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By Mr Sew Jyh Wee, Staff Development Coordinator, CHIJ ST Theresa’s Convent |
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The 18 Master degree programmes through the collaboration of
MOE Staff Training Branch and NIE-NTU gives many teachers, myself
included, a clear signal that our own personal learning journeys
are hardly at an end.
I find the PDCM programme timely, as it offers sustained training in many areas of academic interest for classroom practitioners. With the wide palette of modules leading to Master degrees in the PDCM, I am spoilt for choice. The 18 areas of specialisation ranging from specifics like Educational and Psychological Measurement and Evaluation, and Music Education, to the more general such as Secondary Education and Mother Tongue Education show why.
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| The
smart robins that came to my window on one lonely
day: Sec 2 students in action. |
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To me, all it takes on the teachers’ part is a willingness to
put in the effort, and rise to the challenge of giving students
the support they deserve learning in the 21st century.
Be warned – deciding to go on the PDCM may lead to some raised
eyebrows. Giving yourself more work? Some may wonder. “You are
just wasting your time!” one senior colleague was heard saying,
when I mentioned that I was interested in the Research Methodology
I module.
Detractors there will always be, but having taken the Research
Methodology I in PDCM, I find myself drawn to research
papers in academic journals. Yes, the same ones which had once
seemed intellectually intimidating!
So if life is a journey, PDCM makes the journey an enlightened
one for me. For me, being on my toes is necessary not just for
myself, but for my students too. After all, in a world where
the growth of knowledge is exponential, one never knows when
the knowledge we hold now would become obsolete. For instance,
10 years ago, not many believed phones could take photographs.
Fewer believed phones could broadcast a drama serial five years
ago.
By putting teachers at the forefront of the knowledge highway,
we now have more in common with our students. Our minds are
being stretched, just as we work to stretch theirs. For me,
it also means revisiting areas I was once discouraged from going
into, persuaded then by conservative voices decades ago. Drama
was one of them. I fell head over heels in love with drama because
it helps me disseminate values in a fun way!
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education – When my students find a purse on the
ground, whether or not to keep it is not a question
at all! |
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And because of that, the fun of learning that I had in my undergraduate
years is now coming back to me. Although juggling teaching and
learning is a challenging task, it is, nonetheless, a rewarding
endeavour – opportunities to conceive ideas, take part in group
discussions, delve into hands-on activities in a verbal-cum-aesthetic
workshop, and, to craft the assignment as an adult learner.
So back to the question, should teachers’ paper chase end when
they join teaching? For me, the paper chase may have ended,
but true learning has only just begun. |
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