Category: Teaching

Publish or perish_Part 2

One of my highly esteemed senior colleagues, Prof Hamdan Said shared this newspaper article with us.  I admit that what the author wrote is happening in UTM.  As an example, I find it time consuming to conduct SOTL research and “produce” papers related to teaching and learning.  To see an impact or changes of any learning activity takes time.  It is quite difficult to see any “major” change within a period of 14 weeks (for normal semester) unless you have the same batch of students and you use the same learning activity in classes that they have to take in the subsequent semesters. 

In my case, if I teach a batch of students who are in their first year second semester i.e. Educational Psychology class, it is quite difficult for me to have the same batch of students in the following semester because I only teach few undergraduate classes (other than Educational Psychology, I also teach Fundamental Pedagogy and Research Methodology class.  But since there are enough instructors to teach the other two courses, I only end up to teach only Educational Psychology class on regular basis).  Thus, how can I conduct a SOTL research when there would be limited opportunity for me to try out new teaching and learning strategies and do research on that?  The point is, it takes me longer to collect data from my own teaching practice.  It is not easy but not impossible to do.

When I was at school for my LI, I collected lots of data (from my token economy planner/table, students’ reflective notes and my own daily journal notes).  I find it challenging to have solid quiet time to analyse the data.  I admit that I should prioritise some of my works according to its importance.  As a lecturer, teaching at a university, it is important for me to publish, but at the same time I know that I need to improve my teaching.

Now, it is exam period and I am being bogged down with tonnes of marking assignments, exam scripts and whatsnot.  When will this end?  It will never end.  This is one of the common cycles that I have to face as a lecturer at university.

So, it is a little wonder if some might resort to “short-cuts” of publishing even though they might compromise the quality of the paper.  It is a challenge to be “the slow professor” who professes, rather than “an empty shell”.  It is a paradoxical phenomenon indeed.

 

First examination….. after LI

I have 55 students in this section.  TEASLIANs.  They are fun, quick-witted and some of them are serious and studious.  Some are playful but of course, they are among the selected ones to be in this programme.  Since it was conducted in a big examination hall at Rahman Putra College (KRP), I was thinking that perhaps it would be better if I put the best wishes card on their table and thus, it will differentiate my students from other students in different sections.  Attaboy!

When I announced it to the students before they entered the exam hall that my students would get a card on their table, I noticed that some other students were sighing because it is as if I am treating my students favorably as compared to their lecturers.  This is one of the things that I learn when I was at school: Always make your students feel special even though you are assertive (tegas).  Jim Henson (the famous puppeteer and creator of Sesame Street) once said “Kids don’t remember what you try to teach them but they remember what you are”.   On top of that, taking examination could be stressful to some students and one of the things that can decrease stress is to change the emotion into positive one.  When you get something from your lecturer i.e. a card whereas the other students from different sections get nothing, you feel special.  It is important to make others feel good about themselves.

[Note: Of course this makes the other students who belong to different sections feel envious because they don’t get any best wishes card.  I apologise for that.  I don’t know them though because they are not my students even though they are the School of Education, UTM students 😀]

Feeling special makes them feel happy and this indirectly will decrease their stress.  When they got to their seat and looked at the card, I saw that majority of them smile.  They started to loosen up a bit.  Some of them looked at the back of the card, checking if I wrote something else.  Well, to tell the truth, I didn’t have time to write for each and every 55 cards that I would give them.  I just got the cards last Monday (two days before their exam).  

How to make your student feel special at the same time being assertive? This is not an easy task.  But I believe in the small things that you do which matter.  You have to show your concern in various ways.  You can make students feel special in many ways.  Of course, if you give them a card, it means that you need to invest.  But, it is not that costly.  For 300 cards, I just spent less than RM100.  The card is color printed and to make it extra special in which they cannot find it elsewhere or at store, I designed it myself using Canva.

I admit that there are times when I lost control of my emotion in class (when I was doing my LI), but at the end of the day, I want to let the students know that I care about them.  I got mad not because I hate them, but I hate their attitude such as being lazy, or not taking serious thing seriously. 

Alhamdulillah I never blew off my steam with my UG students this semester.  Attaboy!  Because I see unlimited potentials in them regardless what they do in class (even though some of them fell asleep, went out for a while to have a break by eating lunch while I was teaching in class, colored their hair yellow, brunette, purplish shade etc.) .  Of course, I just observed them from afar because I know that as adult learners, they are responsible for their own learning.  I guess I am using the examples that were portrayed by my former mentors when I was in IIUM.   They were relax and cool.  I enjoyed being in and taking their classes even though I knew that they couldn’t teach all the courses that I have to take in order to complete my degree.  

As a teacher/lecturer (you name it, it is just a term but basically what I do is still the same – teaching), you always want the best for your students.  I know that it is not easy to create an ever lasting bond with my students.   But, I hope that they would remember me for who I am and they would remember the warm fuzzy feeling they feel on the day they took my examination due to the card  I gave them.  Perhaps I am the only teacher/lecturer that ever would give them a best wishes card before exam (tongue in cheek remark!).   

P.S: If I teach the same students in another course, I guess I have to give them different things, not card.  A best wishes bookmark, perhaps 😀

Teaching to the test…. NOPE!

A student’s representative messaged me asking me if I have the answers to the last year exam questions.  My reply: “I was not around last year so I don’t know and don’t have the questions and answers.  I was at school.  One whole year“

I vividly remember the class which I took with Joe Denver (nickname that Dr Joharry Othman uses).  One of his class assignments was to research about the examples of teaching to the test practice.  Since knowing the impact of teaching to the test on students i.e. it makes students “good test takers but lousy learners“, I determine to minimise any learning activity that would lead to that.  Of course, sometimes in a good faith you give students learning activities to enhance their understanding but giving too much questions like quizzes, past year exam questions etc. might lead to “teaching to the test” phenomenon.  

I don’t want to be an advocate for this practice in honour of what Dr Joe has taught me.  I would disrespect him if I go against what he has taught me before.  I don’t want to do that to my teachers.  So, I will not give too much questions that students can practice through drill-and-grill method.  NEVER!  In sha Allah

How to make an impact in your students life?

I have had this conversation numerous times with my colleagues (different people) over the years about making difference in other people life especially the students that we taught and teach.  The recent one was last week on Thursday (16 May 2019) 

When I was at school while undergoing my LI, I could see that many former students came to visit their old teachers.  This gives me a warm fuzzy feeling and even though there are some students who came visiting me before after they finished their study but they are few.  At school, I even saw some of the students who came to visit their former teachers brought the latest new addition in their family i.e. children.  I never had that experience before.

I racked my brain to think about what else could I do other than interacting with the students in class.  I started to google few quotes for the posters that I have promised to give to my English panel colleagues (at school).  While I was browsing Canva, I had this idea to give a best wishes card to my students.  But what should I do with the rest of the cards if I only use half of it (because I was thinking to give it to the school kids that I have taught before)?

This gives me an idea to give the card to all my students at university that I teach as well.  I know it is kind of unusual to do this and I had never have any lecturer or had seen any senior who has done that before, but what a heck, there is nothing wrong to give the students a best wishes card.  Let’s start this tradition!

Am I making any impact in my student’s life by giving this card?  Only Allah Knows best. 

My motto: Do the best, pray for the best, leave the rest to Allah and always be thankful with the best things that happen in life even though we might perceive it negatively.  

P.S: I can’t wait to see their reaction seeing this card on top of the table before their exam.

Publish or perish_Part 1

I checked my email today (20 May 2019, Monday). My former student sent me an email letting me know about his paper has been published at a journal.  Alhamdulillah.  To know more, you can go the Jurnal Kemanusiaan

It is about the experiences of teachers using Frog VLE

It is made compulsory for all teachers in Malaysia to use Frog VLE as a part of their teaching practice.  It is similar to UTM elearning but the features are slightly different.  If you are not a teacher, parent or student, you might not be able to use it because your account will be inactive because there will be no interactive activities that you can link to parents and students.

When he first came to see me to discuss about this issue, I was worried because he might find it difficult to find relevant references relating to Frog VLE because it is fairly new thing.  This was few years ago.  But I told him, “Nazry, just go for it.  In sha Allah your study will benefit other researchers who want to explore this issue.“

He is one of the students who would be “the darling” of all supervisors.  He is hardworking, diligent, meticulous and resilient.  There were times when he felt to change the direction of his research.  I told him to stay focused.  “Nazry, it is not easy to get data but you have to be persistent.  Don’t give up,  It is quite a normal phenomenon to meet people who hesitate to be your respondents in your study.  But, you need to highlight their importance in helping others to understand any issue relating to the challenges that they face to use Frog VLE.  Doing a research means that not only you will understand certain issue better but you can help others to understand the issue better especially when you publish your work“.  When I said that, he seemed to be motivated to stay focused because this time around, he has another aim: to publish his work.

I always say the same kind of things to my research students, yet only a handful would like to take the challenge to publish their work.  Some are quite complacent to just finish their work and put their thesis on the shelves for display.

A little surprise for my (former) form 4 students

 

When I taught them, there were 15 of them but now there are only 11 left.  My little heroes!

I could still remember their names.  From the left standing: Aidil (a very athletic person), Hafid (a very shy but strong-willed student.  He is also very diligent), Idham (who happens to be my neighbour, Cikgu Bibah’s son), Hakim (Mr Handsome-guy and the most popular among the girls because of his look and mannerism), Farouq (the champion to fall asleep in my class), Ammar (the quiet with lots of self-doubt boy).  On the front: Aidit (an easily-influenced-by-others boy), Hazim (a rebel in searching his identity), Yasser (a very timid and needs lots of assurance), Baqir (who is very talented and artistic) and Halim (Daud’s and Annuar’s brother.  A shy boy who thinks that I like to tease him in class by calling his name frequently)

Why do they look so happy? 

At first they were thinking that I might give them an ang pau envelope.  No.  It is a letter that I wrote to each and every one of them.  Individualised and personalised message from me.  I have given the same thing to my former form 4 Sapphire class (which include the girls).  This time around, due to time constraint, I only managed to complete the letters to the boys.  I will do so for the girls In sha Allah in the future. 

With the formal UTM envelope, I hope it might give them a sense of importance.  Receiving a letter with important message.  Yup.  That’s my intention.  I hope that the heart-felt message would reach to their heart.  I pray May Allah Bless them with understanding and good memory to remember what I wrote to them.

Well, I went to the school yesterday to drop the letters to Teacher Ita (one of the English teacher) and some of them saw me walking with the letters on my hand.  I bumped into Halim inside the teacher’s room but he was too shy to greet me.  

So, what happened to another four?

Two students changed schools after PT3.  Another two?  They changed school because of “a little” incident.  Due to the nature of the issue, let’s just say that they did something.  I am sad when I know about the incident.  I never thought that as young as 16 years old would do something like that.  This is the reality that I wish to ignore and yet, I know that I have to do something about it.  Thus, I wrote the letters to the rest.  I don’t want to punish them because of what has happened even though some of them are involved in that incident indirectly.  Yet, I think I need to let them know how I feel about them.  It does resonate with this saying

“Students don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”

I know is never too late to show how much I care even though I am no longer physically at school with them.

UTM Open Day