My ICT Learning Journey~~

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Reflection 3: Pedagogical Approaches

In the previous session, we learnt about different types of pedagogical approaches, namely: 1)case based learning, 2)inquiry based learning, 3)project based learning, 4)games based learning and 5) resource based learning. I seldom come across 1), 2), 5) for the teaching of Chinese. However, during my ESE I have seen how teachers try to incorporate games into the learning of Chinese. I had a chance to sit in and observe a Sec 1 NA class. For the lesson, students were to play a game that teaches them about new vocabulary. During the lesson, the students were rather rowdy and they didn't exactly play the games that the teacher wanted them to. Instead, they were doing other stuffs, such as MSN and facebook. It wasn't easy for the teacher to settle them down. When I had a chance to stop the students from msn-ing, I asked why they didn't want to play the games, some of them replied that the games were too boring, and it did not interest them.

Thus, I feel that when teachers are to incorporate game-based learning into teaching, it is definitely important that we give specific instructions to students before asking them to start. Also, a great deal of classroom management is very important especially when teachers bring students to the computer labs for lessons. It is also important that teachers understand the kind of games students are more interested in. Perhaps games with interesting images, and games which involve role-playing will be good, and students will then immerse into the virtual environment so that learning will be more effective.

Last week, two teachers came to do a presentation for our lesson. One of the teachers presented on the use of Wii in the lesson. I learnt that not only must games be fun, they must also create meaningful learning for the students as well. Fun and realism of the games is an important factor as well. After the presentation it kept me wondering about how to incorporate such Wii games into the teaching of Chinese. The second speaker also shared with us about her incorporation of ICT into the teaching of Pri 4 students. I was amazed by the kind of work students can produce these days. The students showed a great deal of interest in doing the video. However, it requires a lot of time allocation in letting students do such projects.

During my ESE, I also attended a meeting on the incorporation of ICT into the teaching of Chinese compositions. Students from the Sec 2 NA classes were to write a narrative composition about a fighting incident in the classroom. The teachers shared with me about their experience. For the first time when they asked the students to write the composition, students wrote the essay without any help, with the teacher just showing the title of the composition. They were to complete the essay within 1 hour. For the second time, the teachers then made a video which shows a fighting incident. Students then were to write the same essay again. At the end of the study, the teachers concluded that students scored and wrote better for the second time, as they were able to relate to the incident with the showing of the video. I was glad that I had the chance to sit in for the ICT meeting. I learnt that students were able to relate to images more than words. It would give students a better idea about how to write a good narrative essay in future.

by Yu Xin at 6:34 PM |