Cooperative Learning

                                 

Today, from 2.00 to 4.40 p.m., I attended an in-house training on cooperative learning at my school.  I found it interesting and inspiring. Many thanks to my principal, Mr. Ng Meng Heong for inviting Mr. Marcus Raja, a renowned academic to give such a great talk. With panache and flair, he made us grasp the whole enchilada of the innovative approach through fun-filled group activities. After the training, I could see that every teacher was raring to implement what they had learnt in their respective classes. It would surely give a new breath of life to my prosaic lessons. 

Of all the teaching-learning activities, I liked 'Running Dictation' the most. It requires students to work in a group of four with two persons as runners and the other two as note-takers. The teacher puts up papers on the walls in the classroom and the runners should walk around and read every single piece of information on them before dictating it to the note-takers. The first group that has gathered all the information will be given a prize in appreciation of their effort. The upshot of the activity is it promotes peer teaching among students and lightens the workloads of teachers. It also makes learning more fun because students compete with one another to get their tasks accomplished.


Comments

suituapui said…
Running dictation? We used to call that "The scribe and the tax collector". The students loved it! Very tiring but they enjoyed the activity.
January 23, 2015 at 5:00 PM
sintaicharles said…
I like the name. Thanks.
January 23, 2015 at 6:15 PM
Jarod Yong said…
Yup, I've got a lot of respect for Mr Marcus Raja as well.
February 3, 2015 at 7:04 AM
sintaicharles said…
Jarod, he's an inspiration. I like the non-threatening manner he adopted as a trainer.
February 7, 2015 at 2:51 AM
inid2tell said…
My former principal, I sure missed working with him. :))
February 10, 2015 at 5:02 AM
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