Teaching Demo Week 9

   

 This week, my group and I wore our traditional Malaysian clothings and embarked on a teaching demo where we taught the class about water and air pollution. My group consisted of Sharifah, Aimi, Fangwen, Yilia, Johannah, Sharnon and me. We had a lot of fun creating the lesson content and the slides to go with it. At first it was a little bit difficult to gauge the students' knowledge level but after clearing it up with Dr Lina, we managed to find out that we were teaching students at a tertiary level. The excitement was real, and it happened in the ninth week of our classes.

I was really excited and a bit nervous too. I rehearsed the night before and really made sure that I knew the content and that I was ready to answer any questions that the class threw to me. I felt confident about my presentation skills, so a good nights rest was the one thing I needed to be ready for the next day! The journey to get here was not easy, but my group and I were ready for the challenge. Thos whole teaching demo experience made me think about my first year micro-teaching with Dr Sharimila, where we had to teach real students from a primary school. Nay previous group taught the students about food around Asia! We did interactive activities and so on. I felt that this time round with the teaching demo, I was more confident and ready for the teaching demo.

Unfortunately, one of my friends, Sharifah, was unable to attend the practice as she was sick. We were worried for her health more than the presentation, but luckily the presentation for her part went smoothly on the day of presentation.

Working in a group is never easy because each and every member of the group has their own working style, personalities and characters. The essence of good teamwork lies within the communication. This highlighted a theory which I discovered called Social Exchange Theory. Developed by Thibaut and Kelley, this theory posits that social interactions are based on the principle of reciprocity and the expectation of mutual benefit. In educational settings, this theory is particularly relevant. Students engage in communication with teachers and peers, anticipating academic support, clarification of concepts, or social connections. Teachers, in turn, communicate with the expectation of student engagement, understanding, and possibly positive feedback. This theory highlights the transactional nature of communication, emphasizing the need for positive and mutually beneficial exchanges to foster effective communication in educational settings (Cook, et. al., 2013).

Signing off, 

Capybarabarabara

References

Cook, K. S., Cheshire, C., Rice, E. R. W., & Nakagawa, S. (2013). Social exchange theory. In J. DeLamater & A. Ward (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 61–88). Springer Science + Business Media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6772-0_3