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Fieldwork Notes
Name
Institution
Course
Instructor
Date
First Fieldwork notes
Set no: 1
Date:
Location/event: Watching and Reflecting on a Movie on YouTube: The Wave
Time: 0800-1000 Hours
Participants:
Time
Descriptive notes
Reflective notes
0800-0830 hours:
Getting into the movie’s introductory part
I watched the movie’s introductory part. It started with a flashback of a former student recounting his memories of ‘The Wave.’ The student recounts that ‘The Wave’ is the most horrifying classroom experience he has ever had. The movie was based on a real story in which the student was a partaker. It entailed a history teacher and his students in a class of about 30. He taught students about Nazi Germany.
While familiarizing his students with the plight of Nazi victims, the teacher explained that the people who Hitler’s Nazi movement was set to exterminate went into concentration camps that were found across Eastern Europe. With the help of video recordings, his revelation of the desperate times in which the Nazi victims found themselves hit his students hard. The revelation that the concentration camp prisoners had a lifespan of only 270 days seemed to be more than what the students could take as many started asking hard questions. The student’s reactions to the teacher’s narration of the plight of Nazi operations were not isolated feelings, as I also started asking many similar questions. My comment was only one among the many that viewers had left earlier. Fortunately for the channel, there is a platform where viewers can air their views about the content, and I did not hesitate.
As he introduced the lesson, the teacher woke one of the students, called Robert, who had started sleeping on his desk. However, the teacher keeps his cool while waking up Robert by apologizing for boring him as he walks around the class.
The teacher’s vivid narration and allowing room for questions from students were key to ensuring an interactively and lively session. It encourages learners to join the discussion platform and discuss the historical details that the video reveals. Thus, the movie played a significant role in ensuring an engaging and interactive learning and teaching process.
The movie effectively illustrated the teacher’s role in ensuring maximum concentration through his move to wake up Robert when he was sleeping in class. If the teacher had failed to wake him up, Robert could have missed an important introductory point, which could have translated to troubles in future classes built from the previous one. Therefore, the teacher tried to make his class as supportive as possible, which is one of the teacher’s key responsibilities.
Additionally, the teacher ensured a successful learning experience by infusing some light moments in his class from how he woke up Robert. For example, the sarcastic apology he offered to Robert while waking him up was to ensure that his class never became boring. Furthermore, the soft approach to Robert as he woke up the student was also necessary to ensure that a poor attitude did not develop between the two. Therefore, one can conclude that the movie successfully demonstrated the need for a teacher to mind the students’ emotional needs for a successful teaching and learning experience. Indeed, the student’s facial expression suggests that he felt no offense or embarrassment after waking up.
The teacher’s decision to move around the class was also necessary for a successful learning experience. He started moving around the class as he narrated the plight of Nazi Holocaust victims to monitor students’ attention, especially those who sat at the back. The movement in class was also necessary to ensure a supportive teaching and learning environment by enlivening those who are about to sleep since they will be least likely to sleep when they see him moving towards them.
Finally, the teacher added to the effectiveness of his class by using video recordings. The infusion of technology into his class gave his students a close touch to the experiences of Nazi victims. Additionally, viewing the videos of the Nazi Holocaust helps ensure that the content stick in students’ memory.
0830-0845 hours:
Development of the movie’s main themes
The hard questions that students asked after the teacher’s shocking revelation of the Nazi Holocaust set the stage for the movie’s second part. They formed the basis for the development of the movie’s main theme. First, students sought to know whether all Germans were Nazis since it was hard to understand why there was no revolt among Germans against Nazis. The teacher opened the classroom window as he explained. When he confirmed that less than 10% of Germans were Nazis, students still sought to know why there was no revolt against the Nazis in the country. He appreciated his students’ questions before answering them. When he responded that Germans said they were oblivious of the Nazi developments. Questions kept coming as another student sought to know how the Nazis could claim over 4 million lives without anyone knowing. One student contented that Germans’ claim that they knew nothing regarding Nazi killings is untrue. Another student wondered how the Germans could be so emotionless in the face of the massive Nazi killings with the pretense that they knew nothing.
The teacher’s move to open the classroom window also contributed to the effectiveness of the teaching and learning experience. Opening the window sought to ensure that his classroom learning experience was supportive. High temperatures and poor ventilation could be one of the reasons behind the student’s difficulty staying awake. Therefore, the fresh air that comes with opening windows seems an appropriate answer.
The teacher describing his student’s question as a very good one also contributed to the success of the teaching and learning experience. Effecting teaching recognizes the role of having deep knowledge in enabling students to acquire the same. The comment encourages students to think through the class content critically and thus enhance understanding and mastery of the subject. The comment also boosts students’ confidence as it gives them the feeling that they can reason with their teacher. Additionally, the teacher’s positive comment on the student’s question encourages students to ask questions where they feel they need more clarification. Finally, his positive comment on the students’ questions creates room for an interactive learning and teaching experience. An interactive and engaging session helps to make a class interesting and lively, consequently killing boredom. The students’ reactions to the Germans’ attitude to the plight of Nazi Holocaust victims reveal the class’s success in keeping it lively and engaging.
0845-0915: The first half of the movie’s main theme
Like an earlier instance, the first half of the movie’s main theme started with a story within a story stylistic feature. The episode highlights love affairs among students and the teacher having a casual talk with his wife before returning to the movie’s main theme. The teacher proceeds to introduce the first requirement for acquiring power. He tells them that the first way to acquire power is via discipline. According to him, discipline entails several things, including posture, talking, and how one addresses others. Next, he takes them through several demonstrations. Finally, he ends his class with an assignment.
Using the story within a story at the beginning of the first half of the movie’s main theme effectively created a light moment within the lesson. Being a lesson on such an emotional matter as the Nazi Holocaust requires intentionally including light moments. Consequently, one can rightfully judge that the movie incorporated student needs and interests in the design of the teaching approach, which is key to an effective teaching and learning experience. The move was also a good way of making the class interesting and easy to follow. Additionally, taking some time outside the curriculum to talk about students and the teacher’s social life effectively creates a blend of the intellectual and social environment, which is a prerequisite for an effective teaching and learning experience.
The teacher’s approach to expounding on discipline as a way of acquiring power is another item that comes to mind when reflecting on the first half of the movie’s main theme. His chronological exploration of the things that entail discipline and the sudden change in his tone to students as part of what he is teaching them contributes to the success of the teaching and learning experience. The move helps students connect with the content in a better way.
Another thing that comes to mind while reflecting on the lesson is teaching students the role of discipline in acquiring power and what discipline entails by actively demonstrating it. Framing the lesson content around several tasks to complete is essential for a productive teaching and learning environment.
Finally, the part reveals the assessment element in the teaching and learning process. The teacher ended his lesson with an assignment necessary for properly planning teaching and learning activities.
0915-0945 hours: The main part of the movie’s main theme
The teacher proceeds to explain that there is more to do to acquire power other than just discipline after conducting intensive research. He introduces the doctrine of community as another prerequisite for gaining power. Then he declares that the class, inclusive of him, is now a community. He introduces a slogan ‘Strength through Discipline, Strength through Community’, which will be identifying them. He further introduces a unique salute for the newly developing community. The community is called The Wave. Then, the fire the teacher ignites in the students’ hearts as he introduces The Wave seems to get the better of them, triggering concerns from parents and other teachers alike. The Wave seems to penetrate even the hearts of students who are not class members. He creates a system of reporting those who fail to follow The Wave rules and okays students to admit members from other classes into the movement but with caution that it has to happen only after the new member demonstrates full knowledge and understanding of The Wave a Students start confessing how much impact The Wave has had on them; some say she feels like she has been born again, while others confess being ‘part of something bigger than’ him. Eventually, The Wave grows into something bigger than anyone in the school imagined, students start bullying those who fail to subscribe to the movement and its rules, and complaints start emerging from other teachers that their students are missing their classes to attend The Wave meeting and the whole thing grows into a seeming disaster.
The teacher’s resolve to give his all to The Wave is the first thing from the main part of the movie’s main theme that contributes to a successful learning process. Before The Wave’s second day, the teacher awakens late into the night, reading through large volumes of history books to ensure he has all it takes to deliver. He seemed content that enabling students to develop deep knowledge requires the teacher to have deep knowledge. Consequently, he demonstrated the knowledge depth from his quest to ignite The Wave fire in the chests of his students. Introducing a mechanism for reporting those who fail to adhere to The Wave rules and providing room for admission of other students in it but with caution that only those who demonstrate sufficient knowledge of it and its rules were some of his strategies. It gave the students an impression of how serious The Wave had gotten. All these things point to the fact that he had a deep knowledge of what he wanted his students to grasp.
The fact that students from other classes started missing lessons to sneak into his class suggests that he over-delivered in terms of gaining, sustaining, and continually growing student interest in the teaching and learning experience. Students’ confessions of The Wave’s impact on them is another pointer to his success in generating the interest to learn. Generating, sustaining, and continually growing student interest in the learning experience is an important determinant of the success of the experience. The success also points to his commitment to fully mastering the content.
0945-1000 hours:
The Final part of the movie’s main theme
As the movie heads towards the end, activities of The Wave in the school intensify and its presence manifests everywhere. Pressure mounts on the teacher to dissolve the movement. The school head summons him. Contrary to the pressure, he decides not to relent until he helps his students get what he intends to deliver with it. Therefore, he heightens the movement’s activities by announcing to its ballooning membership in the school that they are just part of a bigger body growing in the country. He informs them that The Wave has a national leader, a renowned national figure. Then, he informs them that they will meet other members of The Wave, and the movement’s head will address them in a national rally. However, the excitement suddenly stopped when the teacher told them that their national leader would address them on live TV coverage, only for them to see Hitler addressing members of the Nazi. Until then, students discovered that The Wave was the teacher’s demonstration of how Nazi claimed the lives of millions of people without resistance among Germans.
The teacher’s resolve to continue with The Wave in spite of the growing pressure from different quarters is another factor contributing to the success of a teaching and learning experience. Deep interest in the teacher and students is important for the success of a teaching and learning process. Getting near the point of losing his job to demonstrate a point to the students demonstrates the highest level of passion on the teacher’s side. The students’ growing resolve to do anything for the success of The Wave demonstrates maximum passion.
The dramatic turn of events when students gathered to hear from The Wave’s national leader is another source of efficiency in the teaching and learning process. Effective learning entails having students make meaning from experience. The teacher did not just seek to enable students to learn from experience. He also ensured that the experience from which students were to learn was one they could not forget. Thus, a former student’s confession that The Wave was the most disturbing classroom experience he had ever experienced was a mark of the teacher’s success.
Second Fieldwork Notes
Set no: 2
Date:
Location/event: Watching and Reflecting on a Movie on YouTube: 3 Idiots
Time: 0800-1000 hours
Participants:
Time
Descriptive notes
Reflective notes
0800-0900 hours: The Introductory part of the movie
The movie picks on a hilarious note. One of the main characters, Farha, aborts a flight just after the plane taking off under the pretense of medical emergency just to meet his lost friend, Rancho. He informs his other friend, Raju, that their college classmate, Chatur, knows where Rancho is and that they can meet after disappearing for ten years. Raju leaves his house in a hurry and even forgets to wear his pants as he runs to join Farha on the journey to meet Rancho. The movie proceeds to show why Rancho means so much to Farha and Raju as a friend. It reveals that the two had benefited greatly from Rancho’s wisdom. Rancho contradicted most of the mainstream ideas about life, and each time, he happened to be right. He challenged every notion suggesting that life is a race, and one has to choose to compete or die. The first notion suggesting life is a race is Farha’s narration that he grew up under the nourishment of a gem that even during conception, everyone had to compete and outdo other 30 million sperms. The movie uses technology to display the struggle among sperms.
The movie’s hilarious beginning is its first win as a teaching and learning process. The funny moment when Farha pretends to be unwell to warrant an emergency return helps to make what it intends to teach more relatable. It demonstrated early on that life is not that serious, and people should not approach things too seriously. Whereas one could easily dismiss the idea of canceling a flight over the intention like his as something too difficult to accomplish, he managed it without even talking to anyone. One of the ways to enhance the efficiency of a teaching and learning experience is by making the content much more relatable to the students.
Another way through which the movie ensures that its content is relatable to its readers is by employing technology to display the struggle among numerous sperms to fertilize an egg. First, the example simplifies the message in a way that learners can easily relate. Additionally, the illustration of the movement of sperms seeking to fertilize the egg gives students a chance to see exactly how life is from the lenses of the community and in a way that they can easily relate.
0900-1000 hours: The main theme of the movie
The movie’s main theme starts with Rancho dismantling the mainstream philosophy that life is a race. First, he successfully proves that mindless cramming of notes for the sake of being at the top in exams is counterproductive. He demonstrated to his teacher that learning engineering should be fun, not the frenzy he witnessed in class. The frenzy became apparent when his teacher found his definition of a machine ridiculous and praised the definition of the student who had just crammed it the way it was in the textbook. As fate could have it, he beat the student in the final examination to finish at the top.
The movie also challenged the notion of using the academic life of Raju. Raju had grown used to viewing life as a challenge he needed to try to manage. Finally, however, he followed Rancho’s advice to take life easily, and it was the beginning of his best days.
Rancho’s use of real-life examples is the first item that enhances the successful teaching and learning experience. As the paper has already discussed, making lesson content relatable is important in enhancing a successful learning environment. With Rancho’s demonstration through his academic journey that one can succeed without taking life too seriously, one can hardly challenge him. His approach to teaching his friends the best approach to life is highly responsible for their willingness to do anything just to meet him. His advice for Raju, which proved to be life-changing, is another example of how he ensured his teachings were relatable. There is no way Raju could fail to relate to Rancho’s teachings. Additionally, Rancho’s use of demonstrations whenever he tries to explain his position makes his teachings interesting. The aspect also explains why his friends could not resist him.
Third Fieldwork Notes
Set no: 3
Date:
Location/event: Watching a YouTube Movie: My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend
Time: 0800-1000 hours
Participants:
Time
Descriptive notes
Reflective notes
0800-0900: The movie’s introductory part
The movie starts with flashforward literary stylistic features in which Ethan and his girlfriend’s love seem to get to the climax. Jesse, his girlfriend, tried to flee from him, but his love for him could not let her, nor could his speed in following her to the airport. After the flashforward, the movie’s main theme starts with Ethan’s unsuccessful struggles to excel in his writing career. The publisher rejects his literary piece despite numerous attempts. Her explanation for rejecting Ethan’s paper is that his writing is quite unrealistic. Ethan tries to defend his work as realistic by claiming that his piece is not real but just a story. When the publisher insists that a story worth publishing should be something people see in real life, Ethan tries to defend it again by confessing that he was drawing the story from his real life and then painting the character borrowing from his life. However, the publisher regrets telling him that drawing from his life is the root of his problem because he does not cut the figure of a typical man.
The movie’s style of starting with flashforward stylistic features is the first strategy it employed to ensure a successful learning and teaching process. It helps generate the learners’ interest in knowing what comes next, which is necessary for an efficient teaching and learning experience. The learners develop interest, particularly from the fact that the two lovers’ feelings for each other get to a climax just when their love approaches its seeming end.
The second part of the movie also focuses on the discussion between the publisher and Ethan to highlight the role of understanding a student in the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process. Whereas Ethan was putting in his all to get a nod from the publisher, he was getting it wrong each time, and it was not possible even for the publisher to help him without a sufficient understanding of his personality. Successful learning is impossible without the teacher’s sufficient understanding of the learner. Ethan only needed to know that his personality was not the best to use as a model in what should sound like a real man.
0900-1000 hours:
Fate seems to work for Ethan as he meets a girl in a restaurant who inspires him to become the kind of man that is worthy using as a model in a story. The girl is Jesse. She offers him inspiration after realizing that he is on the brink of abandoning his writing career after several unsuccessful attempts. Consequently, he decides to write a story about the inspiration itself. For instance, as part of the inspiration process, she tells him that there is something strange about him. She explains that whenever he kisses her, the feeling that gets in her is extraordinary, that she feels like she is flying. The inspirational efforts bear fruit, and his book eventually impresses the publisher for the first time.
The movie’s main theme exemplified two major elements of a successful teaching and learning process. The first one was the need to create a supportive environment. Jesse create a supportive environment by ensure Telling him of his magical powers gave him confidence beyond just the art of kissing and other aspects of life such as his writing career.
The piece also reveals the need for the learning and teaching approach to reveal students’ needs. Jesse’s approach to inspiring Ethan to succeed in his writing career appealed directly to Ethan’s weakness. A review of her approach can inform one about his needs.
The Fourth Fieldwork notes
Set no:
Date:
Location/event: Article Reading on wikiHow: How to Know if a Person Truly Loves You
Time: 0800-1000 hours
Participants:
Time
Descriptive notes
Reflective notes
0800-0900 hours:
Introduction
I read through the article’s introduction. The author begins by contending that there is no way for one to tell if another person’s tendencies are certain indications of true love. However, he proceeds to state that there are ways one can understand the feelings of another. He also agrees that love may mean different things to different people, but one can still make a fairly accurate distinction between love, infatuation, or just crushing on someone.
The author displays a great understanding of the content by confessing that no one can identify another person’s feelings as love. Even though he seeks to help people to identify gestures that signify true love, Ethan demonstrates that one-sided. The approach demonstrates mastery of the subject, which is necessary for a successful learning and teaching environment.
0900-1000 hours: The main body of the article
The article’s main body delves into the specific items to which one can pay attention to correctly understand the true feelings of another. The first item to look at is seeing whether one’s presence does not seem to alter the other person’s behavior. One can also separate true love from untrue love by checking whether there is happiness while in the other person’s company. The author used pictorial representations to illustrate his point in most of the items he endorses for checking whether one’s feelings are true love. A careful review of the images reveals that they all show some humor. All the photos show people with funny faces or doing something funny. Further review of the article’s main body reveals that the author was keen on using life examples. For instance, he on being watchful of the type of ‘I love you’ that one gets by saying that ‘love ya!’ and ‘I love you’ does not mean the same.
The article’s main body reveals several things contributing to its success as a learning material. The first thing is the author’s resolve to make the reader relate to the content easily. The author’s first strategy to ensure the reader relates easily to the content was by using pictorial representations. For example, some of the pictures show people making familiar reactions that one often sees while in love. The familiar reactions make the readers relate to the content easily. Another strategy that the author used to help the reader relate to the content easily was using familiar phrases and statements that people use in their day-to-day lives while in love and trying to give it meaning. The familiar phrases like ‘love ya!’ and ‘I love you’ make the reader relate to the content more.
The author also sought to make his content effective as a learning material by ensuring that his content is interesting. His key plan to ensure the content was interesting was using humor. His choice of funny photos indicates his intention to give the content a touch of humor and thus make it interesting.
Fifth Fieldwork notes
Set no: 5
Date:
Location/event: Reading an Article: E-Cigarette Use and Adult Cigarette Smoking Cessation: A Meta-Analysis
Time: 0800-1000 hours
Participants: Xianzheng Zhou
Time
Descriptive notes
Reflective notes
0800-0900 hours: The Introductory part of the paper
The article started with an abstract to give its learners a quick picture of what to expect. It was a study that explored the effectiveness of e-cigarettes in quitting cigarette smoking among adults. It used secondary data from EMBASE, Web of Science Core Collection, and PubMed. The study established that e-cigarettes have little impact on smoking cessation among adults if they use them as a normal consumer product. However, the study abstract confirms that its findings indicate that using e-cigarettes therapeutically increases smoking cessation among adults.
The article seeks to get the reader’s attention by starting with an abstract that invites a reader’s interest. Effective teaching and learning experiences require the teacher to generate the learner’s interest in the lesson. Therefore, the abstract will most likely attract the interest of those struggling to quit cigarette smoking. Identifying its main data sources was another way the article captured the readers’ attention. The credible institutions from which the study acquired its data grow the reader’s belief that whatever the study offers is something to trust. Therefore, the article effectively sought to get the reader’s attention.
0900-1000 hours: The article’s main body
In the next part, the article conducts a literature review. It traces the history of the interest in knowing the effectiveness of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation therapy. It relates the growing interest to the 2019 federal court ruling that allowed the selling of e-cigarettes as consumer products. Proceeding with the literature review, the article also explored the efforts of earlier scholars on the effectiveness of e-cigarettes in cigarette smoking cessation. It noted that prior efforts in the field were not enough.
The first thing the article achieves by conducting a literature review is putting its content in context. Effective teaching and learning respond to cultural and social contexts. Therefore, the article’s highlight of the study’s literature review was necessary for the success of its teaching intentions. It lets the reader know where and how the conversation around e-cigarettes’ effectiveness in cigarette smoking started. The literature review also helps the reader connect with the content, another key determinant of success in a teaching and learning experience.
References
Clapton, W. (2015). Pedagogy and pop culture: Pop culture as teaching tool and assessment practice. E-International Relations.
Khan, A. (2012). 3 Idiots. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MmI3I50Qrsw&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE.
Mover, E. (2016). My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rur99tsNAJ8
McCarthy, D. (2012). The Wave. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/ICng-KRxXJ8.
Moss, J. (2006, January). The principles of learning and teaching (PoLT). In AARE 2006: Proceedings of the 2006 Australian Association for Research in Education conference. Australian Association for Research in Education.
Ratson, M. (2022). How to Know if a Person Truly Loves You. WikiHow. Retrieved from: https://www.wikihow.com/Know-if-a-Person-Truly-Loves-You.
Wang, R. J., Bhadriraju, S., & Glantz, S. A. (2021). E-cigarette use and adult cigarette smoking cessation: a meta-analysis. American Journal of Public Health, 111(2), 230-246.