This is the summary of the presentation 'Let's Talk About This' by Professor Wan Mohd Fauzy Wan Ismail from Center for Instructional Technology and Multimedia, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
1. Data from research have shown that the method of presentation or presentation skill of the teacher does not make much difference in terms of learning gain.
2. Approaches to be considered: flipped classroom, Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD), learning space, leverage social media, wiki, persuasive multimedia
3. Leverage social interaction
4. Be mindful of 'expert blind-spot'
5. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is still in experimental stage — issues about learning gain, effectiveness, etc.
6. Engaging students through discussion — they become committed and invested time — structured internal thoughts and vocalized them.
7. In a group discussion, it's not so much about getting the right answer but more importantly is the process of getting the right answer — to appreciate that there are many paths we can explore to get the right answer. The process will provoke and invoke deep thinking process, students learn to respect views of others, how to agree to agree, or agree to disagree.
8. Learn more about peer instruction. Prof Eric Mazur from Havard is a strong proponent of this approach.
9. Peer instruction is about getting students to teach each other. 'The best way to learn is to teach' and 'To teach is to learn twice'. This would promote deep understanding and improve retention.
10. How to assessment in peer teaching?
Yes, learning can be fun and that's the beauty of sharing and transforming education to gain satisfaction of understanding in terms of feeding students with comprehensive approach that is research based, It's like taking the journey of learning and we're the benefits leaders.Bravo!
ReplyDeleteThank you Prof Karim for sparing the time to share with your readers the essence of what must have been a very insightful presentation. As a teacher, it is astounding to read point number 1. Perhaps it's because one of the teacher's sources of professional pride and self-esteem lies in his masterful delivery of course content. So, to read that data from research showed that the teacher's presentation skill is not that big a contributor in terms of learning gain has a sobering effect. Upon reflection, I realised that despite being schooled along the lines of learner-centered-definitely-better-than-teacher-centered, all too often, I invariably slide back into sage-on-the-stage mode. Of course, I could always argue that so many constraints are put on the the teacher, except that there is this nagging voice at the back of my mind that won't let me get off so easily. So I guess some modifications to my teaching practices is in order - pronto!
ReplyDeletePoints 8 and 9 have induced me to take another look at peer instruction. In the past, I had always been hesitant towards using this technique. I recall feeling a bit miffed whenever students felt the need to seek clarification from their classmates rather than from me. At times, I seem to recall even going to the extent of asking those students if they felt their friends to be cleverer than me so much so that they sought their friend's assistance over mine, and therein I guess, lies the basis of my reluctance to employ this particular technique. Maybe their responses made a dent in my ego, maybe I felt a challenge to my status as the subject matter specialist; I wasn't entirely sure of the actual reason. But this snippet of information encouraged me to revisit peer instruction and I have uncovered a fresh new perspective on the matter. Needless to say, this is going to be on my teaching menu some time in the near future. So thank you very much Professor Wan Mohd Fauzy Wan Ismail for giving this enlightening talk, and Professor Abd. Karim, by way of succinctly encapsulating all of it here. Kudos Professors! Keep up the good work.