Reflective Practitioners

1.What kind of qualities do you expect in reflective practitioner?

a)Good action researchers;
They need to judge the conditions in class in situ, whether it is conducive or not. If it is conducive, they will keep on making the effort to maximize the learning outcome. If it is not conducive, they need to change to alternative plan to fulfill all the learning outcomes.

b)Flexible;
Sometimes when there is a conflict situation, teachers need to think another solution to counter that conflict situation, not to keep on going the all plan, if the old plan will deteriorate the conflict situation.

c)Think creatively;
They are many types of learning approaches in the classroom such as behaviorism, constructivism and problem solving etc. Some topics need some special and creative learning approach to maximize the learning outcome. It is not suitable for teacher to use same approaches in every topics and lessons, because it will makes the learning process monotonous and boring. Creativity is a very important element in reflective practitioners.

d)Think critically;
On the contrary to the creative thinking, reflective practitioners have to think critically. They have to think fast for a new solution when there is a change in the classroom. They also need to judge correctly whether it is suitable or not to implement the solution. They also need to determine the mistakes students tend to make in order to remind students not to repeat the mistakes.

e)Observer;
Good reflective practitioners do not ignore the surrounding. Instead, they will use it to be one of their arsenals to intensify their teaching and learning process. For example, when that day is happened to be Mother’s day, teacher will use this special occasion to link their teaching with it. There will be three benefits:
i. Students will be able to understand mathematics topics more thoroughly.
ii. Students will be able to relate the knowledge to daily life.
iii. Values such as love for mother will be implemented on students.


2.Why do you think a beginning teacher should possess these qualities?

a)Time management;
Normally teachers are only given 40-80 minutes to carry out the lesson plan in the classroom. To fulfill the entire learning outcome in such a short time is not a really easy matter to deal with. Firstly, they need to plan the time given for the set induction, development and conclusion. For example, when there is a left over time after the teaching and learning process, teachers can distribute homework to students so they gain much deeper sense towards the topics.

b)Patience;
Every student has different learning abilities. So to treat everybody equally means to make sure everybody are able to understand what we are teaching. Patience is needed when we go through this process.

c)Dedicated;
Dedicated is a very important essence in becoming a good and inspiring teacher. Personally, I have a BM teacher (salute to Encik Musa) who is very dedicated to his teaching. He is a very strict but friendly at the same time. He teaches without bothering what kind of students he has. Last holiday, I managed to pay a visit to him. Although he is very very old now (70 I think), he is still teaching little kids BM. I was very admiring him. He was one of my role model in becoming teachers. He showed me what is meant by “dedication to education all life long.”

d)Good planner;
It is a must for every teacher to make lesson plan in every topics he/she teaches. Good lesson plans serves as a reference for every teacher in teaching and learning session. To plan a good and creative lesson plan is another story. There are many issues that teachers have to consider in planning the lesson plan: Is this approach suitable for the students? Will they be able to catch up? What kind of learning approach should I use? Such a good lesson plan will intensify the teaching and learning process, maximize the learning outcome and gain the interest of students in learning mathematics.



3.How would you expect this course to help develop these qualities?

To be a greater teacher, of course. I want to understand how math students really make sense of the world around them. When I was still a teenager, sadly my teacher only use one approach only (that is behaviourism) to teach me mathematics. That is why that time I don’t really understand why I am learning mathematics. But now, since I am becoming a teacher in a few months, I wish to be an inspiring teacher to my students.

I wish to do practical or demonstration of teaching as many as possible. For my personal own view, learning is best to practice it repeatedly, and then you can master it. Same things to teaching, we need to practice it, and then we can get the hang of it.

Lastly, I wish that I can the master of creative and critical thinking. This modern technology world is always changing. To be able to catch up with it on the top form is a good challenge for me. Creative and critical thinking is two important essences to be a great teacher. I wish to develop both of them in this course.