Transforming teaching and learning in Asia and the Pacific: case studies from seven countries; 2015

accounted for the largest proportion of the class time (74 per cent), while
student activities made up only 26 per cent of the class time. An alternative,
more student-centred, approach would be to enable the students to elicit
their peers’ responses or put aside more time for students’ self-exploring
activities. Furthermore, the students’ critical thinking skills would have been
more effectively enhanced if the teacher had offered them opportunities to
raise questions (in general) or question what the teacher said or what their
peers said.

Figure 5: Mapping of students’ responses and teacher’s pedagogical
actions in the classroom

Students : InteractionTeacher : Ms Thuan 0:00 5:00 10:00 15:00 20:00 25:00 30:00 35:00 38:24

Despite these shortcomings, the observers and the researcher concluded
that the teacher had adopted effective pedagogical practices because
she had created a comfortable and active learning environment and had
successfully engaged her students in learning. Furthermore, she gave the
students a certain amount of autonomy in their learning. Notably, the teacher
respected her students’ ideas and enabled them to construct and explore
the concepts by themselves. An effective pedagogical approach needs to
ensure the autonomy and self-realization of the students in classroom. This
was actualized in the teaching techniques, procedures and attitudes of this
particular teacher.

Support needed to promote innovative pedagogy

One of the senior experts interviewed noted that,

Teachers need to be self-aware of the importance of their pedagogical

actions in provision of a quality education. They should be given sufficient

support to self-improve their teaching. The most effective way to help

teachers to reform their pedagogical practices is to create a self-reflection

mechanism. Teachers learn by themselves from observing their teaching

practices and receiving feedback from their colleagues. Apart from having

adequate access to professional materials, teachers would be strongly

motivated to transform their pedagogy if their managers supported them

to have autonomy in their teaching practice.