Fridays

Tomorrow is Friday.

I’ve always looked forward to Fridays.

Because Fridays are Grand Prizes :) You’ll get 2 official off-days after Fridays, and in hope, to re-charge yourself and be ready for the following Mondays to Fridays (although that’s not always the case. The off-days, I mean).

As a student, Fridays are similar to other days in the week. But for me, Fridays are special in this semester. I attend two lectures in a Friday, morning and afternoon. It’s an emotion-roller-coaster-day for me.

In the morning, the subject being discussed is related to problem solving in physics. We talk about what problems are and what is real problem solving, types of problems and types of problem solvers, strategies used in solving problems, some PS models and researches done, how they implicate our instruction in schools etc etc etc. All related to my very own life and experience. A very interesting subject, it is. Seeing Physics from a new perspective. Happy.

In the afternoon, we talk about testing and evaluation in science & maths. All about measurement, testing, evaluation and assessment (they are all significantly different, mind you). Almost after every lecture, my heart fell to the earth. I felt pity for myself, the children and educators alike. Students have the every right to dislike (dislike, hate or loath or all) exams. I think the true educators do too! It must be very hard for the teachers who understand the true meaning of assessment to follow the set of so-called assessment standards (which is actually only a guideline for some once-a-life-time-evaluation, eg SPM). The best part is, we still have to sit for a final exam for this subject, you get what I mean?

Alas! We still need to follow that system until who-knows-when.

Tomorrow is Friday. And I’m looking forward to another round of roller-coaster trip. It’s exciting.