Visual Design Critique

Slide 1 – Lesson Menu

 

Strengths

·          Lettering style

The fonts used for the heading and the main text include ADEPT, Tempus Sans ITC and Times New Roman. These are of the serif style (Times New Roman) or sans serif style (ADEPT and Tempus Sans ITC), which are legible and easy to read.

·          Use of capital letters

The title of the slide consists of only two words and the words are in both upper and lower case. This makes it easy and comfortable to read.

·          Lettering colour

The background is beige (or grey?) in colour, which is a light colour while the font colours used are black, brown and red, which are all contrasting with the background. Hence, it is easy to read the words.

·          Lettering size

The minimum font size used is 24. Hence, when the slides are projected to the screen in front of a class, it is possible for students sitting at the back of the classroom to read it. However, I think with the amount of empty space available, the creator can afford to increase the font size by a little bit more.

·          Number of lines

A total of 5 lines in the main text are observed. This is kept within the limit of not more than 8 lines.

·          Audio – Narration

The narration is quite clear. It may provide some help for students who are too young to read, although I think that the written instructions are already sufficient.

 

Areas of improvement

·          Number of lettering styles

A total of three types of font, namely ADEPT, Tempus Sans ITC and Times New Roman, is used. It would have been better if the creator of the slides sticks to not more than two types of font. In addition, I feel that Tempus Sans ITC is a more ‘informal’ font compared to Times New Roman. Hence, the two font types do not really harmonize each other very well.

·          Spacing between lines

The spacing between the lines is too close at the part where we are supposed to click the icons to hear some frog sounds. Since there is a lot of empty space within the slide, the creator should try to maintain at least a one-and-a-half spacing in between the lines. The spacing between the lines is too far away between the line “Life Cycle of the Frog” and the line “Click on the buttons learn more!”. Since the latter is an instruction pertaining to the two bullet points above, it should be closer to the two points. If not, it will create a disjoint feeling and readers might not realize that what that line is referring to.

·          Static visual display

I do not see the need of adding a picture of the frog right next to the icons, assuming that the target audience is primary school students who already know how a frog looks like. It might be better if some descriptions of the audio clips are provided so that the audience knows what to expect before they hear the clips. This is to prepare them in advance.

·          Audio – Music

I feel that the music does provide a relaxing learning environment only if the slides are meant for students to do some self-paced learning at home. However, for a normal lesson, I think it can be quite distracting.

·          Audio – Sound effects

The sound of the frog might make the lesson more interesting. However, I do not see any relevance of the frog sounds to the lesson objectives. On top of that, it should have a replay feature so that students who cannot hear it clearly the first time can replay it at ease. The icons did not work for me and therefore, I cannot comment on the audio quality.

·          Use of colour

The background is of a light colour. As a result, the green frog is actually very eye-catching. Since the frog is not the main focus of the slide, I feel that it might be better to remove that picture.

·          Layout

The layout gives me a feeling of imbalance. I feel that the creator has not made full use of the available space and as a result, the slide looks empty to me.

 

Slide 2 – FACTS ABOUT FROGS

 

Strengths

·          Use of capital letters

The title of the slide consists of only three words. Although the words are all in upper case, these can still be read easily.

·          Lettering colour

The background is beige in colour, which is a light colour while the font colours used are black, which is contrasting with the background. Hence, it is easy to read the words.

·          Layout

The layout gives me a feeling of balance although the text and the graphic are not really related. At least, there is a pattern in which the elements are arranged. It will be better if the bullet points on the top right hand portion (the same goes for the bullet points on the bottom left portion) are aligned. Right now, the point below is indented and this actually gives reader an impression that the second point is a sub-point of the first point.

 

Areas of improvement

·          Lettering style

The fonts used for the heading and the main text include Arial Black and Arial. These are of sans serif style, which are legible and easy to read. However, the fonts used are inconsistent with the fonts used in previous slides. It will be better if the creator standardize the font type for all the headings and all the main text.

·          Lettering colour

If the creator really wants to emphasize the word ‘Amphibians’, I think other than bolding the word, he or she should choose another font colour, perhaps red, to ensure that it will stand out.

·          Lettering size

The minimum font size used is 12. Hence, when the slides are projected to the screen in front of a class, students who are sitting at the back might not be able to read it.

·          Spacing between lines

The spacing between the lines is too close and the lines will blur out at a distance.

·          Number of lines

A total of 9 lines in the main text are observed. This should be kept within the limit of not more than 8 lines.

·          Static visual display

Since this slide covers the physical features of a frog, I think it will be more useful if certain parts of the frog such as the feet and back legs are shown as ‘zoomed-in version’s to illustrate the points.

·          Transitional effects

I feel that there is a misuse of text animation in this slide. The fact that the words appear one by one with accompanying sound effects can be quite irritating and distracting. It will be much better if the text appear point by point per clicking.

 

Slide 3 – The Life Cycle of a Frog

 

Strengths

 

·          Lettering style

The fonts style used for the heading and the main text are Arial Black and Time New Roman. These are of the serif style (Times New Roman) or sans serif style (Arial Black), which are legible and easy to read.

·          Lettering colour

The background is beige in colour, which is a light colour while the font colours used are black and orange, which is contrasting with the background. Hence, it is easy to read the words. This time round, the word, STAGE, which the creator wants to emphasize is not only in bold and in upper case, it is also in orange. Hence, the purpose is achieved.

·          Number of lines

The number of lines is kept within the limit of not more than 8 lines.

·          Layout

A circle is used to depict the life cycle of a frog. Hence, balance is achieved.

 

Areas of improvement

·          Use of capital letters

The instruction is a long sentence of more than six words and the words are all in upper case. Hence, this will slow down reading speed.

·          Lettering size

The minimum font size used is 16. Some of the words might be too small to be seen when projected onto the screen.

·          Spacing between lines

The spacing between the lines is too close and the lines will blur out at a distance, especially since the words are all in upper case.

·          Static visual display

The picture is a bit blur. It will be better if a higher resolution picture has been used instead.

 

Slide 4 – Eggs

 

Strengths

·          Lettering style

The fonts used for the heading and the main text include Arial Black and Arial. These are of sans serif style, which are legible and easy to read.

·          Use of capital letters

The title of the slide consists of only one word and it is in both upper and lower case. This ensures easy reading.

·          Number of lines

The number of lines is kept within the limit of not more than 8 lines.

 

Areas of improvement

·          Lettering size

The minimum font size used is 16. Some of the words might be too small to be seen when projected onto the screen.

·          Spacing between lines

The spacing between the lines is too close and the lines will blur out at a distance.

·          Dynamic visual display

Since this slide covers part of eggs, the picture of the frog eating the fly is irrelevant. It will be more relevant if this picture is placed in Slide 2 instead. Besides, the gif file keeps repeating the same action and this can be rather distracting.

·          Transitional effects

I feel that there is a misuse of text animation in this slide. The fact that the words appear one by one is still quite irritating and distracting even though the sound effect is absent for this slide. It will be much better if the text appear point by point per clicking.

·          Layout

The layout gives me a feeling of imbalance as the text and the picture are not aligned together. This makes the slide looks messy, especially the part where the picture of eggs and the title is sort of ‘forced’ together. It will be better if the size of the picture is reduced. The two bullet points should be aligned together too.

 

Slide 5 – Tadpole

 

Strengths

·          Lettering style

The fonts used for the heading and the main text include Arial Black and Arial. These are of sans serif style, which are legible and easy to read.

·          Use of capital letters

The title of the slide consists of only one word and it is in both upper and lower case. This ensures easy reading.

·          Static visual display

The pictures are relevant to the content and hence, it supports learning. Besides, the pictures are quite clear too.

·          Transitional effects

The text appears point by point per clicking. This is less distracting than previous slide. The teacher is able to reveal the next point after explaining the first point, thus directing students’ attention to the right place.

·          Layout

The pictures and the text are aligned in informal balance. This makes it comfortable for viewing. The three bullet points are aligned too, which looks neater than the previous slide.

 

Areas of improvement

·          Lettering size

The minimum font size used is 18. The words might be too small to be read when projected onto the screen.

·          Spacing between lines

The spacing between the lines is too close and the lines will blur out at a distance.

·          Number of lines

A total of 13 lines are observed, which exceeds the limit of not more than 8 lines. The creator should create another slide instead.

·          Others

The creator should use Arabic number to show numbers pertaining to time and duration for easy reading.

 

Slide 6 – Young Frog

 

Strengths

·          Lettering style

The fonts used for the heading and the main text include Arial Black and Arial. These are of sans serif style, which are legible and easy to read.

·          Use of capital letters

The title of the slide consists of only two words and these are in both upper and lower case. This ensures easy reading.

·          Static visual display

The pictures are relevant to the content and hence, it supports learning. Besides, the pictures are quite clear too.

·          Layout

The pictures and the text are aligned in informal balance. This makes it comfortable for viewing.

 

Areas of improvement

·          Lettering size

The minimum font size used is 16. The words might be too small to be read when projected onto the screen.

·          Number of lines

A total of 10 lines are observed, which exceeds the limit of not more than 8 lines. The creator should create another slide instead.

·          Spacing between lines

The spacing between the lines is too close and the lines will blur out at a distance.

·          Transitional effects

The words appear one by one, which is still quite irritating and distracting even though the sound effect is absent for this slide. It will be much better if the text appear point by point per clicking.

·          Others

The creator should use Arabic number to show numbers pertaining to time and duration for easy reading.

How does COTF promote student-centered learning?

McCombs and Whisler (1997) have defined “learner-centred” as

“the perspective that couples a focus on individual learners (their heredity, experiences, perspectives, backgrounds, talents, interests, capacities, and needs) with a focus on learning (the best available knowledge about learning and how it occurs and about teaching practices that are most effective in promoting the highest levels of motivation, learning, and achievement for all learners). This dual focus, then, informs and drives educational decision making.”(p.9)

Just thought of sharing this with all of you before I start writing my reflection on Classroom of the Future (COTF), I kind of prefer the term “learner-centred” to “student-centred” as it offers a broader view than “student-centred”. After all, learning is a lifelong process and this makes all of us learners, regardless of whether we are students studying in a school or we are working in different industries.

There are a total of five stations in the CoTF. Each station showcases different technologies which enable learning to take place regardless of time and location.

Station 1: Café

The café provides a relaxing environment for students to experience incidental learning. The Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) that each student has can be connected to the touch screen table. Students can then receive messages from people from other countries. Students get to decide whether to start a conversation with people from overseas without having to worry about the fact that they might not speak the same language as himself or herself since online translation is available. Students can even exchange files via high bandwidth internet. If there is any particular topic that the student is unsure of, he or she can find more information via Groker, which categorizes and filters information based on the level of the students.

This station promotes student-centred learning in the sense that students control what they want to learn and know. It is very obvious that guidance is not provided by the teacher at all. In other words, the students facilitate their own learning and construct their own knowledge. As a result, different students learn different materials depending on their interests and capabilities. This caters to students’ need to a large extent. Other than this, students are able to communicate with people from all over the world. We can see that this station supports social learning greatly and it even eliminates undesirable factors such as language and physical barrier. As a result, exchange of views and ideas can be done easily. Students are also not restricted to resources from textbooks only as they can gain assess to the worldwide web easily. This supports the use of a variety of resources, which can widen the perspectives of students.

Station 2: Bio-Medical Laboratory

At this station, students can analyze stuffs such as their skin samples. Should the students have any problems with the data, they can send the data to researchers from other countries to ask for their opinions. Video conferencing which involves people from all over the world is also possible here.

Technology found here can be seen as a bridge for students to get in touch with different people. In this case, students get to work independently as well as collaborate with others. It also enhances higher-order thinking skills as students get the chance to engage in authentic tasks and carry out their own investigation. Once again, social learning is made possible and through the discussions, students are faced with conflicting ideas and this will lead to a greater understanding in the subject matter. The exchange of ideas is instantaneous and this is a plus point as students get to receive feedback instantly. This aids the students in their learning processes as they get to clarify any doubts they have. The world is simply their classroom! Although guidance is provided (by some professors from other countries), I think that this station still promotes student-centred learning to a very large extent because students have to take initiative to search for their own information and resources.

Station 3: Transporter

Students can use their UMPCs to download any information that they want to obtain. This technology will be a great help during fieldtrips as a device for note-taking. They can also use UMPCs to locate their friends as well as receive messages from others.

In this case, I feel that the UMPCs can be viewed as electronic portfolios for students to build their resources and do their reflections. They have to take ownership of their learning by keeping track of their progress and engaging in self-assessment, which is an important characteristic in student-centred learning. Electronic portfolio can also be an alternative way for teachers to assess students’ learning. Hence, students are not assessed based on traditional tests and examinations only, which are usually rigid and these might not be the best indicator of how much they have learned. I feel that this kind of portfolio assessment might be able to boost the confidence level in students, especially for the low achievers, as they assume responsibilities for their own learning.

Station 4: Home

Devices are controlled by voice. Communicative tools such as voicemail and video conferencing make collaborative learning possible even at home. Hence, teachers can design educative games for students to play with their friends outside curriculum time as and when they are free.

I like the voice-controlled feature at this station particularly as students who are physically challenged are not neglected and deprived of the chance to learn. This promotes student-centred learning as it caters to the different needs of students. Students get construct their own understandings through the games as well.

Station 5: Classroom

Class attendance is marked when the sensors in the chairs detect the UMPCs on the students’ laps. This saves a lot of time and hence the teacher can proceed to start the lesson within a very short period of time. File sharing allows students to comment on the projects of their classmates. Collaborative work is greatly enhanced by this feature. Students can draw on the screen directly and hence they can use their UMPCs to take notes, draw mindmaps and graphs and complete quizzes set by the teacher. Teacher can mark the quizzes straight away and provide instant feedback to the whole class. The teacher gets to see the UMPC screens of every student and he or she can monitor the students’ progress at any point in time.

At this station, a highly interactive environment is set up for group work. Other than receiving feedbacks from teachers only, students can also obtain comments from their peers. This can actually lead to higher-order thinking skills as students are exposed to different views and ideas. Once again, the UMPCs can be used as a form of portfolios for students as they draw their mindmaps. Different means of assessment are possible in this classroom, depending on the needs of the students. I feel that teacher is just acting as a facilitator in learning in this case. Students, on the other hand, have to spend more efforts thinking than in the case of traditional classroom.

Overall, I feel that the CoTF promotes student-centred learning to a large extent as the different needs of students are catered for. However, I do have my concerns in this whole concept. Although the technology featured in the CoTF sounds really convenient and is a great aid in learning, we must keep in mind that technology is a double-edged sword and it depends on how the users use it. If the students do not have enough self-discipline, he or she will get easily distracted by the many fanciful features found. Information can be obtained very easily and I fear that students might not appreciate it and they might eventually lose their ability to think critically. Although video and voice conferencing with people from all over the world are made possible, I feel that there is a lack of human touch in it. Lastly, with so much discovery learning involved in student-centred learning, it is difficult for teachers to know when to step in as a facilitator. The teacher might also faced difficulties keeping up with the pace of every student.

 

Reference

McCombs, B.L., & Whisler, J.S. (1997). The learner centred classroom and school: Strategies for enhancing student motivation and achievement. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

How student-centred was the lesson (Story 1)?

I just realized that we are all supposed to do Story 1, so here are my thoughts after studying Story 1:

¨ Teacher roles (Score: 7)

In this case, the teacher acted as a facilitator rather than the main source of knowledge for the students. She gave the students a scenario to work on and this was just to start them off. After that, her role as a teacher was largely fulfilled. The students were the ones who did their own researches and gave a presentation to the whole class. This gave students a lot of freedom to choose what they wanted to learn. From here, we can see that the students had done majority of the work by themselves. On top of this, the teacher let the students took their own notes by using Inspiration software instead of providing the notes to the students, thus making the teacher’s role less important here. After that, the students also engaged in online discussion to pose questions to the presenters. The teacher only stepped in to help the students in their discussion when she noticed that they were asking irrelevant questions. After the first lesson, the teacher found that the students were not very organized in their mind maps. Hence, for her next lesson, she gave explicit examples to the students to teach them how to organize the points. She also engaged the presenter’s help to clarify any doubts from the students. In my opinion, the first lesson was more student-centred whereas for the second lesson, it was less student-centred. Overall, I think that the teacher’s role is still important in this lesson, but students did have more opportunities to take charge of their own learning here.

¨ Student roles (Score: 8 )

The students played important roles for this lesson as they had to search for the necessary information, analyze them and choose the important points to include in their presentation slides. They got to work with others, as well as having the chance of using softwares such as Inspiration and Microsoft Powerpoint. The topic given to the students was quite broad and hence, different students will learn different materials in the process of doing the project. In the end, the students also got to share the information that they had found by presenting in front of the whole class. They had to sort of “sell” their ideas and persuade the “World Bank Budget Committee” to “give them fundings”. From here, we can see that they had learnt many skills through this project. While listening to their classmates, the students had to take their own notes, instead of being spoon-fed by their teacher. Hence, I think that learning is student-centred to a very large extent in this case although in the end, the teacher had to step in to helped them organized their thoughts and ideas.

¨ Curriculum characteristics (Score: 8 )

This lesson was largely based on projects whereby students learnt different skills concurrently. The students learnt communication skills while working in groups. They learnt some IT skills while searching information online and using Microsoft Powerpoint to present their ideas. They learnt presentation skills while presenting to the whole class. They also learnt thinking skills while answering their classmates’ questions via online forums. On top of all these, they also learnt organizing skills while doing the mind maps. At the end of the lesson, the students had to decide which environmental problem is the most pressing one and they had to justify for it. Through this, the students got to learn some analyzing skills as well. This is very different from traditional teaching in which the teacher is the one giving the lecture and the students had to listen passively. I think that the curriculum is largely student-centred as the students got to decide what they learn out of the lesson.

¨ Learning goals (Score: 8 )

I guess that the main goal of this lesson is to let students search for their own learning materials and analyze them independantly. The other goal is to create a platform for students to work with their classmates. We can see that these two goals were achieved from the excellent works that the students had produced. They were able to verbalize their thoughts in a smooth flow and even acted as little “teacher” to their classmates. Besides, the mind maps that they had created after the second lesson were also beautifully done. Overall, this is a successful lesson.

¨ Type of activities (Score: 7)

After receiving the instructions from their teachers, the students engaged in quite a variety of learning activities. The main hands-on activity would be the project itself. The other hands-on activity would be the part whereby students got to organize the main points in the form of mind maps. There were also some forms of sharing of views through the presentation and the online discussion forum. Demonstration was given by both the students and the teacher. There was also some seatwork in which the students had to do evalution using the decision-making template.

¨ Assessment strategies (Score: 6)

The students were mainly assessed on the content of their project by their peers. Criteria were given with respect to the topic and not on the quality of work itself. The online poll was largely used to determine the most pressing environmental issue and it was not for the students to choose the best project in terms of content and presentation skills as the main focus of this lesson was to deliver the content in a more lively and interactive way. The assessment part was just to provoke some forms of thinking and reflection in the students.

¨ Use of ICT (Score: 9)

We saw an intensive use of ICT in this lesson. Although the main purpose was still to deliver content, the use of ICT actually made it less rigid and it also widened the perspectives of the students. The students were not only learning from the textbooks. Instead, they found a lot of information from the internet as well. This trained students to become more resourceful. Besides this, the students also made use of online forums to express their views and clarify their doubts. This is a good way to exchange thoughts especially for students who tend to be quiet in face-to-face discussions. I feel that the students were learning with ICT rather than learning from ICT in this case. The students also engaged the use of different softwares to make learning more interesting. I think that this project also exposes them to a variety of tools which might come in handy in future. I would say that the use of ICT was very crucial for this particular lesson and that the students had benefited a lot from it.

Overall, I feel that this lesson was student-centred to a very large extent. The students had to take ownership for their learning and without them, the lesson would not be successful at all. Let’s just try to imagine that the students had all done a sloppy job. If this really happened, the students would not benefit from the lesson at all as the students were the ones who came up with all the content for this lesson. The teacher had crafted the lesson so beautifully such that the students were very motivated to do a good job. However, I think that it is also important for the teacher to give feedbacks to the students. Comments should be given for the students to improve on their projects and presentation skills.

Managing ICT-enhanced environments

a. Do you think the classroom environment chosen is appropriate for the learning activities? Explain why.

In Video 1, the classroom environment chosen is a Full Computer Laboratory. I think it is appropriate for the learning activities as students were seated in neat rows and it is easy for the teacher to move around to tend to the students when they have problems. The students are sort of “compartmentalized” and this supports individual work as there is less distractions. The teacher can look at the coloured cups with having to turn to different directions too. I have been to a school and the computer screen is sort of embedded into the table, in other words, students have to look down all the time when they want to use the computer. Although there is enough area for students to take notes, I think over a long period of time, this can be rather tiring and can cause students to lose their concentrations easily. Hence, I think that both the layout of the laboratory and the arrangement of the computers are quite appropriate. However, if the students were doing group work instead, then it might not be so appropriate because there is only limited space in front of the computer.

In Video 2, I think that the first classroom environment, which is the AV room, is appropriate as the students were only listening to the teacher lecturing. Each student has a clear view of the teacher and vice versa, it is also easy for the teacher to spot any students who are not paying attention. Besides, they do not have much hands-on work or group work. If there was any, then it is not so appropriate. I feel that group work should be done in an environment where everyone is seated in such a way that they can see each other clearly and no one will be left out in the discussion. The second classroom environment is a Half-Computer Laboratory. I think it is appropriate in the sense that it is conducive for doing pair work. It is quite spacious and hence it is easy for the teachers to move around and for the students to move their chairs closer to the computer. It is also easy for the teachers to spot students who are not doing their work. However, the layout is a bit messy and the teachers have to look in different directions all the time. On the other hand, the students at the sides have to turn their bodies to face the front too.

In Video 3, the classroom environment is a Science Laboratory, which is an example of a learning centre. It is spacious for the students to move from station to station and they got to settle down rather fast, resulting in less time wasted. The students have enough space to jot down notes too. It is easy for the teacher to move around to help the students as well. If this was to take place in a normal classroom, then time will be wasted to move the furniture and set up the different stations. Therefore, I think this is appropriate for the learning activities.

In Video 4, the classroom environment is normal classroom. I think the environment is appropriate for group work. Everyone can see each other and the screen clearly and get involved. However, I think that it can be a bit tiring for the students to turn their bodies all the time.

In Story 5, the learning activities took place in a Science Laboratory (learning centre). I think it is quite appropriate because all the necessary equipment is already present. The teacher can arrange with the teaching assistant to have all the apparatus needed to be placed on the table before the students came in. This will create fewer distractions to the students as they do not need to come out one by one to collect apparatus. This saves time as well. Besides, the tables are already suitable for doing group work and hence students do not need to rearrange any furniture, as seen in the case of doing group work in a classroom. This will cut down on noise level and students can get started in a shorter period of time.

In Story 1, the learning activities took place in a Full Computer Laboratory. It was an interactive environment with students presenting their ideas using Microsoft Powerpoint and online discussion forum to exchange their views. Everyone can get involved in the discussion at ease. Because of the fact that this lesson was very ICT-intensive, I feel that it is very appropriate for the learning activities to take place at a computer laboratory.

b. The students seem to be focused and on task. What strategies do you think the teacher has used to achieve this outcome?

In Video 1, the teacher used the following strategies:

¨ The seats of the students were assigned according to their index number by the teacher. This prevents students to sit in cliques and not doing any work.

¨ Row leaders were assigned to collect the CD-Rom so as to reduce movements among the students. This makes sure that the students are on task and can get started quickly.

¨ The teacher gave out coloured cups for students to get teacher’s attention. This method is effective as the teacher might not notice the students need help if they were to raise up their hands.

¨ The teacher told the class that he would dim the light to get their attention. This is effective as the students can notice a change in the environment easily with their headphones on.

¨ The teacher got some IT representatives to do minor troubleshooting. This will enable students to receive help within a short period of time.

¨ The teacher asked the students to return the CD-Rom, turn off their computer screens and turn the mouse over. He then got the row leaders to check that all these were done before he started to go through the answers. This will remove the source of distractions.

In Video 2, the teacher used the following strategies:

¨ The teacher assigned roles for pair work. This will speed up the process and the students can get started quickly.

¨ The teacher sought assistance from the teaching assistant. By doing this, there would be someone to do the troubleshooting and the lesson can take place smoothly.

¨ The teacher gave out navigation guides for students to help themselves.

In Video 3, the teacher used the following strategies:

¨ The teacher grouped the students before the lessons and she briefed them before they entered the laboratory. In this way, the students would not get distracted by the apparatus in front of them when she gave them the briefing.

¨ The teacher planned activities that take the same amount of time to prevent the case that some groups might have finished faster and became bored.

¨ The teacher acted as the time-keeper to control the pace of the lesson.

In Video 4, the teacher used the following strategies:

¨ The teacher gave clear explanation of what she is going to do.

¨ Before the game, the teacher instructed the students to remain quiet while one of the groups was participating in the game. This sets the tone for the lesson.

In Story 5, the teacher used the following strategies:

¨ Detailed explanations on the steps were given to the students before the start of the experiment. This gives students assurance and they knew exactly what to do for the experiment.

¨ The teacher helped the students to form a hypothesis at the very beginning. Hence, students were very clear about their aims.

¨ The teacher assigned roles for every student in the group. As such, the students were very clear of what to do and what is going to happen.

¨ The size of the group was not too big. Personally, I think if the group size is too big, some of the students might become bored and lost interest in the lesson.

¨ The teacher walked around to check the progress of each group and helped to troubleshoot along the way. This will ensure that the students are on the right track.

¨ Visual aid was provided for students who were lost. In this way, even if the teacher cannot attend to that group promptly, the students can also try to help themselves by referring to the visual aid.

In Story 1, the teacher used the following strategies:

¨ The teacher used real life scenario to engage the students in learning. This makes learning a lot more realistic and interesting.

¨ The teacher assigned roles for students to work in pair. Hence, they were clear of what they were supposed to do.

¨ The teacher stepped in to facilitate the online discussion when she found that the students were asking irrelevant questions. This helped students to stay focus and to be on task.

¨ The teacher gave the students more time to organize their mind maps. Hence, the students have more time to evaluate the points taken.

¨ The teacher engaged the help of the presenters to clarify the students’ doubts. This helped students who were slower to catch up with the rest of the class.

c. What potential classroom management issues can possibly occur? What proposed solution(s) do you have?

Some of the issues include:

¨ In Video 1, there was only one teacher and hence if the students have queries other than technical faults, he might not be able to tend to them promptly. I propose that the teacher to try to get help from another Mathematics teacher for this lesson.

¨ In Video 2, the students might not be on task because they were doing pair work. I propose that the teachers to walk around and try to check their progress more frequently.

¨ In Video 3, some of the students might not be doing any work at all since they were doing group work. I propose that the teacher to try to ask selected students questions to check their understandings.

¨ In Video 4, the class might be very noisy because they were excited about the game. I propose that the teacher to stop the game at any point of time when the students became too noisy. She should also try to avoid doing this kind of activities before recess time, PE lesson, or during the last lesson of the day as the students will get too excited.

¨ In Story 5, the roles assigned are not very balanced. For instance, the checker might feel bored if nothing goes wrong. The recorder might be hogging to the worksheet given and give others no chance to keep track of the progress of the experiment. The teacher should give out worksheets to all the students so that they have something to do when they are free.

¨ In Story 1, the content of the lesson was all created by the students, and hence there is the fear that the students might not do a good job. As a result, the teacher might have to re-teach certain things as the students did not cover the topic in depth. I propose the teacher to monitor the students’ progress by meeting them for a few times before the presentation to check that they are on task.

How student-centred was the lesson?

Here are my thoughts after studying Story 5:

¨ Teacher roles (Score: 3)

I think that this lesson is teacher-centred to a large extent. During the teacher’s first attempt to include the use of dataloggers in his Science lesson, students faced problems such as not knowing how to use a datalogger even with an activity book. This clearly shows that the guidance provided by the teacher is very crucial for successful collection of data. Hence, during the second lesson, the teacher actually did an equipment check before the start of the experiment to make sure that everything is in good working condition. The teacher also split the students into groups of four and assigned a role for each student in the group to ensure efficiency. After that, the teacher engaged the help of students who are more familiar with the equipment to do a demonstration on how to use the dataloggers to the whole class. We can see that the students were not given much opportunity to explore the equipment on their own. Most of the time, they were passive and followed the instructions given. During the execution of the experiment, the students could also refer to the “standard graph” (done by students from Robotics Club) projected on the screen for assurance. From all these examples, we can see that the teacher had to act as the facilitator most of the time because the students were not familiar with the use of dataloggers.

¨ Student roles (Score: 6)

Before the start of the experiment, the students were asked to guess which material is the best heat insulator among paper, plastic and styrofoam. Hence, there was a hypothesis forming process and the students were to determine validity of their hypotheses by carrying out the experiment. Within a group, they did some collaborative work as the students had different roles such as leader, tester, recorder and checker. Everyone had to contribute to ensure the success of the experiment. Each group was assigned a cup to obtain the data. In total, there were three cups under investigation. At the end of the experiment, the students were to obtain results from other groups to get a combined graph showing three different sets of results. The results were different and thus, students from different groups learnt different materials. However, the merging of the graphs was carried out by the teacher. Hence, there was not much interaction between groups. We can see that the students were mainly involved in making predictions and carrying out the experiment, which was the major component of the lesson.

¨ Curriculum characteristics (Score: 4)

Students tapped on their prior knowledge when they were forming the hypothesis. Then, the later part of the lesson was mainly carrying out the experiment and the students just sat there to wait for the generation of data. I think the only higher level skill that they learnt is just learning how to use the dataloggers and this part is very much teacher-centred. The students did not get to explore other features of dataloggers. The graphs were generated by dataloggers and even the merging of the graphs was done by dataloggers. Because of the way the lesson was structured, I feel that they were just learning from the technology instead of learning with the technology. Towards the end of the lesson, the students had to determine which material has the best insulating property by analyzing the graphs. I think that this is the most important skill that the students had achieved from this lesson.

¨ Learning goals (Score: 7)

One of the goals of the lesson was to obtain all three graphs and compare them to arrive at the conclusion. The students managed to obtain the graphs and I would say that this goal was achieved with the help of their teacher. The students also get to work together in groups, which is an important life skill. I presumed that the other goal was to get the students to familiarize themselves with the use of dataloggers. I think this is a matter of drill-and-practice and would fall under behavioral competence. Because the students had different roles, I am not sure whether everyone knows how to use the equipment or not.

¨ Type of activities (Score: 2)

The teacher gave a rather long briefing to prepare the students for the experiment. Demonstration was also provided to make sure that the students were on task. The execution of the experiment was mainly seatwork and waiting for results. Hence, most of the time, the students did not have a chance to explore on their own. The students did not really have much of a discussion about the results obtained too. They did not get to explore other variations to the experiment which will affect the rate of heat loss.

¨ Assessment strategies (Score: 3)

Each group was given a worksheet to fill in during the lesson. I think this is mainly to check the students’ understanding and make sure that they are on the right track. The recorder was in charged of recording the findings. But even then, it is difficult to tell whether every student really understand the whole lesson because they were in groups and some of them might have not contributed in the discussion at all and hence they might not understand the rationale behind the whole experiment. There is not much of a variety in assessment strategies and not enough assessment pertaining to individual in this case.

¨ Use of ICT (Score: 9)

I used to do this kind of experiment using “primitive” apparatus such as a thermometer and a stopwatch back when I was a student. It was very messy as we had to look at the time and the temperature simultaneously. Much of the time was also taken up to plot the graphs and it usually resulted in rushed work with not much of thinking involved due to time constraints. With the use of datalogger, I think it really saves a lot of time as the students do not need to plot their own graphs and collaborative work is possible. During the second lesson, because of the fact that the students were well-prepared, they actually arrived at the stage of getting results faster without technical distractions. Therefore, they had more time to discuss and arrive at the conclusion. If time allows, I think it is even possible to modify the experiment by introducing more variables and students can get to construct understandings on their own.

Overall, I felt that this lesson was teacher-centred with the students’ benefits in mind. We have to consider the fact that the target group is a class of primary four students. In my opinion, a lesson which is student-centred should also try to cater to the students’ needs while considering their abilities besides letting the students to generate their own knowledge. In this aspect, I think that this lesson can be considered as being “student-centred” although the students were guided most of the time. The students needed the guidance as they were still very young. It is necessary to spare them from the cumbersome way of doing the experiment. The extra time that was saved can be used to answer students’ queries and encourage them to think further.

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