My experiment with the ICT tool 

Let me honesty reveal the truth first as my ambition was never to be a teacher but I was chosen to be a part of this noble profession, which I later on started admiring and understood the fact that I am destined to be a Teacher. I still recollect the memories of my childhood when I use to act like a teacher so I do agree with the fact that somewhere inside me I was having the flare to teach. Moreover my love for children also can be one of the causes to take up this profession.

Well that is exactly what I have been doing for the past 11years after taking up this carrier as a teacher. As time grew I have analysed that I am a learner rather than a teacher and this became quite obvious as I started teaching in Dubai. In fact my experience as a learner worked well while I took up the task as a facilitator in an O Level school. Now turning back after 3 yrs. of my teaching carrier in Dubai I can only see that I have learned, learned and learned.

 I was quite happy and satisfied with what I have learned from this curriculum until I stepped in Winchester but things appeared very I was quite challenged with the wider use of ICT techniques in and around the school. While I sit back for observing the classes of the former CICT students I use to feel quite amazed with the way they pace up the active learning strategies and the use of ICT techniques in the class room, and I was literally lost. Apparently I realised that I am lagging behind this skill of using ICT which the students enjoy the most.

Now I am the happiest person to say that I have acquired this skill of experimenting ICT in my class. As I can now state that even though I am not an expert I know how to incorporate the use of ICT tool in the class room. It was moreover an amazing experience where I was well prepared but unfortunately everything didn’t go well but that doesn’t matter as I gauge my students’ learning, which really went on effectively. In fact I was satisfied with the way my children reflected and performed the whole task beautifully in spite of the fact that only one of the groups could access the wall wisher due to some technical problem.

Anyway I was thrilled and overwhelmed after accomplishing my experiment with ICT because I realise the fact that I have learned a lot from the positive aspects even though the internet didn’t work properly as planned. I really owe to CICT for making this happen, for moulding me to take up the risk and face the challenge alone, Bravo!

In addition to this the different types of Active learning strategies and questioning method that I have learned through this session makes teaching quite easier for me. As I can see how my students enjoy when I experiment different types of strategies in the class room which helps in keeping my students active throughout the class and a lot of collaborative work taking place.

“I feel, good things happen at the right moment”

How you plan to question differently? 

I would select a few ways that I have learned and then use it in a different way for example let me take the first one of my choice, Bounce question around, this is an interesting way to engage the learners as well as to keep them enthusiastic till the end. Instead of the teacher asking the questions I would prefer each table selecting a topic as well as a leader who can ask questions to the group. This helps them to be prepared to discuss the topic in a wider range and share their ideas well with the group. This  in turn give the students nice opportunity to frame questions spontaneously and it’s a challenge for the other groups as well, because they need to assure their performance to outfit the previous group. Undoubtedly learning happens with the active participation from each group.  

The next type of questioning which I prefer to use is a Self-Pair-Group   questionnaire, here after the discussion of a particular topic, the teacher gives some time to the whole class and gives everybody a chance to frame two or three questions that they would like to pose to their partners. After they have asked the questions to their partners they can deduct two questions which they find it difficult to answer or a challenge question, here the question is framed as a pair work. Now each pair can question the other pair and again get one or two common question from the group which they can keep ready to shoot at the other group. This strategy helps to give more clarity and understanding of the topic learned.   

 

Questioning strategies

 What new questioning strategies have you learnt?

I have learned a range of questioning strategies which can really enhance learning as well as to keep the enthusiasm of the learners in the classroom. These are totally fun filled and challenging techniques that I can experiment with the students and I am quite sure that they learn and enjoy every minute. Let me start from the general ways of questioning that we have been using from ages:

Close ended and open ended questions

These two are quite common to all of us but are certainly powerful ways of analysing and evaluating the amount of knowledge that the learners have acquired. The former gives us a limited information of what the student could recollect, understood or probably guessed. This type of questions are just like the objective questions that needs specific answer which limits the learners thinking skills. But it help the teacher to get a quick feedback of whether the students have understood the topic or not and also it’s a good way of keeping the class focussed.

Whereas the latter is a broader approach, it gives enough space for the learners to think and present their point of view as well.  It provides room for the learners to analyse and evaluate from different angles and then come to a conclusion. This is a very effective tool to understand the student’s level of thinking and understanding. Furthermore it helps the teacher to understand the pace of her learners and evaluate the effectiveness of Teaching – Learning. In addition to this it doesn’t limit the learners to be in the nutshell whereas it helps them to break open and think in a wider prospective.

Let us have a look at other interesting ways of engaging the class in different ways of questioning:

1. General and Directed Questions

2. Wait time

3. Bounce questions around

4. Phone a friend

5. SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to Other Purpose, Eliminate, Rearrange)

6. Preview Questions

7. Eavesdropping

8. 5Ws and 1H

In this list I would like to mention two types of questioning strategies which I found quite interesting. The Bounce question around, is a wonderful way of building up the students’ knowledge and understanding of the topic. This is an interesting method to keep the entire class engaged in the questioning as the question is framed from the answer given by the students and it keeps continuing. So it ensures the attention of every student because they are prepared to answer the next but it’s a challenge as they can never guess the question. Here the most important thing is that the teacher needs to be well prepared about the topic so she can give enough opportunity to each student. Furthermore it also helps to maintain the progression of learning in the classroom.

The next type of questioning which sounds amazing is Eaves dropping, here the entire class is divided into groups and given a topic to discuss and the teacher moves around from table to table listening to their discussion. Later she questions them based on their discussion. This is a good way of keeping the entire class involved as well as the teacher can have a track of how fruitful the discussions are.

 

What are the different ways of evaluating your own teaching practice?

“ A good teacher teaches and learns.”



It is essential to continuously monitor, review and renew the methods of teaching in order to ensure the quality of teaching and up levelling the standards of teaching. Evaluating teachers’ own teaching is a way to identify the strong aspects of their practice, as well as their weaknesses which may need to be changed and improved.

Methods to evaluate teaching: 

1.    Self-monitoring:

 

Here the teacher monitors and evaluate her own teaching skills, this is basically done by self-evaluating like a quick recap through whatever she has done in the class. In this the teacher can jot down some points in her planner and say whether she could attain the goals and objectives and also to evaluate the good aspects as well as the draw back of her session.

This is a meaningful source as it will help the teacher to self-monitor her own positive and negative points. In addition to this it will assist in enhancing her lessons as well which in turn can help the students to attain better outcome from the session.
 

2.  Audio and Video recording:

This is an effective method where the teacher can audio or video tape her teaching sessions, which allow her to evaluate as well as investigate on her performance in detail. Moreover these tapes can be reviewed with the help of other colleagues also to assure the areas of improvements.

·       It provides the teacher with clear reflection on what was happening in the class. This is quite essential as it is always easy to observe and correct others mistakes, but its rather difficult to monitor themselves, especially during teaching when the teacher is totally involved and devoted in instructing and explaining to the students where she is completely associated with the students.

·       Video and audio recordings reflect the actual performance of a teacher, but it is meaningless unless it is evaluated within a group. In other words this reflection really helps the teacher if she evaluates her work by showing this tape to her colleagues and get their feedback. This valuable feedback from her colleagues can help her identify the strength and weaknesses in her teaching, as well as provide possible room for improvement.

·       This process should be done regularly for instance one in the beginning of the academic year, next in the middle and at the end. In fact a continuous evaluation of teaching should be done to check the progress and improvement of specially targeted areas. In turn this also helps the teacher to see how much she has progressed and polished her teaching strategies as per the feedback, it is actually an acknowledgment for herself to feel confident on her hard work.

·       Furthermore, keeping a log of video records can help teachers to keep track of their progress and it is also a useful reference material for the new teaching staff to learn from.

 

3.  Students’ feedback on teaching

Students’ perception of learning experience in a class is the best way to gauge the effectiveness of teaching because the main aim of education is to make the students learn and understand. So feedback for the students can directly determine how effective they have learned from the session. At the same time this should be an on going process to assure better quality of teaching.

 

Feedback from the students can be obtained through:
 

a.   Questionnaires: This tool collects responses from a large number of students simultaneously, which provides a comprehensive picture that reflect the opinion of the whole class. Moreover to make it more effective the students should be given the liberty to write the questionnaire without specifying their names which will help them to freely express their thoughts.
 

At the same time the questionnaire must be designed carefully to avoid confusion and negative effect from students.

 

b.   Interviews: Focus- group interviews with students can be conducted by the teacher themselves or an outside person. Here the teacher can set the questions that she needs to get clarification from her students but this should be discussed with the colleagues and the authority before practicing. 

 This is obviously more effective than questionnaire but at the same time limited to a small group which will not reflect the opinion of the whole class.

After attaining the students’ feedback, teacher should explain to the students how effective was their feedback in improving her strategies and also speak to them about the changes that she has made in response to their opinions. This will definitely make the students and the teachers analyse and understand the usefulness of collecting feedback. 
  
 

4.  Feedback from observations by other colleagues and experts: 
    Teachers can invite other colleagues or experts to come and observe their classes thereby giving the feedback and criticisms on their teaching. This is a very effective method to improve the methods of teaching as the colleagues or experts observe and evaluate the teaching and give their valuable suggestions for improvement. Moreover these advices are very effective as they can focus and tell you how the activities could have been better or suggest some useful tips to help the students stay focussed or tell you about your weaknesses and your strengths. In fact these feedback will only help the teacher to polish and improvise her teaching methods.

·       Peer –observation: Teachers can request their colleagues to come and sit in their class and observe how the teaching is done in her class. Later they can sit and discuss their ideas freely and suggest ways of improvement.

·       Observation by senior colleagues: Teachers can invite experienced senior teachers to observe their class. They can often provide useful opinions for effective teaching.