Final Comment

As a final comment, I would like to remind my readers that the theories and concepts that we have learnt in this module are fundamental principles that we have to adopt in our teaching strategies and build our own or modify our current philosophies towards teaching. 

Usually what happens is after a long and stressful period of studies we tend to forget or ignore what we have learnt and as human beings we blame our failure in implementing what we have learnt 'on the rain'. It is understood that our school system has many flaws that need to be corrected before most of these can be applied. However, there are things which are within our reach and discretion that are not being practiced. For example planning a lesson properly and writing its objectives to reflect what behavioural objectives that we intend to find in our students at the successful completion is important. But how focused are we on formulating and trying to achieve these objectives? How far have we gone to review and analyse an examination paper that we have set, to confirm if the paper actually tests what we have taught? How accurate have been the marking rubrics that we have written? Will two teachers who look at those rubrics be able to pitch a subjective answer accurately at the level that you had in your mind? Are those comprehensive enough? 

Further, motivation in our students is urgently needed amidst all the disruption that takes place in our environment. Too many movies, computers, mobile phones and a myriad of TV channels keep the students occupied the whole day. No one would want to wreck their brains for things that are not enjoyable! Hence the teachers' role here becomes paramount in getting the intrinsic motivation back into their brains. A good start would be through extrinsic means and challenges that brings about some kind of fulfillment to those students. We will need to devise good lessons and activities that we can engage students actively and which can build their cognitive abilities through proper ideas of constructivism built into the lesson. More focused and structured group work will enable students to engage with other students, share their thoughts and be more open to mistakes and therefore learn better. Proper scaffolding is required and the right pitching of lessons that will jog their minds through the identification of the zone of proximal development will make students better learners. The list can go on but here I would like to be brief and I wish that everyone of our colleagues get the opportunity and time to practice what we have learnt in this module.