San Chye's Reflection

Engaged Learning: Making Learning an Authentic Experience

2006-02-27T18:59:00.000-08:00

I have lost count of the number of education research articles I have read since I came to ETD. I must confess that I would not have pushed myself to read these articles if I were still in school. But I must say that I feel much more enriched or enlightened after reading through all those research articles.

Engaged learning is the key area that this paper is looking at. A few other terms that catch my attention: self-regulatory learning, metacognitive behaviours, authentic learning environments.

I was in awe of the example the paper illustrated: using Problem-based learning approach on medical school students. It sounds so exciting and perfect. But what does it take for the facilitator to achieve this effect? Does the facilitator need certain skills?
One key starting point for engaged learning to take place is to have an authentic problem or driving issue in place. This seems to be a mountain for many. To design such lessons/problems might be too time-consuming to many. It would include problem design and process design. Perhaps, there can be some form of revenue to share all our teachers’ resources and assign a council/body to coordinate this. Then we need not create our own and at the same time prevent duplicates.

SEED

2006-02-27T18:58:00.000-08:00

Hmm… how I love the Internet…It encourages me to learn independently…Hey.. that sounds familiar in SAIL.. haha..Using the Internet appropriately really encourages lifelong learning…Again, I searched through the Internet almost effortlessly to read up about “SEED”.

SEED stands for Strategies for Effective Engagement and Development of pupils in Primary Schools. It is a programme intended to help our primary schools think through how they can further enhance their foundation-year teaching programmes, pedagogy and assessment approaches to better engage young learners. It is also intended to facilitate and help teachers to reflect on their instructional methods and devise pedagogies suited to the unique needs and abilities of their pupils for enhanced learning outcomes.

It sounds so exciting. I wish I were a student again… haha.. Primary school teachers are really important. Hmm.. Actually teachers at all level are important. Anyway, just to show appreciation to the primary school teachers…They are one of the first few authoritative figures that our young will meet when they embark on their lifelong journey. The experience our young have in their foundation years may shape their attitude towards studies. Our primary and secondary school teachers must have done a great job for I had such an easy and great time with my JC students…

SEED still sounds so blur to me… I really need to read up more…I wish I had those experiential learning during my student days. It would have been so much fun, learning in a less threatening environment.

SAIL – Strategies for Active and Independent Learning

2006-02-27T18:57:00.000-08:00

Hmmm… what is SAIL?? What does it mean by active learning? Frankly speaking, I’ve never seen this acronym before…and to tell the truth, I might not have the urge to find out what this acronym means if I were still teaching in a Junior College. Somehow, being in HQ gave me the push and motivation to find out more to broaden my knowledge of the education landscape…

I did searches on the Internet. It yielded many sites. it turns out, this is an acronym used in primary school level. There’s also “SEED”. Woah, primary schools had so many school initiatives. JC don’t seem to have any such initiatives leh.. haha…I was so lucky or rather unlucky.

As our minister put it, “We must engage in thoughtful experimentation and innovation in teaching”. SAIL is one such fine example where we engaged in thoughtful experimentation and innovation in teaching.

I won’t dwell on explaining what SAIL is. I suppose it’ll bore everyone to death..Well, can just search on the Internet or Intranet to find out more…I thought SAIL is a good approach. At least, I like it for it encourages divergent thinking and alternative approaches. I wonder how many times, I have refrained myself from giving opinions for fear of being wrong. I have lost count. How I wished SAIL was already implemented when I was a young student. Perhaps, I would have been an even more confident person. With a framework put in place, I’m sure our students will become confident people, capable of independent learning.

Before I end, I got some questions. What does it mean by active learning? How do I engage students using IT, integrating SAIL in it as well?
Active learning sounds like a very broad term. Anyway, I’ll try to find out what it really means. Hopefully, my seniors will enlighten me in these aspects.

CoP

2006-02-27T18:52:00.000-08:00

Frankly, I was totally engrossed in Prof Hung’s talk. How did he make his talk so unbelievably interesting? The fact that his topic is high level (the notes was so high level with so many “bombastic” words..actually, the truth is that my vocab is poor), made it even astonishing. He was so passionate about this area. His motivation and excitement can really be translated into the audience. I must really learn from him to make my workshops more inspirational.

I remember him sharing with us this quote: Practice is the best teacher and the community the best learning environment. – John Seely Brown (Chief Scientist Xerox Parc)

Hmm… community - the best learning environment…It triggers me to reflect about how I conducted experiential learning in those overseas CIPs. I could have done more and the next time I do conduct such expeditions, I will try out new ideas to enhance the learning experience.

He gave us a very detailed guide to initiate a CoP. There are three types of Community of Practice – task-based, practice-based and knowledge-based. Frankly, there are still many things that I do not understand. I must say that I sort of did injustice to his superbly carried out lecture. Perhaps, I was too engrossed with trying to figure out some of the terms that he had used in his presentation and in his notes. His checkerbox puzzle was also quite interesting too.

Perhaps CoP is an area that we can tap on to evaluate if our workshop participants have put into practise what they have learnt...

Introduction

2006-02-20T01:15:00.000-08:00

Name: San Chye
Occupation: Educational Technology Officer, Ministry of Education