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Hui Pui-ki , a member of this special task force, is a current
student of the Bachelor of Education (Honours) (Secondary) programme.
The first question she handled on the first day of her roster was
"What is a balanced diet?" Majoring in home economics, Pui-ki replied in detailed explanations
illustrated with a vivid drawing of the "food pyramid". Apart from "many thanks", Pui-ki also got the feedback
from the student that her answer was more than was needed. However,
Pui-ki was not disturbed at all, indeed the response gave her a
sense of achievement. She believes that the more information a tutor
provides, the easier it is for a student to understand the issue. In conclusion, Pui-ki says, "Being a tutor-on-line helps me to understand the difficulties students may encounter and what their weaknesses in learning are. This kind of experience will help me greatly when I actually teach in the future." Chan Wai-shan, another tutor currently taking the Bachelor
of Education (Honours) (Primary) programme, points out that there
are students who post in questions taken straight from their maths
books without any prior effort but expect an instant answer on the
computer screen. In such cases, Wai-shan will help the students
to understand the questions first and lead them to solve the problems
themselves step by step. If the students still insist that they
do not understand, Wai-shan will write down the formula and let
them work out the answers for themselves. She never gives the final
answers to the students straight away, as she knows that this will
never help them to learn effectively. She doesn't want students
to become too reliant or lazy when it comes to learning and thinking. |
The tutors-on-line spend countless hours in the hostels in their spare time, staring at the computer screens communicating with young students at the other end of the line, whom they have never met and may never know. Nonetheless, this is not without reward. In communicating back and forth with the students, albeit briefly, these prospective teachers gain a good understanding of the difficulties students encounter in learning. They also come to realise that as teachers, their prior responsibility is not to find answers for students, but to lead them systematically to the answers through skilful prompts and the effective use of existing knowledge. Such valuable experiences will surely become lasting assets of these prospective teachers and benefit them throughout their teaching careers.
