13rd May 2009:-
It was 12.30 am. But I am still stuck in the middle of starting the second reflective for Dr Nurul. Really don’t know how to begin and where should I start. Last 2 weeks, I have done with my re-teach micro teaching. And from the moment, I realize and it’s very obvious that I am very poor and weak in Physics content knowledge. Actually, I am really admire and impressed with Dr Nurul because of her ability and knowledge in Physics. I am dreaming of becoming like her. As a Physics teacher (in the future), I want to able to make sure my students understand and have their interest towards my lesson. But, I am really worried about my weakness in content of Physics and I need to find any solution to overcome this problem.
When I am thinking about this problem, I do admit that one of the reason that I am very poor in Physics’ content knowledge is I am not really interested in Physics subject. When I am in secondary school (form 4), I always get bad grades in the examination. I dislike my Physics teacher because he expects us to know absolutely everything already and he had his own "developed" teaching method which frankly just sucked. Our Physics class extremely bored because he never seemed to be pleased with anything and rarely smiled. He never gave us more exercises even though we asked it several times but he often asks us to memorize all the formulas and the concepts of Physics. I felt like I didn’t get as much support as I would have needed. In fact he didn’t help me as much as I only managed to get 5C in SPM.
I remember when I was studying in Matriculation, my lecturer also can’t really teach. Sometimes she wants us to do things by ourselves. She often not giving lessons to us, instead she's give us a topic and we will be the one who report to our class and she just listens. She won’t explain because the reason is at our age, we should learn by our selves without the help from the lecturer. We get use to it. Somehow, she maybe right because in college life, it’s all self-learning but as a student we also needs her guidance in the some topic. I really don’t like to blame my previous teacher and lecturer for that but seems it’s still not helping me much to love the subject.
15th May 2009:-
But now, seems I don’t have any options or choices but I have to love this subject because I am going to be a Physics teacher. Like or not, I need to learn Physics more and discover a lot of things, besides have to study from the basic concepts from now onward. In Dr Nurul classes, I often felt like I am ‘lost’ when I found that so many concepts, theories and topics that I don’t understand so much. Meanwhile, there is lots of misconception that I don’t understand until now. Most of the time, I failed to respond when Dr Nurul give us questions. I really guaranteed that I can not explain or elaborate more if Dr Nurul asks me. It makes me felt so disappointed and frustrated. But, I need to overcome that!!!
I believe that in journey to success we will encounter weaknesses in our life that, if I don’t deal with them, will hinder or stop me altogether from reaching success. Having weaknesses isn’t really the big deal because we all have them. However, if I don’t overcome those weaknesses, that’s where I am in trouble. From the theory that I read in website, first I need to learn how to improve. This takes time and a lot of effort but it is what I have to do if I want to succeed. Some things will be harder than others but just make it a point to overcome it. In a better understanding in Physics, devote a little time to studying Physics each day, rather than a large amount of time once a week, this will allows the material to sink in. Some theory says that in Physics, do not memorize. In almost all cases, the temptation to memorize indicates a simple of lack understanding. In the words Charles Misner: “The equation F=ma is easy to memorize, hard to use, and even more difficult to understand”.
Regarding journal from Dolores Gende, he shared the guidelines on how to study Physics. He also stated that Physics is a problem-solving discipline. Student should focus on that fact, identify the major goal and apply the principle to understand and solve the problem. An overview of the course can help us organize our efforts and increase our efficiency. To understand and retain data or formulas, student should see the underlying principles and connecting themes. It is almost inevitable that student will sometimes forget a formula, and an understanding of the underlying principle can help us generate the formula for ourselves.
Do the reading before attending the lectures. Read the introduction and the summary of the relevant chapter and look at the section headings and subheadings in order to use their potential fully for integrating knowledge. Try to formulate questions in our mind about the subjects to be covered. This question-formulating helps us manipulate and therefore better understand the material. Student should examine the drawings and pictures and make notes of the new chapter. During the class, student should take a good note. Mark the most important points and record why they are important. This means not just listening, but listening with a critical ear; not just taking notes, but deciding what is important to remember and what isn't. The act of deciding what is important is the first step in turning reading from passive page-turning into active, aggressive--and rewarding--penetration. Their guidelines also stated that student do not have to embarrassed to ask teacher a questions. Actually, most of the teachers depend on feedback from students to help them set a proper pace for the class.
Then, after class as soon as possible review and edit the notes. Rather than rewrite the notes; students should look for important ideas and relationships among major topics. Summarize these in the margin or on the opposite side if you've taken notes only on one side, and at this time you may want to add an outline to your notes. Also, this would be a good time to integrate notes from your textbook into your lecture notes, and then you will have one set of integrated notes to study by.
19th May 2009:-
I need to improve myself in order to overcome this problem. Without any action will never bring me anywhere. I have to move forward. I should do something to enhance my content knowledge in Physics. There are no easy short cuts 'learn' physics. I need to put in the necessary time and effort, but it doesn't need to be impossible for anyone.
First step, I think I should discuss with Physics expertise. It is more effective because I can ask more about some misconception, theories, concepts that I can not understand. Dr Nurul has helped me a lot to make me understanding about all topics in Physics. Learning from other people is one of the best ways to overcome any weakness that I may have.
Cooperative learning can be really powerful: learning physics is easier if I have a group of ‘physics friends’ in a study group. So collaborations or discussion among my friends or course mates is the one of the ways to overcome my problem. This is potentially a very affective way to learn, where as bouncing ideas and explanations off friends is a powerful way to learn. We can change our points of view by reviewing questions and can discus how to solve the questions that we couldn’t know. Besides that, ways to achieve genuine understanding in Physics, I can not be too easily satisfied with a correct answer. I should look for logical and mathematical connections between equations, laws, theories and experiment. And I can draw “Concept Map” that I believe it will help so much.
The conclusion is I really hope that I will be able to master Physics content knowledge. I should be a knowledgeable in this field and furthermore, I will become a Physics teacher.
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