Thursday, August 23, 2007
N finally its over~
maths n maths n maths n maths n maths!!......... x 100000
So how many times have u heard us, maths students dread about doing maths in class? I think its very frequent. N really, I didnt bother to solve it till the end today.
Read the RJ.
Today is the last problem of A211 module. Reflect on your A211 learning journey. What have you gained from your class and this module? Have you grown as a learner/person after taking this module?
Honestly speaking, I do not learn much from this module. Even if I do, it is mostly a surface learning only.
I personally feel that PBL itself is already a tough manner to learn. We need to chew and digest everything in a day. And there is no specific content or syllabus that we should follow. All we learn is how to tackle a given problem related to the topic.
However, it is still manageable for other modules like biomaterials, material processing and all. Because it involves only reading and understand the things and methods. But it is certainly not a good way of learning Maths through PBL. I am not being pessimistic here but this are what the students feel after some problems of A211.
Maths require us to understand the concept very well and need us to practice a lot of such questions so we are able to manipulate the problem with the learnt method. However, in what we are doing now, each time in class, we are trying to grasp the understanding section, which is usually achieved only by a few. Those that are totally lost will remain lost. It is not that they do not have the initiative to learn on themselves, but when they try to search on something about it on net, they still do not understand what's written, what more doing the worksheet questions. If such problems are taught, these students can see better, and at least, have a better grasp on the basic of the concept.
And since RP is a PBL institution, perhaps a mixture can be done. PBL can work for other modules but it won't work alone for Maths. It is a very poor and sad thing that some of the students that actually do not understand much but can pass, because they contribute bits and bits for daily grades and hence their daily grades stop them from failing. A 'C' is also considered pass though. Contribute bits and bits does not mean the person has grabbed the objective of the problem. Pass without understanding really does not tally.
So yah, I do not really grow into a better learner but I do have a better insight of what should and should not be PBL-ed. I can now conclude that not all problems can be solved in one way.
That is all I have to say. Peace. =D
Quite long huh. Oh well, I know even if tonnes of such complain they receive like this, nothing is changed. =D
Im looking fwd for tomorrow!
whoooooooooooooooooooo! holidays!! here i come!!
8/23/2007 10:19:00 pm;
