EIBT7123-IB-Teaching and Learning

Learning Outcome:
1. select , use, evaluate and adapt as appropriate approaches to teaching, learning and assessment across the curriculum;
2. set in context approaches to teaching, learning and assessment, explaining how they relate to theory and research;
10. reflect critically on the complex factors which impact on children’s learning and development;
12. identify, select from and use a range of approaches to organising classrooms, working with other adults and meeting children’s diverse needs and ensuring their wellbeing.

While preparing this Module –Practice, I realised that teaching is extremely complex, to be effective, facilitator needs to engage learners mentally in order to find out what they are thinking. The programme plan I planned in Module-Design can only be carried out ideally based on many factors, including teaching strategies, organization, classroom management, differentiated strategies and learning environment.

Feedbacks from both observer and my learners are the essential elements to improve my teaching practice. The observer helps me to recognise strength and weaknesses of my professional practice, suggests solution and resources to me. My learners helped me to identify how relevant and practical my programme plan is. After the learning sessions, I have discussed with my observer about the issues occurred during the class, methods to improve on the lesson.

There are several issues being addressed by my observer, including: 

Organisation/classroom management

In first learning session, some of my learners were not engaged, I should have prepare handout or worksheet as a task for them to fulfil while I was having individual tutorial for the photo editing learning session. Besides, learners will have a better understanding if the basic guideline of the software tools was given at the beginning of the lesson. They can explore and develop their skills more in depth.

Learners’ engagement in lesson

In second learning session, I have used different approaches to cater Multiple-Intelligences in my class. I was able to capture attention from the whole class because various platforms were given to understand the content from different aspects. They were able to understand the significant concept, reflect on the Areas of Interaction (AOI) and the integration to different subjects. Being a facilitator in an International Baccalaurate (IB) School, conceptual understanding is essential in each learning session.My learners have indicated excitement and were attentive during the learning session. They showed active participation and interaction between teacher and other learners. They were also able to elaborate the content creatively.

Content delivery

The feedbacks were, I have engaged and provoke the active learning using constructive questions and learners were actively participating in the discussion. However, some learners were having difficulties to understand the concept taught in class. Besides individual tutorial, I might need to develop and learn more about differentiation learning strategies, hence to accommodate different learners in the class with a well-organised structure. The observer also pointed out the concept is too broad, although it integrated with many subjects, some learners might find it too abstract to understand. It will be more realistic to focus on only one or two context in the learning session. 

Active Learning refers to a method of learning where active student participation is encouraged through project-based exercises. Characteristic of active learning is that the teacher acts as a facilitator of the education process rather than as a unilateral source of information. From this Module-Practice, I have learned the fundamentals of active learning classroom practice included: 

Eliciting prior knowledge

Diagnostic assessment is essential to understand my learners’ capability and their thinking level. From my experiences in this module, I have learned that diagnostic assessment is a baseline to understanding how much learning has taken place before and after the learning activity is completed. This is also important for me to improve differentiation strategies in the classroom practice. Besides, I also learned that learners can only analyse and synthesize a particular concept if their knowledge is insightful. For instance, learners who have no prior knowledge of colour theory were not able to analyse their artwork based on the theory. Bloom’s taxonomy is always my guideline to determine the learners’ cognitive thinking stages. 

New knowledge with feedback

Ongoing contribution of learners’ feedback is another important element to improve my active learning practice. Some part of my programme plan in Module-Design was not realistic when it comes to classroom practice because I didn’t encounter the capability and prior knowledge of my learners when designing the programme. I also realised the importance of class and group discussion in order to develop a quality learning environment. During discussion, I can better understand my learners’ strength and weaknesses hence reflect on my initial plan. 

Form of Assessment

The summative assessment is always the goal of the whole programme plan. I have learned that the form of assessment will affect the learning and teaching experiences directly. Authentic assessment is more relevant to develop active learning because it embraces diverse learning styles and personalities. Learners were developing dynamic approaches to carry out the task based on their own learning experiences. This is also encouraging them to be a life-long learner.

Reflection on learning

Another element of active learning will be the learners’ ongoing evaluation and reflection. The philosophy of  (IB)International Baccalaureate framework stresses on learner centred, hence it’s essential to encourage learners to know “how to learn” which is one of their Area of Interaction-Approaches To Learning(ATL). Based on the ATL skills, learners will examine their own learning effectively.

Besides, peer evaluation and critic session is another powerful tool to provoke active learning. From my experiences in this Module, I have learned that facilitator may not be the only person who can give advice and solution. Interesting thoughts and ideas from peer support are actually more realistic and provoking to create a harmony learning environment. Collaboration and interaction between learners drive peer support, hence, develop a quality learning atmosphere. Sometimes, learners know better than the facilitator their peers’ strength and weaknesses.

As a Visual Arts facilitator, my biggest challenge is always to inspire learners who have “zero” interest in the subject. I believe this situation happens in all subject, but it is crucial to Visual Arts because most of the learners have misconception that art is not an important subject.

My critical event during the learning practice was learners who did not accomplish their task and have very limited research and reflection in their Developmental Workbook. In order to overcome this circumstance, the perception of “art as a language” is essential to engage learners to better understand the purpose of learning art.

I showed examples of “art as a language” in my class, hence the importance of visual literacy in real life. For instance, a doctor can only interpret images from the CT scan machine if he understands the representation of lines, tones and colours of the image. An engineer needs to understand the layout plan drawing in order to carry out the project effectively. Eventually, my learners understand that visual art is interweaving in everyday life. 

Time management is also another issue I was facing in the learning session. The estimation of time given to group discussion was always being extended. I tried to apply thematic group discussion to resolve this problem. For instance, instead whole class doing investigation on a particular topic, I assigned different task for different groups. This was able to shorten the discussion time but meeting the learning outcomes. 

“Teachers are the engineers for the soul.”

I have learned to be a active learner as a facilitator because I believe teaching is an ongoing practice which need patience, passion and efforts.