Tuesday, June 1, 2010

School Visit: Melbourne Grammar Senior School


This is an Anglican School emphasizing the connections between learning and leadership among students. Two lessons were observed, one was learning Chinese whereas the other was learning French. There are strengths and weaknesses in the approaches adopted by the teachers, which will be analyzed as follows.


For both lessons, it is appreciated that authentic materials were used to assist students in learning. For instance, worksheets were distributed to students in the French lesson. Concepts in languages are abstract, therefore it will be difficult for students to acquire knowledge without difficulties, let alone applying them to real life situations. By using authentic materials, students are able to understand concepts as they can associate them with concrete resources.


In the Chinese lesson, there was interaction between students and teacher, which was beneficial to students since they had the opportunities to participate more in the lesson, for example, they could respond to questions raised by the teacher. This is encouraged in all classrooms as students are the active learners, they should involve as much as possible in lessons. However, in the French lesson, there was almost no such interaction because plenty of time was spent on drilling, which means there was much teacher talking time (TTT) and the lesson was teacher-centered. In Hong Kong, it is common for teachers to conduct one-way teaching, which makes students lose interest in studying. Hence, it is recommended that lessons should be student-centered and teachers should inspire them to think more but not merely drill them.


Concerning the weaknesses, teachers in both lessons were unaware of the individual requirements of students. For example, the pace of the French lesson was relatively fast. For those weaker students, as they were unable to comprehend the content in a short time, thereupon they were not motivated to learn and gradually went off-task. This implies that teachers should monitor the speed of the lessons so that all students are able to follow.


In the Chinese lesson, the teacher immediately corrected students when they made mistakes and seldom praised students. For the first part, the intention of the teacher was to tell students the correct answers so that they will not acquire wrong concepts. This is commendable, however, teachers should provide students with another chance to attempt to the questions as they can learn from mistakes. This learning approach is of paramount importance in that they can understand the mistakes and avoid making them in future. For the second part, teachers should praise students when they perform well in certain areas as their self-esteem will increase, which help them adopt a positive attitude in learning. They will become eager to learn and participate more in lessons.


The aforementioned problems are not uncommon in Hong Kong classrooms. Teachers should take both the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of methodologies into serious consideration before adopting them in classrooms. For instance, drilling is harmful and helpful, depending on the quality of students. For weaker ones, drilling is effective and vice versa. (Number of words: 497)



No comments:

Post a Comment