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.

(Number of Words: 498)

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)

School Visit: Glen Eira College ELS

Two ESL classes teaching the same topic－using persuasive language, were observed in the school. The teachers taught students using different methodologies, which will be analyzed in the following paragraphs.

In teaching vocabulary, the teachers provide a number of synonyms and antonyms for students to increase their vocabulary capacity. This is highly recommended in teaching since the words are related to each other to some extent, therefore learning them at the same time helps strengthen the memory of the words.

In helping students get the correct answers, the teachers give them contextual clues to let them think of the answers themselves instead of telling them directly. This is beneficial to students since they are active learners, they should participate in learning as much as possible. If not, they will become passive and dependent upon teachers for answers, and they will not be interested in studying.

There are a few drawbacks regarding the strategies adopted, with the lack of opportunities for students to make corrections themselves being the first one. When the students make mistakes, the teachers give them the correct answers immediately. This is not suggested since the students do not understand why their answers are wrong. Instead, teachers should point out and explain the errors, or giving students another chance to attempt to give the correct answers. These methods assist students in learning effectively since they comprehend the rationales of corresponding grammatical knowledge and they are able to make use of their knowledge to try to obtain required answers. Through trials and errors, students will realize what are correct and wrong and they will remember them easily.

Another weakness is the nature of task. The teachers have set a number of tasks requiring students to work on their own. This teaching methodology is not encouraged since there will be less discussion among students and hence the interaction among them will decrease. Actually, more group work should be included to allow students to learn with their peers as this is a good way to exchange ideas with each other, which inspires them to think of matters from different perspectives.

The second teacher tends to focus on active students but not the passive ones. The teacher prefers asking the active students questions and ignoring those passive ones. This methodology encourages the passive students to keep quiet in the classroom and hence it should be modified. Teachers may consider that asking all students to answer questions will solve the problem. However, those passive students will find intimidating and feel nervous when being asked to respond to teachers. Therefore, teachers should approach them and ask if they have any difficulties in learning or if they are encountering problems beyond their studies. After identifying the problems, teachers can formulate solutions to help these students, who will be more willing to participate in lessons in future. Students should treat their teachers as counselors and share their problems with them in order to find the ways out.

(Number of Words: 499)