious to talk to (she seems stubborn on her point), it can be hard to make the student stop the bullying. It will get harder in future for the teacher in this scene, because of this particular student, other students' progress gets jeopardised. Definitely, this is a case we need to keep in mind as teachers, reminding us how important this cooperation is. As awhole, I think that I do need to keep in touch with the parents of my students to learn about them more.
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