Post-fieldtrip Reflections

Defining / Negotiating Space in Raffles Place

Warning: Super Long Post.

We had our little recce trip for our joint fieldtrip exercise on Tuesday. Man, so malu. Its no joke working the Mickey Mouse anemometer and slinging the psychrometer like a caveman in the middle of our very public and happening CBD. Too many times passerbys stared at us working the surface thermistor as if we are terrorists planning to bomb the MRT with one of the heaviest traffic in morning peak hours. At times I felt like the terrorist-guy featured in the video clip currently running on MRT platforms (which incidentally is such a good teaching resource, as it localizes the threat of global terrorism in local Singapore so well. If I'm a teacher I'd get my students to just stand there and watch the clip. Better than whatever ICT crap I can produce). I felt almost guilty and ashamed, though I'm not doing anything wrong. AHEM. Its cool man. Educators at work. Must psycho ourselves to be more thickskinned...

Of course until my friend's wife came from behind me, tapped me on the shoulder and gave me an incredulous look as I was holding on to the Mickey Mouse anemometer. Heh... Good Morning? ;p And of course my girlfriend didn't help by sms-ing me to KEEP AWAY from her work office, as far as possible. :)

Ok, let's get serious. :)

So what did we do exactly? Simply put, we used our instruments to measure 4 weather variables (Wind Speed, Humidity, Air Temperature, Ground Temperature) across 6 points 50m apart along a transect. Air temp was 29 degrees celcius almost everywhere, except on grass (28.5), and beside Coffee Club (28 - aircon? Shade?). Ground temp was 27 degrees on grass and at Coffee Club, 29 elsewhere (grass lower latent heat, and Coffee Club is just a cool place to be lah... haha, its shaded and beside airconditioning my dear). Humidity was a constant 79% everywhere, except on grass (82% due to transpiration? moisture?) and again beside Coffee Club (85% - 9.50am, later in the day?). Wind speed was an exhilirating 0-2m/s everywhere.

So what sort of conclusions can we draw? With the limited, unexciting and non-varied measurements we have, we can say that our hypothesis about Urban Heat Island basically sizzled out of steam. Any theorized effect of Urban Canyon wind accentuation is gone with the wind due to a lack of conclusive evidence. Rewards of the day? The free Today newspaper I got at the MRT entrance, and the yummy O'briens sandwiches my teammates got for lunch?

Well, not all's lost. Lots of worthy pegagogical considerations, outcomes and strategies can still be developed from our little recce trip.

Firstly, many lessons can still be drawn from failed hypotheses. Why didn't we observe any significant temperature variations in the square? Its a good question to provoke critical thinking. Basically, as I was guessing and grumbling before the trip - its the wrong time to conduct an experiment. The sun has only just risen, what do you expect? You'll get heating variations later in the day, a good time to measure will be mid-afternoon. Also, as Dr Chang pointed out, a measurement at 6am in the morning might give you some indication of a heat sink effect.

Pedagogical Note: Conduct a field trip that requires measurements at different temporal periods of the day? Of course, with that note comes the Logistical Choke: Different times of the day?! Spare me the headache... :)

Secondly, other lessons in Urban Microclimate can be garnered. i) Fine, we gathered no heat sink effect in our not-very-early morning measurements, but as Dr Chang challenged us, ever wondered why the square is so warm at 10am?? Look up guys - check out the huge glass and reflective marble/psuedo metal material of the surrouding buildings. They were freakin reflecting heat from the rising sun onto the square, grilling us like a cheeky boy with a magnifying glass on a bunch of stupid ants.

ii) I don't know about you guys, but I do feel distinct wind gusts along the small alleys (e.g. Malacca Street) around the square. No strong winds in the center as its far too wide - but how abt the small corridors here and there? Prob worth checking out.

Pedagogical Note: Nothing beats the field in geographical learning. I remember learning about urban reflection as a factor leading to higher temperatures in urban micro-climate, this was a good reminder in felt form. Poor Alvin with the tissue.. :)

Thirdly, this is after all a first recce trip, in terms of methods, there's much we can learn and improve on should we conduct something similar in the future. We can be more stringent and specific in our measurement requirements (e.g. to take 3 readings of each instrument and take the average for greater accuracy), and also, we can be more structured in actually specifying particular points for measurements (e.g. identifying landmarks, first measuring out by tape accurate 50m intervals).

Pedagogical Note: Don't be lazy. You need to do your groundwork and consider carefully how lesson objectives can best be achieved. And of course... with that will come the Logistical Choke. heh heh :)

Fourthly, if we were actual students doing the field exercise, I would consider this a pretty imbalanced learning experience for my class. From my own experience in my own team, we were far too dependent on the expertise of the instruments expert. Basic content knowledge of weather variables and urban micro-climate was also grasped differentially across members of the group.

Pedagogical Note: Adequate scaffolding and careful consideration of effective cooperative learning is required when embarking on lessons that seeks to instill higher level meta-cognitive learning. Basic content understanding and skills should be introduced to students before going into the field, to encourage optimal learning when the students go 'hands-on'. If not, it is too easy for some students to be lost, and by then, it is too late for the shepherd teacher to gather the sheep who simpy wanders and graze on the grass.

All in all? A good eye-opening trip. In the very public space of Raffles Place.
Field exercises in Geography learning, there is definitely place.
Group structuring wise in this cooperative exercise,
Space needs to be defined (not negotiated) a tad more concise.

Fieldtrip Jigsaw - I am the King, but who runs the Thing?

Some thoughts on last week's jigsaw planning for our fieldtrip tommorow.

Dr Chang divided us into 4 expert groups (Content, Pedagogy, Logistics and Instruments). Each expert group met to discuss their domain, and then convened with the home group after to organize separate (presumably, theoretically, ideally?) fieldtrip packages.

Being in the content group (not entirely by choice, but as a service to my group members who shunned content like my girlfriend to durains), we had to brainstorm the subject topic(s) we wanted to teach, the concepts to learn, the lessons to be learnt. Man, we felt important in our expert group - as if we were kings! But with great power comes great responsibility, and the pressure was on. For it felt as if we are not clear of the content, there would be no lesson objective, and with no lesson objective, there would be no lesson plan, with no lesson plan there will be no lesson ....

Wait.. doesn't that sound like psuedo-pedagogy we were worrying about? Surely there's some overlap with the other expert group? Yes, indeed.

Personally, I had an utterly exciting, yet confusing and frustrating session doing the jigsaw. It was cool thinking and brainstorming with my expert group the technicalities of Urban Heat Island and what we can seek to teach in the field on this topic, but it felt really disjunct when we got grouped back into each individual home group.

Firstly, I think the roles of content and pedagogy were not made utterly clear as we embarked on the jigsaw. In the first place, how helpful is it to divorce the two? When together in the home group, I found my pedagogy counterpart not exactly having any clear idea on what lesson objectives to be achieved, for he/she is awaiting imput from me, the supposed content King. I found myself sharing what our expert group has come up with, and in the end, driving discussion on pedagogical design as well. I was aware I may have been over-domineeering in group discussion, so I deliberately stepped back in my contributions - but pedagogical counterparts didn't have much to say, being ill-equipped on content (I wonder what the pedagogy team discussed in the first discussion?).

Secondly, technically, if there was ONE pedagogy expert group, then theoretically, shouldn't there be ONE pedagogical method adopted through all four groups? But it turned out that all 4 groups may be adopting different methods. Cool.. but was that the original aim? Anyways, I don't really know my group's pedagogical method yet, the last discussion we had it seems that we are all just sitting on it...

Thirdly, the logistics counterpart was basically handicapped to do anything, for he/she can only decide on logistics when we know what to do (duh). Ok, so diff ppl adopts different responsibilities in a jigsaw, fine. But then again, how divorced can the logistics guy be? Is a clear distinction of roles that helpful once again?

Fourthly, the instruments experts. They were damn cool lah, esp with the heat spy. Couldn't help but go have some fun with the stuff too. But thinking back - is it good to divorce the instrument guy in fieldwork planning? I know I have the content, but I know I'll be totally clueless when I'm actually in the field tommorow. Kindda like an armchair geographer sitting on the throne, dictating content like a king, but in actual fact hopeless in the field.

So all in all - its too utterly confusing and frustrating for my liking. I'm a control freak I'll freely admit. I need to have a bird's eyes view of what is going on in any given project, and to know that things will go fine. I hate last minute contingencies and I like to plan ahead. And with things like the organising of a field trip, I do believe the teacher has to take greater charge, and be more well equipped and comprehensive in his understanding of the big picture that's going on. On the field itself, there's all the random stuff that's gonna come up - uncertainties in pedagogical design, content to be taught, basic logistical details and instrumental use should be the last thing on our minds. But divided and chopped up in a jigsaw, I feel as if i'm lost and without my arms and legs going into the field. I get so engrossed in my own expert area (content) and think of myself as crucial, but I hardly know what's going on in the other areas. And who drives the fieldwork? The King? Or should the dictatorial one just trust his lackeys? Or was he ever King?

Who drives the thing???? *shrug*

Mental Note: Fieldwork pre-design is so important and must be thought and carried through with much care, or students would feel lost, or even shortchanged, just as I was...

Singapore Dreaming

Watch this movie friends.. Its well worth the money. I think the best film on Singapore ever. Excellent social commentary.

A possible teaching resource? Hmmm... :)

Reflections... finally.

Ok, I better start getting into the habit of posting something, if not, we are gonna end the course without me posting any reflections whatsoever.

This is going to be really general, and hopefully it'll get my engine going in recording more targeted reflections after each session.

Its been pretty thought provoking, going through various pedagogical methods and skills over the few sessions of Geography we had so far. Its refreshing to be thinking about pedagogy, of lessons objectives, effective lesson delivery, of thinking from the students' perspective and producing helpful lessons that is most beneficial to the student. What makes an effective Geography teacher? One who is sensitive to what a student need to know and learn about this world, that's my take on it.

I've always loved Geography, I've always loved to know more about this world we live in. I was fascinated with physical geography in JC, landforms, rivers, rocks and all. In University, I was struck by the amount of injustice, problems but also diversity there was in this society we live in - there was just so much you wanna know. Being serious about Christ over the last few years helped too, for I began to develop a greater love for the people whom He has created, and this world He's graciously given us. To teach is something I always wanted to do since Sec 3; to be a role model and mould young lives into being more sensitive of the needs and diversity of this world is something I grew increasingly keen on since a few years back.

Like all young teachers, a certain (probably huge) amount of idealism exist when you first embark upon the journey. So much content that you've learnt over the years - you just want to download them all to the students. So much idealism you have about how you can mould young lives into being socially responsible earth/world citizens - you begin to think as a teacher you can change the world.

But pedagogical lessons over the last few weeks have pulled me (slightly) back to Earth. Teaching isn't all a bed of roses. There are multiple issues to deal with, a class of differential abilities and interests; parents with varying expectations; school admin with contrasting agendas... the list goes on. Check the idealism dude!

But its so cool too going through the geography lessons, and being exposed to this larger 'Big Idea' concept. Education in Singapore isn't all pragmatic and about achieving exam targets for the sake of parents, students and school - you can achieve that in tandem with a larger and more enlightened mode of teaching philosophy. Teach students the importance of deeper understanding, of crucial essentials that link and underline all the little 'content' we teach. Use pedagogical tools creatively to maintain interest, to inspire independent learning and critical questionings. It can be done. :)

So I refuse to throw away all idealism altogether. I need that to survive my bond haha. But I must say, from what we've been going through in lessons, there is hope. Geography lessons can be fun, interactive and inspiring. I've grown to love the subject and the world we live in. Hopefully, we can develop that in our students too. :) Let's never lose sight on the reason why we embarked upon this teaching journey. Every single lesson, let's not lose sight of the objective, of thinking for the benefit of student. Its easy to be lost in the details to be taught, its easy to be caught in the mesh of admin and politics, its easy to get lazy with all the work piling - but let's keep at working on the whole objective of teaching.

Jia you all. :)