Reflective Journal 5

Reflective Journal 5: Reflect on SES. You may want to consider the curriculum, the learning process, the assessment, difficulties you faced, how you overcame them, and how might SES be applicable in time to come. 

One and half term have passed since the start of SES and I have certain thoughts about this subject.

I find the topics discussed in SES very interesting because they are important to me in the future as they mostly concern about economic powerhouses such as China, America and Japan as well as the country I am living in, Singapore. I learn about their history, economy and their society. These, especially their corporate culture, are particularly important as I would probably be going to one of these countries to work in the future.

I like the learning process very much, which is mainly based on your research because this me to learn to be an independent learner. However, I dislike the quantity of the research we have to do and the long time we have to spend doing it.

Every lesson in the class, we would engage in a discussion with one student being assessed and getting the ball rolling with his presentation. I like this mode of assessment as it allows people to exchange knowledge with each other as well as clarifying their own knowledge at the same time, a win-win situation. However, I dislike the fact that the discussion is so rigid, we have to talk about a certain topic and only a certain topic. We are not allowed to digress from the topic. (We even have a red stick for it!) I feel that the purpose of SES is just like any other subject, to educate us, why can’t we digress and learn new things from each other, isn’t it a process of learning? When we are so focused about a certain topic, I find it boring and become uninterested as I can’t talk what I want to. I suggest that the discussion topic should not be fixed as only then it will truly be a “free’ discussion. Furthermore, the classroom is very pressurizing, marks are given based on class participation and many are competing to get it. I don’t really see the point of a class discussion when people just talk to get marks and not to truly help the person presenting on his term paper. This will also be a disadvantage to the shyer ones as they will not speak up even though they had done their research. Thus, I feel that we can engage in discussion online at home while the student who is being assessed presents in school, as many of the shy ones write/type more than they speak. Furthermore, it is easier to look at the references one has referred to and also reduce the chances of having miscommunication between everyone. I also feel that class participation should only be counted as OP marks.

The other modes of assessment, besides class participation, are the term paper and research paper. I feel that the term paper is fine as it is because the one doing it can share with the class what he is doing and also get help from classmates. However, I do not think that the term paper is a good idea. Everyone is to select a topic to work on and more than one person can work on a single topic. This results in certain “easier” topics having a lot of people doing it and also everyone is limited to the topic they can choose. I think that the research paper should be about an area of research that we want to do and are interested in, not just some fixed topics. This will allow more diversity in our papers and everyone can learn a lot more from each other although there may not be alternate perspectives to the topics and less collaboration.

            I have faced many problems in completing the weekly research for the SES lessons at the start but these problems have mostly been solved when the questions were spilt between us and each of us only has to work on one question and not all of them. However, a new problem is that the 2 SES lessons in a week are on 2 consecutive days, instead of the 4 days gap in term 1, so we only have 1 day to prepare for the next lesson, which sometimes may be a new tutorial and thus there is a need to prepare more for. Another problem I faced would be the readings, the readings are mostly very dry and boring, even though sometimes I read through them, I do not understand and retain what I have just read.
785 words

Reflective Journal 4

Reflect on the societal problems faced by China and America.

Today, I will be reflecting on China's problem of corruption and America's problem of having low quality teachers. I chose these two problems because I felt that they were the most important. The government decides the laws passed which directly affects the economy and society while education is the foundation of economic success.

I feel that China’s problem of corruption can be solved through the following ways. Firstly, China should have a stricter selection process for their political leaders, possibly more emphasis on their attitude and personalities. This way, the chances of having a corrupt leader can be reduced. Next, I think that China’s government should not have the lack of transparency that they have now. There should be such a rule where they must be open, communicate and account for what they are doing to the citizens. This way, corruption cases can be reduced as people in the government will be afraid to be involved in such cases because they have a higher chance of being exposed, now that they have to account for what they are doing. Furthermore, I feel that there should be more stringent investigations on the political leaders, to the extent where it might intrude their private life. This way, corruption cases can be greatly reduced. Some may say that intruding one’s privacy is too much. However, I feel that one being a political leader, should be a role model for everyone in that society and it would not be a problem for him/her to be investigated if he/she has a clean record and nothing to hide. Furthermore, that information about their private life can be kept a secret and be censored from the media if one is unwilling to reveal them. In conclusion, I feel that it is mostly the government’s duty to solve this problem as the problem itself is its internal problem. However, citizens also have a role to play in selecting those better and more worthy leaders for their country. This can be done by considering harder and thinking wisely with no bias before one votes for anyone.

Without such corruption cases, there will not be the creation of faulty policies that do not prioritize the people and mismanagement of public funds where most of it become black money which goes to foreign banks or is hidden, contributing nothing to China’s economic growth. Thus, corruption is a serious problem in China that needs to be solved.

America problem of the low quality of teachers can be solved through the following ways. Firstly, the moral standards of students should be improved. Too many American students bring guns and drugs to schools and are rude to their teachers. This will deter people from being teachers as it threatens their safety as well as giving them higher stress levels. Then, only the lesser-educated people who need jobs, and can’t find better ones, will be hired to fill up these roles. Then, the quality of the teachers will decrease. Thus, the moral standards of students need to be improved as this will ensure the safety of the teachers and also reduce their stress levels. Furthermore, when students show good attitude and respect towards teachers, the teachers will take more pride in their job and work harder and be even more efficient. Secondly, teachers should be valued more in America. Most Americans aspire to become doctors, businessmen or lawyers in the future as these are the best paying jobs. Few wants to become a teacher due to the high stress levels and relatively low pay.

Then, most of the higher-educated people will take on one of the three careers above and few will actually be involved in education. Then, the quality of teachers will be low. Thus, teachers need to be valued more. This can be done either by increasing the pay and standards of being a teacher or respecting them in the society. This will attract higher-educated people to become teachers and also motivate other teachers to improve and upgrade themselves. The role of education is very important in any society as it trains students who are the future workers and leaders of the country, equipping them with relevant skills and preparing them for the future. Thus, education is directly affects the economy and politics of the future and improving the quality of teachers needs to be done in America.

(735 words)

Reflective Journal 3

Reflective Journal 3: We have discussed and debated on the Chinese and America perceptions of self. Reflect on the impact of these beliefs in your life.

I must admit that the Chinese and America perceptions of self has made some impact in my life. Hwa Chong is often stereotyped as the school which produces more "Chinese" students. This is very true as I have heard many talks on Chinese values during the assemblies. However, one must also agree that America perceptions of self has also impacted some areas in HCI. For example, during assemblies, students allowed to participate in discussions and also feedback sessions.

Personally, I feel that the Confucian values has caused me more disadvantages than advantages. We are to respect our elders, no matter how we are related. I have been influenced by this and it has become a part of me. Practices such as bowing to an elder(for example, a teacher) comes naturally to me and I don't have to remind myself to bow. However, this respect has also caused me some problems. For example, when talking to an elder(except relatives), I am always not being myself. I always change my words which I normally use or tend not to speak up because I am afraid of offending them. This causes me feel awkward and nervous and this is also why I do not speak to elders much.

Another important Confucian value that has impacted my life would be "大同". In class, during discussions, I do not often speak what's on my mind unless I am 100% positive(which I am not most of the time) because I am afraid that my view is wrong as it is different from what many others think. I believe the reason for this is mainly because of "大同" which makes me afraid that I am different from the norm.

Now onto, America perceptions of self, I feel that this has not caused much impact on my life. Besides using those social platforms, such as Facebook, to express my view on certain things on the internet, I do not think that the America perceptions of self have had much impact on me at all. At this age, I am still not mature enough to vote or anything. Thus I have very little connection to elections and stuff which many people deem as very important and do not even bother to find out what's happening, same goes for my parents as they cannot vote even though they meet the age requirement. Furthermore, there has not been any big situations where I have to fight for my own rights. Singapore is a very peaceful country. There isn't much bullying in school, crime rate is quite low and I have not been a victim. I do not have to fight for own rights in any situation, it is a given. At most, I ask my teacher to change my marks if there's a calculation mistake of things like that. However, I am not sure if I can fight for my own rights if the situation arises. There have been a lot of dialogues during the assemblies and I find this very useful in helping me to speak up and fight for what I want.(especially during the HSC feedback)

I live in Singapore and am very lucky to have a blend of both China and America's

perception of self. This will surely help me to survive and thrive in the society in the future.

(584 words)

Reflective Journal 2

Question: Reflect on the working culture and management style in Google and Lenovo. You may choose to explore how far their working cultures and management styles reflect their respective societies, share your personal experiences and opinions on your preference of working culture and management style, etc.

The different working culture and management styles in the 2 companies, Google and Lenovo, reflect their respective societies.

Google, a company in America, is employee-oriented and encourages discussion and collaboration which reflects the emphasis on human rights in America. In America, everyone has a right to speak up, no matter what race, religion. This freedom of speech is like the discussions and collaboration Google encourages its employees to do. Furthermore, employees in Google should be passion-driven, creative and innovative. This is like what the education system in America is, the things that schools teach the students are much more focused on passion and creativity than Asian schools.

On the other hand, Lenovo, a company in China, is based on meritocracy where there is a dominant boss and the employees are to follow orders. This is much like some parts of the Confucian ideology inculcated in many Chinese in China : One is to respect their superiors. Furthermore, the employees must obey their bosses most of the without question. This is somewhat like what the education system is in Asian Schools where students learn things mostly through copying and not questioning why is it like that.

Personally, I feel that Lenovo is very similar Hwa Chong Institution and generally schools in Singapore. The syllabus is very structured and most of the time boring. There is a lack of enrichment activities due to the syllabus being based on the A-level-format. Furthermore, when there is enrichment activities, it is always made compulsory(or so they say "strongly encouraged"). When its made compulsory, it defeats the purpose of being an enrichment. Although attempts have been made to make the syllabus less structured, most of them are not very efficient. For example, ACE which is part of our IS marks are mostly given by the teachers and not student-directed. Furthermore, it counts as marks as a subject so students are kind of forced to do it if they want to get good grades and not explore because they are interested. This kind of structured education system is very similar to Lenovo

I would prefer working in Google to Lenovo. This is because I want to have the freedom of my work life. I do not want to work just to earn money to support my family but rather also because I am interested in that field of area. I do not want to be bossed around by stuck-up bosses who do not listen to other's opinions and always thinking they are right even though they sometimes maybe wrong. Furthermore, I do not want to be pressured by my working environment as it will decrease my work efficiency and also stifles creativity. I do not want to study hard in school just to learn, I want to apply it into my real life and I am afraid that the environment in Lenovo hinders this. Lastly, I also prefer working in Google to Lenovo because of the chance to interact with new people. It is from other people where you learn a lot of new things from their experiences. Google encourages this but Lenovo,however, only lets you interact within your sector most of the time. Teamwork is very important in today's society as an individual cannot survive on his own. Google encourages this teamwork but Lenovo has a lot of competition between individuals as each strive to try to get a better position in the company. Thus, I would prefer working in Google to Lenovo.

Reflective Journal 1

A week ago, we had our 1st Socio-Economic Studies lesson which was a new subject for us. We were briefed about the syllabus, mode of assessment and lessons.

From the briefing, I realized that this year, we are learning things that are much more practical (in real life), there are a lot of case studies and stuff. Furthermore, we are also learning wider. (from both China and the West instead of only Singapore).

About the modes of assessment, I am quite apprehensive about them because instead of the standard pen and paper test like other subjects(for example Math and Science), they are class discussions and reflective journals which has no fixed answers or format.(thus we are allowed to be creative) However, I am not sure I will do well in class discussions as I tend to not speak up in class and I do not actually read up about what is going to be taught before going for classes.(as I expect to be taught there) I am also not sure I will do well in reflective journals either, because I am not linguistically inclined and cannot express myself clearly in my journals. Moreover, I tend to not remember what was discussed during class and I am not good at taking down notes. Luckily, SES is not a subject by itself and only a component of another.

What I am worried about the most will be how class are conducted. Every lesson, there will be a student doing his termly presentation where he will present on what he has researched about the topic and direct the class discussion. I think this is the most problematic for me as you can only use cue cards and not a script and also there will be 30 other people looking at you for the whole time while you have to remain eye contact with them. The teacher will participate minimally and the discussion is mostly led by us. However, I wonder if this will truly be a effective way of learning as I know some people(maybe me) will not prepare for it and anyone hardly speaks up. Then, there will hardly be any discussion. Furthermore, there's a chance of us going off-topic and our research sources being unreliable. Then, we would be learning the wrong things.

Yesterday, we had our 1st academic lesson. We discussed about Cultural Intelligence(CQ), its definition, importance of it, and also the modes of assessment of the CQ test. At first, there were two different opinions on what Cultural Intelligence was, but after much thought, we decided on the 2nd one as it made more sense. Its definition was : Ability to function in a multicultural society. We agreed that we need CQ so that we can interact smoothly with others. Then we discussed about the 4 components of the CQ test and in which areas SES can help to improve in : 1. Drive(motivation) 2. Knowledge about different cultures/societies and understanding 3. Strategy(planning ahead, prevent offending others, reflecting upon experiences) 4. Action(behavior in front of people of different cultures) and we thought that SES could theoretically help in area 1 and 2. Personally, I feel that motivation is the most important area of the 4, as with motivation, you would tend to do well in the other areas too. Taking my own example, I am very interested in Japan, so I take Japanese as my third language where I learned about their culture and language. I also watch a lot of Japanese anime to grab a feel of an everyday life in Japan and their tradtions. Thus, I believe that motivation is very important. Yesterday's class was almost a discussion by ourselves with only a few prompts from our teacher. However, as we were not used to it, the discussion was slow and most participation was by the same person. Thus, I feel that the first few SES lessons can be improved by giving us more guidance. Lastly, I look forward to the SES lessons as I want to learn more about the economical powerhouses and this information may prove very useful in the future.