Reflection of week
3 (shadowing sessions)
Reflection of
shadowing session no.1
Date: 17 apr 2012:
Group EFG : Othman Amin, Othman Fallatah, Khalid
Alfaris and Nawaf Almzaini.
Shadowing
was opportunity for our EFG group to observe methods which applied in Finnish Education
at Metropolia University of Applied Science. First shadowing session was in an
electrical course in a lab. As been arranged for us we met Mr. Adel who is the
session coordinator. Then we went to a lab where the session was held. The
session was a computer based on electrical engineering lab. The students were
about 12 present. They have an access to use their electronic tokens or models,
and there were working group. The lesson was very short. It was about 35
minutes and after that we had the chance to discus many issues and ask many
questions with the teacher at the end of the lab.
The methodology of teaching started with concept modeling of cognitively
active learning method through 35 minutes to explain the structure of
electronic token. and then experiential learning by guiding method for their
experiment. It can be seen that group students were more activity with their
practice. The grading system teacher used to evaluate each student. Also each
group have a project to accomplish by the end of the semester.
On the other side, there are some
comments can be noticed. First I was happy with the idea to arranged for us the
arabic session coordinator. He was very cooperative and helpful. The teacher
also was very friendly, cooperative, and helpful. Secondly, there is a good idea when he told the
students will speak in English because of us. One more comment, the teacher at
the end of the class gave us time to discus and answered many questions. However,
the environment of the lab might be not suitable for the student because there
is not enough area to moving. Descriptive of the outline course was not given
for us.
At the end of these shadowing, I would
like to thanks the staff who are organized this activity, and special thanks to
the coordinator and teacher who was very
polite.
By: Othman Amin
Reflection of
shadowing session no.2
Date: 18 Apr 2012:
Group EFG : Othman Amin, Othman Fallatah, Khalid
Alfaris and Nawaf Almzaini.
The
second shadowing session was applied in Metropolia University of Applied
Science. Shadowing session was in physic lab course. The students were three at
the beginning of the session and then become eleven. Some of them have an
access to use their equipments, and there were working groups. We had the
chance to discus many issues and ask many questions with the teacher and
student during of the class.
The methodology of teaching was started with experiential learning by guiding method for their experiment. It
can be seen that group students were activity with their practice more than first
shadowing yesterday. The grading system he used pass or fail,
but he has given a grade of 1 to 5.
Also they have to submit a reports to do during of the semester.
Although, there are some points
can be noticed. I was pleased with a sense to take the information and help
from the teacher. Another point the teacher was cooperative, and helpful. He explain
briefly for given him 10 experiment for each group working during the term
scission. One more point, the teacher at the end of the class gave us time to
discus and answered many questions. However, the environment of the lab might
be not suitable for the student because there is not enough equipments. Descriptive
of the outline course was not given for us.
At the end of these shadowing, I would
like to thanks my EFG group, the
coordinator and teacher how was very
polite indeed.
best wishes for all.
By : Othman Amin
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI have already commented in Khalid's and Nawaf's blog, that it is a pity how poorly the idea of this project course was conveyed to you during the short visit. Your notion that the course plan was not given to you is very important! When you didn't have the full picture of the objectives and work forms in this course as a whole, you naturally focused at the lecture part. In this course, as I have understood from people in Metropolia, the main role of the teacher is not in TEACHING, but in planning and organizing LEARNING. So the class was not only 35 minutes, everything else the teacher does in facilitating learning is of equal importance (although it might be that this particular time the interaction between the teacher and students wasn't so extensive, as the teacher used the latter part of the class to discuss with you, instead of circulation among the students).
I understand that you mainly teach mathematics. Are there any courses where you could apply the idea of project work? (At first I had a feeling that perhaps math isn't so suitable for this type of team effort, but then I remembered that when I took my math studies at the University of Helsinki, some courses indeed had this approach! For instance in computer aided math with Maple program we were divided into teams of four, and had to solve 10 large problems together using Maple. The teacher didn't "teach" mush, he is role was in providing the problems, helping us if we had questions and assessing the course.)
In somebody else's blog I read that earlier physics labs were integrated to each separate physics course, but for some years they had used the approach where theory is taught in separate courses and all practical work is organized in this separate lab course. What is your opinion, what plusses and minuses can this approach have to learning?
I'm happy to hear that you appreciated the Arabic-speaking host! I'll tell your positive feedback on that to the organizers of your shadowing sessions at Metropolia.
- Irmeli