STUDENTS WANT THE REAL THING

Students want the real thing

KUALA LUMPUR: More field trips, real-life experiences and self-initiated programmes.

These are some of the requests by students when asked how learning could be fun in the classroom.

A Form Five student of SM Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Seow Li May, said she would like to learn the human anatomy by observing a pathologist during a post-mortem.

"In class, we dissect live animals to learn about their anatomy. It would be interesting to observe how the human body works in the same way, too.

"Instead of reading it from our textbooks, we get to feel and experience it," she said.

Muhammad Imran Sa'id, a science stream student at the school, echoed the same thoughts.

Imran, who aspires to be a paediatrician, would like to be among medical students to witness the delivery of babies.

"This kind of hands-on experience is better than just taking down notes in the classroom. You will never forget it," he said.

Kaveetha Kandiah, 16, said teachers could be more creative when teaching boring subjects like History or Civics to capture the students' interests.

"Students could re-enact the story of historical figures such as Tok Janggut or Rentap, or even visit Parliament to understand how laws are being passed in the Dewan Rakyat."

With 30 years of teaching experience under her belt, Datin Hazlin Hashim said the days of chalk and talk were over.

"Teachers need to constantly update themselves with what is new and happening among their students.

"I even have a Facebook account so that I know what my students like. If you can't beat them, join them," she said.

To spice up the learning process in the classroom, the English Language teacher uses materials sourced from the Internet, newspapers and movies.

For History teacher Sritharan Chandran, the short time allocated in the classroom makes it difficult for learning to be fun.

"We don't mean to make lessons boring but the short period that we have makes it difficult.

"There are just too many chapters to cover and so little time to do it.

"Just imagine teaching a total of 19 chapters to Form Four and Form Five students before October."