 
Windsurfing and Dragon Boating – two outdoor events that facilitate experiential learning |
Balloon walkers in action… |
To improve students’ understanding of life skills taught in the Employability Skills lessons, the Lifeskills Department of ITE College West (Ang Mo Kio Campus) came up with the idea of bringing students to experience authentic learning. Such learning, which is conducted outdoor, aims to engage students to explore, experiment and evoke their thoughts and feelings through reflection on what they do.
The lessons were conducted in places like East Coast Park, McRitchie Reservoir Park and Bukit Timah Hill. The activities were designed to develop students’ team-building, organising, intra-personal and inter-personal skills.
Mrs Woon-Tan Yeng Hua, who brought a class of students to Bukit Timah Hill for a hike recently, said that trekking through rough terrain challenges students to overcome obstacles. It was also a test of intuitive thinking in real situations. Follow-up activities revealed that students who took part in the trekking learned how to better exercise care and caution, and how to tap on each other’s knowledge and talents.
Another group of students participated in windsurfing. Through the activity, students were able to connect with concepts like perseverance, self-reliance, overcoming fear, inter-dependence and many other soft skills.
Remarked Dominic Fun, a student from Electronics Servicing: “At the end of the session, I found a sense of achievement by overcoming my initial failure of getting myself upright in the surf-board. After many attempts, I managed to surf. This accomplishment will spur me on to pursue other things that I am not very confident in, like studying for a diploma course in the polytechnic.”
Teng Fu Ming, a student from Digital Media Design who took part in Dragon Boating, has this to share: “With perseverance and determination, our team came in first in one of the races. We learnt to strategise and coordinate our efforts. This activity has helped me transfer the skills I have acquired to other similar settings in real-life encounters.”
Experiential learning can also be done within the campus but away from classroom. Ms Norlida Kasmuri, Section Head of Lifeskills, who has carried out activities like the ‘Caterpillar Walk’, ‘Balloon Walk’ and ‘All Aboard’, mentioned that activities of this nature provide avenues for lecturers to integrate several topics into one. For example, ‘Balloon Walk’ helps students to brainstorm for creative ideas and problem solving strategies before the ‘walk’. During the ‘walk’, they learn about communication and how to synchronize with each other as a cohesive team.
So here’s calling teachers out there, if you want to find out more about experiential learning, please feel free to talk to Norlida. She will be very happy to share with you. |
