Classroom Talk
Oral Communication Practice
Watch the video and respond to the questions below.
1. What is one new way of learning that you would like to see in school?
RESPONSES FROM YOUR SECONDARY SCHOOL PEERS
Poonam Yogesh Veerbhanani
Janelle Lim
Han Lin
2. Would your parents or older generations share your views about education? Why or why not? (how diff generations see education)
RESPONSES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Nadia Ederer, Singaporean mother
“I just wish we’d all be careful about how much emphasis we place on the importance [of exams]. Recently, my daughter, who is in Primary 1, had a week of break and she went on a little holiday with her dad. I was 100% supportive of this, but when I told my mother, she said that this week was meant for kids to study for their exams.”
Mei-Lin Amelie Attard, 17, student in Singapore
“It sometimes seems like parents will love their children only if they do well academically. […] Parents should seek to understand their children better, broaden their definitions of success and affirm and encourage their children instead of putting them down when exam results do not meet their expectations.”
Yan, 63, grandmother born in Harbin now living in Singapore
“My advice for students now is to not spend all their time studying, but rather going out into the world and experiencing the countryside or learning about vegetables and fruits … schools should teach their students more about life.”
3. Would you say the people in your country value opportunities for learning? Why or why not?
RESPONSES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Catherine E. Tong, 41, research scientist and adjunct professor at University of Waterloo
“I teach a lot of pre-med students at a public university. They’re all hustling, exhausted, trying to one-up each other and get that extra opportunity or credit to distinguish themselves. They are burned out before they’re even out of the gate.”
Dr Thomas Lee Hock Seng, Singaporean
“I believe our children don’t find much fun in learning when they have structured learning all day. Unless parents recognise that fun and inspiration are crucial to learning and cannot be achieved through incessant regimented routines, their children will suffer learning fatigue early in life and fail to become lifelong learners.”
Jonathan Malesic, American author
“In more than 20 years of college teaching, I have seen that students who are open to new knowledge will learn. But to an overwhelming degree, students today see college as job training, the avenue to a stable career… The other big obstacle to the willingness to learn is the urge to present yourself as always already informed.”
