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Once I was invited to make comments on a senior high school teacher's class which I observed with much care and many notes because I was told to say something about it. To tell the truth, this class was not so good in my point of view as I make judgments on a class with special criteria of which the core is whether authentic learning happens or not. The authentic learning refers to the changes on the cognitive frame and the mode of behaviour of the students in the class. But this class did not achieve its goals or reach its objectives, although it was filled with so many activities. The funniest thing about this class is that the teacher mentioned some social media which served to show the differences in the ways of making friends in the old times and in the modern times. I'm not sure whether the students heard these names of the social media such as twitter, instagram and facebook which are popular with youngsters in foreign countries, especially in America but the youngsters in the Mainland can't get access to. And the teacher mentioned them and even wrote the words on the blackboard but made no further explanation and didn't enlighten the students about the differences between the ways of making friends in the past and in the information age. The teaching link was invalid even if the students had heard about these media. The reason is quite simple: it will not bring any changes on the cognitive frame and behaviour mode of the students, that is to say, there is no authentic learning in the teaching part. When I pointed it out and made doubt about her teaching objective for this part, the teacher angrily responded that she had mentioned the social media! If mentioning equals to teaching, there is no doubt that teaching is too simple , too simple to make efforts to do research on it! In fact, too many teachers follow the same line of teaching thought. They think that they mentioned something, so they have fulfilled their duty !The reason about that is too many teachers regard activities as objectives. They think that if they design many activities and if the students complete these activities one by one, they are learning! In fact they are not! They are forced to rush to the next activity no matter what happens on them in the previous one. They have no opportunity and time to think and organize what they have been told. The ideas that the teacher presents rush in and out of their minds with pale traces left. Too much means too little! Easy come, easy go! |
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