Session 3 of ICT

The third session of our ICT module brought us into contact with the art and science of teaching - in other words, pedagogy. Dr Quek said that defining pedagogy this way doesn't actually mean anything however, so we attempted to use more specific terms to come to grips with what that word actually means. For myself, pedagogy means the educational techniques and strategies used to make oneself an effective teacher, for example how to actually convey knowledge to our students and how to conduct a lesson effectively.

To this end, we were introduced to four methods of teaching, all of which can be used independent of one another or combined for greater effectiveness. They are case-based learning, inquiry-based learning, project-based learning and resource-based learning. I think all four of these methods are very effective means of teaching and used appropriately can really motivate students to grasp the lesson content thoroughly and even give both the teacher and the pupils fresh insights into what is being taught.

Take project-based learning for example. Back in my schooling days, project work as a component in the overall assessment of a student's grade had not been introduced. Lessons were conducted solely in class and basically all work was done individually. Thus many students did not do well as they were uninterested in the subject and had no incentive to perform well. However, if project work were to be introduced, this might have changed the mindset of these students. As they are now forced to work in a team, they have to play an active role in the group and contribute to the discussion at hand. They can no longer afford to "slack" and remain on the sidelines, waiting until the exams for reality to set in and to know that they have flunked. Furthermore, apart from the fact that students in groups will be motivated to work harder, discussing the project with their group mates will also brush up their knowledge of the subject and refresh their memory on what the teacher has taught. In this way, everybody can learn from one another and content reinforcement has been achieved.

Having said that, traditional teaching methods like memorization and rote learning still play an important role. These cannot be neglected in the rush to implement innovative teaching strategies. Another consideration is that these four methods are still in their infancy and not many teachers are well-versed in them. Take the teaching of geography using case-based learning for example. Using a standard geography textbook, how are we to decide which parts of the text are suitable to be used for case-based learning? How are we to actually convince our students to employ case studies to grasp the concepts of say, population dispersion and migration in human geography? All of these requires that teachers know which parts of the curriculum are suitable for creative teaching and which parts should be taught in the traditional manner. Hopefully, with the increasing liberalization of the Singapore education system and the on-going reforms taking place within it (ICT being one example), we will soon see more teachers able and eager to use these new teachniques of teaching to complement the traditional classroom lesson.