3rd Week

Fuhh! I feel like I just entered University Malaya and now I’m already in third week. At the moment the only task that we have to do is updating our blog with weekly reflections. I’m glad because after these three weeks, I feel that we are getting closer to Pn. Foziah. During the first week, Pn. Foziah will be talking and when she asks our opinion, everyone will be quiet. Probably because we are still new to University Malaya and we are not familiar with the lecturers over here. She encouraged us to talk and she told us that she wants us to be a part of the classroom discussion. So today we really had a good time in Pn. Foziah’s class as there were two way interactions between Pn. Foziah and us.

Today we were divided into 6 groups and each group was assigned a topic. Pn. Foziah allocated 1 hour for us to discuss the topic and after that we need to present it to the class.

My group consists of 7 members and our topic was about “The Instinct for Interaction and Talk”. At first when I read the notes in the book, my understanding of the topic was just at surface level. But after discussing with my group members, I have a clear understanding of what the topic is all about. In short, the topic is about pupils’ own initiative to indulge in an interaction. In the slide show we included the definition of the topic, the benefits of instinct interaction and the role of teacher in developing instinct interaction in a classroom. Based on the topic that we had presented, I do realize that whenever possible, a teacher must indulge the pupils in group discussion, language games and group activity. In a classroom, there will be pupils with different kind of learning styles, attitudes and characteristics. Thus as a teacher, our responsibility is to understand them and find a way to indulge them in an instinct interaction.

We were the second group which presented today, before us there was a group presented about “Children’s capacity for Indirect Learning”. The group had done a good job because their explanation enabled us to understand the topic thoroughly. Indirect learning is something regarding “subconscious learning” and when this situation takes place pupils will acquire the language quicker. The types of activities that can be integrated in classroom to foster indirect learning are broken phone, hang man, and also word puzzle.

From what the group had presented, I learned that in a lesson we can integrate both direct and indirect learning to make teaching and learning more meaningful. Direct learning is the teaching part where input are delivered to the pupils and this direct learning can be carried out in a presentation part during a lesson. Where else, indirect learning which emphasizes on learning through fun can be integrated either in set induction or production part.

Due to time constraint, only 2 groups got the chance to present their topics. The other 4 groups will be presenting in the next class. In today’s class I learned a few things as what I mentioned above and it will be very useful for me as future teacher as I can implement it in my classroom.