Assignment 1 Critical Reflection

After taking on this assignment, I, in honesty had a rough idea over what was expected over me in completing this task. Being equipped with the knowledge and ways to collect data, it had certainly eased up my task as getting credible evidence has been one of those problems many students are facing as they are not educated about the methods of doing research.


Experience and challenges
Gaining information from my teacher-partner was not a difficult task as she was fairly cooperative when answering my questions. However due to privacy reasons, she wasn't allowed to disclose too much data about her school as it may jeopardise the school especially their students. What I found challenging when carrying out this assignment was my ability to properly phrase my questions that may create some misunderstandings as different people interpret words differently, because of that I had to word my questions to be as general as possible, but at the cost of me being unable to get a much more in-depth answer and I had to collaborate with my teacher-partner so that she didn't undermine the privacy policy of her school while I could get the information I wanted.


How it helped me
This assignment had actually made me realise that setting up any CCAs aren't just for the sake of interests or having fun, it also depends on the school's aims and values, just that the international school I was assigned to prioritises student individuality and interest and they allow more room and freedom for students to pursue their interests.

Even though there was not much reveal about the role of the teacher as well as how the CCAs are managed in my teacher-partner's school, I am able to grasp the idea that teachers require the time and mental capacity to execute the lesson, school activities and even to manage the CCAs as they need to balance both their school work as well as CCAs. The same goes for the students, they are also required to be responsible over their school life -- time management over their academics and CCAs that may not be easy for them. Additionally, I have found out ethical considerations are needed to be taken note of in order to provide a conducive environment between interviewer and interviewee without compromising the interviewer’s aim of research. In the case of this interview, the content involved students from their school, the purpose of privacy is to protect the students from worst-case scenarios that will jeopardise their safety and well-being.


What I could’ve done better

I noticed that I stuttered a lot and had problems trying to properly express myself and there were times that I ended up using fillers that made me appear “unprofessional” as I tried to eliminate the usage of “uh, um,”. Hence I tried to use other aspects of the circumstances to make myself appear that I wasn’t struggling to find words. Another thing I should change, based on my friends’ feedback was the presentation of the slides as they appeared too wordy and they were not “aesthetically pleasing” enough to the eyes. My original intention was to fit the theme of the slides as they were “back to school” hence the dull blackboard.

Plans in the future
Based on this experience, I would like to have my students to know about the importance of CCAS or ECAs in schools, I hope that they are able to enjoy their school life and to cultivate their academic as well as soft skills while their pursue their interests so they will be responsible for their life and choices. There are times where the students are restricted from doing or discovering their interests due to family pressure, with this experience, I would like to I still the importance of CCAs or ECAs among students as it will greatly improve their morale through different ways while making the experience much more meaningful to the students’ purpose in school.