Re: OT: Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math
- From: "The Librarian" <zootwoman@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 26 Mar 2006 17:07:12 -0800
I wish our shcool were run by Bulgarian commies. I'd like to see our 15
year old students studying physics in TWO languages.
Dear colleagues,
I am really grateful to have the chance to participate in the Science
Across the Balkans Workshop in Plovdiv and I hope that such workshop
will turn into a tradition and will contribute to integration of the
efforts of all teachers in Europe as well as to improve the efficiency
of their work.
In Bulgaria extensive teaching in the foreign language began only in
the early 1990s. The process triggered off with the establishment of
private primary and secondary schools as well as with the introduction
of language learning from year 1 in the state sector. Nowadays almost
all academic subjects, mainly in private schools and 3 to 4 subjects in
state schools, are taught through the medium of English. The most
frequently exploited subjects are Chemistry, Geography and History
although there are also examples of teaching Physics, Mathematics,
Computer Science and even Arts.
At university level teaching in the foreign language (French, German)
occurs in several universities but those with teaching in English are
very few. Courses for students preparing for teaching in a foreign
language are practically missing.
As a teacher of Physics through English at a secondary school, my
experience is with 15-18 year old students in the space of 7 years. The
curriculum is very demanding all the more that in Bulgaria there are no
uniform criteria and methodology for teaching a subject through the
medium of a foreign language. There is also no official textbook in
Physics written in English.
An important factor of successful teaching Physics through English is
the high competitive admission at our school. The students are smart,
well-informed and with great potential, which requires good preparation
for the lessons. Moreover, it is a real challenge for me and provides
good motivation to continue. In teaching Physics a peculiarity is the
detailed explanation of the matter, which as a rule is felt very
difficult by the students, as well as its application in problem
solving. There are two radically different approaches from methodical
point of view. In teaching the theory the chief goal for me is my
students to comprehend the main relations and to acquire the
terminology (both Bulgarian and English) so that subsequently to be
able to describe the processes and phenomena under study and to reason
out qualitative problems. In solving quantitative problems some other
skills are needed - the acquisition of additional skills and knowledge:
the algorithm as well as some mathematical terminology.
All this makes my task in class very challenging. To support the
learning process I have written a textbook in Physics in English, which
is in use in our school. I have always tried to improve my teaching
methods so I have made attempts to include some approaches typical of
foreign language teaching in teaching Physics, for instance Cooperative
Learning. The results are promising.
.
- References:
- OT: Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math
- From: timepixdc
- Re: OT: Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math
- From: Tony Hwang
- Re: OT: Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math
- From: Goldtop 69
- Re: OT: Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math
- From: SoK66
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