REFLECTIONS ON 2.1.4

Learning is a process or journey for both teachers and students. I have created learning experiences in my class but to only a limited extent. However, as I learn more in the course I will do better. My biggest challenge has been the large numbers. Last year I had  Geography class of 106 students all taught at the same time! So basically I found that the best method I could use was collaboration through group discussions and team work produced better results and  not individual work. However, there would always be a few learners who preferred individual work and sometimes I accepted them to choose the way they wanted to work but not always.

I have also tried to relate the learners experiences to real world activities when natural disasters such as Landslides and Floods have occurred and been been aired on the television. In the subsequent lessons we would collaboratively agree on the possible causes and the learners would be tasked to come up with diverse solutions on how such disasters can be controlled. They would also analyse any statistical data if it happened to be given.

The practical part of Mapwork has always provided an opportunity for me to overcome Richard Culatta's third challenge of performance data (grades) coming too late at the end to be useful to the learners. Evaluating each exercise enables the students to have constant assessment not summative assessment at the end so that they could map their progress. Sometimes I provided the answers, other times I let them work them out individually or we worked together. The biggest constraint was time in as much as the teaching schedule is constant!!and we must move on whether true learning has occurred or not. At present , that's administrative and is not something I can change as an individual. 

 

Recently our school acquired Three white boards and projectors and once they are installed I hope to utilise them to have more authentic learning experiences