Month: May 2020

Inquiry-based learning is a teaching approach that focuses on the student’s role in the learning process (Wolpert-Gawron, 2016). Instead of teaching the students what they need to learn, the teachers encourage the students to explore the lesson and ask questions. Additionally, Kampa & Vilina (2016) explained that curiosity and motivation are integral in inquiry-based education. For the past years, language teachers use inquiry-based learning in teaching language and they have found it effective (Kampa & Vilina, 2016). In line with this, inquiry-based learning could also be an effective approach to teaching Mandarin.

Inquiry-based learning is a natural way for students to learn the language (Kampa & Vilina, 2016). In other words, inquiry-based learning enables the students to take control of their learning while their teacher guides them. In teaching Mandarin, language teachers can use the Know-What-Learn chart (Kampa & Vilina, 2016). Before starting the lesson, teachers can ask their students to fill in the first two parts of the chart: (1) what the students already know and (2) what the students would like to know. The first part of the chart allows the teachers to gauge the students’ current knowledge while the second part of the chart allows the students to specify the topics they found challenging or interesting. Once the teacher knows what the student would like to know, the teacher can now device a way to help the students. Since the learners are interested in what they are about to learn, learning becomes natural and easy. The teachers can know whether the students learn something new through asking them to fill-in the “learn” part of the chart. The “learn” part of the chart also allows the students to recapitulate what they just learned.

Inquiry-based learning can be used in teaching Mandarin because language teachers consider this as an effective approach in teaching language. Language teachers may use teaching strategies like the K-W-L chart to encourage the students’ curiosity. On the last note, teachers should be cautious of the limitations of inquiry-based learning like students’ lack of readiness and teacher’s unpreparedness.

Share a story about your best learning experience (could be a formal course or something more personal). Why did you enjoy it?

One of the best learning experiences I had was when I attended a leadership seminar. I attended the said seminar not because I was required to do it but because I wanted to hone my leadership skills. Personally, I believe that the seminar will teach me important things that I can apply in real life. Unlike other seminars that I have attended, this seminar focused on the attendees. In other words, this is not the typical seminar where a speaker talks and then everybody is expected to listen. The speaker only acts as a facilitator. During the seminar, we were given different scenarios and problems then we were tasked to explain what we would do with the given scenarios and problems as a leader. The given scenarios were engaging and I appreciate the fact that we were not given a “template” or “formula” of good leadership. More so, the attendees were given an opportunity to draw on their existing knowledge of leadership and explore their capabilities. After the seminar, I felt accomplished and motivated to learn new things even if it is not related to leadership.

Looking into the strategies used by the speaker in this seminar, I would say that she utilized the cognitivist approach. By not giving or not dictating what we should do as leaders, the speaker gave as an opportunity to discover and utilize strategies that we consider helpful or effective. In addition to this, thinking about the situations and scenarios also made us refer to our previous knowledge on leadership. In my case, I would often think of the good leaders I know and ask myself how they could possibly deal with the given scenario. Upon learning leadership from a cognitivist approach, I would say that this strategy is effective. This is because it makes the information to be learned meaningful and it also enables learners to organize their newly acquired knowledge with their existing knowledge.

Hi, I’m roy mao, a fourth-year student major in economics. This term is my last term at the university. I just moved to Vancouver last week since all classes are change to online courses by the influence of COVID-19. I am interested in the learning design, I heard that the course will use some social media.  Looking forward to connecting with you all!