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Assignment template for 5292 Practice: teaching and learning in actionFor examination 2011

Cambridge International Diploma for Teachers and TrainersModule 5292

Practice: Teaching and Learning in actionAssignment Template for examination in 2011

By completing this form and submitting the assignment for assessment by CIE I confirm that the assignment is all my own work. I have appropriately referenced and acknowledged any work taken from another source.

Date of Submission

CIE Unique Candidate IdentifierCentre number Year Candidate number Check digit

Candidate Name

JANICE CHAN

© CIE 2010

Your context

(approximately 300 words)

Your professional background

After high school, I went to University of Manchester, UK to study medicine. I graduated from the university with a MBChB. I went on to do 1 of my 2 years of housemanship (foundation training) in the UK. In my first year I did rotations in cardiology, general surgery and accident and emergency. I then returned to Malaysia to complete my second year of housemanship. I did rotations in Orthopaedics, Paediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynaecology in my second year.

As part of the housemanship training programme, we had weekly teaching sessions where we taught one another what we had learnt through case presentations, where we discussed cases we met on the ward and taught each other about the condition through a concept known as evidence-based medicine. There were also mortality and morbidity meetings, which we presented to learn about best practices.

Due to personal reasons and the love for good quality teaching, I decided to make a career change after 2 years of practising medicine and decided to teach. I am currently employed at Fairview International School Wangsa Maju where I am making my first debut as a teacher.

Your role and responsibilities

I am currently teaching Chemistry at the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) level. I am also the homeroom teacher to the graduating batch of IBDP students. This gives me a role in pastoral care, career guidance as well as personal counselling. I am also the Co-curriculum Activities (CCA) Coordinator for the school and am responsible for the organisation and smooth running of all CCA’s.

Your institution

Fairview International School Wangsa Maju campus is located at the residential area of Section 6, Wangsa Maju in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The school has roughly 500 - 100 students with different nationalities, including Malaysians. It is a new campus, which still undergoes expansion.

It is also one of the campus, that is nominated as IB World School, which offers Primary Year Programme (PYP), Middle Year Programme (MYP), Diploma Programme (DP). The language of instruction for the school is English.

Assignment Template for 5292 Practice: Teaching and Learning in Action. For examination in 2011.

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Assignment template for 5292 Practice: teaching and learning in actionFor examination 2011

Your learners

The group of students I will be studying for the Diploma is the graduating batch of IBDP students. The age group of these students are 17-19 and I have been teaching them for just over a year now and as they will be taking their exams in May 2013, they will have a lot to learn.

Your professional development during the Diploma


What do you expect to learn from this Module about practice which will help you in the next Module, which focuses on assessment?

At the end of the day, a student’s competency is always tested in some form or the other. As a teacher, I have to ensure that my students will do well in their assessments. Therefore the design and practice of my lesson is of utmost importance to allow my students to achieve their best. I hope my practice sessions will teach me more about my students learning styles so that I am able to deliver my lessons more effectively. This module should also allow me learn how to use differentiation and how to guide and support students who need it. I also hope to enhance my classroom management skills.

© CIE 2010

Copy of Session Plan for Learning Session 1Please copy here your Session Plan for Learning Session 1 (Copy from your Module 1 Assignment)


Session title Lesson 7: Buffer solutions

Aim Students are able to understand how buffer solutions work and solve problems involving buffer solutions

Learning objectives To describe the composition of a buffer solutionTo explain how a buffer works

To solve problems involving the composition and pH of a specified buffer system

Plan

Time Teacher Activity Learner Activity Differentiation Assessment Materials/Resources

5 mins

Teacher starts lesson by asking “What is a buffer, how does it work and where do you find them?

Students brainstorm what “buffers” are, how they work and where they are found

Encouraging quieter students to voice their opinions

N/AProblem worksheet/ virtual experiment results

N/A

10 Teacher shows an Students watch an animation on buffers N/A N/A Projector, laptop


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mins animation on buffers and then summarises what buffers are and how they work

http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/chemistry/essentialchemistry/flash/buffer12.swf

30 mins

Teacher introduces a virtual experiment to students with groups specific task given

Students in groups of 2 or 3 use a virtual experiment to find out how buffers work. Students then present their findings.

Each group will be chosen based on ability and given different tasks according to their ability

Presentation of virtual experiment results

Laptops, Internet

http://group.chem.iastate.edu/Greenbowe/sections/projectfolder/flashfiles/acidbasepH/pHbuffer20.html

10 mins

Teacher introduces natural buffers in blood using an arterial blood gas report sample

Students research where else natural buffers can be found

N/A N/A Internet, Textbook

http://www.ganfyd.org/index.php?title=File:ABG_compensated_metabolic_acidosis.jpg

15 mins

Teacher teaches students how solve

Students work on worksheet provided solving problems involving buffer systems

Questions with different difficulty

Worksheet Worksheet


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problems involving a buffer system through an example

levels

10 mins

Teacher discusses one or two problems in the worksheet which students struggled with

Students take notes N/A N/A Worksheet

Use as many rows in the table as applicable – add rows if necessary


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Notes


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Copy of Session Plan for Learning Session 2Please copy here your Session Plan for Learning Session 2 (Copy from your Module 1 Assignment)


Session title Lesson 8: Salt hydrolysis

Aim To enable students to apply and use their knowledge to deduce the acid-base property of a salt

Learning objectives Students are able to deduce whether salts form acidic, alkaline or neutral aqueous solutions

Plan


10 mins

Teacher introduces the topic by stating that salt (NaCl) solutions are neutral. Teacher then poses the question “Are all salt solutions (the products of various

Students use the think-pair share method to hypothesize if certain salt solutions will be acidic, neutral or basic

Students are paired according to ability

Q&A


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neutralisation reactions) neutral?”

15 mins

Teacher prepares various salt solutions for students to test

Students use pH probes to test the pH of different salt solutions

N/A N/A pH probesSalt solutions

45 mins

Teacher introduces the Jigsaw teaching strategy

Using a ‘Jigsaw’ teaching strategy, students are paired to study cation and anion hydrolysis. Those studying anion and cation hydrolysis from the different pairs then group together to discuss their findings. Students then return to their pairs to teach each other what they have learnt

Students of similar abilities are paired together

Discussion TextbookInternet

10 mins

Closure Students summarize their findings in their notes

N/A Summary

Use as many rows in the table as applicable - add rows if necessary

Notes


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Part A: Putting the programme and the sessions into practice2.1.1 Using teaching methods


In the two learning sessions, how well did you feel your teaching methods matched your learners’ needs?

From my previous observations of the students, I have identified that they all have different learning styles. According to Howard Garnder’s multiple intelligences, I have idendtified 6 different types of learning styles in my class; visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic and logical-mathematical. Knowing this, I feel my teaching methods have satisfied my learners needs as I try to incorporate a mix of teaching styles and miulitmedia to cater to all their needs.

In my 2 learning sessions, I satisfied the visual and bodily-kinesthetic learners through animation and experimentation, the needs of interpersonal and linguistic learners were met through discussions and teaching each other. Intrapersonal learners also had a chance to sit down and independently read and research material. And finally the logical-mathematical learners had worksheets to solve problems logically.

How did your chosen teaching aids affect the quality of teaching and learning in practice?

I believe that by using a mix of teaching styles, I gave all my students the opportunity to be independent learners according to their needs. I found my students to be more engaged and involved. They were more willing to actively participate in their learning. Due to use of more active learning techniques, my students were more motivated to learn and less likely to feel bored as they were given the chance to move around, stretch out and talk rather than to listen to me lecture for long periods of time.

What adjustments did you make to the management of the activities in the sessions, to make them more effective?

In my first session, introduction to buffers was done by a brainstorm activity. Hoewver, many students were unsure what buffers were. Therefore, I gave them 10 minutes to research about buffers were and where natural buffers were found.

I also found that although the virtual experiment for the buffers worked well for most students, some students were still a bit confused after the experiment and it was necessary for me to step in to clarify and summarise their findings.


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In the second session, there were not enough pH probes for the whole class so we used a mixture of pH probes and universal indicator.

In the jigsaw session for cation and anion hydrolysis, the anion hydrolysis portion was much smaller and simpler than the cation hydrolysis. So instead of working in pairs, they worked in groups of 3 with 2 students studying cation hydrolysis. The class also got a little bit messy and confused with the method as there was quite a lot of movements and shifting around so I simplified the method and had 2 separate groups, a larger group discussion cation hydrolysis in the class and a smaller group discussion anion hydrolysis in another room. They then reformed their original groups of 3 to teach each other about anion and cation hydrolysis.


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2.1.2 Observation of teaching


How did the observation affect the learning sessions?

Both the students and myself were initially distracted by the presence of an observer in the classroom. It made all of us slightly intimidated but as class started and the students became engrossed in their tasks, the class became more relaxed and soon forgot about the presence of the observer.

However, the outcome of the observation was most beneficial to my teaching practices. I was able to discuss what went well as well as what could have been done better with someone with more experience. My observer also gave interesting insight as to how to improve my lessons and highlighted areas that I had overlooked especially in the classroom management section.

Which main issues would you identify from your feedback discussions with the observer(s)?

My observer and I mainly discussed the teaching strategies that I employed, my classroom management skills and explored both what went well as well as what could have been improved.

Good points:From the feedback I received, I had a good structure to my lessons, beginning with establishing the students’ prior knowledge and before moving on to the main content of the class and ending with an assessment. There was also good student engagement by employing varied media as well as using active learning strategies. Another good point about my lessons is that I actively praise and use constructive feedback.

SuggestionsHowever, to improve the lessons, my observer suggested that instead of presenting the main subject matter in a predetermined manner (ie. Starting from scratch) immediately after establishing the students’ prior knowledge, I should build upon my students knowledge.

Another factor to consider is also my classroom control. Although freedom should be given to students whilst performing activities and discussion, I should be careful to look out for students who are distracted and bring them back to the subject matter. The volume of the class should also be controlled so that it is not too loud.

The major criticism my observer had for me though, was that instructions to students were unclear. I expected the students to be able to understand and retain multiple verbal instructions. Instead I should provide the students with written instructions ie. on a powerpoint slide to constantly remind


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them of what they have to do.

How will these issues and the observer reports as a whole affect your future practice?

The observer report was very useful in providing me with confidence that I am performing quite well as a teacher but also highlights major issues in my classroom preparation and control. I would also continue using multiple media, virtual and real life experiments to engage my students. I would also continue to provide students with praises and constructive feedback.

However, in the future I will ensure that I give clearer instructions for activities by either writing it on the board, preparing a powerpoint slide or giving out instruction sheets. Also I will be more attentive to the volume of the class as well as students who are easily distracted.

I will also not hesitate to continually ask for class observations by my colleagues to continually improve on my practice.


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Observation of Session 1 Insert completed form


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Observation of Session 2 Insert completed form


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2.2.1 Involving and supporting learners


What opportunities did you provide for individuals to learn, and how did they respond to these?

Thinking skills – my students were encouraged to think and make connections for themselves rather than being spoon-fed information for memorisation.

Research skills – students were given the opportunity to look for their own answers. This also teaches them how to sort through the many resources available to select relevant and reliable information.

Manipulative/kinaesthetic skills – instead of purely focusing on information, students are given the opportunity to stretch and learn ‘hands-on’.

Collaborative learning – students learn how to work together to complete an activity or assignment. they learn how to pull their own weight as if they do not complete their assigned section, the entire group suffers the consequences. They also learn about time-management in order to complete their tasks.

Visual stimuli – I incorporate animations and demonstrations to the class so that students can visualise and relate to a particular reaction or concept. Worksheets – although a more traditional form of learning, my students find this method useful as they are given the chance to practice their problem solving skills and gives them a chance to consolidate their knowledge as well as the confidence that they have mastered the content.

How did you go about giving guidance and support to those who needed it?

During group activities, I usually walk around the classroom listening in to students’ discussions. I would gently guide them, giving them prompts to help them with concepts they are struggling with. For the weaker students, I would also spend a little more time with the groups and contribute to their discussions.

In worksheet activities, I would also give students written comments. If a worksheet exposes that most students have difficulty understanding a topic, I would then go thru the content again and discuss the questions on the worksheet. If only a selected few were struggling with the questions, I would create a small group study outside of class time to go through the material with them.

I also always welcome questions and never make my students feel silly for asking them. I try to


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explain concepts in simple terms using everyday examples rather than using jargon. I always try to give students constructive feedback whether in writing or when talking with them.

How did you manage this guidance and support, so that the learning of the teaching group as a whole was able to continue?

I use a variety of methods. Often I would give students one-on-one attention. This is done either outside of class time or during class when the other students are involved in another activity so that their learning is not interrupted.

Another method is by pairing a weaker student and a more able student during group work so that peer learning can take place. By differentiating certain tasks, I also ensure that learners learn according to their ability.


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2.2.2 Feedback from learners


How would you summarise the learner feedback you have collected from the two learning sessions?

All learners are different and have different needs, likes and dislikes thus making it difficult to summarise in totality. However I am able to deduce from their feedback that although many of my students are used to the traditional rote-learning method, they do enjoy a more active learning environment. However, as they are new to certain teaching strategies (especially the jigsaw method) they would have preferred clearer instructions. I also have comments from students whom expressed the preference for more active teaching.

All the students enjoyed the experiments that were conducted but did not enjoy the write up process.

For group activities, some students preferred to choose their own group members. However, when given that opportunity, they were easily distracted and discussions led to conversations about unrelated topics. These students felt the activities should have taken less time.

A majority of the students felt the worksheets were a good method for consolidating their knowledge and would prefer if more class time was given to worksheets and would not mind having more worksheets for homework.

What is your response to this feedback?

I am happy to hear that the students are enjoying the active learning approach but I should introduce them to a more active learning environment slowly as some are struggling with the sudden transition from traditional rote-learning methods into fully active learning methods.

I can also see different students have their own preferences and I can try to incorporate as many of these aspects into my lessons. Amongst them is to allocate more in-class time as well as homework to worksheets to help consolidate their knowledge. I can also perform more demonstrations, conduct more experiments and show them more animations to facilitate their learning.


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What questions would you now like to ask this group of learners, in the light of their whole experience of the planned learning programme?

Do you feel more engaged in class?Do you know how and where to look for answers?Do you feel confident about what you have learnt on your own or that taught to you by your classmate?Does active learning give you more control over your study material?Would more group work activities be preferred?What would the optimum time ratio be for active learning and traditional lecturing?


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Learner feedback for Session 1 Insert completed form

Cambridge International Diploma for Teachers and Trainers

Summary of Learner Feedback Date of session: 18 Sept 2012 Location of

session: Chemistry lab

Name of learner group: DP 0513 Number in group: 11

Which method(s) have you used to obtain feedback from your learners?

I prepared a simple 3-question questionnaire for my students to give me feedback about what they learnt, what they found most useful and what they thought could be improved.


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Learner feedback for Session 2 Insert completed form


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Part B: Reflective ReportIn your report you should reflect on your overall experience of facilitating active learning and effective teaching. Among your reflections on this stage of the teaching and learning cycle and your Diploma project, you should include the following themes:(a) What have you learned from the feedback from your observer and learners?(b) What have you learned about handling and developing active learning techniques?(c) Using evidence from your reflective journal, what critical events led you to modify your

handling of any part of the learning sessions? How successful do you think the modifications were?


For a while, when I first heard of the term “active learning” it struck fear in me. What is active learning? Why is there so much hype about it? My thoughts were this teaching style must be very difficult as many teachers are seemed to be struggling with the concept. As Bonwell and Eison,puts it, “students must do more than just listen: They must read, write, discuss, or be engaged in solving problems. Most important, to be actively involved, students must engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Within this context, it is proposed that strategies promoting active learning be defined as instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing.”

This long explanation confused me. However, as I did my research, shared my thoughts and started planning my lessons, I started to breathe easier. It wasn’t all that complicated. As long as students were constantly engaged whether through discussions, group activities or even writing and problem solving tasks, this was active learning. However I must admit there was also a time when I believed that the entirety of the lessons must be where students are “actively learning” which meant I am not allowed to actively teach or lecture. This made me worry that students may misunderstand or oversimplify the content. The number of activities I had to incorporate also presented an issue with time constrain as I worried about syllabus coverage if I spent so much time on activities. My doubts were alleviated following discussions with colleagues who shared that lecturing is not a taboo. We simply have to ensure that our students have a change of pace every so often and be encouraged to think and form conclusions for themselves. I also learnt through the process that activities do not have to be long. It could be a simple 5 minute discussion or Q&A session. So this made things simpler for me as I try to employ a good mix of both lecturing and activities.

From the feedback that I have received, I am glad that on the whole, students are feeling more engaged with the usage of more activities. However, some students who are used to the more traditional approach of passive learning were struggling to make the transition and were often shy to speak up and participate in activities. This made me think I had to make that transition smoother for them by introducing smaller activities to start before moving on to longer more complex ones.


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The other observation is also that my instructions were confusing. The transition from passive learning to active learning would also be smoother for them if I made instructions clearer so that they know what they are expected to do.

Upon analysing feedback from students, I also discovered there isn’t a “one size fits all” model. Students are all very individual with regards to their preferences so I cannot continually rely on a single type of activity. There must be a good variety so that all students could be satisfied at one stage or another. The large variety will also stretch some of them out of their comfort zones and take risks with their learning. In doing so they discover more about themselves and may even learn a better way of doing things.

My observer also raised the issue of classroom control. Although the structure of the lesson was good, and there was an activity to keep students busy, some still managed to get distracted. I believe this was because as I conducted the lesson, I went around and listened in to discussions and occasionally got involved in a group discussion. This led to neglecting the rest of the class for a while. I need to learn to be more mindful of the class in general and not to spend large amounts of time with a specific group and foregoing the others.

Activities get students involved but very often they can misinterpret their research or oversimplify or miss out important bits of information especially when not followed up with a knowledge consolidating activity whether it is a worksheet or a problem to solve or a written summary. Sometimes I catch on it during their discussions and prompt them to guide them to the issue at hand but often their knowledge is assessed during the summative assessment and It may be too late when I pick up on this. I have started to incorporate worksheets, or get students to solve a problem and recently given them a graphic organiser to summarise their findings at the end of activities. I will also fit in more formative assessments so that I catch onto problems earlier.

In running group activities, I initially relied on students forming their own groups but this often led to distractability as they start discussing non-academic matters or ran off course. Some groups also had large differneces in student abilities. So I started grouping students so that each group has a mix of strong and weak students. However, this also led to problems with the stronger students getting bored easily. Since then, although I still have mixed groups, I occasionally group students by ability so that they are challenged.

When I first started using Q&A sessions, I asked for volunteers to answer the questions but quickly discovered either a silent class or a few students who regularly answered. So I changed my strategy by calling on students. As students do not know who will be called, they all take the extra effort to do their reading so that they may be able to answer the questions.

When I first learnt of active learning strategies, I read of many different teaching strategies. As usual the long, complicated ones caught my eye and I couldn’t wait to employ them as I thought students would be excited to perform these activities. However, as my observer and learners have identified, my instructions were often not clear enough and students who were not used to active learning strategies were resistant. This has led to the more frequent usage of much shorter and


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simpler activities such as Q&A’s, class discussions, problem solving and group activities with simpler subject matter. If I run longer more complicated activities, I will prepare handouts with instructions as well as a graphic organiser for students to summarise their findings.

I also realised I often make assumptions about a student’s background knowledge of a topic. Occasionally they are all completely new to it, which means I have to change the activity or the focus of the activity. This often leads the activity taking more time than anticipated and I find I have to rush through the rest of the lesson. In my future practice, I will build in buffer times for activities.

Overall, this module has given me a lot to think about my practice and ideas on how to improve. The above reflection is only a sampling of what I have learnt and with continued evaluation of my practice, I am sure I will continue to improve and grow.

Additional evidence

You may include selected images of the learning sessions as additional evidence

(NB maximum number of images = 6: please set resolution for web/screen 96 dpi)

References:

Bonwell, C., Eison, J. (1991) Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom. Washington DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education. http://www.oid.ucla.edu/about/units/tatp/old/lounge/pedagogy/downloads/active-learning-eric.pdf [accessed 29 November 2012]


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http://www.oid.ucla.edu/about/units/tatp/old/lounge/pedagogy/downloads/active-learning-eric.pdf

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