Category: Random rambling

Future Ready Educators Talk By Assoc Prof Dr Naziha Ahmad Azli

I attended the talk about Future Ready Educators (FREE) by the Director of Curriculum Development and Innovation Unit (CIDU) at D05 yesterday (8 July 2019, Monday).

 So, what is Future Ready Educators actually?  Simplified version (i.e. my version): It is educators who are equipped with knowledge and skills (whatever necessary) in teaching future generations including the millennials by using technology in their teaching and learning process.  Well, everybody must think that “I use powerpoint i.e. technology, so I am already future ready educator“.  Err, it is more than using such tools in our class.  It is about how we engage students in the learning process with the use of technology. 

So, for example, rather than lecturing various theories of motivation, what I did last semester was, I gave each student a copy of material which contains information about theories of motivation.  Then later on, I divided them into several groups.  Within one group, there would be five members/students.  I gave them a written instruction that they can refer to if they do not understand what they should in their discussion.  Ok, now, where is the technology that I had used here?  Wait.  Please continue reading.

It looks like a normal discussion.  Well, it is not because I used “jig saw technique”.  I gave them specific instruction to follow.  

Cooperative learning [Jigsaw activity]

Instructions:

  • [Individual task. 10 minutes]: Each member has been assigned with a sub-topic. Each member has to read on his/her own for 10 minutes of the given sub-topic from a textbook.
    • While reading the given sub-topic, write down anything that is confusing that you want to ask to other expert in your expert group.
    • Write your own notes to summarise your understanding from your reading.
  • [Expert group. 25 minutes]: After 15 minutes, those who are assigned with the same sub-topic (for example, behavioural theory Group 1-11 should gather together and discuss the sub-topic based on their individual reading. Since we have 11 groups, so there will be two groups for each topic.  Meaning, representative of each topic from Group 1 to 5 will be in Group A and representative of Group 6 to 11 will be in Group B).
    • Take turns to explain what you understand based on your reading (3 minutes per person).
    • Take turns to record important points presented by each member.
    • Ask any question that you might have or anything that need to be clarified based on your individual reading in this group.
    • Please help each other to understand by clarifying or giving examples.
    • You should spend 25 minutes on expert discussion [3 minutes x 5 or 6 students = 15 or 18 minutes. Additional 7 minutes for recording/refining your notes].
  • [Original group. 30 minutes]: After 25 minutes of discussion in expert group, each team member with different sub-topics gather as a group [refer to your group assigned to you].
    • Take turns to present each sub-topic to your group member (5 minutes x 5 sub-topics = 25 minutes).
    • Ask any question that you might have or anything that need to be clarified during discussion.
    • Please help each other to understand by clarifying or giving examples.
    • Take turns to record important points presented by each member.
    • Recorder(s) and leader should record important points presented by each member.
    • You should spend 30 minutes on this session [5 minutes x 5 students = 25 minutes. Additional 5 minutes for recording/refining your notes]
  • [Individual task. Short quiz of 10 questions using Quizziz. 15 minutes]: Answer all questions.

So, where is the technology here?  After I ended the discussion, to make sure that they understand from peer discussion i.e. jig saw activity, I gave them an online quiz.  Based on the online quiz, I would know if some of them are still struggling to understand certain things.   Previously, I could just ask them orally about what they have understood or give them paper-and-pencil test.  But, to allow them to digest information that they have learned, I gave them ample time to revise on their own before answering my quiz.  When I looked at the quiz a few days later on, I noticed that majority of them could answer the quiz well.  Meaning, out of 15 questions, majority could get 12 or 13/15.  Not bad.  So, when I met them on the following week, I just quickly rectified some misconceptions (based on their answers, I assumed that it is due to misconceptions).  There you go.  

Some of you might say, why did I provide the material for the jig saw activity rather than asking the students to find on their own?  Well, in this case, I want to make sure that everybody will use the same material.  If I ask them to find the materials themselves, they might find different materials.  Well, isn’t it better in that sense, right?  Well, not necessarily.  It depends.  In my case, I notice that NONE of my students had a textbook.   So, the material that I provided is from a textbook.  My stance is, at least, they read extensively one whole chapter based on the material that I provided (i.e. I photostated ONE whole chapter for them).  😀 

Here is an example of cooperative learning i.e. jig saw activity which I added with an online quiz (technology).   Am I a future ready educator?  Well, I can’t claim myself as such if I only use active learning in my class, right?  I need to diversify my teaching techniques and activities that I give to my students.  I have a long way to go.  

Note: En Fuad Ahmad took some pictures.  I looked so intense in this picture.  Don’t ask me what I scribbled in my small notebook.  It is not something important.  😀

Publish or perish or…..

I have my own stand on this issue.  But for me, it is all boiled down to being true to oneself.  I know that it is becoming a rare practice to be the slow professor in this fast pace academic rat race, yet it depends on one’s intention.  Publication does not necessarily mean journal articles.  It could be in a different form like module and such. 

“Do what you know best and do it the best you can”.  That’s what I believe in.  It is kind of ironic to succumb into the culture of “stealing” for the sake of balancing your survival based on publish-or-perish principle. 

Why values are important in your life?

I think about this (what matter most to me?) over the weekend.  Teaching the 6 struggling students give me a sense of purpose.  Seeing them struggling and yet feel enlightened after discussion/brainstorm/activity, it motives me to help them unconditionally (I am not paid to teach them, nor I gain monetary thingy from it). 

I find an article about how values important in our life.  The first three sentences resonate with what I was thinking, “Values are what bring distinction to your life.  You don’t find them, you choose them.  And when you do, you’re on the path to fulfillment”

How to change negative emotion to positive?

It has been more than 3 years since the incident with a student that I called as minah-t-test-tak-tahu.  At times, some of my colleagues notice that I still cannot let the incident gets off my mind.  Well, I can forgive, but never forget.   This is my art of letting go.  

Learning Adjustment Psychology with Amber Hague taught me to improvise things when “things” happen in life.  Even though I create a case based on the incident which later on I use in my Personality Psychology class on regular basis (her case is the “must” discussed case) as a mean of healing, some colleagues consider it as an unhealthy endeavor.   

Well, I read somewhere that to change negative emotion to positive is the best way of healing.  HOW?  Channeling negative thoughts and act into something productive and positive.  In my case, rather than concocting revenge on the student and her family (this is a normal reaction but it is negative thought), I choose to do something more productive such as crafting cases for discussion in class and such (this is positive and productive act).  I am struggling to find research findings on this approach for a while.  After searching for a while, finally, I find an article about it from Psychology Today.  

Integrity in the workplace

There is this talk by one of my senior colleagues about professionalism and ethics.  I have been thinking about the same issue for quite some time especially after the incident of “minah-t-test-tak-tahu“.  I am lucky that when I was called by the Dean, the late Prof Bahar, he told me to buckle up knowing how difficult it is to deal with such student.  He told me to stay true to myself no matter what.  His emphatic view is something that I will treasure for the rest of my life.  For others who blame me for being irrational and take sides on this obnoxious student, aren’t you being hypocrites?   I find this article from Psychology Today about integrity in the workplace.  Yup.  It is worth to have a stand rather than being “boneless” or “chameleon”.  

Beamish Museum, Durham: A living museum

It was summer 2010.   Kam had the courage to drive an old red Nissan owned by one of our friends to Beamish Museum.  It took us around 45 minutes from Bowburn.  We had to pay GBP13 per entry.  Since we were Durham University students, we thought that we could get a discount, but, nope.  No exception here.

When I was in Durham, I went to several museums in Bath, Bristol and Nottingham and castles cum museum like the Edinburgh castle.  But, nothing prepared us when we went to Beamish museum.  It was surreal.  The staff who work there wear costumes and whatsnot.  It is a nice experience to be able to go to an open space museum.  I took many pictures but unfortunately, I wore something which was not shari’ah compliant 😀 

There you go, I only post one picture here.  When we took this picture, the three of us was at this primary-cum-secondary school.  They used wooden-slab and chalk to write, instead of using paper based exercise book.  Beamish was an old coal mine.  So, it has an actual village equipped with facilities like a church, shops, a bank, living quarters for the workers and such.  Summer is the best time to come here if the weather is nice.  We went there when the weather was nice and perfect for summer (i.e. no rain).  So, we had a blast!  This was the year before Kam and Fiqah finished their study.  

 

Academic Integrity: What is it?

What is academic integrity?  Well, there are so many definitions out there but for me, it is simply doing the right thing right as academicians.  There.  Simple definition.  The term was coined by Don McCabe and together with his colleagues propose the 10 principles of academic integrity.

It is a paradoxical situation.  With the yearly KPI and so many things that you need to fulfill (plus your own personal target to climb social ladder etc.), it is not a surprise if some academicians are resorting to “short cuts” and “manipulation”.  But they are the minority.  A minuscule organism in the academia.

I am not saying that we should not do anything about it and just take a stance of “wait-and-see” but it is something that not easy to be tackled.  When my old Durham neighbour said that he would look into the matter of plagiarism and whatsnot carefully, it is something to be applauded.  

Note: I had a bad experience of this in which a junior colleague “took” my class assignment instruction.  The junior thought that it is meant to be used by everybody whereas in fact, I crafted it few years ago (after many cycles of amendment) to be used EXCLUSIVELY for my own class.  This junior did this without having a pinch of remorse.   No action is taken based on what this junior did even though I have evidence of this junior doing that.  So, what can you say about such thing?  Of course, it is neither a journal nor a published work.  But still, it is my idea.  Looking at the definition given by MIT , it resonates with my unique case.

McCabe also published another article about academic integrity.  Please have a look at his article, HERE

 

It is challenging to be educators now

The recent incident about a student who was canned by a teacher because she called him as “aqua” (Translated: effeminate person) has caused an uproar among teachers, students, netizens and whatsnot. 

The way I see it if I were the student, I would definitely get “double” from my parents.  That’s why I never told them if I was punished by my teachers at school.  Their perception is I must have done “something” to make the teachers to punish me.  No explanation needed.  I would always be the one who have done something wrong, not the other way around.  Parents now?  Well, they are different.  The parents who are like my parents are extinct.  This is the reality now.