Assignment 3:
Reflection
Group Reflection
Individual Reflection
Chay Yoke Ting Vanessa's Reflection
Ain Azizah Binte Yazid's Reflection
Before embarking on this project, bilingualism to me was already something that I realized was an issue. This was because as a child I was made to learn mandarin when my mother tongue was actually Tamil. I struggled learning a whole new language moving up through my education. This was why I believed that bilingualism was a topic that I wanted to research on and try making improvements on. However, when our group conducted the interview with the center principal I came to realize that as much as bilingualism was an important and interesting topic to me, it was not the same for the principal. In fact, the principal explained to us that even though there is no lack of teachers like our group initially thought was a problem, the issue stems from not having passion. There was also a lack of local context. She explained that despite having resources, there is no initiative taken by the teachers to teach the children about our culture.
Overall, choosing this topic to work on broadened my perspective on why our bilingual education in pre-school is as such. Working with my group has also allowed me to look at things in a different perspective and discover new ideas for recommendations that I might not even have thought about. I have also learnt that it is through small steps and improvements that will contribute to a bigger change in the future.
Chua Jia Yun Coco's Reflection
Throughout my study in this Diploma, I have been exposed to many child developmental theories. One of which intrigued me was in relation to how children pick up languages more easily in their sensitive period of language acquisition. From this, I was particularly interested in how Singapore’s preschool centres cope with having to teach both English and Mother Tongue language since it was not made compulsory until formal schooling. Initially, I thought that it was not implemented fully in preschools as there was a lack of teachers in the field or lack of resources provided which affects the extent of contents that will be taught. As such, we crafted interview questions around these assumptions in mind. However, through the initial interview with the principal, we were told otherwise. Through active listening by my team and I, we narrowed down that there was enough quantity of teachers but not necessarily the quality of teachers in terms of proactiveness in using the abundance of resources provided to teach the children. Furthermore, there were other factors that also affect the implementation of bilingualism.
While analyzing and sorting the data collected from both surveys and interviews, I came to realise that it really ‘takes a village to raise a child’. Apart from the quality of educators, a collaboration between teachers, families, communities and school is essential in helping children pick up languages. It came as a shock to me when it was mentioned that parents are not as actively involved in their children’s learning as often described. My team and I had differing ideas of what is the main root needs of the issue, however, we came to realise that both are dependent on another which had led the current standards of bilingualism curriculum implemented.
From this, I gathered that it is crucial in getting all stakeholders in the child’s life to come together and work towards the same goal for Bilingualism to be fully implemented. Therefore, my team and I designed our recommendations to promote the benefits of bilingualism to all key players (families, educators, school and community) in children’s lives. Also, it is important to get down to the ground and ask questions to know what trends are happening in the current industry instead of forming our own assumptions. As such, we had sought opinions of the principal's ideas on the recommendations we had. These assumptions could cloud and narrow our perspectives on issues, which would slow down progress and improvement of oneself and the society. Through the project, I felt empowered as I was able to make little contributions to the industry even before joining the workforce. This enabled me to understand that proactiveness of oneself can have a domino effect on many issues, and the children will ultimately be positively affected by the recommendations my team and I had crafted.
Norshennadiliana Bte Ibnuputra's Reflection
Being raised in a multi-cultural society, I always find learning your mother tongue is important to maintain one's culture. However, I was always curious why bilingualism was not made compulsory when it is for formal schooling years, especially since children learn language easier at a younger age. Thankfully, everybody in my group was as interested as me in the topic. This made bouncing of ideas much more effective and less of a drag since everybody genuinely wants improvement to be made so that bilingualism is empahsised more.
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Throughout this process, I’ve learnt that while I may find a topic worth being talked about or being seen as an importance, might not be viewed the same for others. I found this out through the interview my group had with the principal regarding her concerns of bilingualism. It was not in her high priority about children having to learn a second language despite it being compulsory when they enter formal schooling after graduating from kindergarten. Regardless, she did bring up a few points which made me understand why implementing compulsory mother tongue lessons for the children could be difficult. It was the very reason that people do not see the importance of it which makes compulsory mother tongue lessons slightly difficult.
Another thing that I realize was that sometimes, the most that could be done for this entire project (in terms of the topic on bilingualism), was too simply raise awareness on it’s importance as well as push for involvement on both the parents and the centre side, This was clearly evident when the suggestions that my group came up with was already similarly implemented by the centre themselves (with the slight variation of the workshop versus tea session at the beginning of the year). I realise to truly make a change, it starts with getting people to care about what you want to change about.
Zhang Jin Yu's Reflection
​Changes in Group's Perspectives:
Initial needs identified by us was not actually the main need that was faced by the principal and her centre. We thought that there was a lack of mother tongue teachers in the sector, which lead to the poorer implementation of bilingualism. However, through the process, we realised that it is actually lack of local teachers instead.
We also assumed that there were not enough resources for the implementation of bilingualism curriculum, but it revealled to be the lack of teacher’s efforts and initiatives to use them. It also came as a surprise when we were told that parents were not as involved in their children's language learning in school. It was thought that Singaporean parents would be overly eager and enthusiastic about helping their children with work.
Through gathering responses in interviews, surveys and research, we realised that communications between teachers have an impact on the child’s learning. For instance, collaboration is key to prevent overlapping of the lesson which could cause disinterest in children.
During the process of collecting data and perspectives, we came to realise the importance of interviewing different stakeholders in order to form a broad perspective and scope on the issue. Also, classifying the data collected into the specific umbrella of needs is important because it gives us a clearer understanding of what needs the centre has. Being a reflective educator is important. As such, we had sought comments on our recommendations by the Principal to provide a deeper and more insightful point of view that we might know of (as the principal is the one who knows the situation best) the ideas on sustainability or feasibility.
At the start, I thought that choosing bilingualism as issue would be a good idea. This is because when I was studying in kindergarten, I did not learn any Mother Tongue language and it affected my transition to Primary School. I struggled learning my mother tongue language, Mandarin as I was unable to read, write and speak in Mandarin while rest of my classmates were able to. It was a disadvantage for me as a child that did not have the chance to learn Mother Tongue language in Preschool. I choose bilingualism as an issue was also because I would love to see how bilingualism in preschool have changed over the years and how it is still an issue in preschool.
Before the interview with the principal, I thought that having sufficient resources would be the main reason for issue on bilingualism in preschool. I never thought that having a lack of local mother tongue teachers would be an issue for bilingualism because I always believed that centres preferred hiring non-local Mother Tongue teachers as they are more interacted with the language.
After the interview, I found out that finding local Mother Tongue teachers and collaboration with teachers are also main reasons for issue on bilingualism in preschool. The principal mentioned that hiring local Mother Tongue teachers would be better as they can relate to the Singapore context and having the support from parents to work together with teachers to build on the child’s Mother Tongue language is also important. It is always important that parents and teachers communicate and work together to support the learning and curriculum as it would be challenging if the teachers have to work on their own. Having the parent’s support would strengthen the child’s learning in Mother Tongue language at home and in school.
The recommendations that we proposed after all the necessary informations are collected are effective in tackling the issue on bilingualism in preschool. The recommendations are commented by the principal and it was mentioned by the principal that these recommendations would be helpful for the centre in tackling with the issue based on parental involvement on bilingualism. The recommendations are fun, interactive and interesting for the parents to participate. For example, the workshop that we proposed and the Class Dojo application is interactive and promotes communication between parents and teachers instantly and easily. Hence, I honestly felt that our recommendations would be effective and helpful for the centre principal to try out in her centre.
Overall, I learnt many interesting facts about bilingualism in preschool from the principal. I also learnt that having interview and surveys conducted are important as it helps us to understand our stakeholders’ needs on the issue. After gathering the informations, it would be easier for us to come up with suitable needs to address their needs on the issue. Hence, it is always important to seek for others’ responses rather than making assumptions based on one response.
Singapore is a multi-ethnic and multicultural society. Therefore, bilingualism is extremely important as it helps us to maintain contact with family and our cultural heritage. As we know, the study of second language was made compulsory in both primary and secondary school but not in the preschool setting. Hence, I chose this topic as I want to have a deeper insight on bilingualism in preschool and also find out what are the reasons that cause the lack of compulsory bilingual education in preschool setting.
Before the interview, I always thought that the lack of manpower and resources are the two main factors that contribute to the lack of compulsory bilingual education. Therefore, most of our interview questions are linked to the lack of manpower and resources. However, I was wrong as I found out that the lack of communication and collaboration between teachers and parents is the main factor. I was shocked. My group mates and I had to come up with questions (linked to communication & collaboration) on the spot and ask the principal. Through thisinterview I have learnt that there are many perspective to an issue. Never jump into conclusion based on what you think and always look at other’s perspective.
Based on the responses (interview and surveys) collected, I have realized that limited collaboration between teachers and parents isa main reason to why bilingualism is hard to be compulsory in that center. To tackle this need, my group mates and I have come up with a few recommendations such as a new communication platform (classdojo) and a parental workshop on the benefits of parental support on children’s bilingual education. I felt that my group and I did great by having a step-to-step video tutorial on how to use the classdojo as there might be parents or guardians that are not used to using technology. Hence, I felt that I did well as this recommendation is catered to everyone.
Overall, I have learnt a lot of things. Most importantly I have learnt to look at other people’s (stakeholders) perspective and never assume anything based on their responses. It is important toanalysis and never jump into conclusions..