School Visit: Sacre Coeur International School of the Sacred Heart

This is an independent catholic school which builds on and cherishes its traditions. The aims of the school include cultivating students a sense of commitment and respect, and maximizing individuals’ potentials in the community.

A Geography lesson which students gave a group presentation on any topics about the Antarctica was observed. After the presentation from each group, the teacher provided instant, critical and comprehensive feedback. First, she praised students for areas which they did well, followed by pointing out areas which should be improved. Moreover, the teacher commented systematically on students’ presentations from individual scopes to overall scopes. This teaching approach is also found in Hong Kong. However, I would like to give suggestions for improvement. It would be better if the teacher ask students to self-evaluate their own performance first, and then give further comments which are not mentioned by the students. This serves to allow students to reflect upon their work.

After the lesson, I asked the teacher about the methodologies she adopted in teaching. She told me that assessment tasks were tailor-made to cater to individual differences and they would be changed if necessary so as to keep them appropriate for assessment. This is appreciated because there is variation among students’ ability, thereupon suitable levels of tasks should be designed for them.

Another approach used by the teacher was organizing group activities frequently. The purposes are to build up confidence among students and foster them a sense of involvement in the groups. This is recommended not only in Australia classrooms, but also in Hong Kong ones. Peer learning is beneficial to students since they are able to assist each other and they will learn effectively as questions will be discussed among them which inspire their thinking processes.

In addition to the above two approaches, the teacher mentioned that she would regularly set quizzes to check her students’ understanding about different topics. Quizzes are important since this requires students to study on a regular basis so that if they have any misconceptions about particular concepts, teachers will be able to identify and correct them earlier. Teachers will realize which areas they should spend more time on teaching, and students should work harder on their weaker areas.

Apart from the success of methodologies adopted, there is a point which is not done well－asking passive students to answer questions. The teacher intended to involve these students in class and examine their understanding of the content taught. However, these students may suffer from enormous pressure since arrows will be pointed to them if they do not participate enough in classes. To improve the situation, the teacher could meet these students after classes and ask the reasons for not participating actively in classes. Once the teacher realizes the problems, she should make all efforts in figuring out feasible solutions to help the students get involved in the classes in future. The school has already put their students at top priority, it is hoped that they will improve in future.