My ESE(?) Experience

Specific Observations
The class observed was a Secondary 3 Express class. It is a combined class and these two classes are considered to be the Pure Humanities classes of the level. The lesson that was observed was Pure Geography and the topic that was taught that day was on Plate Boundaries and Landforms. It is a rather small class consisting of about 20 students. Considering that the 2 classes are the last 2 classes of the stream, their academic performance cannot be compared to the Pure Sciences classes. Hence they are considerably weaker in their studies. Furthermore, as the school building is undergoing PRIME and this location is a holding site, it needs to be noted that the students are not settled in as comfortably as they should and hence there’s always signs of restlessness in the class.

In this particular lesson, the teacher was using the iPad as her main teaching tool. The students were all assigned one iPad each and a stylus. The main app that was used was called ‘Show Me’. It is an app that allows the user to record and draw on the screen at the same time.

So, during the lesson, the students are supposed draw out plate movements and the result and at the same time describe what they were drawing. The whole intention of such an approach is that it is part of their assessment to be able to draw informative diagrams describing plate movement. At the end of the recording session, the students are required to present their recording to the whole class. Hence, each student would become a teacher of sorts by the end of the lesson.

The students were intrigued by the fact that the app was able to record their drawing and speech real time that many of them kept redoing the recording so as to get a good rendition of their diagrams and voice.


The outcome of the lesson was that the students actually learnt from each other rather than from the textbook or the teacher. Given that the textbook has diagrams that are already drawn and coloured, the students would not know how to go about drawing a diagram from scratch. As each student presented his drawing, the teacher and his classmates would be able to see his thought process. Also, they were give comments on the drawing on how to make it better or ask questions about it.


One particular student went as far as to harness the capabilities of the iPad and the app that he took a picture of the diagram in the textbook and 'pasted' it on the drawing canvas and started his diagram from there. Although that was a smart move in harnessing ICT but he was 'plagiarizing' the textbook and was not learning how to draw a diagram from scratch.


Overall, this was an experience on (not much but evident) collaborative learning and self-directed learning can be implemented in the classroom using ICT.


General Observations
Teachers in the school feel that on a whole a change in mindset is needed especially for language based subjects like Mother Tongue and the Humanities. Teachers teaching these subjects either do not know how can ICT be helpful for their subject or what type of ICT can be used for their subject.


The next quirk that most teachers find quite troublesome is the ICT support in the school. In order for the curriculum to run smoothly while using ICT, it needs to have as few technical problems as possible. Having 1 or 2 TAs in the school would not be enough if MOE is looking towards a ICT-based learning environment. The current ratio - 2:100 or 1:1000.


Coupled with the above 2 points is that teachers need to be competent in both technical (hands-on) and creativity (minds-on) knowledge in order to fully utilize ICT in teaching and learning.