Pedagogical Contents (Be Flexible, Be Innovative)

Flexibility is absolute when you’re teaching, at least in my opinion. Today’s world is famous for its 21st Century Learning, basically, making learning experiences natural. That’s a great thing to do, but, sometimes that isn’t the case.

When I was observing and teaching, the students, like any others in the world hardly pay attention to you more than 45 minutes, especially in science. And, of course many of the teachers are aware of this. So, my solution is to use more of a student centered learning. But, in the middle of the preparation, I realize that the material that I am teaching, is really boring and focus on the concept, moreover you cannot see the actual thing happened.

And there’s some problem with the students’ willingness to learn, so instead of done some more inquiry or discovery activities, I decide to give them meaningful learning. This learning will be a big discussion, starting with a question, then proceed with an explanation, ended with some visual examples and empirical examples.

Meaningful Learning is that learned information is completely understood and can now be used to make connections with other previously known knowledge, aiding in further understanding[1]. It is often contrasted with rote learning, a method in which you just memorize information, but do not understand it or know how to relate it. Memorizing flashcards is an example of rote learning. Coming up with your own examples of concepts is an example of meaningful learning. Relating what you learned to something in your own life not only makes the topic more interesting, encouraging further research and learning, but it also makes it easier to remember. Meaningful learning encourages the learner to understand the information presented and will help them to come up with active learning techniques to aid their understanding. Meaningful learning takes longer than rote memorization, but the information is typically retained longer this way. In addition, meaningful learning can incorporate many different techniques, such as concept mapping, hands-on tasks, and more. Some techniques may be more helpful than others depending on the learner.

My materials for learning are types of reaction, then Energy and Chemical Reaction, and for the innovation in my learnings, I tried to give the students more visuals and discussion, so I allocated only half an hour for explaining, the rest of it are videos and discussions. For types of reactions, I use some visuals on youtube that shows what really happened in a simplest way. And for the Energy and Chemical Reaction I uses thermal camera videos to shows the “energy” that produced or absorbed in a more seeable way.

For the sources and technologies, I use powerpoints, laptop, Kahoot and other gaming platform, and videos, I don’t use my own thermal camera (it’s way too expensive) and because I had to keep it simple, I don’t do experiment.

And for the authentic assessment, actually, I’d like to use a portfolio to know their progress, but given I only be there for one month, I just make some checklist that shows how they are developing, what’s their problem in learning and their non-academic achievements, such as tolerance, willingness to learn, sympathy etc.