School Visit: Melbourne Rudolf Steiner School

This is a Christian school which teachers are required to take the same group of students for 8 years. Hence, teachers shoulder great responsibilities in teaching their students.

It is appreciated that outdoor education is stressed in this school as this type of learning allows students to gain hands-on experience by working on their own and explore on the subjects. Their horizons will be broadened and the impression on the knowledge acquired will be strengthened and they are able to embody some abstract concepts and ideas, which facilitates their learning.

Moreover, teaching stories is popular in this school. The teachers are required to learn and study the designated stories by heart, and then they need to present them to the students in a variety of ways, for instance, by doing role-play or drawings. This teaching approach is much appreciated since story-telling is more interesting compared to plain teaching, the students will therefore be motivated to learn. In addition, as the teachers learn the stories in-depth, they have a clear understanding of the content and hence they are able to present the content fluently with genuine emotions, which draws students’ attention with ease. This way, students will participate more in the lesson and their effective learning time will be enhanced.

Concerning the teaching of vocabulary and phrases, the teachers use pictures to do so. This is recommended since pictures, especially colorful pictures, are attractive. This serves to appeal to students. Besides, the objects in the photos are helpful in identifying the words. Imagine if the meanings of the words are provided, students will find very confused and frustrated since the concepts behind the large chunks of words are abstract, they will have no idea about them and hence they will not be motivated to learn and they will find the lesson boring.

Regarding the completion of tasks, the teachers adopted a correct approach in handling this situation. As students are different in a class, some of them are cleverer than others and they complete tasks faster as a result. To avoid those cleverer students from idling their time after completing the given tasks, the teachers have prepared extended tasks for them so that they will be kept busy working on a variety of lesson materials. For those weaker students, the teachers will provide them with more time to complete their work so that they will not be forced to stop and listen to the teachers’ explanations only.

On the other hand, the notion of this school is getting students to write and then read. The corresponding personnel perceive that students should not read at an early age. However, I have reservations on this point as I consider that learning languages is most effective when people are young since their brains are still developing. Therefore, it is best for them to acquire the macro skills as early as possible. Moreover, learning in different ways enhances the acquisition of the languages as different students are accustomed to particular learning methods.

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School Visit: Fitzroy High School

This school is quite different from other schools observed in terms of the random seating arrangement in classrooms. I observed a Year 9 English class and appreciated most of the teaching approaches adopted by the teacher.

The personalized approach to learning is used to cater to individual differences. The teacher came close to each student, asked about their progress in doing homework and whether he can offer help to them. Approaching students is of utmost importance since teachers will not be able to understand each of them completely if they only interact with the class. A teacher should talk to his or her students to better comprehend their situations. If they encounter any problems, they can pacify them and provide them with concrete and feasible solutions to improve conditions.

In order to keep close contact with the students, the teacher has built a positive relationship with them. He asked students about their recent situations and encourages them to work hard. When the students were not paying attention to him, he reminded them of respecting others just like respecting themselves. The method is effective because students will understand their behavior is improper and it should be rectified. They will master the self-management skills and consider the effects of their behavior on others. Concerning the academic development, students will be more willing to discuss topics with their teachers and ask questions if they do not understand. This is helpful in their learning in that they will not get stuck on unclear concepts which discourage them to pursue further studies.

This school emphasizes learning by making use of outside spaces, which are used as learning and performance spaces. These facilitate students’ learning because they do not need to stay in the classroom all the time, instead they can get hands-on experience by working on their own. Therefore, their impression towards abstract concepts and ideas will be strengthened and they will understand them more.

Round-table can be seen in most of the classrooms since this school encourages students to learn by working together to complete a variety of tasks. By group learning, peers can learn with each other and if they have any questions, they can ask others for solutions. Therefore, students will learn effectively through these kinds of activities.

In addition, this school focuses on learning integrated subjects. Students will be asked to study subjects of different disciplines. For example, Arts students will be required to study a number of Science courses so that their knowledge will not be limited to Arts only. They are not required to study the Science subjects in-depth, they need to acquire basic knowledge only. This approach is so similar to that adopted in The University of Hong Kong, where a series of broadening courses are available, including Science and Technology, Cultural Studies. This helps equip students with more knowledge for better life quality and it is recommended that more schools will take this type of learning as reference.

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School Visit: La Trobe University International College

I observed class 6B which the topic of the lesson was “Child Worker in Mine”. The teacher was experienced and most of the teaching approaches adopted by her were appropriate and effective to help students learn. However, there were some drawbacks which required improvement.

Each time, she elicited responses from students instead of giving them the answers directly, which is important as this is a student-centered teaching, students were required to think of the answers themselves. If they get wrong answers, teachers can provide clues for them to guess again or point out and explain their errors. If teachers do all the talking, then students will become passive learners and their understanding of particular concepts cannot be examined.

Moreover, after asking students for answers, she asked them for the reasons for supporting the answers, which is highly recommended in teaching since teachers are able to check whether their students comprehend the rationales of the answers. If they cannot tell the reasons, which means they do not fully understand the concepts and ideas taught, hence more time should be spent on corresponding topics.

In addition, the teacher incorporated four macro skills in teaching, namely reading, writing, listening and speaking. This integration of skills is encouraged in language lessons as students can learn by using different methods and the concepts will be consolidated, which makes learning more effective. Other than this advantage, students will not feel bored easily because four different types of practices are available and the types of tasks are not the same.

At the beginning of the lesson, the students were asked to play roles of an interviewer and an interviewee regarding the topic. The teacher asked one student only to be the interviewer and ask others questions. Although this is convenient and time-saving because students do not need to spend time on changing roles, it is quite unfair to the interviewer as he has got fewer opportunities to speak in English, which should be avoided since students tend to speak in their native languages beyond the classroom. For instance, there are a number of students from China in the class, they prefer speaking with each other in Putonghua even in the classroom, thereupon if teachers do not maximize their use of English in class, then they will have less practice in oral English and not be able to speak fluent English.

The ability of students vary in a class, therefore individual difference is a common phenomenon. In order to cater to it, teachers should set a variety of tasks with different levels so that all students will be taken care of. In the lesson, the teacher drilled the students the target languages first, followed by organizing an activity which required them to rearrange sentences containing the target languages. The difficulties of the sentences ranged from beginners’ to advanced levels. In Hong Kong, this teaching approach becomes more and more common and it is hoped that more students will be benefited.

(Number of Words: 499)

School Visit: Defence International Training Centre

The school is an Australian Defence Force training unit, with students there learning to be English teachers. We stayed in the classroom and learned with the students. The teacher has adopted a number of teaching strategies, which will be analyzed as follows.

The teacher always walks around the classroom to monitor the learning situations of the students. This is very important in helping students learn since they may come across a variety of problems when doing tasks. Teachers will be able to identify their weaknesses and then assist them in obtaining the correct answers. Moreover, teachers can set appropriate levels of tasks in future to cater to individual differences, which is effective for motivating them to complete and improving their performance.

Moreover, the teacher always elicits responses from students instead of giving them the answers directly. This is a student-centered teaching methodology, which encourages the students to think of the answers themselves. This helps the students learn effectively since they are able to apply the knowledge acquired to new situations and gain new information from their mistakes. If the teacher does not teach in this way, the students will become passive learners and they will not be interested in searching for answers and other relevant information themselves, they will simply wait for the teachers to “feed” them, which makes themselves become more and more dependent upon teachers. The effects are far-reaching, for example, the students absorb all information without digestion. Teachers do not always offer correct solutions, it is possible for them to make errors. If the students do not process the information received, they will acquire incorrect knowledge which impacts on their future prospects. Therefore, teachers should always put their students at top priority.

The teacher has not done perfectly in managing tasks. In the lesson, she asked the students to complete a worksheet with their partners. This is appreciated since they are able to learn with their peers through completing tasks together. However, the teacher failed to make all students work all the time. As there are individual differences in a class, students finish the task at different speeds, so those “faster” students went off-task after completing the work. To remedy the situation, it is recommended that teachers should set extended tasks for each lesson so that all students will not idle their time and the time for learning will be maximized.

In Hong Kong, it is common for teachers to adopt traditional one-way teaching, meaning they do most of the talking and cram much knowledge into students’ brains. This does not motivate students to learn. Instead, teachers should maximize student talking time, which is, maximizing their participation in classes. It is suggested that Hong Kong teachers should take the methodologies adopted in other countries as reference and extract those which facilitates learning and apply them to classrooms whereas those weaknesses should also be taken into serious consideration－reminding themselves not to make such mistakes which impacts on effective learning.

(Number of Words: 500)