Reflection 3 - Learning Journey

What did you enjoy about and learn from it?

I really enjoyed this Literature Learning Journey, as it was a chance for all of us to learn Literature outside of the classrooms. And what better place to be discussing the development and progress of Singapore than at the heart of the economic and financial development; the CBD area. I have never been on a Literature Learning Journey before as a student in the past, and this was definitely an experience that was not only fun but very enriching. I learnt a lot at the URA building about the development of Singapore throughout the years. How it was initially an economy focused on trade to one that now focuses on the service industry. What I enjoyed there was playing the interactive game with some of my friends where we got to be urban planners for 30 seconds. It was fun and interesting but also got me thinking about how much thought had to be put to the urban planning of a country. Many things have to be considered, like transport system, amenities, offices, places of interests, recreational areas and many more. And this is quite a mean feat.

 What got my attention at the URA building was the series of moving pictures of places and people in the 1960s and 70s juxtaposed with pictures of the exact same place now. Some pictures seemed like as though they even made use of the same people in the past pictures and the present ones to show that as we grow/change, the buildings and places around us change too. Many a times, we fail to realise this unless something drastic actually happens to the place, like the demolition of a particular building or the clearing up of a particular area to make way for other developments. And this got me thinking about how much of what I see and know now will remain 20 – 30 years down the road. All the memories I have of certain places will only stay in my memory if they are to be cleared up to make way for future developments.

This relates to the next location that we went, Ann Siang Hill. While walking through the shop houses at Ann Siang hill, I was very intrigued by the architecture and design of the buildings and different shops there. They all have a tinge of ‘oldness’ attached to them, possibly due to the attempt of conservation that our government has put in place to retain the flavour of these places. However, what lies inside those shops are things that are entirely modern and include even retail outlets of fashion brands such as ‘Fred Perry’ and ‘Agnes B’. I was quite shocked at first, but later came to a realisation that this was part of change. With progress comes change, and with change, the old is lost. Even if attempts are put in place for certain places to retain its oldness, it will never quite be the same again as what used to be there has now ceased to be.

What interdisciplinary possibilities are there?

While going through this learning journey, I thought to myself a couple of times about how what we are learning links with subjects like Geography, History and even English. The experience at the URA building was linked to Geography as we looked at how Singapore has developed into an urban landscape throughout the years, and the Ann Siang hill experience allowed us to further understand what losses in terms of historical value we have experienced due to development. Thus, Learning Journeys need not be focused only on one subject and can be used to cater to the different subjects depending on the tasks set out at each location. And this helps to broaden the minds of students and to make links between subjects and see what they learn in one subject is not remote from the others.

How can you design and use learning journeys for effective learning in and out of your classrooms?

A learning journey is a really fun, interactive and enriching way to get students to learn. It helps them to make connections between what they learnt and have read to the real world. To design and use learning journeys effectively, I feel that the learning objectives needs to be first dealt with. Once that is dealt with, the tasks to plan for each location will be more focused to this objective. At the end of the learning journey, it is also good to get feedback via reflections from students to gather what they have learnt from their learning journey experience and how they feel about it. Apart from this, I also feel that student management is very important. As the learning journeys are done in public places, it is vital that we ensure that all students are accounted for at every location, which can be quite a feat when students get too excited carrying out tasks, and do not report on time at every pit stop, making management challenging. Therefore, although we aim to encourage and maximise students’ learning during a learning journey, it is important that we set tasks that are manageable in terms of time, so that everyone has ample time to carry out their activities, reducing the management challenge that teachers might face.