Students trickle into my classroom before the start of the lesson, sitting at their seats arranged into groups of three to five. The bell rings and I project a short video on the board showing a phenomenon: two balloons in a bell jar inflating and deflating as a rubber sheet is pulled down and pushed up. As students watch, they quietly writing down their answers in their workbook on what they see and what they think is happening. After a minute, I tell my students to turn and talk to share what they have written with their table group before I ask a representative from each group to summarize their discussion with the rest of the class.
As I write down each group's summary on the board, I ask some additional questions to my students to push their thinking:
What is the role of the rubber sheet?
How does the rubber sheet cause the balloons to inflate?
If the bell jar is flexible and you stretched the jar while pulling down on the rubber sheet, would that affect the size of the balloons?
There is a moment of silence. Then, a few of the confident students start the class discussion by sharing their answers. As I listen and circulate around the room, I call on a few of the quiet students to engage them into the discussion. They try to avoid participating by saying their answer is similar to what was said earlier, but I emphasize to them that I want to hear their answer in their words. I also remind them that there are no right or wrong answers, only thoughts and ideas.
At this point, we are about 10 to 15 minutes into the lesson with no "real answers" to explaining the video. Of course, my students realize that the video shows a model of the lungs and the process of breathing, but I refrain from jumping straight to the explanation. Instead, I guide my students to the theory, all the while they working with their group to explore the video further to develop an explanation of how breathing works that builds upon ideas shared earlier during the lesson. If time permitting, I will also have students construct their own model. Eventually, each group will have their own explanation to the phenomenon, and only at this point do I begin to delve into the theory with my students.
The description above is a glimpse into a typical scenario in my class. I base my lessons on the 5E model of instruction—engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. I first experienced the 5E model teaching at YES Prep West and since then I use this approach because I feel it fits closer to my teaching style. In addition, I feel the 5E model gives me the opportunity to realize my teaching motivations:
I want to instill a sense of curiosity in my students and to develop them to be life-long learners;
I want my students to examine and understand the context of what they are learning, i.e. the "why" and the "how"; and
I want to develop metacognitive thinking in my students for them to improve through self-reflection.
I believe that knowledge is personal. I am sure we all have one lesson—or a few lessons—from school that was memorable. I vividly recall dissecting an eye during my A-Level Biology class and witnessing it "explode" when the scalpel pierced through the tough, outer layer causing the contents to spill out onto the dissecting tray. While my teacher expected everyone in her class to learn the same information about the eye, the means by which we learned the information was an individual process and experience.
From this experience, I believe my role as a teacher is to facilitate my students' learning by providing them with different opportunities and methods of constructing knowledge. As a result, I plan my lessons to engage different methods of learning such as showing short videos, creating paper manipulatives, conducting labs and experiments, or answering questions using their textbook or online resources. Through this facilitative approach of teaching I can encourage my students to develop their own way of understanding the information and, thus, provide them with an enjoyable learning experience because the experience will be on their own terms.
I also believe that learning is an active and social process where students not only "learn by doing" but also engage in activities and discussions that pushes them to understand concepts beyond the superficial level. In other words, I value in developing scaffolded questions and activities that have my students examine the context—i.e. the "why" and the "how"—of what they are learning. I believe that learning the context is enhanced when they interact with their classmates and with me. As a result, my lessons include turn-and-talk sessions, pair or small group work, and whole-class discussions. I particularly enjoy the interactions I have with my students when I push their thinking with challenging questions. Sometimes, my students ask me tough questions that causes me to evaluate my own understanding of the concepts I am teaching. Overall, I emphasize to my students the value of learning from a community because learning, especially in science, does not occur in isolation.
Throughout the curriculum, I will assess my students' progress using formative and summative assessments based on "standards" or "assessment objectives". At the end of the assessments, I usually provide my students with a short report on their performance which breaks down their scores by standards. In this way, students can easily track their progress for each standard, thus they can focus on improving the standards they find difficult. In addition, I will include self-reflection questions to help my students develop their metacognitive thinking. I believe that "successful learning" is when my students improve upon their results and when they have developed an awareness of how to improve their results.
Finally, with regard to my own development as a teacher, I am fortunate to have taught at schools with an established teacher evaluation system where instructional coaches or my department chair will observe my classes and provide feedback. I also welcome other teachers to attend my classes via peer walkthroughs and provide feedback. I have also pushed myself to be an Instructional Coach (IC) to assist my peers in their own development as a teacher. Being an IC has provided me with valuable insight and techniques into what I should observe in a lesson as well as how to provide feedback. My role as an IC has allowed me to reflect on my own lessons to understand what worked and didn't work. I feel I always have room for improvement and there are always opportunities available for me to develop my teaching skills.
My immediate goal in the next one to two years is to earn a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). I feel a PGCE would improve my pedagogy while increasing my leverage in applying for teaching positions at top international schools.
My long-term goal in the next 5+ years is to be an instructional coach (IC). My brief experience as an IC at Vanke Meisha Academy was a rewarding. The experience also solidified my interest in helping new teachers develop their teaching practices, though I feel I will need to improve my own teaching practices first before I am confident to pursue a position as an IC.