Students' reflective log, 27 August 2010 (end of week 7)

This is the reflective log I sent out to my 8 students in Set 6. I told them about it in the last class we had.

REFLECTIVE LOG


Dear students,

Please spend some time and effort in writing this reflective log as it will be useful feedback on the approaches that I have used in teaching the course this semester.

To help you to remember what we have been doing so far in class, and to guide you in your reflection, I have listed some questions , but please do not limit yourself to merely answering the questions. Feel free to express your opinions, be honest, be critical . Any suggestions on what would help you to learn better would also be appreciated.

If you feel that you’d be more accurate in expressing yourself in Bahasa Malaysia, go ahead and write in BM, or use a mixture of BM and English. But no other language, please.

Please complete this log and email it back to me before you go away for the Hari Raya break .

Thank you.

Pn Lee aka Mrs B.

Reminder: the questions here are just to help jolt your memory. Don’t confine yourself to answering them. And don’t say things just to be nice to me. This will NOT affect your grade, nor my job in any way!

Type in your response after each question. No word limit.

1. Compare your previous experience of learning English to your current experience of the SKPD1033 course.

2. Are you happy about being in a small class? About being part of a research project? Elaborate.



Comment on these activities that have been carried out in the class for the past 7 weeks. For each activity, say if you like or dislike it, if it has helped you in any way, if it is meaningless to you, etc



3. Discovering your learning style : has it helped you to know your learning style?

4. Collecting quotations related to the topics covered, and sharing them with the class.

5. Viewing short films ( only one so far – “House” , but will show a couple more)

6. Having the computer and LCD in class – accessing internet resources, doing trivia quizzes, etc

7. Receiving email from the lecturer – what you would prefer to receive

8. Presenting your blogs ( introduction) in class

9. Working on the units on your own

10. Self-marking of exercises





These are a few things that you were advised to do on your own. Say if you’ve actually started , or if you have no intention of starting. Comment on your experience if you’ve started.

11. Using online resources. Which websites/blogs? What kind of resources : for grammar, listening, reading, etc? Useful?

12. Vocabulary notebook

13. Quotations notebook



14. Reflect on your experience of learning English this semester . Are you more interested or do you still find it a chore ? Elaborate.



15. Any suggestions for improving your learning experience? Would you like to have English classes continued every semester? Elaborate.

Things about student life on campus I never knew

At the practice session on writing a reflective log ( My experience as an undergraduate so far), I discovered the following things:

1. Students' hostels charge different rates , and students have no choice of hostels. One hostel may cost a student about RM2 per day , and another can be as much as RM4. Apparently, when a student enquired about the different rates, she was asked by the clerk "boleh bayar tak?", and when she replied "boleh", she was told " bayar aje la!".
There is apparently no noticeable difference in the facilities provided by the different hostels, so what is the basis for differential rates?
2. Students say they are often treated badly by counter personnel. They are spoken to rudely, get scolded and the service is generally very inefficient. Liana shared her experience of asking for a simple letter to cetify that she wasn't on scholarship, so that she could show it to the Sarawak state authorities to ask for financial support. it took her a few trips over 3 weeks, and when the letter was finally prepared, there was an error and so she has to wait yet another week. Jason reported on an incident of asking the technician to attend to the non-functioning of the washing machine, and was told to file a report. he believes that all that was needed was for the technician to switch on the machine, but Jason couldnt do it himself because the main switch was in a locked enclosure.
3. Students have to pay RM50 per semster for internet access via Jaring. They're allowed 10GB, but Vincent reports that his 10GB has mysteriously been used up, and he has to pay to reload!
Now that I realise students are paying for access, I can't get students to log in for me when I use the internet in class anymore.
4. Students say they don't know who to turn to when they need help or support. They only know that they can log in a complaint but so far no one has done it.
5. Where academic work is concerned, students generally enjoy the new independence, even though they find it challenging having to work independently. They report that the teaching approach is very different from what they experienced in school, and they like it that their lecturers are informal and friendly.

In exchange, I shared with students one aspect of my experience on campus. All this talk about being treated badly and having no recourse to have their problems addressed prompted me to talk about the issue of student power. Generally they feel powerless. I told them briefly about the time when the students' union in Universiti malaya was active and strong, how it managed the students' transport on campus, awarded financial assistance to poor students, organised talks and forums, etc  I told them about Dr Khong , the Academic director of HELP Institute - how he was an active student leader,and now he's a highly responsible leader in the community of education.I want them to be aware that they too have power - it's just that they need to harness it and get organised.
We discussed why Fahmi Reza's "Student Power" lectures are not allowed in the public HEIs - the authorities are too afraid of students becoming aware of their power. But I told them student power has been used for good before - to address social injusice, to help the downtrodden in society, to make life better on campus, etc They seem very surprised to hear about what UMSU used to do.
I told them about the notion of "Speakers' Corner", soapbox oratory etc The importance of freedom of expression, dialogue. The reason why Interfaith Dialogues have not proceeded in Malaysia is that the authorities are fearful of people knowing more about one another!

Mid semester evaluation

recap on the past couple of weeks:
I've been using the laptop in class to log onto the internet so that I can show students the resources they can use. The most active network is Jaring but I have to get the students to log on for me since I don't have an account. So far I've shown them Speak-good-english, better-english, and just-english. I showed them a site on learning collocations, where there are lists of common collocations (verb + noun) , and quizzes and games to play (hangman). I also showed them trivia sites - eg on cities or countries of the world. This is related to one of the units in the book, and it would also improve students' general knowledge . ( The level of general knowledge is quite frightening!)
I will have to check on their use of such resources later.

I've been emailing them jokes, and a few respond to show their appreciation. I also email them the webvideo sites for the Fairly current Show, and the Effing show - and articles on student activism ( eg Fahmi Reza's Student Power talks, videos). So far only 4 or 5 studentsseem to have actually read all the stuff I send them, the rest don't check their email regularly because of poor internet connections at their hostel.




I am preparing a list of questions to guide students' reflection on their experience of the SKPD1033 course so far. In order to train them on reflection (even though a few students claim they know how to dio it), I got them to write a short reflective piece in class on "My experience as an undergrdauate so far". They then read out their pieces to share, which allowed me to point out to them where they could reflect further. I don't want students to merely report and describe superficially what they have done, I want them to think about their experience critically and say how they feel, what they think, and even to suggest what they'd prefer/want to be done.

I'll get the feedback via email - give students sufficient time to reflect over the weekend.

Students' blog projects

Self marking: Seems to work , except that I still need to check because some of the students don't really bother about the accuracy of their answers, or the language errors they make.

Saves me time, and gives students a sense of responsibility for their own work

The blog project: from the start, students were told to look up a few blogs to get an idea of what a blog looks like, and to learn how to set one up.

This week,I'm supposed to check on the first stage : registration of blog, title, background/intro to topic, profiles of members of the blog group.

I get each group to open their blog to the class ( LCD and laptop now a regular part of the class), and the class gives comments and learn to evaluate one another's work.

This helps them to understand what to look out for to develop a good blog.

I have developed evaluation sheets for each group so that I can track their progress.

Showed class a short movie from 15Malaysia ( Pete Teo's project) - "House" as discussion leading up to work on Unit 3 Urban Planning.

Doing this research my way

Tentative title: ACTION RESEARCH ON DEVELOPING INDEPENDENT LEARNING IN THE SKPD 1033 COURSE THROUGH THE USE OF INNOVATIONS

Aim of research:

1. To document the use of specific innovations for encouraging independent learning among students in the SKPD 1033 course.
2. To obtain students' evaluation of the innovations

Aim of innovations:

1. to encourage students to take on greater responsibility for their own learning
2. to train students to become more proactive in using other resources for their learning, esp. online resources
3. to train students to become more aware of and reflective about their own learning and cognitive processes .

It is believed that if these aims are achieved, students would be capable of independent learning

Method:

The class will have to use the prescribed syllabus and coursebook, and the same assessment methods as the rest of the students taking the SKPD 1033 course.

The instructor will introduce the innovations and monitor students' practices

The following instruments will be used in the collection of data:

1. Teacher's reflective blog
2. Students' reflective logs
3. Questionnaire for students' evaluation of innovations

Innovations:

1. Developing awareness of individual learning styles : students are told to go online to answer a learning style questionnaire (VARK) , find out what styles they have , and learn how to use appropriate learning strategies
2. Using online resources for learning - online dictionary, pronunciation, language learning websites eg Dave's ESL cafe
3. developing a collection of quotations related to topics in the coursebook
4. Frequent oral presentations in class, eg sharing quotations, sharing progress on blogs
5. Frequent emails from lecturer - jokes, articles that broaden the mind
6. self marking of homework
7. vocabulary notebook
8. use of online resources in the classroom - short films, demonstration of how to search for useful websites, etc

My personal reservations about the action research project

We had a meeting with Imran on 3 Aug. I discover that I seem to be the only one with concerns about the way the research project is going. I am concerned mainly with:

• the research design - we have not really properly discussed the aims of the project, the details of the method, etc It appears that the others are quite happy to just keep a record of whatever they do in class, a case of "I studying me". Jeanne McNiff's name is bandied about to lend support to this adhoc way of doing research - it appears to me that the others are subscribed to the idea of "anything goes" when it's action research. I can't accept that. I'm particularly bothered about the lack of concern with validity issues. It's hard to engage in a proper academic discussion about validity because the term needs to be carefully defined in the context of our research, but the simplest way to put it is that my research needs to have credibility. It's not good enough to collect evidence : the manner in which we collect and record evidence must be defensible, our results must be seen as credible, and worthwhile lessons must be learnt from our research process, otherwise it's a waste of valuable time and resources. It'd be like groping and shooting in the dark. Tembak aje!
• the lack of collaboration: my concept of doing a research project is that we work as a team, so there is collaboration, sharing and mutual feedback. Apparently, on this project, each of us are supposed to take care of our own research with our respective class, and there's no need to exchange ideas on what we're doing. It seems to me a very strange way of working on a project !

I had wanted to withdraw from the research, but seeing that it would involve some tedious paperwork, and with Imran's assurance that even if I don't produce anything, there's still Fook Fei and Hafizah's data, I decided to just do the best I can. Afterall I'd already done quite a bit - designed the student profile questionnaire, made a short list of books for reference, and I've been practising the approach of encouraging independent learning for as long as I can remember! It's just that this time, I have a relatively "workable" class ( MUET bands 3 & 4) - though, if I had my way, band 3 should be separate from band 4, and better still, I'd have a pre-study questionnaire to assess the degree of independence of my subjects.

This is what I mean, there ought to be more detailed preparation, thoughtful and intellectual discussion and debate before we embark on a study, but now we are being rushed - because of circumstances? We can't control these particular circumstances?

I will from henceforth treat this as an individual study of my own.

4th week - additional students

2 Aug 2010 : I walk into class to see new faces besides the 5 (Thiru absent) I've been teaching all this while. 8 new students from the 2nd intake! Surprisingly, they are mostly Band 4 and seem pretty confident and articulate compared to the original group. They are all from PPBL, either on the BAELS or the BAELit programme.

Since 8 students are without a book, I'm unable to do any work from the text. I get the original class to explain to the new students what the course is about and what I've done with them so far.

The rest of the time is spent discussing blog topics.

After a meeting with the coordinator , it is decided that I shall keep 4 of the new students, and Thiru ( already in her 3rd year) and the other 4 new students will have to be placed in other groups. I've found 6 to be too small a class - it's not cost and energy efficient.

So now I have 9 in the class, forming 3 blog groups.

4 Aug

New practice introduced: self marking of exercises.

I made copies of the answer key so that students can self mark the routine types of exercises - gap filling, simple sentence completion, error correction, etc

I will mark only those exercises which require students to write out in their own words.

Online learning resources:

Students generally have never bothered to use online resources for language learning - except for one student who uses the online dictionary.

I introduce students to online resources for language learning. I get them to search for suitable sites to learn pronunciation, grammar, etc One site which teaches phonetic symbols was particularly interesting to the BAELS students. I show them Dave's ESL cafe.

Will need to monitor their use of online resources.

I tell students to share any resource they find useful with the rest of the class.

Consultation on blog project:

2 groups have registered their blog site.