Action Research

This is what an engineer would call trouble shooting.
and it is a good way of to close the feedback loop.

There are basically 2 paths,
Quantitative and Qualitative.

The Quantitative approach is very similar to an engineer
doing a DOE(Design of Experiments) on a machine.
But this time, we are applying it to students.
So it is a variant and a branch into social sciences.
Deep down inside, I am abit cautious of this process.
Because there are just so many variables that could affect the
output.
You would have to think really hard and cover all angles,
if not, at the end of the day you may get loads of meaningless data.
It was already tough working on machines,
working on humans I believe would be a lot more complex.

But nevertheless, I did take home some valuable points.
and will plan to do some small controlled experiments,
to aid in improving my teaching methods.

The Qualitative method is basically about conducting
detailed interviews.
This too has its whole range of challenges from preparing,
the questions , to interviewing and interpreting the data collected.

It is a holistic approach with a whole lot of work *pant*
but the payoffs would definitely be well worth the effort.

A fellow colleague metioned a problem worth looking into.
Why is there a drop in
academic performance of good students
from the 2nd year of a particular course?
I believe that a Qualitative Research into this would help us shape
our cirriculum better.

C D I O

Conceive
Design
Implement
Operate

That is the new initiative.
The latest buzz in the education circle.

I have attended the conferences and
the workshops.
It was very useful and I have definitely
added more tools to my teaching toolbox.

It is primarily about engaging students.
Trying to surface or inspire their desire to learn,
so that the learning would take place at a deeper level.
I reckon that many lecturers are already doing it one way or
the other, its just that it’s not formalized.

I tried out some of the suggested methods of letting
students mark their peers assignment.
It turned out pretty well.
They were given the assignment, together with the marksheet.
Therefore they knew upfront what was expected from them.
When they exchanged and marked their peers' assignment.
They learnt from the mistakes made. Hence the learning was re-enforced.
I still check through the markings,
just to ensure correctness and fairness.

From a Mechanical Product Design Engineer's point of view,
CDIO pretty much describes the entire product lifecycle.
Some are lucky to have experienced the full cycle for a single product,
but most would start the project at different phases of the cycle,
then hope onto another project.
So in general, it is a concept that I am at ease with.

Motivating the UnMotivated

This was a fantastic 2 Day workshop by
Rob Plevin.
He was dynamic and engaging.

I took home 3 important points from that workshop

Build Relationship
It is important to build a relationship with the students
reach out to them,
Do it from the heart , because kids are smart these days
and the can smell a fake in seconds.

Progressive Steps
Understand the background knowledge of the student
and work from there.
Build on the foundation and give constructive comments,
opt for formative assesments over summative ones.
Tell them why they are doing this. show them the
relevance.

Expectations
This bit is the difficult one.
Approach with a positive mentality.
If you set your expectations low,
that would unfortunately be the mark where your
students would reach.

These workshops are really helpful for a newbie teacher
like me.

My Style

So I modelled my style quite closely to my mentor.
However I do recognize that we have very different personalities,
and that I could never tell jokes the way he does.

But I could follow his teaching methodology.

I put myself in the slippers of my students.
(our students do not wear shoes)
And I try to solve the problems from their point of view.
As an engineer, I realise that I tend to skip many intermediate steps.
But now, I have to be concious and write those steps down.
I have to break the problem into tiny parts so that they could digest it easily.
I have to look at it from different view points and see where the blindspots are.

I try to put in a little extra stuff.
Stuff that is not in the notes,
Stuff that is out there in the real world.
I brought to class a foldable bike, and ask them what are the forces that are acting on the wheels.
I made a video of my family and the problem that we have with the stroller
I show them clips from youtube and make them laugh.
then, ask them what is the physics behind that joke.
I try to make the lesson relate to the world.
Because that is where they are heading to when they graduate.

Soon, I had my own style.
It is a cocktail of methods from all the good lecturers/teachers that I know.
They all have one thing in common.
They sincerely care for their students,
and they love to teach.

Learning the ropes

I was lucky to learn the ropes from an experienced teacher.
He used to teach me.
And I remembered that he was good.

So I sat in his class.
Oh my, what a ride.
He was a master at getting the attention of the students.
The jokes he told just resonated with their frequency.

He introduced complex equations,
by breaking them down into bite size information.
and showed them step by step.
Making something difficult look so easy,
and fun at the same time.

He did not talk continuously, but injected
examples in between theories.
He insisted that they(students) try it out for themselves.
The examples started out easy, so that they could gain their confidence.
then it got a little trickier, so that they would start feeling the challenge.
When they tripped, he held them by the hand.
Letting go when they started to trot.
Ultimately , they were trying out questions that was the test standard.

The students left the class confident and most importantly smiling.

I left the class with a hope.

That one day, I would be as good as my teacher.

My First Lesson

My class was a little rowdy, but I prefer it like that.
It makes interactions somewhat easier.
I would like to be perceived as friendly and approachable.
So this was a perfect class for me.

I memorized all the students' names before entering the class.
I felt that it was important.
Afterall they are humans and not machines that I use to tinker around with.
Some of them noticed it, and gave a quiet smile of appreciation.
It was worth the effort.

I started off the class talking not about the subject matter,
but about LIFE.
And made it clear that they can forgot about
what I am going to teach them about engineering drawing,
but they must never forget what I have to tell them.

I told them that in LIFE, it is important to love what you do.
and pursue it with passion and sweat.
Because when you love what you do,
It does not become a job, it's a hobby.
You would be good at it naturally.
You would be in line with what you were born to do.
You would be HAPPY
And life is just too short not to be happy.

I hope they remember it. because its true.

I Love being an Engineer.
I Love teaching.

This place is perfect.