To err is human...

Session  : 2
Time       : 11.00 a.m. - 12.30 p.m.
By           :  Peter

 

"Keep Calm and Be Creative”...

Basically, the phrase above summarizes the whole lesson about “Support Strategies and Meeting the Needs of All Learners”...

Keep Calm...

      Personally, I believe that we learn best from mistakes. Thus, we as teachers should not feel bad if our students make so many mistakes. It is not totally because we fail to deliver the lesson effectively but learning process is actually taking place. Let’s give our students the wisdom and sense of having autonomous learning. All we have to do is support them!

     Give our students chances to finish something rather than expecting perfection in the final product. The most important is to encourage the effort as much as the end results. Yes, we want them to so things right, but we need to let them learn from their mistakes. This is a real life situation because when the students get out in the real world, they surely make mistakes...and they need to learn that it is not the end of the world!

     Changing your students' perspective on mistakes is the greatest gift you can give yourself as a teacher. Imagine having a classroom of students who are engaged and constantly improving -- it's every teacher's dream.

 

 

...and Be Creative!

 

 

     Dealing with mistakes and correcting them can be done in so many ways. Therefore, as teachers, all we have to do is be creative in correcting our students’ mistakes. Whatever techniques or ways of correcting mistakes that we use, always bear in mind that the main purpose of doing it is to motivate our students to learn more, not to demotivate them or make them feel bad. For example, by giving ‘hint’ that the students are making mistakes and not directly correcting them is actually encouraging them to be autonomous learners. We encourage them to take responsibility of their own learning pace and putting more effort to achieve their target. That is the least we can do to help our students excel in their learning.

I believe that there is no best way of correcting our students’ mistakes. One technique may work with certain group of students and may not work with others. Thus, teachers need to take the effort to ‘try and error’ in finding the best correction techniques that work well with their students. Yes, it sounds more works on the teachers’ part...but isn’t it beautiful and meaningful watching our students moving a step further in their learning?

 

Written by,
Noorasmawati Bt Shafee
Politeknik Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, Pahang