What Works for Them--a sharing by AA(T) recipients Chen Peiyi & Joseph Seet

Sharing by Chen Peiyi

Peiyi started her candid sharing by sharing her views on teaching: “it is not how I want to explain the topic but how my students want me to explain it.” Therefore, even though she had different groups of students doing the same module, each class was different to her, because the students were different and the situations in she faced in each class were different.

Peiyi shared that she feels students do want to be stimulated; therefore, a lecturer would have to be the ‘entertainer’ – to be spontaneous and to make learning a fun experience. She believes that when students enjoy what they learn, then they would remember the concepts taught so much better. She has also made use of her personal experience to illustrate her teaching points during her tutorials. Most of all, Peiyi is determined ‘to make sure I don’t become like the teacher I dislike.’

To encourage the listeners, Peiyi shared that she too faced challenges as a tutor. Peiyi related her two not-so-positive encounters with students: an assertive student who demanded a detailed explanation while the rest of the class had moved on, and a bright student who was clearly ahead of the rest. After some serious pondering on these encounters, Peiyi has come to the conclusion that ‘I cannot please all the students. I should be happy if I can please 60 – 70% of the students’.

Peiyi also shared her tip on conducting a class with students of varied abilities. She stressed that it is important for lecturers to accept that students are of varied abilities. Usually, she would go through the fundamentals first to make sure that all students could understand the basic concepts. Next, she would then go through the tougher concepts, to challenge those students who were more able than the others. Meanwhile, she would reassure the weaker students that it was alright not to understand the tougher concepts yet, but to be patient, to go home and give some thought to it.

During the Q&A session, Peiyi shared her experience of disciplining the students. She felt that both “hard” and “soft” approaches are effective in disciplining students, depending on the personality of the students. There was one student whom she recalled that she had disciplined the “hard’ way, and who reciprocated positively by taking her out to dinner years later. In other words, understanding her students is the utmost important element in her success of teaching.


Sharing by Joseph Seet

‘I can’t sit still.’ ‘You can control my physical body, but not my mind.’ These are the characteristics of Joseph which he felt related to himself and many of our students too.

How then, does Joseph capture the students’ attention? Joseph demonstrated how he used animation (graphics as well as presentation animation) and video clips to excite students in lectures.

Joseph also shared the use of EXTEND which is an alternative approach to teaching that allows students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to real life, by actually getting them involved in initiating, growing or critically assessing the potential of entrepreneurial ventures and activities.

Joseph is a firm believer in experiential learning. Joseph brings his teaching beyond the textbook, his classroom and even the campus. He shared with us how he brought his Entrepreneurship students for a hands-on experience with the fact-finding process at a Wholesale Garment outlet in City Plaza, Geylang. The students had to talk to the outlet owners, do a competitive analysis and present the findings to the owners.

By the way, Joseph uses PowerPlugs by Crystal Graphics for his PowerPoint transition effects, and he literally makes the students sit up and listen with the use of many thought-provoking and humorous video clips available from http://www.youtube.com/. Sometimes, he would inject some novelty into his lecture presentation by going to the LT earlier, and sticking notes under some of the seats, so that he could spring a surprise on the students, and get them to answer his questions. In fact, Joseph has made a conscious effort to build rapport between himself and his students. He reckons that he is more of a mentor and friend to them, than a tutor. He even knows who his students’ girlfriends or boyfriends are (or were!), and he has kept in touch with parents who appreciate his updates on how their children are doing in their studies.