Thinking from a student's perspective

During my attachment, I got to teach two classes of Sec 1 academic students science.

Partly out of curiosity, I used two different methods: the first one being the whiteboard and visualizer while the other being the computer using the software prezi as well as showing videos related to the concept that I was about to teach. Both were on the topic of osmosis. It was pretty evident that the class which was taught using the whiteboard and visualizer got kinda bored after awhile and it was pretty hard to keep them engaged for long. Being secondary 1 students from the academic stream, there was a need to keep them engaged through hands-on activities or interesting nuggets to keep them awake. As expected, I got a totally different response from the other class. They were almost swooning over the visuals I used in my class which got them talking and listening more attentively during class. I even brought some water babies during class to illustrate the concept of osmosis. Some students even requested for more water babies to bring home so that they can do it on their own. One student got so excited that he shouted out to me when I walked past the class to tell me that his water babies had grown. It made me realize that teaching is not merely the delivering of content itself, you need to tailor it specially for your students so that they can understand it to the best of their own abilities. One may be good at delivering content but how much can you confidently say that you have successfully engaged your students and they have truly learnt from your lessons? Being in the age of technology, our students are indeed getting more IT-savvy. It is vital that we make full use of IT during lessons to engage them and enhance their learning. Teaching can no longer be done using the merely the traditional whiteboard style that our generation is used to.

One of the difficulties in teaching a normal academic class was getting them to translate what they have learnt into writing. Usually in between lessons and after lessons, I would give them a short test verbally and get them to answer questions on the spot related to what I had taught so far as a way to consolidate and reinforce their learning. They did not have any problems answering my questions and I was pleased as it showed that they understood the lesson. However, when the exact same questions were given to them in the form of structured questions on paper, they were evidently stumped by it. Honestly, I was rather taken aback by what I saw. If they could answer the questions verbally, then why were they stumped by the same questions in words? Weren't they the same? I guess it boiled down to their language ability ( ability to express their answer in words and proper sentences) It dawned upon me that there was nothing wrong in their science concepts but rather, they are often penalized based on their ability to write their answers in proper sentences. This is rather unfortunate. I asked myself: Are exams testing their knowledge of science or the use of their language? I guess it could be more beneficial for them if their examination could be in verbal form or some help in the form of helping words or filling in of blanks.

As adult teachers, we tend to take for granted certain concepts that seem so easy to us but may be difficult for the students. One important lesson that I took away from my mentor is that I should sit down and think through what are the things that the kids do not know, it could be in the form of new words, jargon that we may take for granted. Always always put yourself in the shoes of the students. Some students may be slower learners so we need to be aware of that and slow down pace for them to digest and understand.

Break down information into bite-size bits for them, repeat key words every now and then every if it means being very naggy. Some of these students from the academic stream are visual learner so they need to see concepts visually. Using real life analogies that are applicable to their daily lives would be extremely helpful in their learning and make it relevant to them!

Just some thoughts :)