Program: Bachelor of Education (Honours) (Chinese History)

Student name: Chow Wan Chau

Student number: 11209053
Instructor: Mr Leung Wai Kit Dicky
Topic: Investigation on the effects of Think-Pair-Share teaching on students'
participation and confidence in Chinese History lesson

Capstone Project Reflective Report

My research topic is the investigation on the effects of think-pair-share teaching

strategy on students’ participation and confidence in Chinese History lesson.

I have conducted my research study during my block practice. Mu Kuang English

School is my block practice school and the block practices period started from 19
October to 27 November. I was responsible for teaching secondary one and two
students.

Improvement on designing teaching materials

I have designed a in-class worksheet for the think-pair-share teaching strategy. The
worksheet contains one open-ended question. The question is “who should take the
full responsibility for the broke out of Anshi Rebellion (安史之亂). This is a very
common question when teaching the topic of Anshi Rebellion. There are many
factors learning to the broke out and much information in the textbooks. Students
are required to define their standpoint. During the think-pair-share technique,
students need to jot down notes when listening to their peers. Therefore, I think I
can provide them some spaces in the worksheet for them to write down something
rather than writing in other places. Writing down in the worksheet can be a
reference for them in the future.

Improvement on lesson arrangement

I have conducted the think-pair-share technique in secondary two since they have a
better learning ability than students in secondary one. There are 29 students in total.
They are more familiar with the classroom discussion in the lesson. After having
several lessons with them, I found that they have a low motivation in learning
Chinese History. They will easily lose attention in the middle of the lesson.
The think-pair-share technique had divided the lesson into three major parts. And
there are some areas for improvements in order to enhance the effectiveness of the
think-pair-share strategy. Before conducting the think-pair-share technique, I have a
short revision to students which was revising what they have learnt in the previous
lesson.
After distributing the worksheets to students, I have provided them guideline and
instructions on completing the worksheets. For example: they first need to identify
who should take the full responsibility for the broke out of Anshi Rebellion (安史之
亂). They need to take their standpoint and analysis how these factors learning to the
broke out of Anshi Rebellion with evidence. Evidence needs to base on the historical
facts they have learned in the lesson. Analysis is not just listing the example, but also
need to make inference towards the issue. For the junior form students, teacher also
need to instruct the word limit to them in order to ensure the quality of the work.
The time allocation for this part is 5 minutes and the result found that 5 minutes was
enough for them to finish the task individually.
When students were thinking individually, they would copy words from the notes,
and this is allowed since they need to summarize the knowledge they have learnt
and utilize them as an evidence. They were able to select the information and ideas
which related to the problem and also activates the previous experiences and linked
them to the new positions. However, some students were just coping the
notes/textbooks without making their own sentences. Therefore, a clearer
instruction should be given to students. For example, teachers can show them a way
of how to make persuasive arguments. Since they are only in junior form, they have
few experiences in writing essay even the short one. More example can be given to
students before assigning them to think individually. Copying notes aren’t a problem
but students need to learn to utilize information from notes/textbook to make their
arguments.

The second part of the technique will be the “pairing” section. The time allocation
for this part is 10 minutes and the result revealed that it was enough. The process of
forming groups also took several minutes since students were sitting alternately
under COVID-19. Students were given plenty of time to discuss with their peers. In
order to ensure the equal opportunities for discussion, each student would have 2
minutes to explain his/her answers first and then continue with discussion. During
the paring up discussion, I was responsible for monitoring their explanations. I can
find out that some students were influenced by their peers and then changed their
ideas. And the answers were highly similar to each other’s. With this case, teacher
take a more important role in understanding and listening to them. Teachers can
listen to the dialogue of students can understand why they were changing the
answers. Student’s’ answers are diverse, and I can observe that them can learn from
their peers by replenishing some evidence into their arguments after listening to
each other’s. However, when they were facing different opinions with their peers,
they seldom refute or try to convince their peers. They tend just listening and jotting
down their arguments. This situation was understandable since they are just the
junior form students and they didn’t receive the training of refutation. Moreover,
there is no absolutely correct or absolutely wrong in the subject of Chinese History.
The purposes of this activity are desire them to learn from peers but not an
professional essay writing. With more interactions with their peers, they can
understand that different people might have diverse historical standpoints since they
are taking different perspectives. During this section, I could find out some common
misunderstanding the students. Therefore, I can correct their concepts immediately
and give them some feedback. Encouragement is also needed for motivating
students. Identifying students’ weakness is essential in the process of teaching and
learning. Thus, in the following section I can focus more on teaching and correcting
their common mistakes. Overall speaking, most students were obedient, and they
were willing to share their ideas to their peers and I believe that they can learn much
from their classmates. The learning atmosphere was enjoyable, and they were willing
to participate into the discussion as well. Interaction with their classmates are
conductive in building a positive relationships between them.

The third part of the think-pair-share technique is the sharing section. The time
allocation for this part is 20 minutes because of the limited lesson time. The sharing
section was inviting students to come out to share their thoughts to the fellow
classmates. At first, I was asking volunteers and fortunately 3 students were willing to
be the volunteer. And I have also invited some students who are more passive in the
lesson. Apart from his/her ideas, they were also responsible for presenting their
peers ideas. After each students’ sharing, I would give them comments immediately.
From their sharing I will also extend the deep of the discussion so as to foster the
deep of their thinking. But because of the time limit, there was not much time for me
to do so. After students’ sharing, I would summarize the main points of different
students. There is not any correct or wrong answers under the open-ended question.
Some students had raised question that which one is the best answer. Although they
had their own standpoint, they would also wonder who should take the full
responsibility for the broke out of Anshi Rebellion. I will also have my point of views
as a student studying Chinese History for many years. I had also told them my
thinking and guide them to think why other factors aren’t that essential for the broke
out. The message I want to deliver to students isn’t my answer is the best but just
add on more information to them. During the sharing section, all students were
required to pay full attention in order to show respect to the presenter, making them
feel their sharing are being valued. And I can feel that students are more confidence
to present themselves than in the previous lesson. The length of the sharing was
much longer, and the content were comprehensive enough. I can see that they will
talk much more than they have written down in the worksheets which was inspiring.

In my opinion, the outcome of the think-pair-share technique was satisfactory. I think

the most rewarding part is the increase of student-teacher interaction. It is not that
possible that every lesson will arrange activity and direct teaching was being
adopted. I didn’t get many opportunities to interact with all students individually as a
student teacher. With this technique, I was trying to communicate as many students
as possible. And the interaction made me felt satisficed and I enjoy the moment
talking with my student. Another important element in implementing the think-pair-
share technique is the classroom discipline. There were many interactions during the
class, and they got many chances to talk and it is also a challenge for teacher on how
to grasp their attention on the discussion and not just gossiping with their
classmates. Teachers also take an important role in implementing this technique, but
what this strategy emphasis is that teacher is not a transmitter of information,
students should work as a positive learner in the lesson.

As mentioned in the research aim, I hope this research project can provide teachers
including me the way of enhancing this educational strategy and utilizing it in
teaching Chinese History.