Wednesday, July 23, 2008

PRINCIPALS and teachers should become more involved and open in assimilating special needs students in their schools and strengthen their support system for these students.

This was said by Datin Paduka Dayang Apsah Hj Abdul Majid, Permanent Secretary (Core Education) at the Ministry of Education during the opening of the National Seminar and Workshop on Special Education 2008 at Universiti Brunei Darussalam yesterday.

“It is crucial that we undertake this task to review and strengthen what has been implemented to date, to ensure access to quality education for all in the years to come,” she said.

She added it was also important that teachers receive appropriate training to develop their competencies, understanding, knowledge and skills that are required to facilitate the development of inclusive schooling.

“Classroom teachers play a pivotal role in maximising each learner’s potential, and must learn strategies and methods to make use of each child’s strength, skills and preferred learning style,” said Datin Apsah.

The benefits, she said, can advance the planning and evaluation of school support policies and practices to ensure the provision of quality educational plans for those with special needs.

The permanent secretary related that selected primary and secondary schools have been allocated additional funding and support such as special learning equipment or resources, specialist support services and teacher training programmes to provide a wide range of quality inclusive education for students with special needs.

She also stressed the importance of a child-friendly school, one that provides a conducive learning environment and to help realise a child’s full potential, thus promoting and reflecting healthy living.

“All children with special needs can be valued, contributing members of society if given appropriate educational programmes facilities and support,” she said.

Members of School Based Teams (a collection teachers supporting special needs students), said Datin Apsah, can also help ensure diversity is accepted in schools throughout Brunei, reflecting His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam’s desire to ensure all children have the opportunity to realise their potential.

About 500 participants consisting of educators and facilitators attended yesterday’s seminar and workshop, which carry the theme ‘Embracing Diversity: Strengthening Inclusive Schools’.

The event is organised by the Special Education Unit under the education ministry. Its objective is to provide a platform for participants to examine issues, challenges, barriers, opportunities and directions for the future.

By Syazwan Sadikin
(Source: The Brunei Times)

Pictures in relation to ‘Biodiversity’; the pictures can be used for teaching science (where applicable for suitable topics/subtopics).

Click here for more

The ICT industry plays a very important role in the national economic development of many nations particularly towards a knowledge-based economy.  More importantly in establishing this knowledge-based economy, ICT companies in the industry must create Intellectual Property, or IP of their own.  This was according to the Chief Executive of Authority for Info-Communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam, AITI, at the Brunei Darussalam-Malaysia ICT Business Collaboration.  It was held Monday at the Rizqun Hotel International.

Pengiran Haji Mohd. Zain bin Pengiran Haji Abdul Razak said a country’s success in the future is neither measured by its geographical size nor its rich natural resources but by the number of IPs that it has patented.  For Brunei Darussalam, ICT products and services development is still in its infancy stage with many young ICT companies and new start-ups.  

AITI will host a two day event for the Multimedia Development Corporation, Malaysia.  During the event, a business matching session will follow suit between more than 20 ICT Businesses in Brunei Darussalam and approximately 20 companies from Malaysia.  The business matching sessions aim to establish long term business ties between Brunei’s and Malaysia’s ICT players.  More than 100 guests were invited, including Heads of Government and Corporate Agencies, Heads of ICT Businesses and ICT Education providers.  AITI hopes that this collaboration will initiate similar events in the near future to fulfill the demand of the ICT industry in Brunei by engaging experts to share their experience and expertise in developing further ICT products, solutions and services.

Source: Brunei.gov.bn
Date: July 29, 2008.

Dear participants,

The following are some of the learning references that can help you enhance your web designing skills using MS FrontPage 2003:
http://www.nlsd.ab.ca/publications/staff_resources/FrontPage_2003_tutorial.pdf
http://wwwlb.aub.edu.lb/~acc/Resources/Tutorials/frontpage/FPage-II-2003-Tut.pdf
http://wwwlb.aub.edu.lb/~acc/Resources/Tutorials/frontpage/FPage-III-2003-Tut.pdf
http://wwwlb.aub.edu.lb/~acc/Resources/WebDesign/webdesign.htm

I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you for participating in the workshop. It has been an enjoyable experience and I hope to see you again in the future. Hopefully you can utilise the skills well.

Click here to download the resource file (PowerPoint). The ideas were developed for the topic ‘Conductors and Non-Conductors of Electricity’,by Angela Jossela, Norayati Masilin @ Morsilin and Md Hamdani Mustapa.

Hi, I am back. It’s been a while since I updated this blog. Sorry for the lack updates. I’ve been busy this semester. Anyways, I would like to share my recent article called ‘Virtual Experiments in Primary School Science’. It’s in PDF version, click here to download the document.

Part I: Lesson Setup
The unit goal is to ensure children understand the concepts of place values and apply the knowledge for daily usage. The learning objectives of the lesson are as follow: At the end of the lesson, pupils will be able to: a) recognise the place values of units, tens and hundreds, b) write the value in BOTH numerals and words, c) orally pronounce the values correctly (e.g 35: “thirty-five” NOT “three five”, d) explain the usefulness of place values in the real world situation (e.g. labelling items, quantity, age, year, prices etc), and e) construct numbers in various place values mentally. The essential materials needed for this lesson are: dienes block, abacus, flash cards, concrete materials (e.g. sea shells, paper clips, stones, beads, beans, marbles. These materials can be used to represent place values in a creative and unique way, and useful for class projects/activities.

Part II: Set Induction or “The Hook”
Bring some items with price tags to the classroom, for example story book, t-shirts, digital camera etc. The price should vary from at least a dollar to hundreds of dollar. Then ask the pupils to guess how much each item worth; “which is the cheapest and the most expensive?” etc (say that the book would cost around $7, the bag costs around $30 and the digital camera worth $200). Write the suggested price on the board, and finally tell them the real price of the items. Try to link the set induction with the lesson content, and introduce the topic ‘place value’ to the children.

Part III: Exploration Activities
For exploration, the teacher can organise hands-on activities for the children. Divide the pupils into groups of 4 or 5 teams and provide them with dienes block, abacus, flash cards, concrete materials (e.g. sea shells, paper clips, stones, beads, beans, marbles). Each group will be given a worksheet for this group activity. An example of the question; e.g. “Which of the number is larger? 245 or 542?” etc. Each group will need to explain on how they come up with the answer with the help of the materials given.

By Angela Jossela, Norayati Masilin @ Morsilin and Md Hamdani Mustapa.

Part I: Lesson Setup
The unit goal for this topic is to enable pupils to understand about the concepts of conductors and non-conductors of electricity. With respect to learning objectives: a) differentiate between conductors and non-conductors of electricity, b) name at least 3 examples of conductor materials and 3 examples of non-conductor materials.

An experiment can be carried out to test for conductors and non-conductors of electricity. At the end, the teacher can explain about the usefulness of conductors and non-conductors/insulators in electrical appliances.

Part II: Set Induction or “The Hook”
Switch of all the lights in the Science lab. Then ask the pupils on the following; e.g. “What is needed to switch ON the light?” etc. It is expected that they would answer as ‘to switch on the lights’. In the previous lesson, the pupils have learnt about circuits, switch, bulbs, wire and cells. The teacher can recap the previous lesson, and relate to the set induction; e.g. “In order for electricity to flow, the switch must be closed” etc . Then explain to pupils that the switch has to be a “conductor” so that electrical current can flow throughout the circuit. At this point, we could already introduce the new topic: ‘Conductors and Non-Conductors of Electricity’.

Part III: Exploration Activities
There are various exploration and investigative activities that can integrated in the lesson. A particular activity that can be carried out is through group practical experiment, for example investigating a list of materials for conductors and non-conductors. Each group will be given the following materials: circuit board, batteries, wires, bulb, materials (packed in a plastic bag) and investigative form. Each group’s task is to test the materials given and classify whether they are conductors and non-conductors and report their findings in their investigation form. At the end, each group’s representative will present their findings to the whole-class. During the presentation, the teacher can look for learning misconceptions and correct them, and discuss with the whole-class.

By Angela Jossela, Norayati Masilin @ Morsilin and Md Hamdani Mustapa.

Suggest drawing and writing tasks that could assess understanding and performance of pupils in Primary Science and Mathematics.

There are lots of drawing and writing tasks for primary science and math that can be carried out in the classroom. For science, pupils can be assigned to draw their favourite pet, e.g. cat and label the parts of the animal. Children could also draw flowers that they know and label the parts of the flower. They could even draw their own body and label the parts. All of these activities can also be incorporated with writing compositions or storytellings. (Let children create a story based on their drawings).

For math, children could draw different types of shapes, numbers, and operations (plus, minus, division, multiplication sign). In relation to the writing tasks, children can write numbers or values in sentences, for example writing 3 to 5 digit numbers in sentences. Another activity that can be done is to write descriptive sentences, for example, drawing basics shapes and let children describe the properties of the shapes, e.g. a square has four sides. Writing tasks can also be done for problem-based questions, e.g. set mathematical problems, and give children the opportunity to write about the strategies and solutions for solving that particular problem, e.g. How to find the area of a square with length 5cm and breadth 8cm?

To conclude, by combining drawing and writing tasks for math and science will not only develop children’s thinking but also develop their creativity, particularly children’s asthetic skills.

Pupils face the following difficulties: “oneteen, twoteen, threeteen, fourteen, fiveteen sixteen …”; “twoty, threety, fourty, fivety, sixty”; and place value, eg. “value of 3 in 315?” Can portfolios help?

Each pupil should have their own portfolio so that the teacher can diagnose their learning difficulties. In addition, this can also help monitor their learning progress from time to time. To improve their Math’s learning especially with such difficulties, the teacher can assess pupils’ math ability on addition through step-by-step evaluation. Hence from basic to more challenging activities. First, test the pupils on addition of 1 digit number by 1 digit number; ensure they know how to add up this kind of math problem. The exercises can be facilitated through pictures, for e.g. adding 1+3 can be represented by adding 1 red apple to 3 red apples. Alternatively, they could use concrete objects to add up 1 digit by 1 digit, for example, 2+3 can be calculated using lego blocks. This can also improve their gross skills development.

After they have done the basic calculation, then the teacher can advance to the next level, which is adding up to 2 digits numbers. Pupils can use drawing to represent their calculations. Then after the pupils have shown progress, the teacher can introduce a more mathematical concept such how to compute using the “borrowing method”. When pupils are competent in adding up 2 digits numbers, the teacher can test the pupils’ ability in adding up 3 digit numbers. They can use simple teaching aids, such as abacus to add up each column of digit number. The teacher can also use songs to add up simple numbers, for example, using ‘Old Mac Donald’ to add up 1 to 3 digit numbers. This can also help their mental arithmetic skills.

The children can also use Math computer games available on the Internet (e.g. from BBC website) to motivate and help them learn about addition and other basic Math operations; subtraction, multiplication etc. All the pupils’ work can be archived into individual portfolios so that the teacher can diagnose the pupils’ learning difficulties and improve their learning in Mathematics. Another suggestion is that the pupils’ work or progress report can be archived online using blogs or database.