convergence of parallel lines|Monday, May 07, 2007
sometimes we pay too great a price for using the wrong words to say the right things. words. what are they. merely empty signifiers?
during the exams, i was still teaching the kids at northview. and i cant wait to see them tomorrow. you know, my class is divided into two groups. even within the Foundation class, there are distinctions. there are students who can really go for a Band 2 / Band 3 for their math. and there are students are really struggling with their very basic concepts. so after the class is divided into two, i was given the charge of the weaker Foundation students. these six students are great students. they are really enthusiastic. they are really willing to learn. they are really lovely. and they told me they wanted to be teachers too. when they grow up.so one day, the class had to be recombined. because the other teacher had to invigilate a class of test-takers. oh my. i finally realized why streaming was imposed. *before you guys accuse me of being elitist and an avid supporter of the evil streaming system...hear me out.* i was trying so hard to please two different groups of people. one group is definitely faster than the rest in answering questions. in running to the board to write or count. the ones more clever are definitely more confident and faster. and they really did outshine the weaker pupils, whom i teach. with the more clever students in class, i found myself in a fix. i cant help the weaker pupils like i usually did. i cant give them the necessary attention. i cant challenge them in a way that would boost their morales. if i only have my students in class, they are really more confident. always excited to finish questions. always excited to show off to me that they really finally understand. when the class was recombined again, it was always the more clever ones who were giving me the right answers. the rest, they merely lost confidence and lost their eagerness to... learn. seriously. you can really see this loss on their faces...
so i put it to you again... i think streaming is kind of crucial. i think the method is crucial. method = group the students according to their abilities. so that teachers can teach the weaker pupils better. so that the confidence level of these weaker students can really be boosted. but what spoils this necessary method is the labeling. EM1, EM2, EM3... the labels make the method go wrong. i mean.. we should just have regular classes. 6A, 6B, 6C... no more labeling of EM1,EM2 or Foundation or whatever the ministry calls it nowadays. then.. you don't make it so obvious that the last class is the worst class and the first class is the best class or vice versa. you put these 'weak' classes in between the good ones. *so as to avoid elitism or shunning of the less strong.* what do you think??also...exams. i went to a mendaki seminar last saturday, after my geog paper. the MOE officer said that the education system should TEACH LESS and allow the students to LEARN MORE. then one parent/teacher asked about exams.
"you ask us to TEACH LESS LEARN MORE. but your exams or the way you set exams are the same. we still have PSLE. we still have O-LEVELS. so ultimately, we still have to be exam smart and teach our students FOR exams." and the MOE officer replied,
"Exams is actually just for placement. placement for your child to go to the next level, i.e. secondary school or jc or poly or ITE. ianya merupakan satu cara PENEMPATAN murid-murid ke peringkat persekolahan yang seterusnya. so teachers in school should still do interesting things in class."
oh well. enough said. interesting things in class. but exams are still important. i cant see where these two things can converge. can you??
* spoken&willspeakagain*
9:34 PM
