學生
Helping Students Create Their Own Learning Goals By Greta. J. Gorsuch
Reflection on an Article
(756 words)
Students learn (language) for various reasons from those who need English to study in university to those that just want to talk to more people from around the world. But what makes them achieve what they set out to do which is speaking English competently? You could say it is a goal, their intention, their aspiration to be this person who has no problems with language. The only difficulty is, do they really know what their targets are? These can be for a course of English language, for example, thirty hours or the end product over a longer period. I will try in this piece to explain some points regarding learning goals in relation to the article by Greta J Gorsuch.
First of all, I have to talk about the teacher and their role in the classroom with regard to student learning goals. What do the students think they are there for? Is the teacher there to do everything? Is the teacher there to spoon-feed the students so to make it easy for them? These are the sorts of questions that might be asked but is the teacher there to do everything? Greta’s article mentions that teachers are ‘traditionally the primary source of information and inspiration’. It is true that the students can be sat waiting for the teacher to speak, the idea that the students do not speak unless spoken to. They can actually feel afraid to ask further questions or just get the exercise done. This is where concrete learning objectives can try to make the students come away from relying on the teacher to create goals for themselves as students and as such putting more emphasis on themselves (students) and what they want to achieve. Greta says, ‘language students themselves are the best source of information’. To be a language learner does not just involve coming to class and listening to a teacher then going home. It involves being a language learner for life in and outside class.
It is here inside the class (not to mention outside) that the teacher if they want to create a learning environment they should encourage these learning goals for the students. Some teachers do not have ‘effective strategies’, Greta says. I agree with her as they can go into the class and teach a great lesson, but there could be more from the students. Greta mentions, ‘simple goal clarification activities’. This, I think, is the ‘use’ part of the lesson where the teacher actually gets the students to show that they have achieved their goal if only for that week by speaking and presenting what they have learned. This incentive, I think at least, gives students that pleasure of reaching a goal and then setting another one. The satisfaction to think that they set a target and have reached it must be beneficial in scaffolding their learning for future progress.
Greta’s ideas for future progress relate to giving cards out, getting the students to fill in their goals, making sure they are achievable and realistic ones at that. The only part, I think, that they must do is share these with other students. I think this honesty in class will get the students to realize what they are in class for. They must also be kept focused on these goals. Greta says, ‘ during the next few weeks, get students to look back at their card, and rewrite their responses’. Again, the teacher should never shy away from keeping the students focused on their goals. If one student does not feel they have reached their goals this is a great time to focus on why. It is true that a student may do, for example, thirty hours of study and then go up another level. In this student’s mind is that they are now a level higher, so their English language must be a level higher. This idea could be far off the mark, thus having students with achievable goals makes the students fully aware that they have reached that goal or not, and when this goal is relayed to the teacher he or she can give advice on what they can do next.
To conclude, it can be said teachers have to do their job but just as much the students have to do their job too. This does not mean forcing them; it means giving them that focus. Hopefully, the students will realize that a new foreign language is part of their life not just in the classroom for a few hours every week.
What salient aspects of an Asian university and the students that attend do you see as a contradiction?
(1600 Words)
Abstract
‘Manners maketh the man’ (William of Wykeham, 1350). Whether you are in the street, in a restaurant or for this case in an Asian university certain etiquette prevails. My observations were done to draw attention to the value of etiquette and also to show the extent of contradiction to normally accepted good manners there are in the university in question. The results showed that the philosophy lecture room in this seat of learning far from being a quiet room of studious individuals was, in fact, a myriad of factors void of study ethics. The conclusion is, that when it comes to study, there is not a universal ideal as the acceptable method.
Introduction
Etiquette is not a new idea and is changing all the time, as we see nowadays with the development of the smart telephone, but propriety still holds to essential tenets. There are unspoken rules about daily etiquette such as talking loud, jumping queues and generally being aware of others. There certainly can be a lot of daily life that breaches social manners. In a recent survey, 90% of people thought it would be rude to receive a telephone call at a church which goes to say certain arenas are faux par for telephone use. It is a fact barriers are being crossed.
In a social minefield for new students to their university, one business has recognized what many would not think was needed for learning, and as such, CLM Business Etiquette Consulting in Austin Texas has advised how students should invest in their courses to get them through their time at university. CLM’s study courses highlight factors such as establishing meaningful relationships with your professors and other students to ascertain a co-operative experience.
My observations will show that new students in this certain Asian university need to be shown, taught, and given rules as to how to behave in a lecture room whilst having a clear understanding of other fellow peers’ feelings and education.
Methods
Participants
In general, classes consisted of up to 60 to 70 people but due to lateness and students deciding not to come or come back from lunch break, numbers fluctuated.
Instruments
Observations were done using a tally system where marks were put onto a written table in the notebook .
Procedures
As most of my pre-research knowledge so far had been through watching I thought it would be the right transition to do my research using observations. So, my first thought was to think of categories for my research which were the aspects of study I had found strange.
- Telephone ringing – students don’t put their phone on vibrate. So the lecture room has many ring tones going off.
- Telephone SMS – although not as bad as ringing it still has a high pitch sound
- Coming late – the lesson is supposed to start at 9am although it does not actually start till 9.30am so this gives even later than late students time to arrive.
- Going in and out of class – it is generally presumed that you have prepared for a lecture so you would not need to go out of the lecture room before the next break.
- Lecturer making students quiet – this tags with students talking excessively. It is generally excepted than university is not a school.
- Playing computer (games) – even though this seems strange, it was added because students were observed playing fighting games and using facebook.
- Listening to music – as above, it was observed on the computer and shown from wire coming from student’s ears.
- Sleeping – be it at the start of the morning or the start of the afternoon period, students find they need to sleep more.
- Dress code – Thailand being a hot country does mean people get hotter with more clothes but some decorum still has to be kept. Also, the fact that students think that that university is like a fashion show and they must look their best.
- Acting inappropriately – this goes along with the example above, with regard to playing with university equipment, but also to generally being not interested in the lecture thus doing something different.
- Food/snacks – again everything is okay if kept within reason but excessive snacks is not really needed.
So, it was now time to set up my observation times. It seemed obvious to set up an observation in the morning on the first class. I generally had the rule that once the lecturer says ‘good morning’ he expects the students to be quiet, listening and generally be ready for study. This was always around 9.30am so I made this the start time. We normally had a break at 10.30am so this worked well to have a 1 hour observation time. I thought it would be best to observe in the afternoon too, to see how students reacted to having a lunch break and seeing as they had been studying since 9am and it was an all day lecture what their endurance level was. There was also the case of how many hours I would observe so with the philosophy course, which I was observing, being only a month I had 3 lectures to observe. This meant I would observe 3 mornings and 3 afternoons. In total a period of 3 hours for morning and afternoon lectures. I then wrote up a tally sheet as to help me keep a record of the times students and the lecturer performed anyone of the categories I had suggested.
Results
I actually ended up with only 7 categories.
- Telephone ringing
- Telephone SMS
- Coming late
- Going in and out of class
- Lecturer making students quiet
- Sleeping
- Acting inappropriately
I think this was mostly due to the lecturer advising students not to do certain. It was also due to the lecturer being professional and knowing his subject matter. I had a feeling of respect due to the professionalism of the lecturer and felt that other students did too, thus they were less interested turning to other means of interest.
For the morning results, I was amazed how many times the lecturer had to make the students quiet. In the space of 3 hours the lecturer had to tell the students 22 times to be quiet. That works out at once every 8 minutes. It has to be noted that there was a genuine disrespect for the lecturer, not only his lecturing but also the years of study he had completed to become so knowledgeable and competent in his job. I was also surprised by how many students needed to go out even though they had time before the class and also the break after the lecture to do anything they needed. I recognized that the telephone problem had already been talked about several times and students had heeded the lecturer’s warnings. I had a little bit of confusion as to why students still turned up late when the lecturer started 30 minutes late. I felt that if he started 1 hour late they still would be late because they knew when the lecture started they would arrive sometime after.
For the afternoon session, I always immediately noticed big groups of students missing. I was not sure if they just came to sign in and thought that was good enough. The rate of people going in and out of the class worked out at one every 3 minutes during a 3 hours period. Some students actually arrived late and then left. This actually created two points on the tally card, one for late and one for going in and out. Again I was confounded by the amount of times the lecturer needed to tell the students to be quiet, even to the extent of asking one group ‘what did I just say?’ as to question them if they were listening. This was done two times over a space of 10 minutes and was met by laughter and a general nonchalance to the lecturer job in hand.
Conclusion
It is recognized that in some countries certain etiquette is not thought about and study ethics is laughed at. Some students although being new to university still adopt old ways of studying so even though they have reached adulthood they still adopt a child like attitude to learning. They feel that it is the lecturer job to keep them quiet and not their own personal position to be individuals who think. The overriding factor that has been shown through this observation has been some student’s lack of awareness of others and their general detachment from other people who are at the university for the purpose of learning. You get the feeling that they deride people that show a willingness to learn. Students gets distracted easily so even someone going outside creates noise and a quick glance. I also amazed because the attitude of the lecturer in this study who has a PHD who has shown to be the epitome of a university lecturer was scorned by many who felt the need to go in and out of the class and talk.
References
William of Wykeham, Motto of Winchester College and New College, Oxford
(1324 – 1404)
Patricia Lee MA (Oxon), MA (QUB) holds qualifications from the British Psychological Society and in teaching adult literacy. She has been a school governor, sat on the working party for the Jigsaw Visitors’ Centre at Armley Prison and made 1933-style shorts for the Leeds Metropolitan University Gymnastics Squad.
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