Reflection on Week 2 Tutorial

Material Development (Reflection)

Introduction

First of all, I would like to thank all our lecturers for their guidance throughout the past 2 Semesters. It has been a bumpy ride and now we are ready to do it all over again. For now, we are starting anew with our blog posts, which previously were about teaching writing skills. Now, we are venturing to new heights with Materials Development. This course aims to provide us with the tricks and trades for developing materials as well as knowledge on the principles behind materials development. For this week’s blog entry, we are asked to post a reflection regarding our previous assignments, which I have posted. Three questions are given as our guideline in writing our reflection. The questions are: 

     1)      How does it affect me as pre-service teacher?

     2)      How does it affect my current level of knowledge?

     3)      How can I use that knowledge to improve myself?

Reflection

Firstly, as a pre-service teacher or a teacher in training, I was definitely amazed at how Jeremy Short incorporated graphic novels as a learning material to cater to learners’ interest. It really shows that he is considerate to the needs of learners. I have also begun to wonder on developing materials that could relate to the different needs of the learners. As for the activity on designing a diagram, it gave me the impression that ‘explanation’ is a subjective matter, which means explanation is affected by one’s pragmatics.

Secondly, it greatly affects my current level of knowledge. As with every given assignments, we have the chance to improve ourselves in terms of knowledge. For this week’s assignment, I have learned to think ‘out of the box’ and to not be satisfied with just one explanation as we could see things in another perspective which leads to a new explanation. Also, my knowledge on what to consider when developing a material also improved as we are exposed to the principals behind material development.

Next, the knowledge that I have gained this week would be of great help in our next lesson or for our upcoming assignments. Using the knowledge that I have gained provides me with a better understanding of how to develop materials and what to consider when developing one. Moreover, I would also avoid accepting things at ‘face-value’ as there is more than meets the eyes, particularly when we look at the principals of material development.

Lastly, I have learnt a lot in this week’s assignments, however it is still not enough. The current me is miles away from producing a great material for learners. Thus, with the guidance of our lecturers, we hope to be knowledgeable and are able to apply what we have learnt at the end of this course. That is all for my reflection.