Reflection on Tutorial Task Week 2 (Materials Development)

How does it affect me as a pre-service teacher?

Through this task, I learned/gained a lot. There are too many principles of materials development and some of them may seem to be similar but, they are actually different in certain terms. For instance, I do feel that the second principle (materials should help learners to feel at ease) and third principle (materials should help learners to develop confidence) in Tomlinson’s are somewhat similar or inter-related. In my opinion, materials should let learners feel at ease so that they can gain confidence in handling them. I realized that in the future, if I were to plan a lesson plan, the materials I would use/create will have to be suited to the principles of materials development and most importantly, the learners’ proficiency level. It would not be an easy task as different learners have different opinions in materials used by the teachers. There might be some learners who will show interest in the materials used and there might be some who may not. As a pre-service teacher, I feel a little at ease and grateful at the same time. This is because there are lists of principles that can be used as guidelines in the future when creating materials in teaching. I will have to pay more attention to learners’ weaknesses and interest as well as the curriculum goals and objectives. In my opinion, having a guideline is better as it helps me to identify easily how my materials can help the learners.

How does it affect my current level of knowledge?

I understand that ANYTHING can be used as a material in teaching. The most important thing is how the particular teacher will alter the material so that it suits the objective of that particular lesson. For instance, posters and postcards can be used to teach learners in writing. One common criterion found in Tomlinson’s, Crawford’s and Nunan’s principle is that materials should be authentic and reflects usage in real life. I was quite shocked to see that in developing materials for lessons, there are so many principles that we need to pay attention to or obey. I used to think that in the future, I can just come up with the materials that I wanted to use in the lessons but now, I will make sure to remember obeying the principles. Materials are important in assisting learners to achieve the objective. From all those principles, I can see more clearly how materials may assist learners in their learning and at the same time assisting the teachers in their teaching. Teachers can establish ways to teach their students more effectively with the help of those principles. For instance, there are principles that stated materials used should be able to relate to the learners’ real-life experience or background.

How can I use that knowledge to improve myself?

With all those principles of materials development, I can make sure that my teaching and learning objectives can be achieved more easily. My lesson plan can be designed based on the principles other than following the ones in SLA and Principles of Teaching and Learning. The principles can help to stimulate my critical thinking as I have to create materials that are suitable for the learners and can fulfill their needs. The materials created will be helping learners in different fields. They can either be helping learners to understand certain topic better or to encourage interactions among learners. This will be my responsibility, to come up with materials that are effective in teaching. I will have to learn how to suit them according to my lesson plans. Now, i will think more/in-depth if I was to create materials for my students. Creativity is definitely an important criterion in creating the materials. In other words, I will have to keep on upgrading myself with the latest developments on materials and tried to identify what most learners nowadays are more interested in.

GROUP DISCUSSION

The first part of tutorial task given in week 2 is not that complicated compared to the second part. In the first part, my group members and I each identify a few principles in Short’s video and wrote them down respectively. When we met, we discussed together which principles are suitable and which are not. Reasons are stated down together with the elaborations. However, we do face some difficulties when choosing the principles as there are too many of them and some of them seems to be similar in certain terms although not completely.

The second part of the tutorial is more difficult compared to the first part. At the beginning, I don’t really understand the question. This is because I thought of 2 possible solutions to that question where we are to;

1. Create a diagram that will link all the points together.

2. Explain how materials development can happen/ takes place in terms of the different points given. 

 

After discussing with my group members, we decided to follow the first solution. Our question is further answered when we see our coursemates presenting their ideas to the class and our lecturer on the following week. On that day, we actually already planned or designed the diagram according to our own understanding and explanations. However, after the presentations by our coursemates and also a few words from our lecturer, we started to question our diagram. My group members and I spent the next day discussing the points all over again. We did a few diagrams and tried to choose the best one out of them. During the group discussions, there were moments where our opinions or views clashed with each other. So, we decided that the particular arrangement can only be maintained if there is an explanation for it. Needless to say, there are still difficulties in arranging the points as each and every of them will affect the next step (point). Justifying our point of view is something difficult as sometimes we wondered why we would want it to be like that and different opinion from members really can lead to some ‘awkward moments’. Luckily, we managed to reach an agreement and come up with a complete diagram by the end of the discussion.

By looking at so many points at the same time, they really got me thinking on how our government actually comes up with the education system that we have nowadays. I wondered according to what criteria or elements the government planned the materials we have today in schools. Despite having the curiosity, I know this question is not in my field of power as my responsibility is to choose the correct and appropriate materials used in teaching the future generations.