Abstract
In the part-time Postgraduate Certificate in Education course of the University of Hong Kong (1989-90), 41 first-year in-service teachers (Chinese Major) were first introduced to the basic theories of the use of group work in a 1 1/2 hour session in the "Introduction to the teaching of Chinese" module, as one of the methods of teaching. They also watched a demonstration video on the use of a buzz group, They were provided with samples of lesson plans which had bearings on the use of group work. In the subsequent microteaching sessions, some of these student teachers were required to teach in buzz groups. A 10 item scale for assessing the use of buzz groups. The items were: (1) purpose, (2) organization, (3) use of materials-0) use of time, (5) orderliness, (6) student participation, (7) teacher's management, (8) oral report, (9) group to group interactions, and (10) summarization by the teacher. Each item carried ratings from I to 7. 1 was the lowest score and 7 the highest.In 1990-91, when the same student-teachers were in their second year, I observed each of them teaching Chinese reading once in secondary schools. Before the visits I did not hint that the use of group work was compulsory. However, it was discovered that the ratio of those who used buzz groups on the spot to those who did not was 29:12; the ratio of those who planned to use buzz groups to those who did not was 35:6 (note: the teaching of reading of a prescribed text normally takes several sessions). The student-teachers were rated with the 10 item scale. The following table gives a general picture of the performance of the 29 student-teachers (full marks: 70):
Highest marks attained Lowest marks attained Difference Mean Standard deviation 66 38 28 52.07 5.92 It was discovered that the total marks gained by individual teachers had very even distributions. Among the 10 inventory items, the strongest were nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10. The weakest items were no. 8 (oral reports) and no. 9 (group to group interactions). While the overall performance was acceptable, there was much room for improvement for training the pupils to speak up voluntarily. The findings also indicated that the contents and structures of the prescribed texts were among the favourite topics for group discussions, and values and personal experience were not normally tackled. This explains why group to group interactions were normally non-existent.
[ Index | New Horizons | Other Journals | Faculty Home Page | Enquiry ]
Mail any comments and suggestions to
en@fed.cuhk.edu.hk.