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As all of you have known, there is a new lesson of the subject, Language Arts, in the timetable dubbed "Language Arts Lecture". Basically, it is a lesson which consists of a university style lecture conducted by a teacher to 3 classes at any one time and they have selected our cohort and the secondary 1 cohort to be guinea pigs and test this new procedure on us.

In my opinion, this new way of teaching has helped cater to the needs of students as some students might learn faster and more effectively when learning independently at his own pace instead of being guided step by step as in the case of the traditional "classroom teaching" method. Secondly, I think that this method of teaching has made us better prepared for higher level education such as university and junior college level education as most of the lessons conducted are lectures similar to those that we are having. Additionally, I feel that this method will be able to bring the 4 consortiums together as the lectures are usually conducted with 3 classes, each from a different consortium and here, they are able to share their views and opinions with each other. Furthermore, I feel that these lectures are more interesting than the usual lessons as the lecturer would usually make use of multimedia such as video clips and PowerPoint presentations. Last but not least, the environment is better than the conventional classroom, after all, who can resist having lessons in a nice cool air-conditioned spacious lecture hall?

However, all coins have heads and tails and there are a few disadvantage of this new way of teaching. First and foremost, I feel that some classes are not participating actively enough in these lectures. For example, during the lesson last Thursday, only our class was participating orally and the other classes remained silent throughout. This could be because of the teacher who is conducting the lecture as the one who was doing so was our language arts teacher only and was nothing but just another average teacher whom they do not know for the other classes and therefore were shy to speak up. Secondly, I feel that this method of teaching is unsuitable for some students who could not learn independently and needs someone to guide him through every step or are just plain lazy as only the tip of the iceberg is touched on in a lecture and the rest of it would require a student to further research on the topic to fully comprehend it.

Overall, I feel that this radical teaching style's pros outweigh its cons and is more effective than traditional styles for me. However, one man's meat might be another man's poison and other students might not feel the same way for this.

So, what are your thoughts of this new way of teaching? I would like to hear them. Please comment via the comment link below of through the tagboard although the former is preferred. Alright, time to go, goodbye all.