Examination aftermath

Dear reader,

I soon have to do the unglamourous task of announcing my class results. They performed really badly in terms of grades. What will I highlight?

1) Effort. How much effort did they put in? Did they only spend an hour a day studying?

2) Time. When did they start? Did they only start the week before? Or months before?

3) Focus. Did they fully spent the hours studying? Or was the time littered with distractions?

4) Quality. Did they only read through the notes? Or did they also go through their previous mistakes and attempt more worksheets?

5) Hope. It's not the end if they did not do well. I remember my friends. One of them who did badly in O levels, is now a A*STAR scientist. They should not give up.

That's all I have for now.

Thanks!

Orthodoxy vs Orthopraxy

Dear reader,

Today I want to explore something that I always felt was missing from my teaching until recently. Often my style teaching has often focused on orthopraxy (the right practices) rather than orthodoxy (the right beliefs).

I am way too concerned about ensuring that routines and how my students do certain tasks. I forget that in fact, beliefs drives actions. The inherent weakness with orthopraxy is that it deals with the symptoms, rather than the roots of student problems.

In the future, I want to emphasise to students why they should take science (and other subjects) seriously, before proceeding to tell them how to study.

For instance in the racial harmony lessons of CCE, I could explain the purpose of the lesson, rather than diving straight into how to live peacefully. In botany, I could explain the importance of studying plants rather than beginning with the phloem and xylem.

However, dealing with orthodoxy is definitely the tougher way. People disbelieve for a multitude of reasons. Some of the problems are more social in nature -- some students refuse to study early since no one around them studies early.

Some problems are intellectual in nature -- some students just want an average life.

Some problems are emotional -- some students don't want to be seen as a nerd.

And all these problems require different ways to deal with them.

Thanks,
Reuben