Day 5 Reflection

Today is our last day in this LE module.

Yesterday when I saw other people blogs, why are their blogs are beautiful and so many information. They have put in many useful links, video and some even music. I try that in my own blog. I am so happy that now I am also able to put in the funny video clips, nice photo and few useful links. Just keep on exploring the function & really it have lots of functions.

For the am portion we just continue to compile our report. Really can see team spirit in all the teams in the class. We really work as a team and not individual to submit our report.

Learnt something from Dr Quek. She made us edit our team mates report and when we are commending on other people report. It is quite easy for us to spot other people mistakes. I think this process really help us not only to improcve our report but also teaches us to see from another perspective point of views.

In the afernoon, we have the Prize Presentation on the Best Bloggers site. Initially she wanted to give awards only to the Best Bloggers site, but she feels that we have put in lots of efforts and she gives away 3 prizes.

John

Goh Hong Lian

Serene

First 2 winners are awarded a book written by her and the second runner up got chocolate.

Lastly, I am really appreciated by Dr Quek gestures in providing us with daily healthy fruits, snacks and drinks when she bring us to the cafe.

My take away for LE is that LE can be changing very rapid and we must always be on par or we will be dinosours. Learning can be tedious but the process can be FUN as well.

Like what AFS is into Enhanced Learning Space where instructors and trainees will be given a tablet PC. We must be always be improving and not always in the comfort zone.

Day 4 Reflection

Today, we go more indept into WIHIC Questionnaire.

Dr Quek asked all of us to think about this 2 questions:

1) What are the student perceptions of Learning Environment?

2) Are they significants differences between the actual and preferred WIHIC forms?

Our replied to her is of course got differences. In my mind I tell myself just take the actual figures minus the preferred figures and we will be able to get the variances.

Not so easy.

Dr Quek introduced SPSS software to us. When Dr Quek was demonstrating the steps to the class, I found it confusing initially. But after the hands on by the respective groups, I do have a better understanding.

Lots of figures, I really salute those people who is doing the data entry full time. I will never do this job the next time for my second career.

Time for us to do the report. Each of us take one segment and few of us extract data from the Reliability data exported from SPSS. And the rest of the team mates start to do the compilation of the results.

Dr Quek bring us to " Cafe by the Quad " at NTU Student Activities Centre after lunch. She treats us coffee ad cheesecakes. The cheesecake are superb.

We pop in to NTU SMART Classroom, and one of the staff give us a short introduction about the room. It was indeed very kind of her to entertain us. For sure, the learning environment in this SMART classroom is super conducive and wonderful.

Day 2 Reflection

Today I learn about one of the tools on Assessing the Learning Environment using Validated Instrument. That is " What is Happening in this Class " (WIHIC). When I first see this abbreviation on WIHIC, I do not know what it means until I was being introduced.

The scales classified according to Moos' Scheme are as follows:
- Relationship dimensions
- Personal Development dimensions
- System Maintenance & Change dimensions

Under Relationship dimensions category, it consists of Student Cohesiveness and Teacher Support & Involvement.

Under Personal Development dimensions, it consists of Investigation, Task Orientation and Cooperation.

Lastly Equity is under System Maintenance and change dimensions.

We are told to read the two surveys: Student vs Teacher. Actual and Preferred survey using 5 levels Likert scale. They are as follows:

Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly Agreed

Previously I always called this is a 5 choices survey as I have 5 choices to choose from. When Dr Quek mentioned about what Likert scale, I ask Hong Lian who is next to me what is the word Dr Quek just mentioned. She replied it is Likert scale. This is my first time I came across this word so I goggle search to find out more.

The questions asked in both student and teacher is of the similar meaning. But I do not think it is good to put both Actual & Preferred questions side by side. The person doing the survey will get influence by his own answer and he/she will tend to do a comparison.

I like the survey especially the text box after each category for people to write their comments.


Our group is task to use the mind mapping program to do a mind mapping of Kurt Lewin. We are supposed to use the 5W and 1H. Guess what? Someone in the class mentioned 5 wives and 1 husband. Of course, the class burst into laughter including Dr Quek. The actual meaning of 5W are What, When, Where, Who, Why and 1H is How. Our groups decided to divide the tasks individually. So all of us turn and face the computer and start to goggle and search on Kurt Lewin. When it is about lunch time, LTC Ramezan actually come up with the mind mapping and some of the data he actually plug from the net and put into the various categories. A leader emerges and brings everybody come together as a team and discussed more in-depth about Kurt Lewin. Some of us are not sure which things should be under which category. Most of us are first time seeing this mind mapping program. Of course with some help from our teammates who are conversant in mind mapping guided us how to use the mind mapping.

Something I never expect in a course is Dr Quek bring the whole class for Coffee at one of the Canteen at NTU. She treats us to some drinks (coffee, teas, soft drinks and fruit juices) and some wafer. This is indeed a very kind gesture of hers. Not only that, she has been providing the class with daily fruits and tidbits. Lunch and 2 tea breaks are provided and the additional stuff she provides us. How not to grow fat with the rate we are eating. But we enjoy snacking in between lectures and all the discussion.

Day 3 Reflection

We are introduced to School Level Environment Questionaire (SLEQ). There are three different phases:

Phase 1: The SLEQ

Phase 2: Interviews & Observations

Phase 3: Consolidating Reports

The 9 scales under SLEQ according to Moos' Scheme are as follows:

1. Student Support

2. Affliation

3. Professional interest

4. Achievement orientation

5. Staff freedom

6. Partipatory decision making

7. Innovation

8. Resource adequacy

9. Work Pressure

One student ask Dr Quek is it a must for us to use all the 9 dimensions when we do up the survey. The answer is no need. Her replied was to use 4 to 5 dimensions will do.

When we are told to do the WIHIC Student ACTUAL Form, I find it very easy to do it. Why. This survey is easy to do because all the questions are short and they only have one meaning per question. In my context, I did few surveys before and it consists of few hundred questions. In the midst of the survey, I already lost my focus as the survey is so lengthy. Guess what is in my mind?

Of course, my intent is to quickly get it done as soon as possible. So the answer I have given might not be accurate as I am rushing through. Then the survey actually defeats the purposes.

Sharing from Mr James:

Mr James from Maris Stella School shares his experiences with us about his web sites he created, software and other web sites he knows and is useful. Indeed I found the short sharing session with us is very enriching for me.

Group Discussion:

Our group is given School C to discuss on the School Learning Environment whether is Positive or Negative aspect.

A quick summary of the various school:

School A (Second Best Tee Score for PSLE in Express):

+ve:

- good discipline, strong leadership and good collegiality

-ve:

- Lack of freedom

- High Work Pressure

School B (Best Tee Score for PSLE in Express):

+ve:

- good collegiality, good discipline

-ve:

- teachers felt not enough autonomy

- heavy workload

- lack positive attitude among Normal students

School C (Lowest Tee Score for PSLE in Express):

+ve:

- student well discipline

- people-oriented principal
- School has a higher % of experienced teachers' are involved in decision making

-ve:

- Heavy workload

- students lack motivation esp in Normal stream

Next time if I have children, which school would I want to enrol my children.

I would leave the choice to my children to select. I do not wish to dictate where he would be schooling. Give him some freedom.

I do agreed that if a school have a good and conducive learning environment. A student usually can perform better. But I also believe that if a student can perform, he can do it even in a normal school. Not necessary to be from prestigious school

Day 1 Reflection

Before I attend this Specialist Diploma on Learning Science Module on Assessing and Improving the Learning Environment, I just thought this module will provides me with theory about what LE is all about. But I am wrong. Besides providing theory, I also gain insights about how to do blogging. This is my first time logging to blogger.com. I find it quite interesting, I need to explore more as I still do not know how to use it for more functions.

When we are told to do the Self-perceived management profile in the Learning Environment. I choose Very strict style (Authoritarian), but when I go through the questionaire. My highest score for the management profile is " Commanding " and " Laissezfaire ". Mine is a mismatched. So I realise I am more Commanding rather than very strict. But my trainees always say I am very strict in the End of Course Validation. Till today, I am still trying to see which style suits me. I dun think I really want to change my style but I will try to use different profile at differrent event.

Most of our group mates belongs to " Commanding ". I think we really deserves because all of us are in SAF and we are always so demanding. We discuss through and we discover the 3 Common Problems are as follows:
1. Must Follow Procedures (In our context, we really need to follow Standard Operating Procedures[SOP] to do certain tasks especially if we are dealing with weapon system operating.)
2. Not really adaptive to changes
3. Fixed Mindset (For eg if we as Instructor have this mindset of doing certain tasks, we would want our trainees to follow suits. In this way, we are restraining their creativity. We should let our trainees explore other ways of doing things. Of course, if the trianees go out of the boundary, we need to pull them back)

We also discuss on the strategies, some ideas we come up are as follows:
- We must be more open and really " Listen "
- Not to be so judgemental
- We should place the responsibilty on the learner. Make it Learner Centered and our job is just to faclitate.

My own take away is that we know the common problem we are facing but are we really doing something about it or we are leaving it alone. You know the answer.

Gp 1 Photo