Reflection on learning

I would have to admit that the feedback process, not only for the assignments but also for
the whole learning progress in this unit, is surprisingly helpful. In the other units in the
Master program, I have never had any opportunities to see my friends’ work; therefore, I
could not exchange ideas or compare my work with my peers. Thanks to the constant
feedback process in this unit from both the professor and my classmates, I understand how,
where and why I should edit my work as well as my teaching plans.

Regarding the peer review of assignment 1, Hien Le and Hien Vu are professional teachers
and gave me constructive and candid feedback on my work. Even though there were some
disagreements at first, we finally came to an agreement on the feedback for everyone’s
work. The first aspect we discussed was the logic of the arrangement. We all agreed on the
fact that if we mention the theory first then follow by the explanation of the teaching
methods and techniques which we would use based on the discussed theories and
principles, the paper will sound more sensible. Hien Le stated in her comment of my work
that “I like the way you structured the paper where you put the theory first and then the
lesson, maybe I would change mine as you did”.

After that, we started to take a closer look into each part of the assignment. For the first
part, Hien Le also mentioned that I should move the last part where I explained about the
teaching materials to the beginning of the paper, because it gives a clearer context of the
classroom. I believe the feedback is quite direct and valuable, so I made a change in the first
part of my paper, which is highlighted in yellow color. We also had a conversation about the
students’ motivation as we all chose children for our assignment 1. Hien Vu said that “Unlike
adults who want to see their results in learning, these young students like the idea of having
fun and being relax in class rather than get a high score in their final tests.”. Therefore, it is
essential to note in the context part that these students have different motivations in
learning from adults’ ones.

Regarding the methods in the teaching methods, Hien Vu made a major contribution to the
discussion process by pointing out the seating arrangement also directly affects how we
would organize activities in class. We all agreed that the chairs and tables in Vietnam
classroom context are arranged in very neat rows. As a result, it is a big challenge for
students to swap places during teamwork or pairing with new partners. Although I
mentioned this idea in my paper, adding some more explanation to this part is also
important to clarify that seating plays an essential role in the teaching methods. Also, I
added the idea from Hien Vu about the benefits of decorating the classroom into my paper
because it is true that teachers in Vietnam public schools are allowed to decorate their own
classrooms as their wish. I completely forgot about this before the peer review, but reading
her work helps me remember that having the English vocabulary sticking on the classroom
walls really helped me learn new words faster back in the day when I was in high school.

I also made a reflection on my own work and saw that the TBLT lesson plans for speaking
skills need to be simplified for students at A1 level. As discussed with my peers, they
mentioned that the sample audio needs to be carefully chosen in order to suit the students’
level. Also, the lesson could be more interesting by create an activity to encourage students
to highlight the target themselves rather than having the teacher lecturing about useful
language. As highlighted in my final submission of assignment 1, I made some changes in the
part of the TBLT lesson in order to create a more suitable lesson for the students.

After going through everything, we also discussed about the teaching principles and agreed
that teachers should learn to become more patient when students ask questions, especially
with the curiosity of the students at this age. Hence, I also added this to my paper in the
classroom management part that in order to answers all of the questions from students
correctly, the teacher needs to be well-prepared before every lesson.

Overall, having peers review my work is very new to me, yet it was totally a worthy process.
I believe that the peer feedback process for assignment 2 would be as useful as our group
expects.