Term 1 Wk 10 - Holidays SRP

Over the holidays, I met up with my 4E Physics students. It was a small group of about 7 students from 4E3...they were selected carefully because I felt that they were not performing. Out of the 7 students, I have taught 4 of them before...the other 3 were newbies who were still adjusting to my 'teaching style and lame jokes'. 3 are girls and the rest are boys. About 5 of them were attending extra tuition classes after school hours and the other 2 are not. My concern was 'why is it they were not performing?' Was it due to my teaching style...or was it their learning style?

I started off by interviewing each student personally. I asked a variety of questions....studying techniques, the kind of learners they are, the time taken to study, what they do when they study and their confidence level in the subject. I feel that the group is a very nice bunch of kids with very nice personalities and they really deserve to do well...so my heart really went out to them!

From the interview, I managed to gather a few things...

1) Afew of them studied last minute...1 even studied 1 day before the exams! When asked why, they quoted lack of time, too tired, too many activities during school, too many homeworks to finish. At this point, I felt slightly guilty as I do pile them with homeworks sometimes. SO I made a mental note to myself: free them from homeworks when tests are approaching. Give them notice way in advance!

2) On average, they can study only about 40 min- 1hour. There were some lucky ones who can study up to 3 hours (wow!) and there was 1 who told me that he studied only '5 min' and then he must walk around. I advised the student that he must really sit for longer hours and try to concentrate. I strongly discouraged them from listening to walkman or mp3s as Physics is a subject that requires focus and concentration.

3) Most of them study best through audio and visual. I recommended them to use highlighters and mindmaps...and talk to their friends about what they have learnt.

4) Most of them just 'read' the textbook. Only afew tried some 'questions' from the TYS. I told them that reading the textbook is NOT enough...they need to UNDERSTAND. Grab the KEYWORDS and try to APPLY them to new questions. So this is where application is necessary...for them to do well, they must expose themselves to more questions...so they have to do the TYS!

5) Most of the boys felt more confident in Physics but performed better in Chemistry (Azlin will be proud of them for this!) I motivated them by reminding them that "Boys are supposed to do better in Physics! But that doesn't mean that the girls can't do well too! In fact, sometimes, its the girls who do better than the boys....just look at your Physics teacher if you don't believe me!" :)

We ended the session doing Current Electricity and DC Circuits questions before I released them to enjoy their holidays and tonnes of assignments!