HOLISTIC REPORT
By
Candidate
Name: Nguyen Thi Lan
Submission
Date: 21 June 2016
Qualification:
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 01stJune 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.
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.
An initial
assessment
2.
A
diagnostic meeting
3.
A learning
plan
4.
A learning
program/scheme of work
Unit 102: Plan and prepare learning
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 –Wh
(open questions), written question, group activities, speak clearly and slowly,
capture attention. The reasons why these methods are chosen are that lecturing
and Wh-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 2ndJune 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 in the portfolio.
Unit 103: Delivery learning
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 establish and maintain a rapport with learners, for instance: slides,
videos, flipchart, group activities, oral questioning...It’s time to make
assessment. When making assessment, I took into account the 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. Finally, I ended up the presentation on time.
Unit
104: Assessment
As part of preparation for assessment,
firstly the learners were 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 seven 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 80%:20%. So I have to think how to encourage them to participate
the session more. How to motivate them more? How to make more learner 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:
+
Able to
complete all the required session within the 30 minute time frame.
+
Using
various teaching methods with interactions
+
Encourage
learners to participate group activities
+
Enough
resources for all learners
+
Clear
voice, good eye contact, different voice level.
v Can be
improved in future:
-
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 make more voice from learners. 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 my lesson. 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 design a multi choice test.
In the last
day morning, I delivered my presentation using all techniques that the observer
and I have talked on 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 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 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”
OBSERVATION
ON PEERS PRESENTATION
After completion of my presentation, I have
made observations on my peers’ presentations. In general, most of them have
good presentation skill and enable to vary different types of teaching approach
as well as a variety of assessment methods. However, there are several
candidates that couldn’t organize the time frame, others have trouble in
English communication skill. It is easy to understand because English is not
their tongue and it’s been rarely used to deliver presentation on regular
basis. Amongst 7 presentations in my group, the most impressive delivery is Mr
Bui Van Son’s performance. I was absolutely fascinated by his teaching. The way
he taught is of problem based method. All learners were divided into 2 groups
and each group has been given a real model “a pressure gage”. We –played role
as learners- were asked to write down whatever we have seen at the gage. That’s
really so interesting that we all have got involved the activity. Afterward we
posted our discussion results on the flipchart. He showed slides and video and
asked us questions regarding the topic and we answered the session. So he
played role as a facilitator, and our session was like a game in which we ourselves
played roles as game players. He gave us support indirectly so that we
ourselves found out solutions. I’ve come to realize that facilitation skill is
an appropriate teaching approach for vocational learners to acquire the
competence of knowledge and skills themselves. Therefore I must try my best to
get to know this skill thoroughly to amend my future sessions successfully for
both the learners and myself.
The three day training course 1106-21 is
really useful for me to develop teaching skills. Especially, the learning from
practical assessment which is really conducive for me to conduct the next
session more successfully for both the learners and myself. I thank all my
group members for their support and enthusiasm, to my learner “Ms Nguyen Thi
Linh” and especially to respected trainers Mr Weng Kai Lee and Mr Luui Ibuh for
their fullest support in making this session a success.
Words count: 3500
Words count: 3500
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