About Me: I am currently working as a Language Teacher (DG48) at Language Academy, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). I began my teaching career in 2009 immediately after I completed my degree program in TESL from the same university. I teach 3 – 4 sections of English courses (an average of 120 students per semester) for the undergraduate students in UTM. I teach English for Academic Communication, Advanced English for Academic Communication, English for Workplace Communication, Effective Oral Communication and English for Professional Purposes. I am also one of the key members of MyLinE Taskforce where I am given the responsibilities to develop materials and provide MUET trainings to students, teachers and professionals.
- PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING
“More than anything, I want my students to recognise my genuine passion in teaching and learning with them. I want my classes to be challenging but fair, valuable beyond their time and full of fun. I give my very best to provide a high quality learning experience. To accomplish this, I integrate things I have learned in my own classes when I was a student myself and as a teacher. I look forward to reading students’ evaluation of my teaching methods as it motivates me to do even better in the next class.”
Based on the above teaching philosophy, I strongly believe that all students are unique and they should be provided with a stimulating educational environment where they can grow physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially. It is my desire to create such atmosphere in every class where students can meet their full potential. I will give my best to provide a conducive environment where students are invited to share their ideas and express their opinions. I believe that there are four essential principles that are conducive to learning. Firstly, as a teacher, it is my main role to act as a facilitator to the students. I want my students to be autonomous learners. I have a very firm belief in autonomous learning. In my opinion, a teacher should not spoon feed his or her students all the time. It is important for teachers to let the students learn on their own with teachers as facilitators. I always make sure that students are involved in a student-centered teaching approach. Secondly, students must be immersed in hands-on activities. Thus, before I enter each class, I always make sure that I have done my own reading and research on the topic to be discussed and come out with problem-based tasks for the students. Thirdly, students should be able to have choices and let their curiosity direct their learning. Therefore, learning process in the classroom should provide students with numerous learning opportunities. Lastly, I will ensure that I incorporate the use of technology into my lessons. In this era of technology, teachers must be fully-equipped with the necessary knowledge of digital technology as it has become an integral part of our teaching and learning activities.
- DESCRIPTION OF TEACHING STRATEGIES
In 2019, I was given the responsibilities to teach four classes of two different courses. One course focused on read-to-write approach while the other course focused on communication skills. Since the two courses are different in nature, I adapted and adopted several teaching and learning strategies that I believe are suitable for them. The table below summarises my overall teaching strategies and approaches for both courses.
| COURSES | ULAB2122 – Advanced Academic English Skills | ULAB3162 – English for Professional Purposes |
| Course Information | This course reinforces and enhances all four key language skills to facilitate students’ language use in academic context. This includes reading and synthesizing information, listening for main ideas and details (e.g. lectures), taking notes, writing clearly and coherently, and participating in oral presentation and class discussions. The course incorporates features of vocabulary and grammar of academic English. In addition, the course fosters independent learning activities facilitated by online resources. At the end of the course students should be able to integrate skills and knowledge to perform tasks in academic contexts. | The course prepares students with the skills of effective communication that are necessary in order for them to be able to function effectively in workplace situations. At the beginning of the courses, students are required to do enculturation tasks in order to discover their potential and possible expectations of the prospective workplace environment. Through active learning, it emphasizes oral and written communication skills that are practised in workplace situation. Using authentic workplace scenarios, students will be given opportunities to negotiate and present information through group discussions and presentations. by the end of the course, students should be able to function as individuals and team members using appropriate communication skills at workplace. |
| No. of students in 2019 |
128 | 126 |
| Theories / principles / approaches adopted in teaching and evaluation | i. Collaborative assignments (working with other groups to produce an outline) ii. Cooperative learning (working with group members to write a term paper) iii. Peer instruction (presenting a poster) iv. Blended learning (integration of face-to-face and online learning) v. Writing Intensive Courses (producing a term paper) |
i. Case study teaching (real situation/problem) ii. Cooperative learning (working with partner for case study) iii. Problem-based learning (real situation/problem) iv. Blended learning (integration of face-to-face and online learning) v. Industrial Training (written communication through personal statement and email etiquette) |
The following data are taken from Teaching Excellence System (TES) and acted as an evidence of the said theories/principle/approaches adopted in my T&L in 2019.
- CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION IN TEACHING, LEARNING & ASSESSMENT
To reiterate, my teaching philosophy is:
“More than anything, I want my students to recognise my genuine passion in teaching and learning with them. I want my classes to be challenging but fair, valuable beyond their time and full of fun. I give my very best to provide a high quality learning experience. To accomplish this, I integrate things I have learned in my own classes when I was a student myself and as a teacher. I look forward to reading students’ evaluation of my teaching methods as it motivates me to do even better in the next class”.
Based on this teaching philosophy, I tried my best to incorporate the element of creativity and innovation in my language classroom. The creativity and innovation in my T&L learning for the two courses that I taught in 2019 are summarised in the table below.
| COURSES | ULAB2122 – Advanced Academic English Skills | ULAB3162 – English for Professional Purposes |
| Innovation features · New approach · Significance · Relevance · Technology in T&L |
In this course, students are required to write a term paper in pairs or in a group of three. The common perception towards writing classes is it is very dry and dull. I personally believe that writing classes can fun by implementing strategic methods. Instead of the usual chalk and board method, I make sure that I integrate the use of technology in this classroom. Traditionally, students will work with their group members and submit a hard copy of their work to teachers. However, in my class they all need to have a Gdrive folder where they can edit their work simultaneously at their own pace and time. This approach saves a lot of the students’ time and my time too as a teacher. I can simply check their work through my mobile and give feedback whenever and wherever I can. I also actively use Padlet to encourage cooperative learning among the students. | In this course, one of the assessments require the students to do an oral presentation. Normally, teachers would carry out the assessment in the classroom. However, in my class, students are required to do it outside the classroom. To be specific, they have to present their speech at Dataran Agora. Reason why I believe students should carry out their speech in the public is to enhance their confidence when speaking in front of people. Once they presented their speech, they need to write a reflection of their performance in wiki e-learning. |
| Teaching method and assessment that promote higher order thinking (HOT) skills · Application · Analytical · Creative |
One of the teaching methods that I emphasize in this course is problem-solving. I used this method when I want to teach the students how to cite. I will provide the students incorrect citations and they have to rectify it according to standard guideline. They are also taught to be analytical in their work. They need to identify language structures in a text in order to work out the rules for it. They are also encouraged to keep well-organised notes for their term paper assignment by applying the annotation technique. For the creative part, the students have the freedom to design a poster for their presentation. This task requires them to be creative and critical as they need to design a poster that would attract their peers’ attention during the presentation. | One specific assessment for this course is to carry out a negotiation between two parties. In teaching negotiation skills, I employ a role-playing method. I will ask the students to carry out a role play based on situations given. Once I am satisfied with their performance, they will be given a real life situation (case study) to be solved for their assessment. Studying a case study will help the students to be critical of that situation. Once they carry out the negotiation, they are asked to write a reflection of their negotiation in elearning. In my opinion, using real case study for negotiation will equip them with the knowledge of its application in real working environment. |
| Alignment between teaching and assessment with learning outcome | Generally, I tried my best to ensure that I consider cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains in my teaching and assessment. The students’ cognitive domain can be seen from their ability to write term papers while their affective domain can be seen through their motivation in completing the term paper as they need to go through several stages before they can finally submit the term paper. Their psychomotor aspect can be viewed from their ability to do the task according to the instruction given. | Similar to all other courses, I will ensure that the teaching, learning and assessment in that particular course will employ all three domains. In ULAB3162, students cognitive domain is activated through the problems and situations given to them to be solved. Their affective domain can be seen when they respond to a discussion and presentation. Their psychomotor domain can be seen when they are able to receive all the instructions and carry out the activity on their own. |
- IMPACTS OF INNOVATION ON QUALITY OF LEARNING
To show the impact of the innovation used in my T&L classroom, I have compiled the students’ results for both courses in 2019. Generally, students did quite well in my classes regardless of their background and field of study.
- TEACHING EVALUATION & FEEDBACK
Below is the summary of the teaching evaluation of the courses that I taught in 2019. Generally, I have successfully achieved Level 5 (the highest level) of blended learning status for all the courses that I taught. The achievement can be seen in the figure below. The data are taken from TES.
The achievement that I got is supported by the feedback given by my students in the table below. This information is taken from Students Evaluation of Teaching System Online.
| COURSES | SEM II 2018/2019 | SEM 1 2019/2020 |
| ULAB3162 | Section 55 (31 students) My Mean: 4.93 1. Ert good 2. keep it up 3. very good 4. All Good 5. thank you madam for teaching us. you are the best english lecturer ever. you make me increase my confidence to speak in font of people and make me think that english is fun |
Section 01 (33 students) My Mean: 4.59 1. I would always suggest students to take this course with such a wonderful lecturer. 2. thank you |
| Section 70 (34 students) My Mean: 4.86 1. Best lecturer ever!!! 2. good teaching 3. She is a responsible lecturer who can manage all the task well. 4. Professional and kind 5. Madam Awis is always ready and give a cheerful lecture to us. The settings of the class is very interesting, we get to do our assessment in different environment and with different people. 6. she is a very stylish lecturer. she has been my inspiration to speak English fluently.the way she conduct the class is effective and fun. 7. love your class, dr |
Section 29 (33 students) My Mean: 4.75 1. The lecture session is well construct following the learning outcome. 2. Awesomee 3. Amazing lecture given by the lecturer! 4. Madam Awis teach the class actively. It can improve our English from time to time. 5. i have so much fun learning english with dr awis. i improved alot since then 6. I love the way Madam Arwis teaches us 7. GOOD 8. good teaching |
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| ULAB2122 | Section 12 (30 students) Mean: 4.68 1. Thank You Miss 2. Really love this lecturer and would love to learn english again with her next time 3. Student can easily understand |
Section 01 (29 students) Mean: 4.88 1. AWIS MAAM WAS VERY KIND TO US DURING THE ENTIRE COURSE AND TAUGHT THE MATERIALS VERY WELL. 2. keep up 3. She is very easy to reach out to 4. The lecturer have a good relationship with the students and will always smile even though it was her bad day. 5. Everything is fine,no comment 6. Nice 7. A very kind and friendly lecturer. Really helps me and the class a lot |
| Section 21 (34 students) Mean: 4.71 1. can learn many words from lecturer 2. Madam has taught us in every way of using English. The pronunciation, languages and others are really emphasize in the class. Communicate with each other must use English in order enhancing our pro in English. Many assessment are done in order getting the understanding of English deeply. 3. I hope the due date for every task is prolonged. So little time to do the task when i have more than one task from other subjects. 4. Thank you for this semester Madam Awis 5. Madam Awis did give us a good understanding but the course itself a little hard. 6. GOOD 7. Madam is really help in doing the term paper and increase my confident to talk in english 8. I understand what our dr teach us |
Section 37 (35 students) Mean: 4.70 1. Dr.Awis is a very good and patience lecturer. She teaches very well the technique to write an essay. 2. Lecturer is very nice and her explanation is clear. 3. A very passionate and helpful lecturer. Indeed gained a lot of new knowledge from her in English language. Never been so serious in an English class, but her lessons are interesting. 4. Fun learning experience! 5. she is really friendly and she knows how to deal with the students in the right way and she is the best lecturer that i have ever seen till now. 6. I love the idea that dr asks so many questions to enlighten our understanding regarding term papers 7. She is a patient and tolerant lecturer. I like that she has her lessons planned accordingly.She explained our tasks thoroughly throughout the semester. 8. Dr is very good in interacting with students. 9. Lecturer can add more fun activities in class. |
- IMPROVEMENT TO TEACHING & LEARNING THROUGH REFLECTION AND RESEARCH
One of the improvement that I made in my teaching, especially in ULAB2122 course is on the use of structured outline for writing term paper. The structured outline was first introduced by my colleagues. We decided to write a paper on its use in our writing classes. My colleague and I presented our paper at the iELT-Conference in April 2019. The paper can be viewed here.
As a teacher too, we should be ready to make necessary changes when teaching. One of the T&L improvement that I made was to teach my writing course students to use editing tools in Google Drive. I save a lot of time employing this technique compared to the old style of requesting students to submit their writing in hard copy. One of my students in ULAB2122 highlighted (feedback taken from EPPP) that “Madam Awis is always ready and give a cheerful lecture to us. The settings of the class is very interesting, we get to do our assessment in different environment and with different people”. This shows that the variety of assessments that I provided to the students was well-received by them.
- SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING & LEARNING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
a. Sharing of Knowledge and Experience
In this 21st century where sharing of experiences is greatly accessible to everyone, I believe teachers in this era should share their knowledge and experience with their peers and students on several platforms. One of the most common platforms for academicians to do that is through presenting papers in conferences. For ULAB2122, a paper that I wrote with my colleagues was accepted and presented at the iELT-Conference held in Penang in 2019. In this paper, we share the outline that we believe is able to help students in writing their term paper. The paper can be viewed here.
Besides that, I also updated my T&L in my own social media account. I use the InstaStory tool in Instagram to share my classroom activities. My Instagram account is @aznara. I captured pictures and videos of my students when they are doing activities in class. I decided to share it on social media account as I believe it could help others to see the work that my students and I are doing in improving our classroom environment.
b. Recognition (Awards / Key Speaker / Seminar / Facilitator / Mentor)
In 2019, I was also selected to be the recipient of the FFSH Excellent Service Award for the year 2018. On top of that, as a member of MyLinE Taskforce, we won the second runner up for Anugerah Inovasi Naib Canselor 2018 for a project entitled ‘MyLinE MUET Microsites for Transnational Education Programme‘. The details can be read here. In October 2019, I was also selected to attend a 3-day MUET seminar organised by Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Johor at New York Hotel, Johor Bahru.
Besides teaching English proficiency courses for undergraduate students, I was also selected to be one of the facilitators/instructors for the following programs.
i. Oral assessor for entry English test in Kurdistan, Iraq (Feb 2019). The details of my participation in the event can be read here.
ii. Facilitator for MUET for BCEDP Master Trainers (Mar 2019).
ii. Facilitator for Summer School Language Academy with Shibaura Institute of Technology & Yamaguchi University (Sept 2019).
iii. Instructor for IEP Cycle 2 (Feb – March 2019) and IEP Cycle 4 (Sept – Oct 2019).
c. Teaching and Learning Leadership in Community / Academic / Faculty / University / National / International
As one of the key members of MyLinE Taskforce, I am assigned to be the Copyright Coordinator. My responsibility is to apply for copyrights for all the materials that the team has developed.
I am also appointed as Assistant Coordinator for ULAB3162 at the faculty level. My responsibility is to ensure that the course is run accordingly and follow the standard set in the course information. One of the greatest motivation for me to deliver my best in this course is due to the fact that I am in the committee. I believe I should show good and best teaching practices of this course to my colleagues.
d. Professional Development in Teaching and Learning
To ensure that I am well-equipped with the latest knowledge and information of T&L activities, I participated in T&L-related courses organised by UTMLead. As an educator, we must be ready to go to these kind of workshops/courses and learn new things to improve our T&L activities. Not only that, going for courses related to how a course is developed should be a priority to academicians too. Through this, we would be able to know whether our course information/assignment/task meets the requirement set by the university. Some of the workshops that I have joined last year are shown below.
i. Constructive Alignment Course – 29-30 January 2019
ii. Blended eLearning (1,7,3,2) – 27 February 2019
iii. Course Rubric Development Course – 20 March 2019
iv. Item Development Workshop – 21 May 2019
v. Teaching Excellence System Course – 23 July 2019
vi. Alternative Assessment Course – 4 November 2019
e. Involvement in Community / Industry
In 2019, I was invited to be a facilitator for three major programs related to English teaching and learning with the community as shown below.
i. Karnival Stemorphosis (Kolej Matrikulasi Kejuruteraan Johor, 28 February 2019).
MyLinE has been invited to showcase our online platform to matriculation students. The details of the event can be viewed here.
ii. Learning Skills Course for Year 6 Students (SK Indahpura 1, 5-6 Mar 2019)
I was also invited to be one of the speakers for English Paper for the year 6 pupils. I taught the pupils how to answer English paper 2. The details of the event can be read here.
iii. English in Camp (SK Taman Cahaya Masai, 10 April 2019)
In this program, I acted as one of the head facilitators guiding our own undergraduate students to carry out successful English Camp for year 6 students in SK Taman Cahaya Masai. The details of the event can be read here.