Realism vs Idealism

The different types of approaches to learning in session 3 reminds me of my days in the enrichment education industry. Well, I don't have a hand in the lesson plans but lots of say in the delivery of lessons. The facilitator must have a clear idea of lesson objective, desired outcome, the kinks in the execution, time factor and the calibre of the students. More often than not, the students usually enjoy the lessons and have made wishes like they want to attend such sessions daily.

I understand that schools have to follow a syllabus, to prepare students for the National exams. And there is time, space and resource constraints. The mantra TLLM doesn't seem applicable in schools. Rather, they are all farmed out to the private companies to conduct enrichment activities, to help meet the TLLM objective and to supplement/complement classroom teaching. And what kind of facilitators are we getting from these organisations? Are parents and students wasting their edusave money on people/programme that is not up to mark? I don't wish to wash dirty linen in public but that is one of the main reasons I left the industry and decide to join the dark side, the empire.

I remember with fondness a Maths trail lesson for Sec 1s in my contract teaching. It was an after exam activities. The school uses the same template year after year. This May, the Maths Dept asked the 2 contract teachers (Ms L and moi) to fine-tune the whole thing. We came up with a storyline and a competition. (Hey, now we know it is called Games based Learning) There is an imaginery kingdom which is in dire shortage of ninja warriors. The Queen (we were short of male teachers) set tasks to recruit new ninjas. The Sec 1Maths teacher dressed up like ninjas and went back to their tribes (sec 1 maths class) to prepare them for the "dangerous" tasks at the various Maths stations. For every completion of tasks, they receive ninja dollars. At the end of all the tasks, they get to auction for prizes with their ninja dollars. It was hilarious and extremely fun, for both the teachers and students.

The Sec 2 Maths trail, on the other hand, was a complete letdown. The coordinator still held on to the 'tried-and-tested' previous years' template, with hardly any discussion/ input from the other teachers. It was boring, unenthusiastic and in the end, we had to do quite a bit of moderation of the results.

All that we have learned so far are not mutually exclusive but are correlated. They are not just meant for students but also for us as teachers, adults and live-long learners. My ex-boss once said that a happy learner will make a good teacher, and that's how she started her enrichment schools and recruit her facilitators. Some food for thought, ya?

Are you a happy learner?