Week 6

I believe that every time something is taught to somebody, there is always an objective that the teacher/instructor wants to achieve.

This week, we are taught the three domains of learning and writing specific objectives for each domain of learning.

Having the initial idea that one simple objective can apply to all kinds of learning, i was quite surprised that actually, there are specific words to use for each domain of learning, namely, Affective - attitudinal changes, Cognitive - to know and think abt something, and Psychomotor - the doing of something physically.

It all seems to fall into place when i recall the difference between the kind of objectives we had for my history lessons back in secondary school, and the objectives for my driving lessons.

History lessons, for example, we had to memorize at least 3 facts of Stalin's 5-year plans and regurgitate them onto the paper. However, for driving lessons, we had to engage the correct gear when going up a slope or making a turn.

U can see the vast difference in the types of objectives for these 2 types of learning, which are namely Cognitive and Psychomotor domains respectively.

There is no way u can memorise the exact steps to engage a gear unless you physically do it and experience how it works. Likewise, it impossible to physically know what are Stalin's 5 year plans and the only thing you can do is to read and memorize.

Therefore, we can see that in order for learning to effectively take place, we have to set objectives appropriately and accurately.

Redesigning our Learning Design.

For tutorial this week, we were supposed to pick an LD from lecture and enhance it a little..

this was wat we picked:


The topic on hand was to teach our learners what is being laid out by our finance minister in his Budget Speech. Essentially, we want our learners to know what is in it for Singaporeans this coming financial year and how can we get information about these.

This is our redesigned LD:


After much discussion, we realised that we did not specify any clear tasks or step-by-step assignments for our learners to fulfil their learning objectives. Thus we came up with several new tasks along the way, coupled with the respective resources and support available.

A learning design is particularly useful in mapping out logically the path in which we want our learners to take. I also realised that many times in our educational experiences, our teachers and instructors actually used similar tools to map out our learning process. In my opinion, a similar example would be the lesson plans. It provides us the main topics to cover per week and also provides us resources in terms of readings or websites to supplement our learning.

It is something worthwhile to ponder on shud i become an instructor someday.. =)

Week 5

I guess this week's lecture is the most impt of all since the lecturer placed much emphasis on this particular topic.

We learnt abt Needs Assessment, the idea of seeing what is wrong with a current learning system, identifying problems (if any) and providing recommendations/solutions to improve the system.

The following are the broad steps which i have summarized when conducting a needs assessment using the 3-faced Model:

Problem-Model:
Firstly, determine if there is any problem with the system by looking at results, sales, customer feedback etc.

Next, see if these problems are related to performances/achievements on learners' training/learning environments.

Next, see if we can use "learning" to tackle the problem.

And then, see if there are currently any instructions in place within the systems to achieve these learning goals. If there is, something could be wrong with the system and we shud proceed to check for discrepancy - Proceed to Discrepancy Model. If no, we need to implement new things to the system - Proceed to the Innovations Model.

For Discrepancy, we have to to think of look at what went wrong with the current instructions, is it properly and effectively in place? We may have to tweak it or improvise it before we can see results.

For Innovations Model, we simply need to think of new ways of teaching and instruction and input into the system.

This 3 face model will than go into a cyclical mode, looking and identifying problems as and when needed.

Week 4

For this week's lecture, we were taught "Learning Designs".

I first heard of the idea of learning design back in army when i was an instructor back in the basic military training school where we taught recruits basic soldiering skills.

We were given piles and piles of training manuals that were loaded with information that we were supposed to teach the recruits.

And most of these chunks of information were fitted and "designed" in such a way that recruits ultimately reach learning objectives.

However, i learnt that Learning Designs is more than that..

Learning design is actually a multi-dimensional approach that involves Tasks (clearly defined actions for the learner to do), Resources (stuffs/info that learners have access to to achieve their tasks) and Support (basically feedback from instructors, fellow learners etc).

This structure of a designed learning gives the instructor a clear and logical flow of every aspect of the learners' learning process.

In my opinion, applying this basic structure of learning design is a good way to start when one decides to teach someone about something new.