On 2nd of April, we visited Jing Tai Middle School in Guangzhou. In a lesson demonstration, we saw great examples of how guided questions were cleverly adopted to sparkle students’ understanding and curiosity.
From the pre-lesson worksheet, students learned from each other through peer review and discussion. It also helped the teacher to identify students’ understandings, misconceptions and frustrations. We were impressed by how engaged the students were. They were eager to raise their hand and express their thoughts. How can we, as teachers, also encourage our students to do the same?
In the lesson, the teacher acted as a facilitator to motivate students’ learning. This visit gave us several insights. The teacher gave a pre-lesson worksheet to the students before the lesson, this enables the teacher to check for prior student understanding. The teacher kicked off the topic by relating students’ daily life experiences to the learning target. In this case, why does rice taste sweet in our mouth when we chew? This is related to the effect of saliva on starch, which was the topic of investigation of that lesson. I personally found that the lesson is also related to the application of the six facets of understanding. Students can draw upon their own experiences, then apply their knowledge with explanation for the interpretation of the results. The lesson reminds us the discovery of scientific phenomena by curiosity, rather than giving the experiment set-up to the students. The lesson inspired me to set up learning activities that can hook, engage ad equip students with desired performance.
