Enhanced School Experience: Classroom Observations

School & Class: Christ Church Secondary School, Secondary 3 Normal (Technical)

Profile of the class: Relatively large group of 37 students, with more boys than girls. By virtue of being the normal (technical) stream, students are generally less academically oriented and lean more towards being kinesthetic and visual learners.

Subject: Science

ICT tools used: New Generation Interactive Textbook (NGIT) - laptops and projector

Describe how ICT is used for teaching and learning in this lesson:

Each student is issued his or her own laptop to be used during the lesson, which is held in the classroom itself. The teacher (Mdm Annur), too, uses a laptop, with his display being screened to the whole class. The lesson is conducted as how a typical one would be - teacher imparts knowledge via screen projection and students listen, except this time, the students are a lot more engaged. Instead of ordinary text and pictures, students now are able to enjoy animations, videos, etc. right from their laptop instead of having to look at the big screen. At numerous points of the topic being taught, the teacher will have his students stop at checkpoints to assess their level of understanding. This is done via each individual's laptop, where the students answer MCQ questions, after which the teacher can check whether everyone has completed, and monitor whether they are following with the lesson or not. The teacher thus has constant feedback from each student, with less problems such as a non-responsive class. Such a practice gives the opportunity for greater hands-on and self-directed learning for the students, and very likely increases their attention and interest level in the topic being taught.

How do teachers in the school feel about the use of ICT for teaching and learning?

Teachers in Christ Church are generally very open and receptive to the use of ICT in their lessons, but particularly so for the Maths and Science rather than Humanities or languages. Feedback received indicate that there may be less software or programs available that are relevant to the teaching of the latter subjects, as opposed to the myriad of programs created for Maths and Sciences. It is suggested that perhaps if there were more ICT-based lessons conducted for Humanities, students' interests will be piqued and their performance may likely improve. Currently, the school's national exams results for Humanities do not meet the national average.

There is also mention of how there are time constraints to conduct ICT-based lessons so regularly, especially when there is much to cover to finish the syllabus on time. However, this was not an issue for the teacher who conducted the NGIT lesson. It appears that programs such as the NGIT do not pose too much of a problem with regards to time - in fact, it will instead allow the teacher to be more efficient in relaying information to the students and getting feedback on their understanding. It is hoped that the rest of the NGIT pilot program goes smoothly so that it can be incorporated into other subjects and classes as well.