NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION

Teaching and Classroom Management

PGDE (Sec) NED516   Assignment 2 

Assignment 2

Research on teacher effectiveness and student learning coupled with the implications of the new educational initiatives indicates that teachers need to be adept in managing the classroom and proficient in assessing student learning.

With the above statement in mind address the following questions, bearing in mind a class that you might be teaching in one of your Curriculum Studies’ subjects during the Practicum.

Part 1

Use the Questionnaire on What is your classroom management profile? to gain an insight into the type of management style and interpersonal behaviour you might adopt in the classroom. What does the questionnaire tell you of your beliefs, preferences, etc.? Is the dominant style indicated from the questionnaire the management style that you would wish to adopt? What qualities or skills would you need to develop to improve the teacher-student relationship and create a conducive learning environment? (27 marks)

Part 2

(a) In view of the call for changes in assessment in schools to promote critical and creative thinking as well as problem solving, review the present assessment practices in a subject area of your choice. (Your review should be a critical analysis of present practices, after consulting with a few practising teachers). (9 marks).

(b) Suggest and discuss two changes you think can improve the present assessment practices in this subject area to meet this call. Your discussion should also include why you think your suggestions are important, able to meet the call and how they can be successfully implemented in schools. (18 marks)

Tutor: Associate Professor Agnes Chang

Name:             Chow Teck Seng (Zhou Decheng)                   

Reg. No.:        985002J23

Group:            Gp 13 (C17) Tue 3-5 pm

Deadline:        3 April 1999

   The first part of this report discusses my classroom managing style with respect to the effectiveness in teaching Secondary Chinese, and the second part, addresses the assessment of student learning in relation to the new educational initiatives of promoting higher-order thinking.

Part 1

The Authoritative Management style: My beliefs and Preference

My response to the pre-designed questions in the questionnaire “ What is your Classroom management profile?”[1] has indicated my preference for an authoritative management style[2]. This dominant style is also the type of classroom management that I would consider appropriate teaching a class of Sec 2 Chinese.[3]

An authoritative teacher is one who places limits and controls on the students but simultaneously encourages independence.[4] I believe that freedom to learn and independence to think are important, as these would bring out the intrinsic worth of learning. Yet there should also be limits on the students so that they would not misuse this freedom. They are allowed to participate in making decisions about what is studied, how it is studied, as well as formulating rules. Based on my Practicum experiences, I believe that setting down definite rules and expectations on the first day of class is crucial in establishing successful classroom management there after. We need to ensure that the rules relate to the pupils, by explaining the rationales and reasons behind them through critical and constructive discussions with them. It is important that after setting down the rules, I need to be consistent in the operation of the rules.

If a student is disruptive, I would offer a polite, but firm reprimand, by applying the steps argued by the critical consequences model, so that he can be reflective in changing his behavior. However, I would only mete out disciplines after careful consideration of the circumstances, as detention or a trip to the principal’s office might aggravate the undesirable behavior instead.  This is because their behavior can often be viewed as actions to gain attention, exercise power, exact revenge or display inadequacy. For example in my 2A class, there is one student who constantly disrupts the ongoing of the lessons through attention-seeking actions. It is found that his actions might be a result of his complex family problems. Thus I believe that this type of student should not be confronted directly in front of other students. Instead I should try to modify his behavior by engaging him in expressive learning activities like role-plays or approach him personally to counsel him after curriculum hours. Punishments would be necessary to cease disruptive behaviors such as fights in extreme cases.

In addition, there must be a genuine two-way communication in the teacher-student relationship. Interpersonal teacher behavior is an important aspect of classroom learning environment as it is related to students’ cognitive and affective outcomes. The students would not care how much the teacher knows until they know how much the teacher cares about them. Therefore I am open to considerable verbal interaction, including critical debates. Learning should be a mutual process where both the educator and the learners would acquire invaluable knowledge. Hence besides being a facilitator, I believe that an authoritative teacher should be an experienced learner who shares his learning experience in a collaborative learning process with the students. An example is illustrated below:

More Care, Less Unassertiveness; More Encouragement, Less Praises: Qualities & Skills to Improve My Classroom Management

The qualities of a teacher are often related to the choice and proficiency of his management style. Thus by enhancing one’s strengths and eliminating one’s weaknesses, it can help improve the teacher-student relationship and the learning atmosphere. Specific skills related to instructional tactics could too be employed to facilitate positive learning.  Below are two areas I can work on:

1)                  I should be more caring when dealing with students and simultaneously, be more assertive in monitoring the pupils’ learning and behaviors. In order to establish a good rapport with my students, I need to understand my pupils first. One way is to let my pupils fill up a Personal Particular Form [5]on the first day of class. Knowing them better can be very useful in organizing successful learning activities according to their needs and interests.                        

The questionnaire has indicated that I have a score of 7 for the laissez-faire style. It shows that I need to be more firm and assertive in maintaining classroom rules, such as monitoring the punctuality of students’ homework.

2)                  As a teacher, I should always try to motivate my pupils by using positive remarks. These remarks should be presented more in the form of encouragement than praises. Compare “Your composition is excellent. You got the highest mark”(praise) and “ You seem to really enjoy writing. I can tell that you have put in a lot of creativity and effort in it”(encouragement). The praise encourages the learners to work for performance and extrinsic rewards, but encouragement, a form of intrinsic motivation, stimulates cooperation rather than competition, effort rather than performance.

Therefore, based on my management profile and belief, the above are the two qualities and skills which would assist me in building a good teacher-student relationship and creating a conducive learning environment.

Part 2

Review of Present Assessment Practices in Secondary Chinese Syllabus

Recently there has been a continuous discussion about the development of higher-order thinking skills like creativity, critical thinking and problem solving in Singapore schools. This part of the essay witnesses a brief review of the assessment practices in Secondary Chinese in relation to the promotion of higher-order thinking. In most schools, school assessments are very much similar to the O level exams in terms of contents, format and the cognitive levels that are tested. This is because the objective of Secondary Chinese education is primarily geared towards preparing the students for the O level examinations.

The examination consists of an oral test, paper 1 (letter writing and composition) and Paper 2 (comprehension, vocabulary and other language knowledge). Paper Examination is thus the main form of assessment. For composition in Paper 1, the questions set and the marking culture encourage answers that demonstrate the principle of certainty (Glasser, 1969), where there is a right and wrong answer. This in turn stiffs creativity in students. Below is an analysis of the types of questions that were asked in 1998 O Level Chinese Paper 2 [6]:

From the table, only 2 items (sentence-construction and Comprehension 2), which are non-MCQ (Multiple-choice questions), can test pupils of their application and analytical skills. The percentage ratio of MCQ and non-MCQ in this paper is 44.5%: 55.5%.  As MCQ (which is about ½ of the paper) only test pupils of their knowledge (recall) and comprehension, which are considered as low-order thinking skills, the paper is ineffective in assessing the pupils in terms of their higher-order thinking. The students usually resort to memorizing their vocabulary handbook to score in this type of exams.

Two Changes to Improve Present Assessment Practices in Chinese Language

Below are two possible changes in assessment practices, which involve students to be engaged in higher-order thinking:

1) Firstly, more questions that require divergent thinking and of cognitive level higher than comprehension or application can be set to encourage higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation (which are skills required in critical thinking and creative thinking). Thus there should be a higher proportion of “Question & Answer” questions than MCQ in the paper assessment.

            One example is to design more open-ended composition questions such as using a picture of a moon: students would need to use his connected thinking and creativity to write an essay of his preferred theme and style. He can choose to write a narrative story on the moon, a descriptive essay on moon or even an argumentative one on why moon is the symbol of time. Another example would be to set questions, which requires analytical and evaluation skills and also application of their language knowledge, to test them on their vocabulary (paper 2). The question is set such that in a sentence, there is a mistake in the collocation of the underlined word. The pupils are required to explain the mistake and the correct usage (analysis and evaluation) with reference to the context and also, construct a sentence (application).

2) Another feasible improvement would be to include in the assessment, group-based projects to source for information, analyze, summarize and present them, so as to learn multiple skills of sharing, responsibility, assertive negotiation, defending a point of view and the actual application of the language.

Presently, projects are not common modes in schools to assess pupils. In future, the O level exams could be designed such that it consists of a project, which takes up about 20% of the total score. This can be seen as an additional channel to evaluate our students’ proficiency in the language. Under this form of assessment, students do not simply memorize and recall words, characters and their meaning, but involve themselves in learning that encourages real-life application and cooperation. This coincides with the new initiatives that concern with learning as a lifelong process to be applied in the world of work and learning that involves much creativity and critical thinking. Teachers from the department could form a network with other schools, which is also available via the MOE web-site, to share and discuss ideas to guide students in their group-based activities. One example, which sees the collaboration between a group of students from my school and another to do a common Chinese project on “Our Neighborhood Schools” through the use of Internet, is illustrated in Annex 3.

          The above shows that both good classroom management and assessment that encourages higher-order thinking, can improve one’s teaching effectiveness.

                                                                                                                            (~1655)

References:

1.      1998 (Nov) O Level Chinese Paper 2. Singapore : MOE.

2.      Classroom Management Profile: http://education.indiana.edu/cas/vli2/authoritative.htm

3.      Cole, P. G.& Chan L. K. S. (1987). Teaching Principles and Practice. New York : Prentice Hall

4.      Dreikurs, R. & Grey, L. (1968). A New Approach to discipline: Logical Consequences. New York : Hawthorne Books.

5.      Edwards, C.H. (1997). Classroom Discipline and Management. (2^nd Ed.). New Jersey : Prentice Hall.

6.      Emmer, E.T., Evertson, C. M., Clements B. S. & Worsham, M. E.(1997) Classroom Management for Secondary Teachers. Singapore : Allyn & Bacon

7.      Glasser, W.(1969). Schools Without Failure. NY:Harper & Row.

8.      Kings, CB & Mau, R.(1995). Assessment For the Future. Paper presented at the 9^th Educational Reserch Conference, Singapore . http://www.nie.ac.sg:8000/~wwwera/conferences/eproc95/p952b.5htm

9.      Moo Swee Ngoh(1997, December), Teacher Dispositions and Classroom Environments Which Support the Teaching of Creative and Critical Thinking Skills, REACT, Issue 2.

10.  Rogers, Carl R. & Freiberg , H. Jerome (1994). Freedom to Learn (3^rd Ed.) New York : Macmillan College Publibishing Co.

11. Woolfolk, Anita E. (1995). Educational Psychology (6^th Edition).  Boston : Allyn & Bacon.