I like to reflect on my experience when i learn new things. this time, to uderstand the social mind of learning, i reflect on my experience in designing a syllabus.

As a lecturer, I need to design my syllabus. From my formal education background on how to design a syllabus, need analysis is required. It results in the need to revise or design the syllabus regularly as every year, there will be different students in my class.

This year (2018), I had designed a syllabus based on my experience in teaching last year students. So I had the 2017 syllabus as one of my knowledge references in designing the 2018 syllabus. I designed the 2018 by constructing my experience while teaching last year class.

I found out several issues during the teaching-learning process that certain topic for grammar, such as “Comparative Degree and Superlative Degree”, was a difficult topic. The students were struggling because some of them had limited knowledge on basic grammar. Luckily, one of the sessions in my class was problem solving session after each topic was completed (about 20 minutes). Based on the training I received on Syllabus Design Training, Comparative Degree-Superlative Degree should be presented prior the teaching of TENSES. In Problem-Solving session, I gave the students feedback on certain issues that I experienced while teaching them the topic. The students gave their feedback. The students stated that if the sentences were using ‘to be’ such as “Rick is taller than James”, “a car is faster than a becak”, or “this blue bag was heavier than the purple bag”; they had no problem in changing it into negative or interrogative sentences, for instance. When using verbs, however, it was a bit difficult for them. For example: “they had discussed the car’s technical issue more seriously this morning than last night”, “Richard ran faster than James in the last marathon”, or “Merry has drawn a better picture on that canvas than on a white paper”.

My knowledge in teaching “Comparative Degree and Superlative Degree” has expanded as the result of my engagement with students during teaching learning process (my experience) and through my (verbal) discussion with them. Chong and Pandya (2003) say that knowledge is an understanding which we receive from our past experience, reasoning, intuition, and learning. Through this process I learnt the importance of teaching Tenses before teaching Comparative and Superlative Degrees, or I could teach this topic before teaching TENSES but I must provide easy examples and ask the students to make sentences using To Be. Bhirud, Rodrigues, and Desai (2005) in their study on Knowledge Sharing practice in an organisation (a case study) argue that knowledge will expand when it is shared. Here, I shared my experience with my students (in form of feedback) and my students shared theirs.

It can be seen that, through my experience while teaching and my communication with my students in form of discussing their problems, knowledge exchange happens. My knowledge is expanded and enriched.

Bhirud, S., Rodrigues, L., & Desai, P. (2005). Knowledge Sharing Practices in KM: A Case Study in Indian Software Subsidiary. Journal of Knowledge Management Practice. http://www.tlainc.com/articl103.htm

Chong, X., & Pandya, K.V. (2003). Issues of Knowledge Management in Public Sector. Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 1(2): 25-33.