Re-structuring the teaching and learning of Putonghua (Mandarin) teaching methods online

The core objective of Methods module is to integrate theory with practice. To deepen students’ understanding of the principles of teaching and facilitate their grasping of teaching strategies, a methods module on teaching Primary Putonghua organizes two major types of activities – peer teaching and peer review of teaching. In the past, due to the limitations of traditional instruction, participants were passive and the teaching was ineffective even with small group tutorials. This study was an attempt based on the old content of the same module. Video records of Putonghua lessons were put online for the participants to view indefinitely at anytime. The participants acted as both teacher and students in peer teaching. They were to design lesson plans, teach and reflect on their performance. According to the participants’ feedback and actual performances, such an instructional design ensured the learning effectiveness of the module – peer review of teaching catered for individual learning needs whereas peer teaching allowed the participants to share their experiences in the whole process. These sharing and experiences enriched their understanding of the key concepts and deepened their reflections. The conclusions drawn from the study contribute to the re-designing of the pedagogy of modules with similar nature.