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TASK 3 : REFLECTION

First and foremost, allow me to show my greatest appreciation to my respected lecturer,
Mdm Ooi Choon Meng for her hard work in delivering lots of useful knowledge to my friends and
I.I could say that Madam Ooi had put so much effort especially when it comes to her lecture
hour. I really love when it comes to Madam Oois lecture. I find that she has her own way in
delivering knowledge because the way she demonstrates things to my friends and I is not the
same as other lecturers. Whenever Madam Ooi was giving her lecture, I will always have a pen
and a paper on my table just to jot down important key words that she suggested during her
lecture. This is mainly because I feel so interested and eager to listen to her lecture. Besides
that, we will also have some sort of discussion on our assignments and tasks. Madam Ooi
Choon Meng did her part in explaining things that we do not understand and commenting on our
drafts of our assignments. I really appreciate all the positive and negative comments that she
gave.
My experience of learning Managing the Primary ESL Classroom (TSL 3109), is really
challenging as it is my very first experience in learning this subject. Mainly, in this course, I have
been lectured about some topics that I have learnt during my ELT Methodology subject
previously. Based on this course, there are many things and new knowledge that I gained in
preparing myself as a great teacher. Firstly, through this course I have learnt about many
theories that I can apply during my teaching and learning activities. The theories are Theories of
Democratic Teaching by Rudolf Dreikuf, Theories of Instructional Management by Jacob
Kounin, Theories of Congruent Communication by Haim Ginott, Building the Foundation by
Skinner, Glasser, Gordon and Theories of Assertive tactics by Lee and Marlene Canter. By
learning about these theories, I have learnt on how to manage the classroom to promote a
conducive classroom environment that ideal for the teaching and learning process to occur.
This course has been very enriching and enjoyable. It has tremendously contributed to
my growth as a student and as a teacher. Every activity and assignment in this course was a
unique learning opportunity. The course was very well designed for each activity added to the
larger objective of the course, which was helping young teachers to explore new methods and
techniques of foreign language teaching and to prepare them for future challenges in the field.
Moreover, I believe the course succeeded in achieving this goal.
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Besides, through this course, I also realised that the roles of teachers in the classroom is
not merely to teach but also to mould the young generations of the country to become
individuals with good values. Meanwhile finishing the short coursework in fulfilling the need of
the course, I learnt that teaching is not an easy task. There are lots of challenges that await me
in my career as a teacher. Furthermore, through this course also, I learnt many different
approaches and strategies in managing a classroom. For example, based on the Theory of
Instructional Management by Jacob Kounin, I have learnt many different strategies such as
wittiness, ripple effect, group focus, satiation, overlapping and effective transitions. These
approaches and strategies can be applied during my practicum. Furthermore, the theory itself
highlights more on teachers roles and responsibilities.
In addition, I also have learnt that there are many types of misbehaviours that can occur
in the classroom. As a teacher, I need to be well prepared by knowing my students background
and helps them by giving appropriate solutions to correct their misbehaviours. Through this
course, I learnt how to control the situations by looking into the causes and effects of their
misbehaviours.
Moreover, I also learnt that in promoting a good classroom management for teaching
and learning to take place, teacher also need to consider the physical and socioemotional
aspects in the classroom. Teacher should take pupils individual differences as each pupil are
differs from one another. Teacher need to fulfil all their needs in the classroom. Thus, the
teaching and learning session can take place smoothly.
Then, there are the group work and presentation sessions. From these presentations,
the stress to make a presentation in front of the entire class would not only make me learn in
depth about the topic that I am going to present, it would also build up my confidence in
delivering a speech in front of a crowd. Before I entered this course, I was a usually shy person
who did not speak much, let alone speaking in front of a crowd. As a result, I would often stutter
in front of others during a public speech. After this class, however, I feel more confident in
speaking in front of others.
There are some changes that I would like to suggest to improve this course. The first
change that I like to suggest is to conduct a microteaching session in the classroom. Hence, we
can apply the theory that they have learnt during the class during the microteaching session. By
applying the theory learnt, we can understand how each of the theories works in a classroom.
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Furthermore, to improve this course, they also can conduct a field trip to nearby school
to observe the school environment and how the teachers manage their classroom. This will
helps us to see how the theory is applied in real life situations.
Overall, after finishing with this course, I feel that I gained a variety of teaching skills
that will be helpful in other classes and in my current career. In addition, all the feedback that I
got from others will help me focus on the areas that I need to work on. For this reason, I am glad
that the final task was to do this reflection because it allowed me to revise and reflect on
everything that I have done for this course. After I re-read and revised all my work, I have to
admit that seeing the work that I had completed for this class amazed me. Before the course, it
seemed that the workload was a lot, but now I understand how helpful it was to put most of my
ideas in written assignments. For example, my teaching philosophy is a valuable piece of
information that I consider improving and updating based on my teaching experiences and new
content learned. Therefore, after this course and overall semester, I feel more prepared to
continue in the rest of this wonderful learning experience of the PPGs Program in Teaching
English as a Second Language.
As a conclusion, there are many new knowledge and experiences that I have gained
through this course and it is very beneficial for me as a teacher. I will practices all the theories
and knowledge learnt during my teaching process in the classroom.