watched a documentary "stars for a cause" 3 on acid attacks tonight...triggered thoughts that I could use it to emphasise the importance of lab safety (not to treat sulphuric acid lightly) and also encourage students to be more aware and concerend about social issues that plague other countries
http://video.xin.msn.com/watch/video/episode-3/1gqtz0q29
http://www.acidattacks.org/blog/
new documentary on acid attacks (oscar nomination) - "Saving Face"
http://www.savingfacefilm.com/
Thursday 23 February 2012
Sunday 19 February 2012
media and values
2 videos on how the media, has shaped values and culture today and what we can do about it
http://www.starvingforethics.com/
http://www.starvingforethics.com/
Tuesday 14 February 2012
Reflections on microteaching
During my microteaching, I tried to incorporate higher order thinking questions such as “what makes this balloon expand?”, an apparently “simple” but broad question which hopefully stimulates critical thinking about the topic on gases as most people would not give a second thought to this question.
However, I found that there needs to be a balance between the type/amount of questioning and didactic teaching depending on the profile of students and the amount of time in a lesson. Some of my peers were uncomfortable with such “serial questioning” as they felt students may not understand it, though many of my lecturers were proponents of it. I also found that such questioning does take up more of the lesson time and hence has to be used judiciously within the constraints of the lesson.
Also, in the recapping/ recalling of prior knowledge, I noticed that many of my peers called on people whom they knew had done their microteaching on that topic, to answer questions regarding the prior knowledge needed. Similarly, in teaching, teachers may call on students they know have the prior knowledge/correct answers required in order to speed up the lesson. While this taps of students’ strengths to facilitate learning, it perhaps also stems from the fear of not being able to continue with the lesson if the “correct” answer is not given, or that the lesson may slow down as a result. Perhaps we as teachers need to learn how to build on students’ answers, be it wrong or right, to help our students think critically about their responses as well as take advantage of this opportunity to evaluate students’ understanding. I guess there is a certain degree of humility in admitting that we do not have all the answers and learning to construct knowledge with the students rather than be a transmitter of knowledge.
In some lectures, I profess that I “zone out” as it is quite difficult to concentrate through 3 hours of lectures. However, due to the nature of the questions asked, I could still answer the questions posed to me even if I was zoning out. For example, questions like “what is the definition of …” when the answer is already printed in the lecture notes. This reflects upon the nature of the questions asked and helped me to imagine what it must be like for students where they can easily zone out halfway during a lecture but yet be able to copy down information in the lecture correctly, but without understanding. Hence, I find that it is necessary to find ways to stimulate higher-order thinking during the lecture to keep students engaged and facilitate meaningful learning. Perhaps the blanks in the lecture notes can be designed in such a way that students are not immediately able to fill in the answers by themselves, or that the answers have to be derived rather than are given in the lecture notes. Also, questions asked can be of a higher-order as well. However, I do wonder if there are other ways of stimulating higher-order thinking as I recognise the limitations of a lecture setting that there will not be a luxury of having 20 students in a lecture theatre where you can call on each student periodically to answer questions, or wait for the whole batch of students to answer unanimously to a certain question as well, a strategy my peers and I often utilised to elicit answers and check for understanding.
Yet, due to the nature of a lecture setting, I found it difficult to incorporate questions or allow time for students to discuss and arrive at the answers themselves. Instead, I provided most of the scaffolding (e.g. step by step how to draw graphs and relating it back to what they learn in math, how to identify key words in the question and then how this relates to the concepts they are learning). This allowed the students to follow well, however, I wonder if students will learn to think critically if I always provide such detailed scaffolding. I do not have an answer. Increasingly, more and more institutions of higher education are moving away from the lecture-tutorial system into a seminar-style or interactive lectures. This is in recognition of the lack of interaction and hence thinking in a lecture setting. Hence, within the constraints of a lecture-tutorial system, I wonder how I would be able to stimulate critical thinking.
However, I found that there needs to be a balance between the type/amount of questioning and didactic teaching depending on the profile of students and the amount of time in a lesson. Some of my peers were uncomfortable with such “serial questioning” as they felt students may not understand it, though many of my lecturers were proponents of it. I also found that such questioning does take up more of the lesson time and hence has to be used judiciously within the constraints of the lesson.
Also, in the recapping/ recalling of prior knowledge, I noticed that many of my peers called on people whom they knew had done their microteaching on that topic, to answer questions regarding the prior knowledge needed. Similarly, in teaching, teachers may call on students they know have the prior knowledge/correct answers required in order to speed up the lesson. While this taps of students’ strengths to facilitate learning, it perhaps also stems from the fear of not being able to continue with the lesson if the “correct” answer is not given, or that the lesson may slow down as a result. Perhaps we as teachers need to learn how to build on students’ answers, be it wrong or right, to help our students think critically about their responses as well as take advantage of this opportunity to evaluate students’ understanding. I guess there is a certain degree of humility in admitting that we do not have all the answers and learning to construct knowledge with the students rather than be a transmitter of knowledge.
In some lectures, I profess that I “zone out” as it is quite difficult to concentrate through 3 hours of lectures. However, due to the nature of the questions asked, I could still answer the questions posed to me even if I was zoning out. For example, questions like “what is the definition of …” when the answer is already printed in the lecture notes. This reflects upon the nature of the questions asked and helped me to imagine what it must be like for students where they can easily zone out halfway during a lecture but yet be able to copy down information in the lecture correctly, but without understanding. Hence, I find that it is necessary to find ways to stimulate higher-order thinking during the lecture to keep students engaged and facilitate meaningful learning. Perhaps the blanks in the lecture notes can be designed in such a way that students are not immediately able to fill in the answers by themselves, or that the answers have to be derived rather than are given in the lecture notes. Also, questions asked can be of a higher-order as well. However, I do wonder if there are other ways of stimulating higher-order thinking as I recognise the limitations of a lecture setting that there will not be a luxury of having 20 students in a lecture theatre where you can call on each student periodically to answer questions, or wait for the whole batch of students to answer unanimously to a certain question as well, a strategy my peers and I often utilised to elicit answers and check for understanding.
Yet, due to the nature of a lecture setting, I found it difficult to incorporate questions or allow time for students to discuss and arrive at the answers themselves. Instead, I provided most of the scaffolding (e.g. step by step how to draw graphs and relating it back to what they learn in math, how to identify key words in the question and then how this relates to the concepts they are learning). This allowed the students to follow well, however, I wonder if students will learn to think critically if I always provide such detailed scaffolding. I do not have an answer. Increasingly, more and more institutions of higher education are moving away from the lecture-tutorial system into a seminar-style or interactive lectures. This is in recognition of the lack of interaction and hence thinking in a lecture setting. Hence, within the constraints of a lecture-tutorial system, I wonder how I would be able to stimulate critical thinking.
Monday 28 November 2011
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.
Tuesday 15 November 2011
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
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
Saturday 15 October 2011
Life journeys
“Happiness is a choice”
As each group member shared their life journeys, I saw many ups and downs, tears and joys, that made them who they are today. In particular, there were 2 stories that profoundly changed my view towards life.
Mark and Sally (not their real names) are the bubbliest people in the group, always making the most noise, making jokes, and having a smile on their face. It was a great surprise to hear what had happened in their lives before. Mark and Sally came from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and whose family members suffered from various illnesses. From young, they had to shoulder the burden of taking care of the family on top of normal school work. Sally’s dad left the family when she was very young – her mother went into clinical depression after and later on was diagnosed with cancer. When she was 8, her mother tried to jump off the railing of their HDB flat – she described the incident where she ran to grab hold of her mum before she fell off completely and she imagined that if she didn’t, she would have no parents at all. She made constant trips to the hospital and hence could not concentrate on school work. She also lived under the constant fear of losing the people she loved and hence did not open up to people. She went through a series of broken relationships and ended up more unhappy. However, for both mark and sally, they eventually managed to find their identity through their teachers and a newfound faith in God – they found someone or a being who believed in them and loved them for who they are. This gives them the hope to continue persevering and giving to others though things are still hard. Mark and Sally both shared that happiness is truly a choice – though circumstances can be hard, we can make an active choice to be thankful and content for what we have. Being happy too will bring the same blessing of joy in others.
Personally, I am often more introspective and hence more easily influenced by situations and people. Their experience taught me that the active choice of being thankful and content lends us a certain resilience towards the whims of life. I hope too when I face future failures, and changing or difficult circumstances, that I will choose too to give thanks in each trial and failure, and choose to be happy.
As each group member shared their life journeys, I saw many ups and downs, tears and joys, that made them who they are today. In particular, there were 2 stories that profoundly changed my view towards life.
Mark and Sally (not their real names) are the bubbliest people in the group, always making the most noise, making jokes, and having a smile on their face. It was a great surprise to hear what had happened in their lives before. Mark and Sally came from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and whose family members suffered from various illnesses. From young, they had to shoulder the burden of taking care of the family on top of normal school work. Sally’s dad left the family when she was very young – her mother went into clinical depression after and later on was diagnosed with cancer. When she was 8, her mother tried to jump off the railing of their HDB flat – she described the incident where she ran to grab hold of her mum before she fell off completely and she imagined that if she didn’t, she would have no parents at all. She made constant trips to the hospital and hence could not concentrate on school work. She also lived under the constant fear of losing the people she loved and hence did not open up to people. She went through a series of broken relationships and ended up more unhappy. However, for both mark and sally, they eventually managed to find their identity through their teachers and a newfound faith in God – they found someone or a being who believed in them and loved them for who they are. This gives them the hope to continue persevering and giving to others though things are still hard. Mark and Sally both shared that happiness is truly a choice – though circumstances can be hard, we can make an active choice to be thankful and content for what we have. Being happy too will bring the same blessing of joy in others.
Personally, I am often more introspective and hence more easily influenced by situations and people. Their experience taught me that the active choice of being thankful and content lends us a certain resilience towards the whims of life. I hope too when I face future failures, and changing or difficult circumstances, that I will choose too to give thanks in each trial and failure, and choose to be happy.
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