Hen Project Oxygen

Sun 16 Oct 2011: Swimming 10 lap.

Cycling 5

Early Sat morning 6 plus go to Punggol River.
Up and down the river twice.
Should be about 10 km in total.
Manage to maintain average speed of about 21 km/h.

Then back to Serangoon River all the way to Lorong Halus bridge (did not cross bridge), and then back home.

Total about 25km.

Timing more than 1 1/2 hrs, no sure, forgotten.

Cycling 4

Monday morning 9 May 5am started out - did not plan for it.

Started towards Punggol Park along Buangkok Drive.
Go around Punggol Park.
Then along Seragoon Pk Connector (see onemap.sg), then right at T-junction along Sengkang East Rd, then left along Sengkang East Ave.

At Sungei Punggol turn left, cycle along Punggol river all the way to the end, then U-turn to cycle all the way to the other end of the river towards the sea, the U-turn back to Sengkang East Ave, then back to Buangkok Drive.

Then cycle to the end of Serangoon Pk Connector along Hougang Ave 7, then back home.

total time = about 1 hr 15 min
total =about 21 km

Must learn to use the odometer on my bike next time.

Cycling 3

Last night cycled towards Punggol - bad move -- got to take same path as people and cross many bus stops.
Go right to the end, then end up cutting across TPE along Punggol Road.
Turn right toward Sengkang Riverside Park, along Punggol River and back to near Pei Hua Sec.
Then all the way back home along the LRT Service Centre.

Next time, must avoid human traffic.

Total distance estimated from http://www.onemap.sg/ is 18 km.
Time taken - maybe about 1 hour plus?

Next time will note more accurately.

Cycling 1&2

Taken purple path back and forth on 2 days - yesterday and the day before.

Behind SSS, Florida, along HG Ave 7. After back and forth yesterday, continue along Buangkok Drive (Punggol Park on my left).

Continued up to T-Junction, turn right to Sengkang East Road, then left to Sengkang East Ave towards Punggol River / Pei Hwa Sec.

Reach Punggol River (Sungei Punggol), then left (instead of right) and cycle along Punggol River, cutting across TPE from below.

Reach the END of PCN where i can see Punggol Marina and the Barrage.

Turned back to Sengkang Riverside Park, opposite the Anchorvale CC. Cycle along the Heavy Vehicle Park towards 2B's place at Blk 203.

Then back home.

Mines outside KL & Malacca Trip 11-15 dec 2010

I wonder why my wife keeps receipts like this.
Wife, comments please.

Malaysia Kuantan

I would like to thank haimi for his reassuring description of the drive up to Kuantan via the east coast highway No.3.
If I have not heard from his experience, I would not have made the decision to drive up to Kuantan.
Now I am more confident and have much greater faith in the Malaysian Road Signs and Directions -- three cheers for the Malaysian Transport Authority!
Four cheers for haimi!


14 June:
Set out from home with my faithful wish at 6.30am.
Traffic light as it's a Sunday.
Reached Kuantan Swiss Garden at 1pm.

SSS (Sea, Sun and Sand) near 4pm.
Dinner at Jln .. Buoya -- simple Che Chza.
Then Bejaya MegaMall.
Sundaes and Macflurry at MacDonalds.
Back to Swiss Garden -- people having a wedding pool-side reception.
Rain came after wedding reception over -- rained whole night.
Luckily rain stopped the next morning.

15 June:
Buffet BF, then walked around the pool and the beach.
Reached Kuantan River Cruise Centre near 11am.
Not enough people minimum 5 adults.
Got a malay family joining us but by then 11.20am so no go.
So we headed for Charas Cave.
After Charas Cave, looked for Pandang Waterfall but cannot find.
Road led us to Sg. Lembing instead.
So we got to see the hanging bridge instead, which is also a tour destination.
Pity I could not walk across the hanging bridge as my kids all protesting.
My kids all want to go back to Swiss Garden.
Then Bejaya MegaMall for lunch -- Pizza Hut.
Back to Swiss Garden after 3pm.
SSS (Sea, Sun and Sand) after 4pm.
Leave Swiss Garden for dinner after 7pm -- sky dark already.
Turned right at Swiss Garden to look for sea-food restaurant but cannot find any.
U-turned back towards Kuantan town and stopped at Chinese Seafood Lucky Restaurant located near Jln .. Buoya.
Then back to Swiss Garden.

16 June:
Buffet BF / Laze awhile in room / Drove out to look for Kuantan Parade.
Place looked so run-down that we skipped it and ended up at Giant.
Lunch at Jln .. Buoya -- chicken rice and dry noodle and tomyan noodle -- ok, so-so, just interesting, not fantastic.
Back to Swiss Garden.
SSS (Sea, Sun and Sand) before 4pm.
Dinner at Satay Station small shop house near Berjaya MegaMall.
Satay was rubbery.
So dinner part two at Berjaya MegaMall - Kenny Rogers.
Sundaes and Macflurry at MacDonalds.
Then back to Swiss Garden.

17 June:
Buffet Breakfast.
Then leave Swiss Garden after 9am.
Reached home at 4pm.
Got some chances to over-take cars and trucks, being a week-day.

MED838

Question: What is "milk and honey" in education?
Response: In Biblical symbolism, the promised land is described as "flowing with milk and honey". A school should also be a place "flowing with milk and honey." Milk would then be the symbol of the care and affirmation that the teachers and school leaders give to students. Honey would then be the symbol for the passion for the love of learning and the sense of belonging to one big famil among the students and the staff members. This is possible only if the teacher is happy.

Question: Am I happy as a teacher?
Response: Not really. Intellectually, I do not get to have any indepth discussion on my subject matter with any students or colleagues. This explains why I sign up for the Master in Education -- seeking intellectual stimulation. The job is physically demanding, having to climb up 6 flights of stairs across 3 buildings only to discover that I have forgotten to bring my audio cable for my computer notebook. The pain in my knees is coming back. Psychologically unsound as it has always been at the back of my mind that having spend much time and energy on others' children, I fail to watch my own children, resulting in my son in Primary Six going to Normal Acad Stream next year (Touch Wood!)
On the other hand, on a more positive note, this vocation does has its perks. There is financial security, the school provides a well-ordered social environment with clear sets of rules, routines and traditions and I get to enjoy trusting relationships with my superviors, colleagues and students.
So looks like the pros out-weigh the cons. That is why on a scale of one to ten, ten being happy and one being sad, I'll say I am currently on a scale of six and a half.
Happiness is not absolute. It has ups and downs and the in-betweens and can be pretty unpredictable and you would not know what hits you. Such is the transient nature of happiness and life and there lies the beauty of this sense of being alive.

Question: What is Self-Efficacy?
Response: Self-Efficacy is the belief that one can do it, and doing it will lead to the desired outcome. But I have many students who keeps thinking that they can do it. But they don't get started studying for their exams, thinking that they can do it. So they have overly high self-efficacy, or they are suffering from self-deception or fatal procrastination?

MED838

Q1: Can a teacher of lower IQ teach a student of higher IQ?

A1: Yes. Can teach.

Yes. A teacher of lower IQ would be more knowledgeable and experienced in the subject matter. A student of higher IQ can be one that is not motivated, and thus would not be willing to learn. With experience, a teacher would have come across many questions and problems in the subject matter mang times and be able to answer them with ease. A student with higher IQ may be motivated to learn, but it would take time to for the student to build up the skills and wisdom. Over time, and given that the student has the time to dwell in the subject discipline to acquire ennough depth and breadth, then the teacher can no longer teach the student of higher IQ.

A teacher of lower IQ has knowledge and experience but if the student of higher IQ lacks the motivation to learn, then the teacher can teach and should motivate the student to surpass the teacher.

Q2: How is Motivation, Volition and Instruction related?

A2: Motivation is the intention. Volition is the action. Instruction is to equip the student with the skills to carry out the task. Teachers must get students to "want" to learn but if their spirits are strong (highly motivated) but their flesh is weak (low volition: lazy, procrastinate, not self-disciplined), then nothing gets done. If students are motivated and rallying to go, but do not possess the necessary skills, then nothing gets done well. So teachers must ensure learning takes place so that students have the necessary skills and work on their motivation and volition.


Volition or will is the cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular course of action. It is defined as purposive striving, and is one of the primary human psychological functions (the others being affection [affect or feeling], motivation [goals and expectations] and cognition [thinking]). Volitional processes can be applied consciously, and they can be automatized as habits over time. Most modern conceptions of volition address it as a process of action control that becomes automatized (see e.g., Heckhausen and Kuhl; Gollwitzer; Corno and Kanfer).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volition_(psychology)



Q3: What are Brainwaves?

A3: When one is intrinsically motivated and get the joy of the doing the task, then all three aspects are present -- motivation, volition and skills from instruction. Such a case could bring one into the alpha stage. A great teacher can get into this zone as the class switches from one learning task to another like clockwork, or engages in a task so intensely.

MED858: LAST THOUGHTS TO END THE WEEK

Just to share some thoughts on my Learning Journey in the last two weeks:

As a teacher, I have learnt to refocus my teaching from assessment centered to student centered. ICT platforms would be useful tools to consider especially those in the web 2.0 environment [Wetpaint, Google docs, Blogspot].

As an education practitioner, I am clearer on how to carry out an educational research and also the statistical treatment of the data collected [Referencs Vs Bibliography, SPSS]

As a learner, I see myself growing intellectually from the lessons I have attended and the readings I have done from journal articles and conference articles. I am greatly inspired to embark on a research study and write a paper as well.

As a parent, I do see the importance of creating a conducive learning environment at home, for my children to learn and grow.

As a M Ed student, I now call my fellow students my friends. It is through these two week module that I really get to know these wonderful prople. I look forward to seeing every one next year.
Thank you Dr Quek for everything.
Wishing Everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

MED858: REFLECTIONS ON READING

VALIDATION OF AN INSTRUMENT TO MONITOR MY STUDENTS' FACE-TO-FACE PHILOSOPHY COMMUNITES OF INQUIRY by Yip Meng Fai and Quek Choon Lang.

It is interesting that the researcher chose to do this study for the subject Philosophy. Perhaps this subject is rarely taken by students in the age group concerned and that is why there is a need to validate the instrument, as there are no validated instrument for Philosophy. I don't think this validated instrument would be used by many schools as most schools do not offer Philosophy. Nevertheless, this study does address the lack of a LE instrument not developed in this subject area.

Under Methodolgy, the resercher used "grade 7-10" instead of "secondary 1-4". Clearly, this paper was meant for the international audience. Most teachers among our midst would be more comfortable with "secondary 1-4".

Validation process consists of Factor Analysis, Testing for Item Reliability and Scale Reliability. I have learnt about this in one short afternoon using SPSS, but I doubt if I am able to comprehen terminologies like "Internal consistency" and "Discriminant validity".

But the part on how the CLES was modifed and why it was modified as such was clearly explained in this paper. After the validation process, it was found that one of the items in the Subject Nature Scale is problematic and thus should be discarded from this instrument. So if ever a teacher wishes to understand the LE in his or her Philosophy class, then this instrument can be used as it is validated.

It is for the benefit of the respondents to the modifed CLES to read:
"Learning about the world" instead of "Personal Relevence"
" Learning about Philosophy" instead of "Subject Nature"
"Learning to speak out" instead of "Critical Voice"
"Learning to communicate" instead of "Student Negotiation".
Table 1 on page 4 would have made it clear to the reader how to match the correct Scales on the survey forms. These four scales were also able to cover the 3 dimensions according to Moos's Scheme.

Appendix 3 indicates to me that Items 7 to 12 are under Subject Nature Scale. But when I checked Appendix 2, Item 12 is under "Learning to speak out". I studied Table 1 on page 4 and concluded that there are 23 items. Table 2 page 6 also has 23 items. But appendix 2 has only 22 items. I believe in appendix 2, there is missing item 12 under Subject Nature Scale. Subsequently, item 13 becomes item 12, item 14 beccomes item 13 and so on. I believe this should be the error.

MED858: Web 2.0 and Wiki

I am most fasinated with this Web 2.0 environment. I find the pictures in http://www.rossdawsonblog.com/Web2_Framework.pdflog.com/Web2_Framework.pdf most interesting. In fact, I am very tempted to print out page 3 as shown and frame it up as a poster on the wall. I have already used this diagram as my Notebook Wallpaper.

I remember learning from one of the presenter or keynote speaker in International Conference on Teaching and Learning with Technology 2008 that we have to move our students from consumers of information to producers of information. This is essentially progressing from
the browsing and learning from the world wide web to contributing to the world wide web.

As we draw more information from others' Wiki, we must be mindful that there is no check of accuracy of information. So I am convinced that the printed media is here to stay, for good. Print materials are normally edited by the publisher or editor. Textual contents are proof-read and facts are verified. The author and the publisher are accountable and their names are at stake. In the non-print environment, authors can use any name or avatar he or she likes and contribute to the knowledge community freely. Of course there is some form of self-censorship and other members of the on-line community would police the cyber-space. But there is no true accountability. Not that people wants to feed mis-information. But then there will always be some crack-case.

This brings me to the possibility of "what you see is not what you get".


I showed this picture taken from http://talkback.stomp.com.sg/forums/showthread.php?t=19601 when teaching a Sexuality Education Module on PDA: Public display of affection.
When I told my students that there was always the possibility that the teenagers "caught" on candid camera were actually posing for their friend and all they wanted to do was to create some excitment in their school, many looked shocked.

So the web 2.0 environment is good for engaging learners in discussions and intellectual and critical thirnking. But when it comes to factual aspects of the subject matter, the printed form is the authority in the discipline.

NO TIME? SURE GOT TIME.

No time is the most common complain amongst us. A few months ago, as I was submitting my claim via PacGov for my digital camera purchase from my LDS grant, it dawn upon me that when we say we have NO TIME, there is more to it than simply NO TIME.

NO TIME? SURE GOT TIME, if it is IMPORTANT enough for you.
Doing medical claims, sending car for routine servicing, bringing children for enrichment programmes, completing Work Review Forms, marking exam scripts.... All Done! In good time!
So if it's important enough, then we will find time to do it.

But it DOES NOT mean that for things we cannot find time to complete, these are not important enough. It could be firstly, these tasks would required a longer duration to complete. So we do the easy ones first. Secondly, these tasks are not enjoyable. So "sweet first, bitter later". Thirdly, these task are ranked just below the completed tasks, definitely top of the charts. But by that time, we are just completely exhausted. So we do not complete these tasks because we are completely exhausted, and we also want to sustain our health and our sanity, so we "run away, leave to fight another day."

MORE GREEN SCENE

I am too stingy to buy expensive cameras. Half a thousand dollars is considered expensive.

So I use a simple small compact fully auto digital camera to take pictures.

One picture is taken from a jogging track around my HDB flat. Another picture is the view from my study room. I added in the flower to brighten up my blog which is too greenish.

IF WE MADE THE EFFORT, THEN IT'S DONE

IF WE MADE THE EFFORT, THEN IT'S DONE
I have 3 kids. Whenever people asked me how old they are, I always scratch my head and can only say that they are in P5, P1 and N2.
Then one day, I decided to make an effort to remember how old they are, once and for all. I realised that they are 4, 7 and 11. 4711 is something familar to me. It's the name of some cologne that I remembered when I was very young. Now I remember my children's ages: 4,7,11.
What is the morale of the story?
If we made the effort, then it's done. What is stopping us from making the effort is that there are some many other more important and pressing matters that we are paralysed into neglecting the unimportant ones.
What are unimportant to us are usually things not related to work, like I wanted to play badminton with my boy but no time. I wanted to help my children in their school work especially my P5 boy but no time. I wanted to learn inserting music and video into my blog but no time.
No time.

So I decided to take the effort to blog for fun because blogging is supposed to be fun.

But NO TIME.

MED858: MORE ON LEs & APERA PARA-CONFERENCE 2008

MORE ON LEs

Reading about school A in the case studies reminded me that there is no absolute good or bad LE. It is a matter of which type of LE is suitable for the class or the school at that point in time. A class of students of PSLE T-scores 240 to 250 would need a certain type of LE different from a class of students of PSLE T-scores 190 to 200. Similarly, the aesthetically talented in SOTA (School of the Arts), the sporting talents in Singapore Sports School, and the budding scientists in NUS High would need very different LEs from the mainstream schools.

The next principal who took over school A used to work in MOE in the PCCG branch or something to do with the like. He came to my school to give us a talk, in the mid 90s. Till today, I remember what he said, “We cannot change a person (student), but we can change the environment surrounding that person”. So changing the human and/or the physical environment would provide the conditions for a person to change. How true! Physical environment alone would have already shaped human behaviour. If a person enters a lift with full of litter, he or she would not be too worried about throwing a piece of used tissue paper in the lift. But if that person is in a posh hotel lift, clean carpet with nice yellow lighting and air-conditioned, then the behaviour would be altered. No wonder principals spend lots of money and time and effort doing up their schools. The comments from the un-enlightened would be that principals are doing up the school to show off. NIE should give all trainee teachers an introductory module on LEs, if this has not been done yet.


REFLECTIONS ON APERA PARA-CONFERENCE 2008

I very often heard, I may be guilty of it myself, people making remarks that the papers presented at conferences were nothing new. Such teaching approaches or teaching methods were already done in their own schools. My response is that many teachers have taught many different ways. But not many teachers are able to get themselves to do a pre-teaching assessment and a post-teaching assessment and document their teaching based on a sound and practical approach supported by some literature reviews of similar work done. Such work demands the teachers to be reflective in their teaching and to be honest in their self-assessments. Much more time has to be spent on doing the write-up, and preparing for the presentation, if their research studies do get selected at all. Thus I believe schools should give some form of recognition and reward to such teachers, as a form of motivation and encouragement.

MED858: REFLECTIONS ON LE INSTRUMENTS

MODIFYING LE INSTRUMENTS

When we want to use Learning Environment Instruments to assess our teaching and learning among our students, we have to be mindful that we do not take the instruments wholesale. We must be prepared to modify or even take out some of the survey questions. Some of the factors that lead to the requirement for modifying or taking out the questions are as follows.

Students from different level and stream would have different level of understanding of the survey questions. So we have to be careful to use simpler language for students in Upper Secondary Vs students in Lower Secondary, and students in the Normal Technical Stream Vs students in the Express Stream. Besides the using simpler language, the total number of items must also be pegged to their level. For secondary school students, I believe 30 questions should be the average number, plus or minus from 30 to suit the different groups of students.

Our students come from different cultural and socio-political background. As such we have to be sensitive to the norms and expectations in our local context. So questions like “It’s OK for me to speak up for my rights” would not be appropriate.

This reminds me of some misunderstand created due to the different understanding of the word “stroke” in different parts of the world. This GCE “O” Level Biology subject specialist set a Biology Practical question that required the candidate to stroke a feather before drawing it; stroke it using the pointing finger and thumb. In some parts of India, the people there understood “stroke” as using the cricket bat to hit the ball. So it quite hilarious when the candidates there were all hitting the feathers against the laboratory bench!

SCALES AND ITEMS

A LE instrument consists of scales and items. So in the WHIHIC, the total of 7 scales would have covered all aspects of the classroom environment. Each scale would have 8 items, but it is not necessary to have an equal number of items to cover each scale. Some items or survey questions could be taken out due to reasons mentioned in my reflection MODIFYING LE INSTRUMENTS. It may be possible to take out a scale in a research study, though it would be more comprehensive if all of the 3 basic types of human environmental dimensions are covered.
I am now clearer that with regard to my last blog: some the 7 instruments are used to measure outcomes, such as achievement tests.

FROM CLASS ENVIRONMENT TO SCHOOL ENVIROMENT

I getting to appreciate better the uses of Learning Environment as this module progressed from class learning environment to school environment. In class, we need to know what is happening, and if we try to do things differently, then what would change. If things changed, then is that a positive or negative change? Research studies in LE thus give us the necessary vocabulary to describe our LE and thus increase our understanding of LE. Then we can use LE instruments to give some form of measurement. What we cannot measure, we cannot manage. If we want to manage our weight, we must have a weighing machine to tell us if we diet or exercise regime is working. If we want to teach more effectively by doing something special, we must have an LE instrument to gauge the “before” and “after” status of the LE due to that something special.

The question posed “Would you put your child in that school?” really brings out the importance of research studies on LEs. Parents want to know which school provides a more conducive LE or their children. MOE needs to know if human and financial resources pumped into the school to create a LE is effectively moulding the future of our nation. When MOE gives awards like the Best Practice Awards, the CHERISH Award, the LKY NE Award, there must be an objective way of assessing the LEs, besides just looking at the KPIs. Thus the uses of LE instruments.

MED858: Classroom Environment Instruments

REFLECTIONS READING: "Classroom Interaction Patterns, Teacher and Student Characteristics and Students' Learning Outcomes in Physics" by Iroha Kalu (University of Calabar, Nigeria) and A.N. Ali (University of Nigeria, Nsukka).

It is amazing just how many Classroom Environment Instruments there are.
Within a page, specifically Page 26 or 32 in 5.1 Science Learning Environments: Assessments, Effects and Determinants, Table 1 gives an overview of 9 classroom environment instruments, namely LEI, CES, ICEQ, MCI, CUCEI, QTI, SLEI, CLES and WIHIC.

Thinking that these are already so many Classroom Environment Instruments , I got to know 7 MORE instruments in the research paper "Classroom Interaction Patterns, Teacher and Student Characteristics and Students' Learning Outcomes in Physics" by Iroha Kalu (University of Calabar, Nigeria) and A.N. Ali (University of Nigeria, Nsukka). This research study was designed to study the links among teacher variables, student variables, classroom interaction patterns and students' learning outcomes in physics. Essentially, these are different aspects or components of Classroom Learning Environment. So the 7 instruments of used, in my opinion, are Classroom Environment Instruments. I tried to check if each of these 7 instruments addresses any of Moos's 3 basic dimensions of human environments. I still do not fully understand what are Relationship Dimensions, Personal Developement Dimensions and System Maintenance and System Change Dimensions, so I have much difficulty trying to fit them into the 3 dimensions of human environment.

The 7 instruments used for data collection are:

1. PTQ (Physics Teachers Questionnaire) measures teachers' attitudes towards teaching of physics.

2. SPAS (Students' Physics Attitude Scale) measures students' attitude towards physics.

3. SAMS measures Students' Achievement Motivation (Scale).

4. STUBAQ (Students' Background Questionnaire) measures students' SES (Socio Economic Status).

5. TEMA (Test of Mental Ability) is a non-language, standarized IQ test.

6. PAT is a 30 item MCQ Physics Achievement Test.

7. SIC (Science Interaction Categories) is used to code and analyze the interaction patterns during physic lessons and this consists of 9 categories of teacher behaviours and 7 categories of students behaviours.

I appreciate that lots of work and "blood and sweat" has to be put in to write a research article. But the amount of work done in the research inself is tremendous. To use 7 instruments in data collection is months of hard, backbreaking work. Furthermore, the SIC instrument is not just a paper and pen exercise but it requires classroom observations and coding teacher and student behaviours. To do a comprehensive study of classroom environments is truely not an easy project and it is unlikely to be accomplished alone. It would surely need the involvement of some other team members or fellow researchers.

MED858: REFLECTIONS ON READING

THE DESIGN OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS (BRANSFORD, BROWN AND COCKING)

CHANGES IN EDUCATIONAL GOALS
Schooling in the 1800s is what I have learnt to be called Survival Driven Education. In the 1900s, schools are seen as factories, thus the era of Efficiency Driven Education. Today, we are moving into Ability Driven Education, as we learn to appreciate individual differences and talents. I am beginning to appreciate how the evolution of our local education system is aligned to what has been described in this paper.

LEARNER-CENTERED ENVIRONMENTS
In the study of the Kamehameha School in Hawaii, the learner-centered teachers were able to obtain significant improvement in their students’ reading performance. I have observed how Chinese lessons were conducted for the weaker students in the banded group. The teacher often used English Language to explain Chinese phrases, which I felt was pretty cool. Similarly, for Sciences, we should bring in everyday examples that students can identify with to create a learner-centre environment. Like in the topic Moment of the Force, the wheelbarrow and the crow-bar are the very frequently mentioned examples to illustrate the level system. What are the chances of a typical HDB dweller like our student ever come across a wheelbarrow or a crow-bar? No wonder Science is boring!

KNOWLEDGE-CENTERED ENVIRONMENTS
It is important to understand the knowledge-centered environments also include an emphasis of sense-making and helping students meta-cognitive. Thus this great experiment by schools to go into the home-room system. Teachers would be able to create their knowledge-centered environments for students to immerse themselves in.
Many schools have since reverted to the former, which is the present classroom system which many schools are adapting. But it does not have to be all or none. In my school, I am a strong advocate of the IP room system. So far, we have a Math room, an EL/Lit room, a Humanities room and a History room, and we shall try to have a dedicated CPA Lab for the CPA teachers; there will be computer labs for all other subjects.

ASSESSMENT-CENTERED ENVIRONMENTS
This has always been the overrated scapegoat whenever our education system is scrutinized and criticized. But Singaporeans are pragmatic people. So what gets measured gets done. This is still happening in neighbourhood schools. Schools that have consistently great academic results have just got themselves a golden ticket out of this rat race and now “have permission” to venture on to greener pastures like the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme or the Integrated Programme or the Through-Train Programme.
Nevertheless, we must be mindful that dynamic assessments for learning is also a powerful tools for Teaching and Learning, and should not often associate assessments to summative ones like Mid Year and End of Year Exams driven environments.

COMMUNITY-CENTERED ENVIRONMENTS
The community adding value to the school is not something that many schools are enjoying. Sad but true that the most scarce resource that Singaporeans have is time, money being the second one (“money always not enough”). So in light of such scarcity mentality, many would adapt the “what’s in it for me” approach. But there are always some great (far but few) individuals and organizations that do good to the schools in creating community-centered environments. I have personally come across individuals that donated tens of thousands of dollars to the school for student scholarships but would prefer to remain anonymous.

CONCLUSION
All four perspectives are important in the design of learning environments. It is the degree to which a school is student centered, knowledge centered, assessment centered and community centered that makes each learning environment different and unique.

MED858 Classroom Learning Environment

The two pictures were used as my PC and notebook Wallpaper for some time.

I kind of like green.

I wonder if there's anything to do with the schools I'm in. I was from Evergreen Sec and now in Greendale Sec.

After all, the environment we are in could shape our preference over time.....

I used to like dark blue when I was a student.... my school uniform was dark blue and white for a good ten years.

MED858 Classroom Learning Environment

Sat in school SEM meeting from 830am to 6.30pm.
Reached home only to find that must go to NIE.

Never done blogging before.
So this is a good chance to start blogging.