Building an environment of scholarship and inquiry

One of the things that I like most in MLS is the opportunity to be engaged in curriculum projects. In the project team, I get to learn from experienced colleagues in the way they run their curriculum in their schools. This semester, I am taking "Differentiated Instruction for diverse learners" as one of my electives.

I thoroughly enjoyed the planning and discussion sessions. For instance , when we were designing a lesson on the Comparison Concept (P1 Maths .."More than" & "Less than") , we conducted clinical interviews on pupils who were struggling with the concept. After that we went to source out for Lit reviews to find out whether there are research out there that address those areas of problems we have identified. After that , we devised appropriate intervention strategies (with considerations in curriculum planning) to address those gaps. Not only that, all members in the team brought in their own experiences in teaching the concept. The whole discussion became very lively , informative and purposeful. In short, our practice is informed by theories.

                                                           My project team in discussion


As I begin to think about the way we carry out our TTTs, CRDs and the way we conduct our Department meetings, I wonder - can we be more data driven ? Can we be more research-driven? Can we be spend more time going down to the root causes of why pupils fail to learn a particular concept and from there, think of creative ways to address them?

                                                    A screen-shot on my team's final presentation


My sense is that we are not doing enough of these things. If we really want to strive for excellence in T & L, then our paradigm need to shift.

Heads & LMs, I challenge all of you to take the lead. If you don't start, don't expect your members to start.

I am looking at introducing more workshops in educational research in next year's training plan.

Let's work towards to build an environment of scholarship and inquiry.