Reflection on Learning environment, attitudes & conceptual development associated with innovative strategies in middle-sch Math by Philip I & Barry J.

It is not uncommon for students to lose interest when it comes to grasping abstract concept that are beyond them. Topics and concepts on Alegbra are not easily understood as they are not something that you can touch, feel and see.

Also students do not have the background and foundation to really do self-study or extremely motivated to do well in such topics.

For example in the primary school Science syllabus, students always have problem understanding concepts on forces and energy. These are abstract because they cannot touch and hold on to forces and energy and thus cannot make sense of it. A lot of understanding have to be derived from hands on sessions where they conduct experiments and they see for themselves the effect of forces and what energy can do to our lives.

Learning environment thus become very important when we want them to create their own understanding of certain topics. A lot of support has to be given and they must feel that the environment is non-threatening before they would participate with ease.

Therefore, it takes a lot of experience for a teacher to plan an effective lesson where students grasp the concepts readily through the activities planned and peer interactions and discussions.
Once students feel that learning in this context is useful and they really learn something from the lesson, they will be motivated to learn more. This is what most teachers want out of their students - to be motivated learners.

Summary-Students Perceptions of Chemistry Lab Learning Environments, Students-Teacher Intercations & Attitudes in Sec Sch Gifted Edu Classes in S'pore

After reading the results and anlaysis section, I gained a deeper understanding of how gifted and non-gifted respond to their learning environment and there was gender differences for Student Cohesiveness, Rule Clarity and Material Environment. To conclude, it is important for teachers to keep in mind from the students' point of views of how we could enhance their learning when we design our instructions and curriculum to meet their learning needs. Also teachers may use approaches that are more student-centered during lessons and practical sessions. I guess at this stage, this is the best we can achieve. To really have investigative and exploratory learning experience for our students in current school context is quite impossible because that may lead to frustration and students may just give up. So there will always be some degree of teacher guided activities or programmes.

Summary of Grade-Level, Gender and Ethnic Differences in Attitudes and Learning Environment in High School Mathematics by Gloria E.

The article presented that in US (1994), only 22% of the Science and Engineering labour force was made up of women where 46% of the labour force in all occupations was made up of females. To understand this scenario, one of the research questions was to investigate if there are differences in the learning environment perceptions and attitudes of high school Mathematics students according to grade level, gender and ethnicity. How students perceive their learning environment would affect the job they would take up later in their lives. However I felt that the perceptions of students were greatly affected by their culture such as the community they are in, their cultural values about males and females which were pass on to them by their parents or grandparents. So these are not solely just students' perceptions in their school.

For example, parents may be telling their daughters not to work in the engineering field where they need to be out in the sun doing field work. They could have inevitable instil the idea that females should work in offices. This is not uncommon.

Perhaps, researchers should research on what affect students' cultural values which they would bring to school and in turn affect their perceptions about learning and later getting jobs related to Science and Engineering areas.

Session 3 Reflection

The readings for the Seminar were rather difficult to understand. We actually have to read over and over again the results and analysis section in order to gain 10% understanding of what the researcher was reporting.

Even though we did an assignment for MED 871 Module where we comment on three educational research articles on the approaches, instruments, results, findings and implication, we still face difficulties in intepreting. But this time round it was better because we did it as a group work. We collaborated through emails, Wiki and blogs and we got a chance to discuss about what we have read and interpreted.

I actually enjoyed working with my team made up of other four princesses. You gals are wonderful --> full of jokes and laughter!

Session 5 Reflection

This is indeed a fruitful module! I have learnt a lot from Dr Quek especially on the analysis of data, how to write an academic research paper: the dos and don'ts. I have gained great ideas that I can apply in my teaching with the use of WiKi to support pupils' learning and to provide a platform outside curriculum for those who are IT savy to take part in so that their laerning is enhanced.

Also understanding pupils' perceptions about their learning environment is very important. With the seminar presented by all the course mates, I also realised that cooperative learning, motivation and creating a non-threatening environment is extremely important for pupils in terms of their learning.

The hands on session for using SPSS software to calculate the Cronbach alpha coefficient for reliability test as well as the item and scale mean are also useful to me as currently our Sc department is working AR of pupils' experential laerning and we are not trainedd in getting the right analysis and how to go about. Now I can go ahead with the it.

Session 4 Reflection

In this session, Dr Quek had worked through some ideas on data analysis and the use of SPSS. This is veryful to me as we do Action Research to improve in our work environment and teaching approaches in our school. In AR, we collect quantitaive data and need to analyse them. This is a good start to learn how to process the data. So what I have learnt from this course is very relevant to me.

Also now I'm more aware of the learning environment of our pupils and how we can support and scaffold them through e-learning environment.

Reflection on Session 2

Dear princesses,

Maybe we can discuss about the two articles and of course we need to search for them first.