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Assessment 1: Critical reflection report

Name: Mahra Mohammed Ahamed Alhebsi

ID:2023204

Educational and Professional Studies in Secondary Teaching

Pre-Service Secondary PGDE

(EDUSC1)

AY 2023/24 Trimester 1

Lecturer: Dr.Evrim Erbilgin

Date:.8.10.2023
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Table of Contents
Introduction 2
lesson planning 3
Learner Engagement 4
Learner Development 5
Conclusion 6
Reference
Appendix
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introduction

Lesson observation is a “process by which the observer sits in on one or more classroom

sessions, records the instructor’s teaching practices and student actions, and then meets with the

instructor to discuss the observations(n,2018). During the classroom observation in Al ghub

secondary girls' school. And, a school-based mentor (Miss Sana Alhebsi) a math teacher of three

sections in grade 8. In this essay, I will share six classroom observation notes on lesson planning,

learner engagement, and learner development.

Lesson Planning

A lesson plan “is a teacher’s guide for facilitating a lesson” before class begins (hot,

2022). Its main goal is to specify what students should discover and learn in the lesson. In this

section, I will analyze a mathematics lesson plan on roots as shown in figure 1. It is designed for

the grade 8 students.

The lesson plan contains the following components: Contextual Information, Materials,

Learning Objectives (Students will be able to understand the relationship between the area of a

square and the root square), Teaching and learning sequence, Differentiation, Assessment, and

Educational Technology.

objectives and materials help to guide the lesson plan therefore, it is essential to make

sure they are all connected to the same concepts. In this lesson plan, the objective is a clear and

measurable statement, and the materials needed enable students to reach the golds of the lesson.

While the assessments are in Synchronized. The (introduction-body-closure) elements are related

to the objective and aligned in the same areas.

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According to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational objective is a “hierarchical ordering of

skills in different domains whose primary use is to help teachers teach and students learn

effectively and efficiently” (Kishore,2021). Each of these domains further consists of a hierarchy

that denotes different levels of learning. The cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy of learning

tries to cater to Bloom’s taxonomy objectives such as critical thinking. The different levels of

cognitive help teachers to create the learning objective of the lesson. The learning Objectives of

the observed lesson plan are that students will be able to understand the relationship between the

area of the square and the root square). The teacher here used the understanding level

The lecture began, and the teacher distributed small paper for each group. she asked

students to share different sizes of squares as shown in figure 2. Later, the teacher asks what the

area of the square is. In this way, students realize that the area of the square is A=r 2.

Moreover, After the exercise miss “Sana Alhebsi” applied white board method to

measure students' understanding. This method clarifies how the students achieved the lesson

objectives. She asked students to solve the question on their board and raise it. as shown in

figure 3.
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Learner Engagement

According to( Naim,2022) Learner engagement correlates with important educational

outcomes, including academic achievement, persistence, and satisfaction. It is a successful tool

in the learning environment. This engagement will increase the learner's attention and focus in

the classroom (Solutions,2022). There were several types of Learner Engagement while

observing the class environment. For example, Cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional.

The first engagement that I have been observed was behavioral. The behavioral students

were able to interact and be active with the task given. They were focused on the teacher's

instructions. For example, leave the book and focus on board, solve exercises.

The second learner engagement was cognitive. The class 8/2 was very active, they were

solving the book exercises when the instruction finished explaining the lesson. Even, they solved

the second objective that isn’t explained yet. The reasons were the enforcement, it’s a table for

each student, who collects 23 stats will get her choice for a gift. In this class, teachers were using

Behaviorism theories: teachers were drilling information into a student’s memory bank.it is an

important method that mainly focuses on the external environment and how affects students'

behavior. If students are excellent, they will receive positive reinforcement. According to

Vygotsky (1978), “Social interaction plays a key role in cognitive development. Children co-

construct knowledge as they engage in meaningful activities in social settings”. Individual

development (cognitive, social, and affective) results from participation in joint activity with

more expert others.

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while observing the class students show signs of these four types of engagement. I will

share my observations based on the six activities I described in Table 1 (Appendix)

There were engaging activities via the group at the end of the lesson to measure the

student's understanding of roots. Students were extremely engaged. it was a sheet with a tree and

the tree contained mathematic problems and the solution was in the bottle cups. They need to

match the solution with the circle as shown in figure 4.

On the other hand, there were less engaging activities which were wonderful speakers. One

student had to come to one board and explain the equation in words as shown in figure 7, the

girls were too shy to explain. Although I was there there was no enforcement or challenge

between the group.

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Learner Development

According to (Vanessa,2023) “Learner development is based on how learners grow and

develop, which plays an important part in how the student shows progress in participates and in

quiz results in the classroom. Those are an important criterion to measure how the learner

develops in the classroom.

During the week, “I wrote that students were less active in solving the workbook

exercise after the teacher finished the explain”. For instance, the teacher after teaching gives

students opportunities to solve the worksheets in this way teacher can measure the understanding

of students.Here.is what I wrote in my observation notes in week 5: ” Students show progress in

performance and were more active in solving the worksheets”. In my opinion, this development

in students’ performance was because of teacher was applying Student-centered learning."The

concept of student-centered learning is to bring the classroom and students to life. The teacher is

considered a “guide on the side”, assisting and guiding students to meet the goals that have been

made by the students and the teacher" (Overby,2011).

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Conclusion

To sum up, during the observation of six lessons the results of the final reflections

integrating the three perspectives, which are the lesson plan learner engagement, and learner

development. In lesson plan: The components of the lesson plan were aligned, and they are all

connected to the same concepts, the teacher was using Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational

Objective to structure the lesson objective. In learner engagement, I observed six activities and

categorized them as more and less engaging activities. In addition, the learner development: I

observed the progress of the performance of students in two weeks, and the quiz results in two

quizzes the scores were develop in the second quiz.

References
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Lesson Plan Definition and Meaning. Top Hat. (2022, November 28).

https://tophat.com/glossary/l/lesson-plan/Â

UKEssays. (November 2018). Definition and Overview of Classroom Observation.

Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/education/definition-and-overview-of-

classroom-observation-education-essay.php?vref=1

Naim, A. (2022). E-learning engagement through convolution neural networks in

business education. European Journal of Innovation in Nonformal Education, 2(2), 497-501.

What is learner engagement (+ strategies to boost it in 2023). Xperiencify, the Best

Gamified Online Course Platform. (n.d.). https://xperiencify.com/learner-engagement/

Solutions, L. (2022, May 4). Learner engagement and its aspects. Lambda Solutions.

https://www.lambdasolutions.net/blog/learner-engagement-and-its-aspects?hs_amp=true

Learner development. Vanessa Mills. (2023). https://mills.step.hollins.edu/learner-

development/

Kishore, K. (2021, June 22). Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. Harappa.

https://harappa.education/harappa-diaries/blooms-taxonomy-of-educational-objectives/

Overby, K. (2011). Student-centered learning. Essai, 9(1), 32.

Appendix
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Figure 3: Measure students understanding

Figure 2: Group activity to discover the objective of the lesson

Figure 4: Roots Activity Figure 5: Alef Education activity

Figure 6: Solving equation with two variables

Figure 7: Wonderful speaker
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More Engaging Activates Less Engaging Activates

Roots activity Figure 4 Alef Education activity Figure 5

Group activity to discover the lesson objective Wonderful speaker Figure 7

Figure 2

White board activity Figure 3

Solving equation with two variables Figure 6

Table 1: List of activities observed for learning engagement