Individual reflection by Tay Huiwen Emerlyn
“A positive classroom culture is characterized by a non-threatening atmosphere where students feel that they are able to speak, offer ideas and take risks without fear of reprisal or mockery” by Caitrin Blake (2015) from Concordia University. This definition of positive classroom culture strikes a chord with me, as I believe that without a positive and healthy environment, where student feel physically and emotionally safe, it is difficult to effectively teach any content. Its importance is again highlighted in the Singapore Teaching Practice (STP) Framework; positive classroom culture is part of the 4 teaching processes in the STP. In session 2, we learned that establishing interaction and rapport, …show more content…
I found the use of “ABCD” in determining lesson objectives particularly useful as it summarizes the 4 essential components of good instructional objectives. This is particularly important, as lesson objectives need to be explicit to the learners so that they are able to know what they should know at the end of the session. I have also gained insight on the use of different approaches for whole class teaching and when to use them. The most used approach in my subject is the lecture approach. We tap on students’ prior knowledge to arouse their interest in the topic and proceed to build on their existing knowledge. In the lecture approach for Economics, it is important to organize the sequence in a logical order and concluding the lesson with a summary of the key points so that it is easier for students to make sense of the content taught. Lastly, in the session of small group teaching, I gained insight about the different approaches to use to conduct small group teaching. The jigsaw method intrigues me the most as it can be combine together with other teaching strategies such as debates and presentations. This method focuses on allowing students to teach one another on their area of “expertise” and also provide an opportunity for fellow “experts” from the expert group to learn from one another. This enables students to take charge of their own …show more content…
Another implementation will be employing the use of the jigsaw method for group discussions in class, getting students to research on different subtopics i.e different market structures (perfect competition, oligopoly, monopoly and monopolistic competitive), providing an example of a firm for each market structure and share their learning with their peers in the form of group presentations. One of the challenges I do foresee is when using the lecture approach especially in the JC setting where the content is taught in a lecture hall with a few hundred students, it is hard for the lecturer to make sure that everyone is able to keep up with the lecture pace and some students might find it hard to clarify their doubts. One possible solution is to have students indicate on a piece of paper or a notebook about the questions that they have on the topic and factor in some time during the tutorials for students to clarifying these questions. Another challenge would be getting students to actively contribute to their groups. One of the ways to overcome it is to make sure that each group has a maximum of 4 members and every one in the group is assigned a role. As a teacher, I will play the role of a facilitator walking around to
“A positive classroom culture is characterized by a non-threatening atmosphere where students feel that they are able to speak, offer ideas and take risks without fear of reprisal or mockery” by Caitrin Blake (2015) from Concordia University. This definition of positive classroom culture strikes a chord with me, as I believe that without a positive and healthy environment, where student feel physically and emotionally safe, it is difficult to effectively teach any content. Its importance is again highlighted in the Singapore Teaching Practice (STP) Framework; positive classroom culture is part of the 4 teaching processes in the STP. In session 2, we learned that establishing interaction and rapport, …show more content…
I found the use of “ABCD” in determining lesson objectives particularly useful as it summarizes the 4 essential components of good instructional objectives. This is particularly important, as lesson objectives need to be explicit to the learners so that they are able to know what they should know at the end of the session. I have also gained insight on the use of different approaches for whole class teaching and when to use them. The most used approach in my subject is the lecture approach. We tap on students’ prior knowledge to arouse their interest in the topic and proceed to build on their existing knowledge. In the lecture approach for Economics, it is important to organize the sequence in a logical order and concluding the lesson with a summary of the key points so that it is easier for students to make sense of the content taught. Lastly, in the session of small group teaching, I gained insight about the different approaches to use to conduct small group teaching. The jigsaw method intrigues me the most as it can be combine together with other teaching strategies such as debates and presentations. This method focuses on allowing students to teach one another on their area of “expertise” and also provide an opportunity for fellow “experts” from the expert group to learn from one another. This enables students to take charge of their own …show more content…
Another implementation will be employing the use of the jigsaw method for group discussions in class, getting students to research on different subtopics i.e different market structures (perfect competition, oligopoly, monopoly and monopolistic competitive), providing an example of a firm for each market structure and share their learning with their peers in the form of group presentations. One of the challenges I do foresee is when using the lecture approach especially in the JC setting where the content is taught in a lecture hall with a few hundred students, it is hard for the lecturer to make sure that everyone is able to keep up with the lecture pace and some students might find it hard to clarify their doubts. One possible solution is to have students indicate on a piece of paper or a notebook about the questions that they have on the topic and factor in some time during the tutorials for students to clarifying these questions. Another challenge would be getting students to actively contribute to their groups. One of the ways to overcome it is to make sure that each group has a maximum of 4 members and every one in the group is assigned a role. As a teacher, I will play the role of a facilitator walking around to