Reflections on ARP / Personal Growth

I submitted my cycle reports to the headmaster, dean of faculty, department chair, and a couple of foreign language teachers of the Bishop's School, and received very positive feedbacks from some of them. The headmaster sent me an email and commented: "... I liked the data that proved collaboration over individual study brought significantly better results...." His comments were really encouraging as I was told that the headmaster had never sent e-mail to any teacher. This shows me that my ARP is important to the development of education at the Bishops' School.

My ARP is going to complete soon, but I feel the learning is continuing. The Bishop's School asks me to introduce my ARP to the whole school faculty next year. I feel there is a lot to say and there is a long way for me to go.

Looking back on my process of learning from the beginning of OMET, I think this Action Research Project has been an eye opening, enjoyable, and positive learning experience for me.

This project has actually changed me. I went from an instructionist to a constructivist educator，from a didactic teaching style to encouraging social learning. In applying these educational theories in my classroom I experienced social constructivism and learning by doing. I have witnessed the effects of the change in my students and myself. My students are happy with how they learn and are delighted with what they have learned. My job was made easier and more effective. I am enjoying the process of facilitating, and role of "Guide on the Side." I am teaching less but my students are learning more through discovery and through the help of their fellow students, and their peers in China. I feel students have never learned so much and so enthusiastically without me walking them through it. I was able to set up the learning environment in such a way that they took charge of their own process. My practice has improved tremendously and my students process of learning and understanding has improved as evidenced in their own reflections and actions. For the first time I have discovered that digital portolio is so powerful. I think if students present their portfolios to their parents, parents are then able to see so much more than a grade marked on a paper would have told them. The data collected have shown me that the projects students designed allowed them to get a new sense of themselves as learners - that setting a goal and working together to achieve it was something valuable to them. Self knowledge and reflections have deepened their learning.

The OMET program has provided new lenses in which to see and understand how people learn and the applicable theories on which to base actions. What a worthy and productive Action Research Project!