In
the blink of an eye, 13 weeks have passed and our ES2007s journey has come to
an end. Honestly speaking, ES2007S is one of the modules that I have enjoyed the
most in NUS thus far. This module focuses on fostering interaction and developing interpersonal skills between
students. Most of the time, we have to either work in groups to come up with
ideas and present them to the class and after that, all the groups will give feedback to each other. I am from the school of computing and
faculty of engineering and this module very different from any of the modules
offered by these 2 faculties. I am not saying that the modules offered by the
SOC or FOE are bad, it is just the difference in the nature of the modules. Their
module are more content heavy and they have a more specific teaching guideline
whereas in ES2007, lesson plans seems more flexible and we just do not know
what to expect for the each lesson.
Next I must say that this module is very relevant to NUS students. Personally, I
had come across some people that graduated from university without even know how to
write a proper resume or cover letter. Therefore I think that the resume and cover
letter part of the module is very helpful to the NUS students especially those
who are applying for jobs or internship positions. Through this module, I also gained an insight on how the actual job interview is being carried out through the two
mock job interview sessions conducted during the lesson. We role-played both
the interviewer and interviewee to have a better understanding of what the interviewers are
looking for and also get to practice answering interview questions. This had
helped me to be able to better prepare for upcoming interviews in the near
future.
Lastly,
this module had given us ample chance to practice and improve on our
presentation skills. First, there is the peer teaching where we are split into
groups to come up with a short interactive lesson for the class. This not only
helped us improve our presentation skills but also our interpersonal skills as
we had to facilitate the class through the various interactive activities that
we had planned. I felt that this peer teaching is a really good way to let the
students practice interpersonal and presentation skills but the planning part is really time-consuming in my opinion. Next we had
our final oral presentation where we need to present our ideas to the class and
also at the same time, convince them to buy our ideas. This is not an easy task
and I think every group really did a great job for their final presentation.
And finally, I want to thank Brad for being such an excellent tutor and also
everyone in the class for making this module so fun and enjoyable. It is a great pleasure
to be able to work with all of you. All the best for the coming exams!
"Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again." – William Shakespeare
Hi Wei Song,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your story.
As a computer engineering student like you, I agree with you that this module is really different from other modules we have taken so far. This class has more class participation, higher interaction among classmates, and greater number of group activities. Additionally, from my point of view, our course does not focus on communication skill. When I have to present in computing module, I do not have to prepare anything. Although the presentation is bad, tutors do not care about it at all. However, this module is different. It teaches me what the real presentation supposes to be.
I also have the same feeling as you that peer teaching is great. I love it! It teaches us to plan our teaching, to have effective interpersonal communication, and to deliver our messages.
Finally, it was fun to be in the same class as you. Thanks to ES2007S, the only class where allows student to make friends and know about them, we could know each other and learn from one another.
See you in CEG course!
Hi Wei Song,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the wonderful post and your reflection on the module. Like many of our classmates, you have also brought up the interesting point that this module is way different than the others. Since I am also from the school of computing, I can definitely relate to your thoughts. One thing that makes this module stand out is the diversity of the students taking this module. Since all my other modules are either offered by the electrical engineering or the computer engineering departments, I am very used to seeing the like-minded people in all my classes. But this class gave us a break from that, and that is why it is such a favorite of all students!
Personally, I really enjoyed working with you for our project proposal. The proposal's success demonstrates our compatibility as a group. Thank you for all your co-operation. The class would not have been the same without The Resolvers!
Thank you, Wei Song, for this comprehensive overview of yiur view of ES2007S. I appreciate reading your thoughts on how this module differs from those you take in FoE and Computing. Clearly, there are differences in what is possible simply because the content and objectives differ. You point out that your other courses "have a more specific teaching guideline whereas in ES2007, lesson plans seems more flexible and we just do not know what to expect for the each lesson." I'm not sure that I agree with that. All modules at NUS have specific goals, teaching guidelines, assigmment, scehdules, etc.. Just look at the Es2007S website. What perhaps you meant to say was that ES2007S is not lecture-based but rather is activities-centric. This means that the way a tutor can approach facilitating practice of the various skills might differ. But what you will find is that all tutors in the course do more or less the same thing, from working with the blogs, position search and project to the facebook page. How one might handle "instruction" may differ a bit, but the course is geared to put the emphasis on student activity.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed that you had so many obvious take aways from the course. By reflecting on your project work, I can see, too, that you made great achievements and demonstrated clear learning.
Thank you for your effort, Wei Song. All the best as you continue your learning journey!
Hi Brad
ReplyDeleteI am trying to say that this course had a less rigid teaching methods as compared to the other modules. Tutors have the freedom to use various methods to conduct their lesson as long as the lesson is able the achieve the aims or goals of the module.
I have really learned a lot from this course and you have been a wonderful tutor. All the best to you too!