Week1 reflection-Self Introduction and Designing Blogs

Course Overview

The first session of the Teaching & Learning Strategies course began on October 2nd. The course is delivered by Dr Lina, who specialises in the use of digital technology for teaching and management. 🌹🌹🌹

The lecturer instructed us to scan the QR code on the projector to access the Mentimeter questionnaire, which is designed to track our learning status timely. 

At the beginning of the course, the lecturer introduced herself with a concise but elaborate video presentation and then asked each member of the class to introduce themselves with slides. 

In the slideshow, students presented portraits describing their hobbies, upbringing, and ambitions. Following a preliminary understanding of the students, she used the questionnaire to enquire about their prior knowledge of the course, summarising their comments and formally presenting the objectives and outcomes of this module.

During the first tutorial, she provided step-by-step instructions on how to use media tools to launch our Blogs and introduced students to the 5R framework for reflection, a model of academic reflection required to be adopted in weekly blogs. The 5R framework guides students through Reporting, Responding, Relating, Reasoning, and Reconstructing to make sense of a learning experience (Bain et al., 2002).

Icebreaker 

Such a first lecture is engaging and appealing, it can be defined as an ideal icebreaker to some extent. As a listener, I listened to the introductions of my classmates. I not only gained a deeper understanding of my former classmates from the School of Education but also made new acquaintances from other faculties. As a speaker, I actively engaged in the class by delivering a self-introduction, leaving a lasting impression on my classmates.

My Self-introduction

Compared to the traditional classroom

During the self-introduction session, individual presentations are a superior method for students to demonstrate their individuality and creativity while establishing personal connections with their new classmates. Furthermore, the lecturer presented her academic journey via the utilisation of video material, complemented by a verbal elaboration. 

The video presented an account of her educational and professional experiences in New Zealand. Motivated by her family's expectations, she worked and studied diligently. She also gathered with her close friends in her leisure time. 

Me and My Friends in Penang

It reminded me of my overseas study life, where I spent days and nights completing my assignments and my favourite pastime was hanging out with good friends. It was at that time that I sincerely resonated with this new lecturer with a sense of kinship. 

Pedagogical Theories 

Multi-sensory teaching approach 

She incorporated a multi-sensory teaching approach throughout the course. This educational style is designed to engage students via the utilization of several sensory modalities, including visual, aural, tactile, and kinesthetic methods (Joshi et al., 2002).

Visual:  In terms of instructional methodology, our lecturer used visual aids such as slides and movies to deliver the course material. This pedagogical approach serves to facilitate students' comprehension of the subject matter via visual means. According to Raiyn(2016), learners understand information better in the classroom when they see it. 

Auditory: To boost the volume of verbal explanation, in the first lecture, the lecturer wore a voice amplifier. She also set elegant music for self-introduction video and invited every student to present publicly. The use of an auditory learning method has been shown to improve classroom focus, particularly benefiting those who learn most well via auditory means, such as listening or engaging in verbal discussion (Kayalar & Kayalar, 2017).

Tactile/Kinesthetic Elements: Kinesthetic or tactile learners need to try something or physically touch in order to learn the concept best (Tuan, 2011). To accommodate the needs of tactile/kinesthetic learners, the lecturer asked us to complete questionnaires during the lecture, which can show their understanding of the course content. In the tutorial, she divided the blog-making process into several steps, requiring us to follow her step-by-step instructions.

Snyder (2000) stated that learners are diverse and with different learning styles and needs. However, multisensory teaching enables accurate and real-time mapping of motor behaviour onto multiple facets of visual media, sound, and tangible, according to different strategies the teacher can select flexibly (Volpe & Gori, 2019). Therefore, multisensory instruction can consider that different learners learn in different ways, improving learning efficiency and acquisition. 

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory

In that lecture, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory was not only introduced. There are five layers of the students’ learning needs, which are physiology, safety, belonging, esteem, self-actualisation. I reckoned this theory gave me guidance to structure the settings of the classroom to accommodate learners’ learning needs. Maslow (1943) initially pointed out that individuals must satisfy lower-level deficit needs (physiological needs) before progressing to meet higher-level growth needs. My instructor in this class was similarly attentive to our comfort; she provided us with cookies and coffee. The Physiological Needs of the pupils were met since food is readily available.

In addition, during the process of learning how to create a blog, we were divided into small groups and instructed to assist one another, which satisfied our social belongingness requirements. In this divided new group, we contributed and collaborated to create the blog with a very warm classroom climate which empowered me to learn more.  

Our lecturer always kept a smile and a friendly tone in the class. Aragon (2003) believed teacher intimacy behaviours, like eye contact, facial expressions and body language are significant strategies, leading to higher motivation and achievement among learners. More importantly, she also encouraged us to express ourselves and gave us equal chances to voice. This created a relatively safe classroom environment for us, which fulfilled the need for safety and esteem. Likewise, Novak and Purkey (1996) argued that our human interactions are only effective when we adhere to principles of being respected, trusted and being in a status of optimistic. It means that educators need to create a supportive and effective learning environment. By catering for students' hierarchy of needs, teachers can help students overcome their personal educational obstacles to reach their educational potential (Milheim, 2012).

Imitation

Our lecturer is a great professional role model.

Since that the icebreaker for the first lesson was quite innovative model.✅ In my future classroom, I will also use video to do self-introduction and let my students use slides to introduce themselves to personalise the class.  

Moreover, I am expected to meet the students’ hierarchy needs, adopting a multisensory teaching strategy to foster effectiveness (for individuals, the most suited modality can be exploited) and personalisation (flexibility for teachers and students) in learners' learning process.

Finally, to myself✊✊✊: new challenges will come, but I know they are opportunities for me to grow and improve as a qualified educator. I strive to be a great teacher like our lecturer~

References：

Aragon, S. R. (2003). Creating social presence in online environments. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2003(100), 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.119

Bain, J. D., Ballantyne, R., & Mills, C. (2002). Reflecting on practice : Student teachers’ perspectives. Post Pressed.

Joshi, R. M., Dahlgren, M., & Boulware-Gooden, R. (2002). Teaching reading in an inner city school through a multisensory teaching approach. Annals of Dyslexia, 52(1), 229–242. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-002-0014-9

Kayalar, F., & Kayalar, F. (2017). The effects of Auditory Learning Strategy on Learning Skills of Language Learners (Students’ Views). IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 22(10), 4–10. https://doi.org/10.9790/0837-2210070410

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346

Milheim, K. L. (2012). Towards a Better Experience: Examining Student Needs in the Online Classroom through Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Model. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 8(2), 159.  

Novak, J. M., & Purkey, W. (1996). Inviting School Success: A Self-Concept Approach to Teaching, Learning, and Democratic Practice (3rd ed.). Cengage Learning.

Raiyn , J. (2016). An Evaluation of Digital Stories Created for Social Studies Teaching. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(24). https://doi.org/10.7176/7-29-2016-9384

Snyder, R. F. (2000). The Relationship between Learning Styles/Multiple Intelligences and Academic Achievement of High School Students. The High School Journal, 83(2), 11–20. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40364506

Tuan, L. T. (2011). EFL learners’ learning styles and their attribute. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2(2), 290–320.

Volpe, G., & Gori, M. (2019). Multisensory Interactive Technologies for Primary Education: From Science to Technology. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01076