Holistic Report (The second update)

HOLISTIC REPORT

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Candidate Name: Nguyen Thi Lan

Submission Date: 11 June 2016

Qualifications: 1106-21 (Level 3 Advanced Diploma in Training and Assessing)

In preparation of the upcoming course of 1106-21 (Level 3 Advanced Diploma in Training & Assessing) that is begun on 01^stJune 2016 at Bai Dau campus where is 7 kilometers far from the head-quarter of PVMTC, I have taken a thorough look at my handwriting on my diary that I wrote down in 2009 when I took part the 1106 – 1 level 2 organized at Lilama college. I find it useful to record things you are trained or want not to forget.

I read carefully the email that the course coordinator sent me a week before the course. I was surprised that one of trainers is Mr Wen Kai Lee, who I met one year ago at my college. He and Mr Tony Davi - on behalf of City&Guilds - came to PVMTC to make the final assessment for being an approved center from City&Guilds.

DAY 01:

I came the class at 8:05 am, being late for 5 minutes on the first day of the course, however I felt good because of 2 trainers smile. Actually, they made me calm and didn’t get nervous. We then started with a round of introduction as an ice breaker. After that, Mr Wengkai introduced us the topics for the 3 days, the assessment requirements and the safety in a nut shell. We all agreed the background rules called “CLASS – CLAP”.

We were given 2 pieces of pink notes. All we should do are that we write at least one strong point and what we want to achieve from the course. Interestingly, I recognize that this is an indirect way the trainer get our aims. They encourage us to tell them our aims, our goals. We’ve then stuck all notes on a A0-sized paper into 2 columns, one for strong points and another one for aims. It is called “POST IT” method.

By using lecture method, questioning skill, we answered 5 steps of the learning cycle. They include 5 elements:

1.    Identify training needs

2.    Planning training

3.    Implementation

4.    Assessment

5.    Evaluation

We seemed not to have any difficulties with the first and second elements of the cycle. The third element “Implementation” alerted us so much about the training environment’s effect on learners. As a trainer, we should create a climate conducive to learning. Besides we discussed about group management, health and safety requirements and room layouts.

Unit 101: Identify Learner Needs

The learner named Nguyen Thi Linh is a bachelor of science in electrical engineering. Her experiences are in the teaching engineering and oil sector students age 18 - 20 for 2 or 3 year programs. The subjects that she has been delivering are in electric and electrical area, for example electric technique, electrical circus, electrical materials, electrical equipment… I was keen to know more of her needs for Level Transmitters course. The method I used was a face to face interview to get her self introductions and what she aimed to achieve. She made a brief introduction and answered my questions regarding the topic. She could list some level devices that are common used at every household such as a measure tape, a float, a sight glass. By summarizing her current competence and knowledge about the topic, I realized she has no knowledge about the level transmitters. This has a strong influence on selecting materials/resources, the plan program as well as methods of teaching and assessment. I have also reviewed her curriculum vitae so that I’ve got her personal details including email, telephone number, address, hobby, strong points... This was useful to start establish a connection with my future learners and learning plan on the next coming day.

Finally, I found that her needs are:

1. Development of basic knowledge of description, working principle and applications of the level transmitters applied in most of the oil and gas services in Vietnam.

2.    Practice with real models to identify main parts of a level transmitter as well as its specifications.

I also recognize my learner is willing to learn, hard working and good at reading and listening in English. By using “Learning styles questionnaire”, I found that her learning style is “R” (reflector). In addition, I realized her special requirement to run the course is an air-conditioned classroom or a ventilator equipped in case of the lack of the air- conditioner.

Summary of unit 101: after conducting the diagnostic meeting, all documents collected are:

1.    A learner’s CV

2.    An initial assessment

3.    A diagnostic meeting

4.    A learning plan

5.    A learning program/scheme of work

Notes: The learner has agreed on the evidence as pictures shown below

Unit 102: Plan and prepare learning

In accordance with the diagnostic meeting and the initial assessment records, I’ve made a learning plan that covers all aspects to meet learner’s needs. Preparing a learning programmed/scheme of work is the next step that I have to complete. To begin with a learning program, clearly stated learning objectives provide a basic for selecting appropriate materials and instructional strategies. The first aim of this program is to provide the candidates with the basic knowledge of description, working principle and applications of level transmitters applied in most of the oil and gas factories/manufactures in Vietnam. The other aim is to enable learners use them.

When selecting the teaching resources, I should pay attention to 4 factors. That is Suitability, Affordable, Availability and Comprehensive. Based on this principle, the resources needed are an e-book “Instrumentation and Control” that learners can access the website “PAControl.com” to download (it is free of charge), handouts given to learners at the beginning of the course and practical models being available and ready for practice at the instrumentation workshop. These are selected because the learners are good at reading in English and desire to practice with instruments.

Because of the learner’s learning style is R (reflector), my instructional strategies include lecture method, question –wwwwwh (open questions), written question, group activities, speak clearly and slowly, capture attention. The reasons why these methods are chosen are that lecturing and wwwwwh-questioning is good to deliver factual information. For instance telling the important details of main components of a transmitter and asking questions regarding it. Group work is a good method to encourage all learners to participate the lesson and asking question and answer session is also appropriate in this scenario. Moreover, capture attention is very important skill that an instructor should use during the lecture time. It makes learners feel that what they speak is important to the instructor as well as their peers. When evaluating a teaching/learning session the best reason for using oral questioning is to give feedback on the way the instructor has delivered.

According to the schedule, I recognize my presentation begins at 13:30 PM on 2^ndJune 2016, therefore I arrive the center at 13:00 PM, 30 minutes earlier, to check out the venue settings and ensure the flipcharts and projector were in place. My preparation for the session includes a laptop, slides, material handouts, books, pro formas, for example course program, session plan, discussion form…

Summary of unit 102: I have prepared 2 session plan with details and time frame as pictures shown below

DAY 2:

Unit 103: Delivery learning

Inspire of doing a thorough check prior to delivery, I started at 13:35 PM, 5 minutes later because of my laptop reboot. At the start of teaching, I make a short presentation about background rules, check for safety in the classroom and show the building instruction as well. The session is totally 33 minutes, including 25 minutes for presentation delivery, 5 minutes to make the assessment and the last 3 minutes to give feedbacks. I then state clearly the aims and objectives of the session. After that I give the learner handouts.

I find it difficult to begin a new session after lunch time, therefore I warm up the class by a fun game named “Guess who they are”. The game really works well and help all my students comfortable and eager to join the new session. When delivering the first part – description of main parts of the displacer transmitter, that telling the important details and asking questions regarding it is the way I used to conduct the first part of the session. Moving to the second part – working principle, a video of Archimedes experiment simulation was projected and all learners were divided into 2 groups and joined the group activities. Especially, during group activities, I gave personal support all groups to ensure success (all discussion forms are filled, not empty). I recognize these methods are suitable to encourage all learners to find out the principle of operation. The last part of the session is displacer transmitter applications. Some pictures taken from Phu My fertilizer and Dung Quat Refinery described the transmitter applications in oil and gas field. It is a strong evidence to convince the learners.

During the presentation, I almost followed the session journey in time frame and different methods of teaching were used to meet different learning styles and establish and maintain a rapport with learners, for instance: slides, videos, flipchart, group activities, oral questioning, written questions...It’s time to make assessment. When making assessment, I took into account the session objectives because it referred directly to the learners’ outcomes. I showed 5 questions on slides and each learner was asked to answer each question. Then the right answer was shown on slides. It’s the last 3 minutes for giving assessment feedback. I used the “Medals and Missions” model. “Medals” this is information about what the learner has done well, in contrast, “Missions” – this is information about what the learner needs to develop and/or improve. Furthermore, I recognize that assessment and feedback have a huge impact on learners outcomes. Finally, I ended up the presentation on time.

Unit 104: Assessment

As part of preparation for assessment, firstly the learners are explained on what will be assessed at the day we carried out the diagnostic meeting and the learning plan, how they will be assessed and when they will be assessed as well as the venue. This is to ensure no surprises and the assessments were administered fairly.

Let’s review what assessment is first. A way to find out whether the learners have acquired/achieved the required knowledge and skill of a course/subject. Principles of assessment are:

Valid: suitable/relevant to the standard/criteria

Authentic: students’ own work (work is solely done by the learner)

Current: up to date (not get outdated)

Sufficient: enough evidence (documents/forms)

Reliable: consistency (must be equal/ same)

Assessment can be divided for the sake of convenience using the following categorizations:

       1.      Initial, formative, summative and diagnostic assessment

       2.      Objective and subjective

1.      Initial, formative, summative and diagnostic assessment

Initial assessment takes place before or at the beginning of the training program or session, and it is used to check that the learner is on the correct program or in an appropriate session. It is also used to determine whether they have any prior skills, knowledge and experience that can be taken into account and to enable to the trainer to identify an appropriate starting point for the training. It can also identify any learning needs that a learner may have and inform the planning of the session to meet those needs.

Formative assessment is assessment for learning, it is on-going throughout the program or session and helps the learner to identify what they need to do to achieve/develop (can be done many tests for many times)

Summative assessment is assessment of learning, and occurs at the end of a course program or session which confirms final success or areas for development (usually one time only).

Diagnostic assessment - Diagnostic assessment deals with the whole difficulties at the end that occurs during the learning process.

There are several practices to effective learning, one of them is about showing the criteria of the evaluation before the test. Another is about the importance of pre-assessment to know what the skill levels of a student are before giving instructions. Giving a lot of feedback and encouraging are other practices.

Educational researcher Robert Stake explains the difference between formative and summative assessment with the following analogy:

When the cook tastes the soup, that's formative. When the guests taste the soup, that's summative.

Summative and formative assessment are often referred to in a learning context as assessment of learning and assessment for learning respectively. Assessment of learning is generally summative in nature and intended to measure learning outcomes and report those outcomes to students, parents and administrators. Assessment of learning generally occurs at the conclusion of a class, course, semester or academic year. Assessment for learning is generally formative in nature and is used by teachers to consider approaches to teaching and next steps for individual learners and the class.

A common form of formative assessment is diagnostic assessment. Diagnostic assessment measures a student's current knowledge and skills for the purpose of identifying a suitable program of learning. Self-assessment is a form of diagnostic assessment which involves students assessing themselves. Forward-looking assessment asks those being assessed to consider themselves in hypothetical future situations

2.      Objective and subjective

Assessment (either summative or formative) is often categorized as either objective or subjective.

Objective assessment is a form of questioning which has a single correct answer. Subjective assessment is a form of questioning which may have more than one correct answer (or more than one way of expressing the correct answer). There are various types of objective and subjective questions. Objective question types include true/false answers, multiple choice, multiple-response and matching questions.

Subjective questions include extended-response questions and essays. Objective assessment is well suited to the increasingly popular computerized or online assessment format.

It’s essential to ensure the assessment decision is made on evidences that are VCARS (Valid, Current, Authentic, Reliable and Sufficient). These are achieved by the following:

Ø  V (valid) – content of the assessment is kept in each learner’s profile and goes with aims and objectives.

Ø  C (consistent) - The assessment method is multi choice test.

Ø  A (authentic) - Check learners’ presence match the list of learners before the assessment.

Ø  A (authentic) – The learners do the test by themselves

Ø  R (reliable) - The test results are marked and kept in the learner’s profile.

Ø  S (sufficient) - The number of questions are covered all aspects matching the aims and objectives.

I made the summative assessment with 5 multi choice questions prepared on the slides. I slide each question and spot “a specific learner” to give answer. I then gave my feedback after each learner’s response. At that time, suddenly, I realized that something went wrong. It seemed the assessment method not to be “consistent” based on evidences for assessment decision (VCARS). The reason is that assessment should be reliable, valid, consistent, justifiable, efficient and achievable. As a result, only specific learners were checked the knowledge and all learners were not given the equal opportunity to answer questions which difficulty level was varying. Obviously, I couldn’t gage exactly competence and knowledge of each learner.

In addition, I found that my presentation delivery was sufficient good for learners to perceive the knowledge but the way I conducted was more likely to be passive. It seemed I was to be too busy to take a rest, on the contrary, all of the learners were listening and watching slides. It was imbalance between the teacher’s voice and learners’ voice, respectively 70%:30%. So I have to think how to encourage them to participate in the session more. How to motivate them more? How to make more learners’ voice in the class?

Unit 105: Evaluation of sessions and learning programs

At the end of my delivery, I found that all of the learners were asked to answer questions once at least and they all perceived knowledge from good to excellent level.

      1.      My own self reflection on how did the presentation go.

v Well done (Medals):

+             Able to complete all the required session within the 33 minute time frame.

+             Using various teaching methods with interactions

+             Encourage learners to participate group activities

+             Adequate resources for all learners

+             Clear voice, good eye contact, different voice level, pace.

v Can be improved in future (Missions):

       -         create more opportunities for learners to participate and speak more

       -         using open questions

      2.      The observer’s evaluation on how I made the presentation

Mr Weng Kai Lee made an observation on my presentation. Here are his feedbacks to me:

“Good presentation delivery using various methods with interactions. During group activities, provide “personal” support to all groups to ensure success (not empty).

Can create more opportunities for learners to participate and speak more. i.e. their sharing, their conclusion of group works.

Do the above by asking more open questions.”

In addition, Mr Weng Kai asked me to make self evaluation of my voice and learners’ voice. My answer was that my voice about 70% and my learners’ voice 30%. He asked me how to reverse this trouble? It’s quite a tough question. He said that the better way to reverse the trouble is that encourage learners to talk and make them take part in the session. I shouldn’t give close questions, such as “Yes – No” questions. Giving them open questions instead to involve them talking and sharing their minds/thoughts.

Next, he asked me about assessment evidence and I gave him a correct answer. However, I made a mistake to perform it during my presentation. Only “selected” learners are assessed by written and oral questions and different learners with different questions. It was not “consistent” assessment evidence. And the question for me is that how to fix it. I replied that the way to make assessment evidence becomes consistent is to give all learners the same opportunity to answer all questions. That ensures their competence and knowledge gaged properly.

Finally, he asked me to improve my presentation on next day morning by fixing all trouble and using solutions that we discussed.

After the discussion with the observer, I have restructured my presentation and the assessment method. I have designed a multi choice test.

DAY 3:

In the last training day morning, I delivered my presentation using all techniques that the observer and I have agreed in previous day afternoon. The result was amazing. I made a balance of my voice and learners’ voice (50%:50%). I gave them a multi choice test for the assessment section and time bound to finish it. I used cross check to gage fairly their competence. By comparing my answers given on the slide, each learner told me their peer' s result one by one. I realized all learners were assessed. In general, I made a progress in the way I taught .

The evidence for my progress is the review of progress and MCQ that the observer has made as below:

“Based on my observation f this section, I can see there is a progress in the way you conduct. More activities, less lectures and more positive learning environment. You show ability to use feedback from session and improve delivery i.e. assessment and ask learners with more open questions. Keep it up and continue to develop be a better trainer! You achieved your goals today”

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