ENHANCED SCHOOL EXPERIENCE:
PREPARATORY TASK FOR ICT FOR MEANINGFUL LEARNING
Enhanced School Experience: Classroom Observations of ICT Use
(I) Specific Observations
School Name: CHIJ SECONDARY (TOA PAYOH)
Class: 1/7
Profile of the class:
(For e.g., the students’ academic abilities, stream and other characteristics)
This is a Normal (Academic) class in an all-girls mission school. Students’ academic strengths in the Chinese language varies from those who are fluent both in speaking and writing the language to those who can barely produce a coherent sentence in writing. A quarter of the class is generally responsive while the others appeared to be laid-back or uninterested.
Subject: Chinese Language
What ICT tools are used in the lesson?
Computer presentation of Flash animation was used.
Describe how ICT is used for teaching and learning in the lesson.
The flash animation is part of the Sec 1 Normal (Academic) Chinese language curriculum package – the files are available on the MOE database and the activities and tasks that students are supposed to complete are outlined in their textbooks as a follow-up section on a text passage.
In the teaching of the text passage, the teacher uses PowerPoint slides to highlight key terms in the passage, as well as provide sample sentences to demonstrate how the terms may be used. Pictures are also presented to help students visualize the objects and places identified.
Following the teaching of the text passage, the animation was shown as an activity to gauge students’ ability to understand verbal descriptions. The animation storyline was about a girl seeing her friend off at the airport. Before arriving at the airport, the friend requested the girl to obtain some things from her uncle. A verbal description of the uncle was given and the students have to “help” the girl recognize her friend’s uncle in the animation, based on the description given.
It was a relatively simple exercise, which most students are able to grasp rather quickly. They were also amused by the animation, which grasped their interest and enabled a simple exercise like this to be conducted with ease.
(II) General Observation:
How do teachers in the school feel about the use of ICT for teaching and learning
Based on my limited understanding of the circumstances at CHIJ Sec, the teachers I heard about mostly used visualizers and PowerPoint slides when conducting some lessons. I’ve also heard about teachers who do not use ICT to teach at all, preferring to conduct lessons using the traditional book-and-discussion method.
In a discussion with the SSD regarding classroom management and engaging the students, our SSD shared suggestions with regards to teaching argumentative essay writing which involved bringing students to the computer lab and allowing them to spend some time researching on their topics, before writing the essay. The teacher may also provide website URLs or Google search terms for students to do home research with. She is positive that such opportunities will help students clear the hurdles of lacking the knowledge to write a convincing argumentative essay.
In a subsequent conversation with another trainee, we realized that problems which some teachers have encountered when bringing students to computer labs were that students tend to be distracted by the other things that they are interested in online. Strict discipline measures are needed to ensure that students focus on their tasks on hand. This brings about the question of whether computer lab research sessions are necessary or effective in helping students understand what was taught. Not all students are suited for such methods of learning as it can be seen that students with poorer discipline tend to be more distracted than enabled when given ICT tools in class.
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