Serdar Can Demirci

2297471

Observation Report 6-Use of Display Materials

1) According to Mohsan& Shafeeq (2014), ‘Blackboards are one of the most marketable LMSs
adopted in higher education instutions.’’ This is the case in our educational system in Turkey,
as black boardsa re generally seen as the mostly used and most helpful classroom material
throught the educational tiers (elementary school,middle school,high school and even in
university). As mentioned by Mohsan & Shafeeq (2014),’’ Teachers’ perception,whether it is
positive or negative, to the use of blackboard in teaching English as Foreign Language may
play aan important role in customizing students to be a part of online learning environment.’’
However,according to Ottenbreit-Leftwich, Glazewski, & Ertmer(2014), the usage of
technology in the classrooms is limited by the administrative purposes, not pedagogical ones.
This is generally the case in our education system as classroom classroom materials are
mostly regarded as supplements rather for the topics and therefore the consideration of the
characteristics and psychology of the students is not very high.

2) In the online classes I participated, I observed that there were not many cases in which the
teacher used materials such as blackboard,nor did she screenshare slides or anything like that.
The flow of the lessons occured mostly through the activities in the book, and the teacher
asked questions from the book and sometimes she gave them time to do the activities on their
own. The only exception to this routine was when the teacher did listening activites in the
lesson.She opnede listening activities in the book via speakers.But unfortunately,this was a
very limited usage of display materials in the classroom,which caused to students to lost
interest quickly. However, if online learning materials such as powerpoint slides,sites in
which the students can express their opinions interactively such as Google docs, or online
sites such as Kahoot are used, it would be beneficial to catch the interest of the students and
get them to participate in the lesson,as using the book as the only classroom material may
make the students feel like they are in the lesson out of obligation which then may make them
get bored of the lesson easily. And in the online classes i participated,this is usually the case.
So, in my opinion, using only the coursebook through the lessons may make the lesson flow
more monotonously, so taking advantage of online sources might make the lesson more
interesting.Apart from this, using online sources in the classroom would help the students to
practice their language use add other perspectives to the given curriculum,while also
stimuliting creativity for the language use,especially considering the restrictive nature of
online classes. However, integrating these methods may not always be possible as there may
be problems related to internet connection on students’ behalf, it may still not interest some
students not because the topic is not interesting,but because it does not meet with their
personal interests.Considering this, using online materials ight be an effective method, but it
still has some drawbacks that prevent it to be used consistently.
 Finally, I want to talk about what i would do if i were in the teacher’s shoes. Looking from the
mentor teacher’s perspective, progressing the lessons in online classroom is hard enough to maintain
control over the lesson. Because she has to follow a certain curriculum, the teacher only follows what
she has to in the lessons. If i were in teacher’s place, i would start the lesson with discussion questions
in a powerpoint presentation, to get them become more familiar with the topic and to get their interest.
Then, after i competed a related activity in the book, i would open a kahoot activity and ask them
comprehension questions, so that the topics may actually become funny and interesting in their
eyes,which will also boost their motivation to participate consistently. I would also try to get them
participate in the groupwork by assigning them quizzes in kahoot or google docs.

References

Mohsen, M. A & Shafeeq C. P(2014), EFL Teachers’ Perceptions on Blackboard

Applications.Canadian Centre of Science and Education. Vol: 7 no:11,108-118.
Retireved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1075933