Reflection

Whenever I asked my PGDE and BEd students how they felt about their teaching, the majority of them seemed to find it hard to respond to my question. I remember one of my PGDE students asked me how she could get a distinction and one inquired how she could get a pass in the next observation. Sometimes, as a frontline teacher, we should learn how to evaluate ourselves. It shouldn't be appropriate to wait for others to tell you how well or how bad your performance is. I guess we are the only one who knows better than anyone in the world whether we have taught the lesson well. If we do not know how to reflect upon our own teaching or performance, how can we train our Ss to do so? Learning how to learn is a very catchy slogan in the recent educational reform. However, learning how to reflect is equally significant as this is what everyone needs on top of 'money'. Think about when our Ss grow up and work in society, they are constantly expected to reflect upon their performance and learn how to improve accordingly. I would say teaching Ss to reflect upon their own learning should start as early as possible. If possible, we should start coaching Ss to do self-evaluation in the formative years of their schooling such as Primary 1 to Primary 3.