Assignment 2 was the most difficult, frustrating and brain-draining task I’ve ever encounter in this study.
Why?
It is not for the reason that I cannot do it or we cannot do it but because of impartial attitude that reigns in our group. I never see and felt that all of us are totally engaged and totally understand this pledge of commitment:
“I hereby pledge my commitment to give my best and my readiness to participate and productively contribute to the assignment. I understand that my failure to do so is tantamount to a failing mark.”
Some of my co-members just signed up to be in a group but never do their part as a member of the group. Some just share a part of the task but never contributed to the completion of the project. While one or two we’re there to monitor every step of the way. As for me, I felt like I was alone and carrying the burden of the task which turned out to be impossible to finish with great results as I was expecting that I will have the same kind of group as in EDS 113 where everyone collaborated regardless of their geographical location, time constraints, abilities, personal problems and complexities. Everything was set aside having only one focus, that is —- to create a meaningful, stress-free and result-oriented output, which I didn’t see in my current group.
With regard to the objective of our study, we’re supposed to discover what particular learning theories and principles are actively happening in the classroom by doing a learner-teacher interview. In the course of writing the questions both for learners and teachers I find it challenging to match certain questions that I write to a particular learning theory or principle that we want to investigate.
Concerning the actual interview, I find it enjoying and interesting as I gave the same questions to each interviewee (both learners and teachers) and come up with a different perspective and views. Knowing the fact that my learners’ interview uses English as their second language, still they did their best to answer every question that I gave to the best of their knowledge, abilities and experiences. I discovered that as they answer each question, there is a particular teacher that they can recall who obviously manifests such behavior mentioned in that question. Sometimes I laughed that that teacher that they are referring to is me :). Another thing is that, they are too honest and not shy to answer questions making the result to be more credible. They may have difficulty to answer questions but with little guide of clarifying the question they can definitely answer it.
In connection with teachers’ interview, that was challenging. They tried to argue with the questions that I gave them. Some may say that the questions that I gave reflect an ideal classroom environment with an ideal teacher, with an ideal curriculum and an ideal school. 🙂 Another realization is that the theoretical knowledge and experience of teachers affects their views about each question. Teachers with theoretical knowledge about the learning theories usually have more possible solutions given. Those who rely on experience had difficulty to connect their actions in the learning theory that I am discussing with them. Teachers with theoretical knowledge and experience usually gave views which are not mentioned by the rest of the interviewees making her answer to be unique. Similarly, the culture of the teacher affects the way they teach. I did interview a South African, American, Thai and Filipino. Each has ways on how to handle learning situations that give much particular on a more relaxing way of learning where students are not pressured to study if they can’t. I just feel disappointed when I asked them about how they handle a difficult or boring lesson and most of them answered to end the lesson and do other things like games or watch a video. For me, I cannot do that. It is because I feel like I am hanging in the air and all of a sudden I fall. They should have done ways to overcome the difficulty or boredom by breaking the topic into working parts. It’s like getting a piece of a jigsaw puzzle and analyze where it could fit best, and then move on to the next jigsaw until it’s done. In this case, we gave a gradual but meaningful closure to a difficult task. However, as what they said, sometimes the task was too difficult that it doesn’t fit into the ZPD of the learners especially if it’s a supplementary lesson as far as Thai curriculum is concerned. In Thai curriculum, all classes have supplementary class for their basic Science, Math and English. Often times, each supplementary class is independent as their corresponding basic subject and so students got no basic knowledge about it and that they find it boring and difficult to learn. As I continue the teachers’ interview, more discussions occur that in the end both parties learn. In the case of the interviewees where four of them have no theoretical knowledge about learning, they learn to become more aware of their teaching by understanding the principle and how they can actually use them in their teaching. For teachers with theoretical knowledge says that they will continue to pursue their actions as they thought its best for both teachers and students to create a learning environment with a balance of classroom management and choices of learning experience.
What’s my take about it?
I will go back to the very first post that I made in this subject.
The bubble that you see above is the scenario in my teachers’ interview especially with my male interviewees :).
I learned to compare and contrast each respondents view in each questions and take the solutions that will help improve my teaching based from the types of learners that I have. So, I realized it’s been a learning discovery. As I move from one interviewee to another I traveled to their paths and they traveled to my path too. We shared experiences and we all discovered in one way or another that — teaching is not an easy task. It takes much theoretical knowledge to understand how learners learn and how teaching may occur so that learning can happen. It takes our experience to practice and polish our theoretical knowledge. It takes flexibility and sound decision making to actually choose the type of teaching method to implement and the type of activities to be given to the class that totally address the learners need so that we can help them reach their full potential in learning. Plus a pixie dust of passion for loving and embracing the mission to teach. Mismatch of all of these means chaos — bad behavior and poor learning experience.
How could I (we) have done better?
Given the circumstances brought by my work and the quality of group that I have, I expected more; I did my best to contribute to the success of the output but my best wasn’t good enough if teamwork and collaboration is concerned. I should have known earlier that only a few of us are going to travel the road of learners-teachers interview so I can anticipate and maximize the time that I can allocate in this activity. I lived in the past — that I have a group which is the same as my previous collaborative activity (EDS 103). I rely on their participation hoping that all of them will contribute up to the completion of the task and beat the deadline— and I failed. 😦
Marieta Dichoso 