We're into the 3nd week of the new semester ( when Dr Imran Ho Abdullah, the Deputy Dean for Undergraduate Programmes, calls the 3 of us ( Fiz, Fei and me) for a meeting. Fiz is the coordinator for SKPD1033, Fei and I teach on the course and we both happen to have one class each that's considered small (5 to 6 students). Imran wants us to participate in a research study that he's already written a proposal for, but sadly, has no team as yet. He wants to get evidence to support his belief that small class size is good for learning. I point out that there are many factors involved, one consistently important one being the teacher, but he says NVM, u can tweak the proposal later, just agree to be on the project , and here, sign, sign !
We hesitate, he urges. We have other commitments. We can't simply agree without sleeping over it. He knows if he lets us leave to sleep over it , he might only see us sign the proposal in his dreams. We laugh at his sales tactic - for a small guy, he sure can bulldoze.
Eventually, the altruistic educator in me sees this as an opportunity to document what I do in my class, and to share it with younger teachers , or to show older ones it's possible to enjoy our work and expand ourselves no matter how many years we've been at it.
So I sign. And so do Fiz and Fei.
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