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Pasir Ris Secondary School urges its teachers to learn more about themselves at the Mid-Year Workshop.
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Teachers reprising their roles as students in the classroom. |
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Pasir Ris Secondary School (PRSS) has always placed emphasis on teaching and learning processes to provide varied learning experiences to its students. The Learning and Instructional Technology (LITe) department - comprising Innovative Pedagogy (IP) Champions representing each department - ensures that teachers are up-to-date with teaching and learning approaches that are not only student-centered and engaging, but can also equip students with essential life-skills.
The school has mapped out engaging teaching and learning approaches and encapsulated them in their very own AI3R approach to teaching less and learning more. AI3R is Authentic, Interactive, Independent, Integrated and Reflective – all key ingredients in engaging students in learning.
Back to Class
The Mid-year Staff Workshop, which focused on enhancing pedagogy, saw IP champs working with the workshop organising committee to plan as well as implement the workshop programme. Held just before the beginning of Term 3, it was aptly named the “Back to School: Moving Forward Workshop” as it was designed not only to prepare teachers to teach less and learn more, but also to learn more themselves as they take on the role of students during the experiential learning segment of the workshop.
Lesson simulations incorporating the AI3R approach were prepared and carried out for teachers to experience and later adopt or adapt for their own classroom lessons. All teachers went through three different lesson simulations in the role of students. Each teacher-facilitated lesson included at least three aspects of the AI3R approach crafted by the school.
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Teachers taking avid enjoyment in their lesson simulations. |
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The mock Press Conference goes into full swing with the panel answering a flurry of questions from the 'reporters'. |
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Being Students Again
The simulated English lesson involved a pre-writing activity to help students to think through and find out more about the given topic before they write a report. The lesson used authentic materials namely a video clip of the 9/11 tragedy and news articles. In addition, there was a mock press conference where a group of students took on the roles of people involved in the 9/11 tragedy (eg: George Bush, Osama bin Laden, an Airlines spokesperson, News Reporters). Prior to the conference, students discussed pertinent issues related to the tragedy which allowed them to reflect on many important learning points.
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For the Maths lesson, the 'students' learnt how to use the graphing calculator to process the data they have collected earlier. |
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For the Maths lesson, students focused on collecting as well as processing authentic data. Several teachers were made to run while others recorded their speed at intervals. Data collected was then processed using a graphing calculator and later analysed.
Creative choreographers often make a personal, unique dance statement that sets their work apart from other choreographers’ works. In viewing a dance, your students might be able to categorise it in a general way that will help them gain insight into a choreographer’s perceptions about movement and how he or she has unified them to a cohesive whole.
In Geography lessons, teachers experienced introductory fieldwork techniques. They collected data through measurements and observations in the school’s garden. They were then sent to three checkpoints; this activity was facilitated by PRSS students who acted as guides to their teachers. Analysis of data collected and observations gathered were later carried out in the classroom.
At the end of each lesson, teachers completed a reflection log where they were encouraged to think about engaged learning based on what they had experienced in each lesson. They were better able to put themselves in the shoes of students and experience for themselves what engaging lessons look and feel like. On top of that, teachers had a lot of fun letting their hair down as they took on the role of students ... both naughty and nice ones too!
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An outdoor lesson on data collection, where the measurements taken will be analysed later in the classroom. |
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Going out on a limb to collect data! |
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