Service learning

As the starfish story goes

While walking along a beach, an elderly gentleman saw someone in the distance leaning down, picking something up and throwing it into the ocean.
As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, picking up starfish one by one and tossing each one gently back into the water.
He came closer still and called out, "Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?"
The young man paused, looked up, and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean."
The old man smiled, and said, "I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?"
To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they'll die."
Upon hearing this, the elderly observer commented, "But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can't possibly make a difference!"
The young man listened politely. Then he bent down, picked up another starfish, threw it into the back into the ocean past the breaking waves and said, "It made a difference for that one."

I take heart that through this project, I could make a small difference in the life of one boy at the activity. This boy did not want to eat his porridge as he was sick and tired of eating porridge. As a result, he obstinately refused to eat his porridge in the session and tried to hide it in his mouth. After watching the cartoon however, with the volunteer’s help, I managed to apply the engine story in his life by telling him that like the little engine, he could also persevere and finish his porridge. He did start eating his porridge after and as he swallowed mouthful after mouthful, we cheered him on saying “I think you can, I think you can”; and when he finished, there was a little smile on his face, which to me, made all the difference.

What have I learnt?

Firstly, I gained a greater awareness of the situation of the children facing cancer. It was a good way to debunk myths and labels on these “cancer kids” as I shared about my project with my coursemates, friends then and in the future. For example, sharing that most of the kids do manage to recover, hence they are not a lost cause. Moreover, I initially thought they would be very different, similar to those children who have cancer that are portrayed in tv serials. However, through interacting with the children, I realised that, other than the fact that they wore a hat, they were just like any regular kid. They were easily excited by games, colouring, building toys just as any other kid their age would be. Their emotions did fluctuate more as they had to alternate between “normalcy” and seeing the doctor and receiving injections; this brought home the point that we need to be more sensitive to their situation not by sympathesising with them more but by seeing them as any other normal kid when they are not at the doctor’s. I feel that it is important to spread this awareness to others to accept them as that rather than as “cancer kids”, so that they too feel affirmed and accepted by the people around them.

In particular, I learnt that many teens do volunteer there by conducting similar activities. Hence, this will be a possible avenue to suggest to my students when they consider their own service learning projects. As teens, it would be a great opportunity to harness their creativity and energy and designing such meaningful activities for the children, as well as increase their empathy for them as mentioned above.

This experience has also equipped me with a better understanding on how to go about conducting service learning projects and even future school events. For example, I learnt what constitutes a comprehensive proposal in order to liase with organisations. I also learnt to be more realistic in my expectations –initially I was very idealistic and ambitious on what we could achieve with the children. This was moderated by my group members pointing out the limitations and practical considerations. I also learnt the importance of anticipating hiccups or potential difficulties when planning an event or activity and hence preparing for them by having backup plans. For example, when my group member pulled out, or when we realised we could not communicate effectively to the children- Rosalind was very helpful in that aspect in encouraging me to be more flexible and thinking of alternative solutions.

Personally, I really admire and desire to learn from the attitudes of the children’s parents. All the children at the activity were accompanied by their mother/father. As each kid’s emotions does fluctuate a lot, especially when it’s time to see the doctor, the parents displayed great strength and patience to be able to stay positive and calm though they were faced with this every day. Furthermore, they were not unreasonable even when their kids threw tantrums in a public place like the hospital, but modeled an authoritative style of parenting to their children in explaining their stand to the children. This is something I would strive to adopt when teaching my students and eventually my children as well.

Values/ CCE

Thoughts about the new CCE curriculum

The new intiative of CCE aims to inculcate citizenship, moral, character values into our students. In summary, the character values are based on the SEL (socio-emotional learning) framework and the citizenship eduction combines aspects of National Education, global citizenship (21st CC framework) and service learning. For those who are interested to find out more, I’d like to highlight the CCE toolkit that is available for downloading off Edumall 2.0. This Toolkit sets out an approach for effective implementation. It features the 5Ps of CCE: Purpose,Pupil, ExPerience, Professional Development and Partnerships.


“Purpose” and “Pupil”
A key question when reading through these outcomes are the definitions of the terms – for e.g what does it mean to apply “moral reasoning”, or maintain “positive relationships”? These “standards” or “values” seem to mean different things for different people. Even in the curriculum for example, I believe not everyone subscribes to everything set out in the sexuality education or civics education curriculum. Hence, CCE must mean different things for different teachers.

If teachers are partly responsible for teaching or living out this values, I believe it is important for teachers to become more aware of their own value system or worldview, as well as the worldviews of others. This would help them to reconcile their views with that of the curriculum in areas where they do conflict (and hence work out how to “teach” this to students), and also enable them to better help students of different backgrounds to develop their own worldview.

“ExPerience”
Being a Chemistry BT about to enter into JC, another area of concern would be how to infuse such values into my teaching. I agree with Weili that teachable moments as Minister Heng Swee Kiat mentioned, are important. As teachers, it is perhaps important for us to actively think about how to create such teachable moments rather than “wait” for it to happen. In particular, I found this paper particularly helpful in thinking about how to incorporate such moments into chemistry lessons.

http://www.jce.divched.org/journal/issues/2006/jan/PlusSub/V83N01/p59.pdf

Perhaps having an avenue/forum to discuss such strategies such as the recent CCE conference, or within clusters would be helpful for teachers as well

3 methods can also be practiced to inculcate values in our students.

(i) Through direct teaching

The traditional method of direct teaching does not seem effective here. As shared, I would endeavour to facilitate student discussions on values rather than teach it didactically. With regard to moral issues, to present the benefits and consequences to each decision and share my own difficulties and dilemmas so as to engage the students and help them to be think and be responsible for their own actions.


(ii) Through experiential learning

Games and videos that simulate real-life situations seem an innovative way of engaging students, as it did for us when we played it. On a day to day basis, I found the suggestion of teaching values in everyday tasks quite helpful – for example, when encouraging students to clean their classrooms, I could not only teach them about cleanliness but also teach them a deeper principle of appreciating all people, including the cleaners in school.

(iii) Through vicarious learning (from others’ experiences)

I learnt a lot from hearing my teachers and GESLmates’ life journeys; hence I am starting my own collection of little anecdotes and stories to illustrate certain values to my future students.

For example, when speaking to my friends who ae working now, there are many applications of ethics in the workplace

For example, in law you have to take the CFA exams in ethics, incidents of lawyers abusing professional ethics in misusing client and firm accounts.
In medicine where doctors have to deal with cases such as when a doctor
accidentally orders HIV test when testing pregnancy but patient did not occur it but she tested positive- is it right/ not right to tell the patient?
Or issues of euthanasia and palliative care.



CCE Learning Outcomes
The learning outcomes of CCE state what we want our pupils to learn and attain in CCE, and guide the development of the curriculum for CCE.
1. Develop self-awareness and self-management skills to achieve personal well-being and effectiveness
2. Apply moral reasoning, display responsibility in decision-making, and demonstrate integrity to stand by moral principles and shared values
3. Develop social awareness and demonstrate interpersonal skills to build and maintain positive relationships
4. Demonstrate resilience in the face of individual, community and national challenges, and develop the ability to turn challenges to opportunities
5. Appreciate our national identity, develop a sense of belonging to Singapore, and demonstrate commitment to the well-being, security and defence of the nation
6. Demonstrate socio-cultural sensitivity and promote social cohesion and harmony in Singapore as a multi-cultural society
7. Demonstrate care for and contribute actively towards improving the lives of others to build a bright future for ourselves and to progress together as one nation
8. Demonstrate the ability to reflect on and respond to community, national and global issues, and to make informed and responsible decisions as a citizen