Most Singaporean students have been attending school from home for nearly a month at this point.
While the first few days of Home-Based Learning (HBL) created some hiccups for many, it seems like students, teachers and parents have gotten into the swing of remote learning.
Some have learned that although HBL doesn’t give students the same learning experience as in school, there are things you can do from home that you can’t normally.
Minister of Education Ong Ye Kung took to Facebook to share a little about how HBL can actually help students learn better during tests.
Taking a test as a student is never fun, regardless of whether you’re in school or at home.
According to Mr Ong, the typical tense test environment still holds during HBL.
Students scribble away silently until their teacher reminds them that time’s up. The usual chatter and grumbles about the test permeate the online call, much like how they would after a gruelling paper in school.
Though not all students may fare the same way, this shows that it is possible to replicate test environments in a virtual space.
General Paper (GP) teacher from Hwa Chong Institution (HCI), Mr Lan Yingjie, has made test-taking a little better by giving his students some leeway.
Now that he can’t physically collect the papers, he’s given students the option of using a different-coloured pen to continue the test if they weren’t able to finish it, and submit it again later.
This way, he can give them more focused feedback and help them with their time management.
As Mr Ong highlighted in his post, tests are about a student’s learning, and not just testing for the sake of testing.
In other words, tests should help a student gauge where they are at with their learning material, and show how much more work they need to put in to excel.
By giving them more time to ponder over their work, Mr Lan is effectively giving them a more reflective, impactful learning experience.
Hopefully, this example can spur more schools and teachers to give students some leeway for tests during HBL, as well as think of learning tools they can only use in a home-based environment.
Featured image adapted from Facebook.
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