Teachers' Day - the moment of truth

This Tuesday is Teachers' Day and it a special day for all teachers and tutors.

I also think of it as a day of truth. As a teacher/tutor, you can always tell if you are doing a good job on teachers' day.

Having tutored students for a couple of years, the most memorable Teachers' Day I've personally experienced was in 2007. Then, I was a volunteer teacher in Singapore Prisons and taught O Level mathematics to a class of 11 inmates every Saturday. Not only was it an eye-opening experience, but also an interesting one because it was a tuition experience outside of the ordinary. Many of the inmates in my class were in their 30s (10 years older than I was) and one inmate was 43 years old. Despite their age (some of them hadn't touched a textbook for 10 years), they were all very keen to learn - something I wished my conventional tuition students could replicate. On Teachers' Day, I received a beautifully-drawn Teachers' Day card and a letter, written and signed by all 11 of them. Here are some pictures. The artistic talent of some of the inmates sometimes astounds you.

The six months that I spent teaching there was a very fulfilling experience.

Unless you've been a teacher/tutor before, no words can describe the appreciation and the sense of fulfillment you get when your students remember you on teachers' day.

You savour the moment as you tell yourself "that's what makes it all worth it".

I'm not blowing my own trumpet. But I believe that if your students care enough to remember you on teachers' day, it definitely means something.

Conversely, if your students ignored any form of your existence on teachers' day, it is also something worth reflecting upon.

Just Me

Just Me

From the time I was little, I knew I was great
‘cause the people would tell me, “you’ll make it – just wait.”
But they never did tell me how great I would be
If I ever played someone who was greater than me.

When I’m in the back yard, I’m king with the ball.
To swish all those baskets is no sweat at all.
But all of a sudden there’s a man in my face
Who doesn’t seem to realize that I’m king of this place.

So the pressure gets to me; I rush with the ball.
My passes to teammates could go through the wall.
My jumpers not falling, my dribbles not sure.
My hand is not steady, my eye is not pure.

The fault is my teammates – they don’t understand.
The fault is my coaches – what a terrible plan.
The fault is the call by that blind referee.
But the fault is not mine; I’m the greatest, you see.

Then finally it hit me when I started to see
That the face in the mirror looked exactly like me.
It wasn’t my teammates who were dropping the ball,
And it wasn’t my coach shooting bricks at the wall.

That face in the mirror that was always so great
Had some room for improvement instead of just hate.
So I stopped blaming others and I started to grow.
My play got much better and it started to show.

And all of my teammates didn’t seem quite so bad.
I learned to depend on the good friends I had.
Now I like myself better since I started to see
That I was lousy being great – I’m much better being me.

Author: Tom Krause

Multiple Choice Questions. Easier or harder?

Which paper is easier? Multiple choice or open-ended?

Many students are less likely to study as hard if they know that a test is multiple choice.

One's ability to provide a correct answer is significantly increased when given a choice. In an exam of 100 MCQs, any candidate without prior knowledge on the tested subject can answer "C" for every question and would still score 25 marks give or take. This is assuming that the answers are equally distributed.

But multiple choice tests can be made to be very difficult as well. Sometimes, they can be harder than open-ended questions. In open-ended questions, candidates can demonstrate their reasoning for a chosen answer. So even if their answer is not coherent with the examiner's, they can be given marks for the understanding of the subject matter they have demonstrated.

The allocation of marks is also different for multiple choice and open-ended tests. For multiple choice tests, every question, difficult or easy, is worth the same mark. This is not the same for open-ended tests, where difficult questions are usually allocated more marks. Therefore, if you spend twenty minutes in a test solving an 8-mark question, you'll get the full 8 marks if you answer it correctly in an open-ended test. If the same question were to come out in a multiple choice test, you'll only score 1 mark, identical in value to any other easy question.

Now suppose you made a careless mistake in your working and it gives you an erroneous final answer. In the MCQ test, you will get zero marks, for the simple reason that the answer is wrong. In the open-ended test however, you might still get 6 marks or 5 marks for demonstrating understanding of the subject matter.

My conclusion is that multiple choice tests can sometimes look deceivingly easy and sometimes it can be mentally tiring trying to decipher the correct answer.

Answers to number of pupils question

Why tutoring P6 maths is harder than sec 1

Mr Tan gave sweets to every pupil in his class. If he gave each pupil 11 sweets, he would have 7 sweets left. If he gave 6 sweets to each pupil, he would have 192 sweets left. How many pupils were there in Mr Tan's class? (Stay tuned for answers)

If this question came out in a sec 1 paper, then most tutors will have no problem teaching their students how to solve it. Let x be the total number of pupils in Mr Tan's class. Form a simple algebraic equation. And solve for x.

However, the question becomes a little trickier if it came out in a P6 exam. This is because primary school students are not taught the basics of algebraic manipulation. Sure, they can add, subtract, multiply and divide simple algebra, but that's about it. They do not learn, for example, how to assign a variable, form an algebraic equation and finally, manipulate the equation to solve for the unknown.

How then can primary school students solve such a question? The answer (as inefficient as it may seem), by drawing models or trial & error. And this is where inexperienced tutors can stumble. They can solve it in 2 minutes by using algebra. But when it comes to drawing models and trial & error, coming up with a solution and being articulate enough for the student to understand is another problem in itself. As a tutor, you curse your luck and you wonder how come our education system is so rigid.

Some tutors then make the mistake of teaching their students algebraic manipulation, and instructing them to use that method for future questions. School teachers will then feedback to students (or worse still, parents) that the tutor's methods are inappropriate. That doesn't do a lot of good for your reputation if you're the tutor.

I've tutored P6 maths for several years and when I encounter such problems, I teach them two ways to solve the problem. The first method is ALWAYS by models or trial & error. And this is the method that they must know. The second optional method would be via algebraic manipulation.

At the end of the day, I feel that there is no shortcut. If they must learn how to solve questions by models or trial & error, then it is your job as a tutor to teach them. It is part of the whole learning process. Students need to know both the hard way and the easy way to solve certain questions so as to aid in their appreciation of future topics.