new term: the PBL experience

thank god it's friday. i've had a hectic week even though we enjoyed a hari raya holiday on tuesday.

this morning i decided to do some housekeeping at work. my desk's messier than ever cos i was rushing through my THEC (Teaching in Higher Education Certificate) assignment during the last couple of weeks and had tonnes of notes piled up and strewn around.

was filing my notes and decided to check the system on the courses i've completed so far. although i've only been at the polytechnic for slightly over 4 months, i've already clocked in a total of 134 training hours. that's more than what i'd accumulated for 5 years at my previous company!

out of the 134 hours, 90 hours were dedicated to THEC. that's how serious the polytechnic is about ensuring that their lecturers are trained in pedagogy, classroom management skills, assessment setting etc.

and i’m relieved to have almost completed THEC. the classes are over. it's now waiting with nail-biting anticipation to receive my grade for the first assignment. it's really like being a student all over again. kinda strange now, especially when the roles are reversed. i can only imagine the sadistic look on pete's face as he crosses out sentences, circles phrases and peppers my essay with question marks. you know, the regular routine i go through when i get my students' work.

anyway, i survived my first week back school! i'm teaching a new subject via PBL (problem based learning) this semester and boy, it is EXHAUSTING. in the traditional didatic style of teaching, i can just drone on without worrying about the kids. with PBL i'm now a facilitator guiding them through the module. it's quite an innovative way of learning but it's terrible for the tutors.

in PBL, instead of teaching a class of 25 students, the class is divided into 5 groups of 5 students each. they would meet with the facilitator for "consultation" periods where they are tasked to solve a "problem scenario" that's given. in my subject, they are required to solve 2 problems or case studies. there's a framework that the poly adopts to guide the students in their problem solving. during these consultation sessions, the students are supposed to discuss the situation and derive learning issues in which they would need to research on. then they are assigned responsibilities to gather information and peer teach. this is when they will share their findings with their own group members and "solve" the given problems

as a facilitator, my role is to gently probe them or lead them to the desired learning outcomes...it's darn frustrating because i'm not allowed to give them the answers (which is soooooooooo much easier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) because they are supposed to discover them on their own. multiply this session by 5 groups per class. i've got 3 classes. :(

it's really a paradigm shift in the learning-teaching approaches. fortunately, i’ve got 3 junior year (those in their 2nd year) classes who’ve been exposed to PBL so I don’t have to start with the basics. very soon i'll be dreaming about PBL!

too bad i’ve to be back in school tomorrow morning to meet my students who’re on their internship programme. ah well...c'est la vie my friends.

friday, 5.24pm. time to go.