RafaelFajardo

carlosesoto:

This week I’ve been sharing some work by my form 1 and form 2 students. I work with ethnic minority students in Hong Kong.

Here is a presentation two form 2 students did at our morning assembly on the topic of pedagogy. (The edited text from the presentation follows below.) Their presentation is a result of work in our Integrated English and Humanities class. 

The end of the presentation is here:http://youtu.be/sRb0uejvSnk

I want to contrast their presentation with what these students are usually expected to study in government-sponsored schools here in Hong Kong. English language teaching usually focuses on preparation for the form 3 TSA exam, an exam of basic competency that helps to determine the “quality” of intake a school will have in its form 1 students. It also used to measure the “value added” education given to students at a school. Therefore, schools usually teach with textbooks and other materials that are geared toward this exam.

The result is that ethnic minority students are alienated from knowledge that might be more empowering to them as agents of change in their communities. While many of my students use English (and other languages) outside of school for a wide variety of complex creative, communicative, and meaning-making practices, in school, English is often reduced to a practical, transactional activity, and student disengagement and resistance follow.

Below are sample TSA English speaking presentation questions. In schools, this kind of question becomes a gatekeeper for what kind of knowledge is considered appropriate for the classroom. As you might guess, based on what my students and I choose to study in our classes, I often get asked by worried educators, “How will your students be prepared for the TSA?” I will leave it up to you to determine the answer.

Three Pedagogies

Aviman Rana and Prasant Gurung

30 November 2012

PRASANT: Hello everybody and good morning. I am Prasant and this is my  friend Aviman. We are here to talk about pedagogy . In school we see  different teachers using different techniques of teaching. Some might make us feel bored and sleepy, while some might make you happy while working with your friends, or others might make you feel excited and curious about learning different things. You may wonder why different teachers use different teaching. It is because they were also taught in the same way. And if you don’t know about pedagogy. I am going talk about it right now. 

Transmission pedagogy

AVIMAN: First of all lets start with Transmission Pedagogy. Transmission Pedagogy  is a a way of teaching where the teachers talk and the students listen. The teachers who want to use Transmission Pedagogy want the students to be like parrots. They usually want to use books  to teach students because it saves them time and they don’t need to think. Teachers just give students questions and later on the answers. The teachers don’t want the students to ask questions because they think it will slow the whole class down. Once I had a teacher who used this technique when I was in primary. He always talked and we had to listen and do what he had said. He never wanted us to ask questions because he thought that if only one person asked questions they could slow the whole class down.The teacher only wanted to students to get high numbers in exams. In transmission pedagogy many students fail because they can’t ask questions and can’t communicate with each other or with their teachers. 

Let’s see what happens when a teacher uses Transmission Pedagogy. Here the class is learning about emotions and grammar.

Generative Pedagogy

AVIMAN: Generative Pedagogy is a way of teaching where the teachers give groups of students a task and they need to complete the the task by cooperating with each other and sharing ideas and views. In Generative Pedagogy, we need to respect others’ views and appreciate them. We also learn from various resources such as movies, documentaries, poems, stories, news, and the internet.This pedagogy is a much more open way of teaching than a Transmission Pedagogy. When was in form 1 our English teacher used this technique. This teaching was more fun and exiting for our whole class. He always wanted us to ask questions and talk to him when ever we wanted help.

Let’s see what happens when a teacher uses Generative Pedagogy. Here the students are teaching each other word roots, and creating puppet shows about the movie “3 Idiots.”

Transformative Pedagogy

PRASANT: At last,Transformative Pedagogy is very creative pedagogy because it is a lot different from other two pedagogies. In this pedagogy we learn to change our selves and change the community and the society. We learn in a very different way than other pedagogies. In this kind class we don’t get bored or don’t understand. This pedagogy changes our thought for the world. In place of only reading others’ ideas or only reading books, it helps to think of our own ideas.

This pedagogy will also help because it will teach students how to cope with different people with different religions. It will also teach them how to make new friends and how to finish a task no matter how hard it is. I always wanted to learn in this way because I thought it would be fun. I have only learned a bit in this way, but I hope that I will more in the future.  

Let’s see how we use transformative pedagogy in 2C. Here we are cooperating to solve the problems we face in our families during puberty. We are planning a workshop for parents and students.

PRASANT: I did not study in Generative or Transformative Pedagogy before because in my country it was hard to find such kind of school. I used to study in Transmission Pedagogy. I always woke up to wear my uniform and go to school just to study from books. It was really boring for me. In exams, if we did not  write what is written in the book we would not receive any marks. Our teachers always taught from books and didn’t  let us to think on our own. There was only one subject where we could think; literature because in that subject we used to add our own ideas and views. I always attended that subject because it was interesting and creative. I usually didn’t attend all the subjects in the school because the same ideas that we learned the previous year were taught again the next year. Before I did not know what is pedagogy or what are different types of pedagogy . But if we ask  my old school teachers they also don’t know what this is.

After moving to Honk Kong I study in CMACCK  and I learned a way different style because I used to study Transmission Pedagogy and now I study in Generative Pedagogy, and sometimes Transformative. Nowadays I always attend all the classes. Its not  boring any more. I know the different pedagogies.

AVIMAN: Thank you for listening. Good bye and have a nice weekend!