What Works for their Modules

This sharing session on 31 August serves as a platform for staff to share their experiences and challenges in their modules. It is also a platform for us to celebrate efforts. By listening to individual experiences, it also opens doors to new ideas for our own modules.

We were extremely privileged to have Mun Kit, Celine, Tien Siang and Lilian accept our invitation to share with us what they do in their respective modules.

Mun Kit shared with us on some of the “brain teasers”, “brain twisters”, “tree diagrams”, “venn diagrams”, “models”, “new paper articles”, “proverbs” and “analogies” that she uses in the module “Macroeconomics”. Some of the things she shared were:
- “The “cornier” it is, the easier it is for the students to understand and remember.”

eg.an SMS message on opportunity cost:-

"john I'm sorrie I'll hv 2 end my r/ship with u becos I've chosen eric ..

but john u shld be glad 2 noe tat u r my opportunity cost"

- Visual efforts are better than verbal efforts but it may still not reach out to all.
- The concept of aerodynamics may be explained by using paper airplanes, thus the importance and possibility of using simple models to explain concepts.
- Using writing style of articles in “The New Paper” (which students read often and can relate to) helps to bring across concepts.
- Brain twisters set the students thinking and asking students questions like “Why should the government build pyramids in Singapore” set them thinking and churn out hilarious responses which ultimately illustrates the importance of “government spending” during recession.
The presentation is intertwined with humor and audience appreciated how such efforts in each topic add to the overall learning experience of the students.

Celine shared on the common observations and “problems” that she encountered in teaching her HR modules and what she did to get around them. Some of them were:
- Some lingo commonly used in the business world may be unfamiliar for students e.g. terms such as “buy-in”, “milestones” etc. Thus there is a need to explain a concept using different terminologies.
- Students thinking in “silos” and unable to connect one topic to another or one module to another.
- Using an organization the students are familiar with to explain concepts throughout the module e.g McDonalds.
- Presenting the same question in different ways so that students are not accustomed to only one type of questioning.
- Ways to encourage more participation by randomly selecting students to present using traits such as " youngest boy in class”, “girl with the longest hair” etc.
- Students are unable to think critically and from multiple perspectives. Thus an exercise was introduced where students are divided into teams and a role was assigned to each team. By role-playing, students are able to understand views from multiple perspectives and are able to internalize concepts better.
- Business games are also played because students learn best by being involved.
- During role plays, Celine makes an effort to be the “bad” or the “silly” party so that students do not feel ridiculed.

Lilian and Tien Siang spoke about an experiential learning exercise used in teaching their module “organizational behaviour”. The concept of experiential learning focuses on “experience” and the premise that students learn best when they are involved. It involves “Play as you Learn” and students feel the fun and are non-threatened.

One activity they used in class was“The Paper Tower Exercise”. In this exercise, students used cheap and readily available materials (like newspapers, glue, scissors, stapler, masking tape and coloured pens) to build a paper tower in their respective groups. The final product will be judged based on its height, stability and beauty. Tien Siang shared that students do enjoy the process as they are competitive and often wanted to build a tower as high as they could whilst forgetting that stability is an important factor. So at the end of the game, a high tower may be easily toppled by a competing team. Some of the learning points from this exercise are:
- The concepts in the topic “Teamwork and Group Dynamics” are covered.
- Other related topics like “Stress Management”, “Conflict Management”, “Motivation” and “Leadership” are also involved.
- This exercise also covers some topics from another module “Business Management” on “planning, organizing, influencing and controlling”.
- Some lifeskills are also touched on: responsibility (not being late and missing on instructions), ability to take criticisms, ability to cope with time constraints and importance of being prepared (some groups did not bring all materials and are thus disadvantaged).

I am amazed at how a simple exercise of just 20mins in duration can cover so many learning points!!!