Practicum Reflection 22 February 2012

Today was quite a disturbing day for me. I went into class 5/3 and they were having their revision on whole numbers. My CT tried to go through the worksheets but she was honest enough to let the pupils know that she had not worked out the sums prior to that so she has to work it out on the spot while going through with the class. However, I realised that there were some concepts that she might have overlooked and taught the class wrongly. I was in a dilemma as I was not sure if I should point it out to her. The pupils who had the answers correct originally all did not question her and follow her 'correct answer' instead. From this, I can see that the class really respect and listen to what the teachers say and does not apply any critical thinking skills to argue if the answers were wrong or correct. I was pretty disturbed by this fact. I would expect the class to raise questions but no one did. As for me, I did not want to embarrassed her so I did not want to point it outright. When I returned to my workstation, my fellow NIE colleagues told me not to point out her mistake as she was my CT after all and it would be difficult for her to swallow it down. I do not want to sound or look as if I know it all too so I let it go. Despite knowing that I have made a wrong decision, I really have no choice as I felt that as an NIE trainee, I'm at the mercy of my CT. I do not know her well enough yet to know if she was able to take critique/mistakes freely. I know this will impact on the pupils so I hope that if I have the chance to co-teach, I can quickly revise through the concept that was mis-communicated.