My Micro Teaching Reflection
I would be honest that I wanted to write this reflection earlier, that is immediately after the interesting and enriching mock teaching session. However, there were so many things happening and needs to be done on the table. Alhamdulillah, this morning, on our peace and quiet 65th anniversary of Malaysia Independence, I can spare some time, ponding and reflecting upon the precious experience gained last month.
Usually, I asked my students to write reflection, guide them to write, read and commented on their reflection based on Gibbs Reflective cycle method. However, it is the other way round now and I am now reflecting on my brief mock teaching endeavor.
As one of the Torch (Teaching Champion Program) participants, we were asked to perform a mock teaching, which I believe for some of us could be intimidating considering many of us has been teaching for many years. Some has even taught for more than 10–15 years. And suddenly we have to perform this 15-minute mock teaching. The very first hurdle was to mentally accept the challenge to participate in the mock-teaching. It was a paradoxical emotion as I was torn between not doing it due to 101 reasons; and also, to respect and entertain the hard work of TORCH committees to organize all of these. Eventually I decided to do it.
Despite constant reminder from the organizer, I could not yet prepare the slide, which course to select to teach and the teaching plan. I managed to prepare the slide just in the early morning and the teaching plan was just completed nearly 1 hour before the scheduled mock teaching. I have slight idea and plan how to conduct the mock teaching before leaving my home. I printed the processes involved in the complicated petroleum refinery to be given as handout to the panels (acting as students).
The 15-minutes allocated to us could be challenging as we don’t normally teach in that space of time. But, that’s fine. I’m just going to cover the introduction part of the course, that is the early section of the introductory content of the course. That’s the rough plan.
The time arrived and it was my turn to perform the mock teaching. Two very respected and professional panels were there. I felt that room was too huge for a small class with just 2 “students”. The projected slide was at one end, while the other far end were the panels, which I estimated to be around 24 feet between them. I’m worried that the panels could not view the slide clearly due to the distance, but I guessed they are just fine. I was standing in the middle, beside the table where my laptop was there for me to control. I’m glad that I am not super nervous as I usually am. I started the stop watch app in my hand phone to so I can clearly track my time.
The session began and I greeted the “students” and introduce myself. I ensured that I explained to the students who I am and the practical experience I had for 6.5 years as a practicing engineer. I want them to know that I am qualified, have the cognitive capability besides having the imperative industrial experience to guide and teach them throughout the semester. I must build and establish that first impact. My small picture as an engineer apart from the macroscopic view of a petroleum refinery on the very first slide, was intended to tell the “students” that I have been there and done that.
I explained briefly about the course, how it will be conducted and assessed and what will be covered in the entire semester. Then I began explaining about the important 5 primary raw materials. It was at that point the “students” began asking various types of questions, some which are valid ones and some which are truly unexpected. I was very happy to respond to them and ensured they understood. But that somehow deeply affected the time control of my mock presentation, beyond what I have allocated for it. I still have more content to cover but time is diminishing away from me.
After some explanation to the “students”, I moved on to the next part. I distributed the handout that I printed earlier at home, showing the various processes involved in a typical petroleum refinery. It was this time that I applied student-centred-learning (SCL). I asked the student to take 30 seconds to study the process diagram. Then another 30 seconds to discuss about the processes with the person next to them. Subsequently, I asked them to select two processes and google the description of the processes, for instant “dewaxing”, “vacuum distillation” in a minute. After that they have to explain about their selection to the person next to them and later to the class. I employed the Think Pair Share method. The exercise was great as the “students” participated brilliantly.
As good as it seems, a quick glance to my handphone hinted me that time flies swiftly and I realized I have just 2–3 minutes to end the class, which means I have to make an effective closure for the class (micro teaching). I rushed to end and I managed to end it right on time. But I was not happy with my closure due to lack of time, which occurred as the prolonged discussion process for the topics covered. I was not satisfied with the closure, comparatively with my introduction part, which I felt was successfully executed.
Overall, I am delighted with the new experience from the session. The confidence gets better with time as we immerse into the subject content. I believe my voice projection was clear for everyone in the “class”. I have implemented SCL, allow free flow discussion related to the content and given material for the “students” to study at class. The only part I need to improve for this was to ensure I allocated sufficient time for a proper and meaningful closure.
I appreciate the constructive feedback from the panels. It seems that my strategy works well for most of the mock teaching, except for the closure, which as I expected need to be significantly improved. I believe I know how to do a proper closure but it was not reflected in view of the poor time management. I also realized that having 14 slides are not a good strategy for a mock teaching. I should have only 5 to 7 slides only, to allow more in-depth discussion on a specialized topic, rather than covering on the surface 3 small topics which invited more questions from the “students”. There was also unexpected comment that is to radically promote ourselves in the Course Information (CI) as to include our photo and social media presence.
One more aspect that I failed to impress was the Teaching Philosophy. I have learned that it is better to have an easily formulated and remembered teaching philosophy. The example given was unique and intriguing. I do have a longer version of teaching philosophy, but it is too long to be explained and people will not easily recall. I am yet to create my new version of teaching philosophy. I realized that my teaching philosophy is not impactful (at its current long version state) and I will definitely work on that part in the near future. Once I have a distinctively clear teaching philosophy, my teaching portfolio and style will be aligned to a clearer teaching orientation.
In conclusion, from this mock teaching experience, it has taught me several valuable lessons. I realized that there are still plenty of room for improvement. I need to improve not only because of this program, but also for creating a better teaching and learning experience for students, whom will be the nation’s future engineer. I realized that this is an Amanah, a responsibility as an academician, that is to keep on improving and provide the highest quality. As a feedback or response to these, I will began implementing the idea of improving the CI; improve the timing and closure part in the coming semester. I will establishing my own new teaching philosophy (simplified version), also before the new semester commence. My Allah ease this honorable and sincere quest.
