LETTERS: The trend of increased dependency on advanced educational technology sees many educators opting for digital platforms, online tools and apps as learning aid.
Committed educators all over the world are struggling to prepare attractive lesson plans, encompassing varied learning materials (video, podcast, physical materials, quizzes, poll, etc). Some of them invest money, time and energy to curate resources for their classes.
This scenario reflects the teachers' desire to "speak in the students' language" to make learning relevant in the context of 21st-century education.
The aforementioned phenomena illuminates the importance of pedagogical content knowledge of a subject that a teacher should obligately possess, that is, knowledge of how to represent the subject, how students learn the subject, how curricular materials are organised and how particular topics are best sequenced in the curriculum.
This is combined with the process of pedagogical reasoning, which involves the comprehension of the subject matter, transformation of ideas for representation to students, instructions, evaluation and reflection.
Within the avalanche of technologies, all these skills are composited in the model of technological-pedagogical content knowledge as proposed by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler in 1987.
In a parallel development, in today's flipped classroom approach, four basic pillars, namely FLIP — Flexible Environment (F), Learning Culture (L), Intentional Content (I), and Professional Educator (P) — as proposed by Noora Hamdan, Patrick McKnight, Katherine McKnight and Kari Arfstrom in 2013 - could be employed in designing lesson plans.
Nevertheless, as the instructor's strategies are changed to adapt to the new culture of transmitting and delivering knowledge, the students' voice are seldom heard. How do these students see and value their instructor's instructional design competency as supporting their skills to collaborate, communicate, be creative and critical in arriving at a decision and at solving problems?
One of the methods to gauge what students think of our design competency is by "peeping" into their thinking. Using the "exit slip" technique after each class, students jot down their reflection on the learning experience. Teachers can then analyse their responses after each class as a manifestation of being reflective practitioners.
My experience of using this technique has been beneficial as the cumulation of students' views allows me to continuously develop myself in my quest to become a co-learner with my students.
Students' views encompass not only suggestions to improve our teaching but also provide generous ideas on how we can engage them to participate in class.
But teachers are advised to exercise "openness" in employing this technique if genuine expressions are expected from them, as sometimes their responses are too straightforward.
However, if this situation occurs, it signifies that mutual trust has formed between the teacher and learners. Once this has been achieved, a more democratic learning environment could be conveniently created, hence benefiting both parties.
Giving room for students' voices to be heard, and having both sides communicating their needs mutually in a common shared understanding perspective promotes democracy in learning. Hence, a learning society will survive amidst the turbulence of the current of educational setting.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DR NORLIZA KUSHAIRI
Lecturer, School of Education, Universiti Utara Malaysia
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times