Summary and Suggestions

The practicum served its purpose of providing an experience for PSTs to enrich their capabilities as aspiring educators. At the end of this short educational trip, I was able to experience what it is like teaching a multicultural class because, unlike my home country, English is not commonly used by everyone.

 

Personally, I am deeply satisfied with the well-structured and thoughtful scheduling of activities at the receiving university. It was easy to follow and let us fall into a routine quickly. They gave us ample time to immerse ourselves in the city and learn from our fellow inbounds, the teachers, and the local community to widen our understanding. It has truly crossed borders because even if we are in a different soil, we were able to deliver well. The systematic approach of observations followed by demonstrations, the clustering of students per major, and the assignment of supervising teachers from both the university and the assigned school all contributed to maximizing our time and making the most of our resources. The effective information dissemination and the supportive buddy system displayed how accommodating and considerate the receiving school is. I am genuinely grateful for the buddies who helped us throughout our stay, their dedication to be a great host and to also learn from the experience is admirable.

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Indeed, every journey has its bumps along the way. Similar to some of my fellow inbounds, I also struggled with the language barrier. However, I view this as a valuable learning opportunity. It further highlights the importance of adapting our teaching methods to suit students' language proficiency, maximizing their learning potential. This experience has inspired me to be more creative, innovative, and adaptable in my future teaching endeavors. In the future, there may be opportunities more number of observations and demonstrations, as I feel there's potential for more improvement on my part. I would appreciate it if evaluation papers could be provided and discussed promptly after demonstrations, as this would enable me to apply feedback for future sessions. Although my supervising teacher provides verbal feedback right after the demonstration (if time allows), having written feedback to refer to would be incredibly beneficial.

 

Overall, I am glad and blessed to be part of the program. My experience in the SEA Student-Teacher Program is an experience that I will definitely remember, especially the learnings and insights I have gained.