Lixin's OELP reflection

After this fruitful trip to Hefei, I realized that China had became what it is today because of its constant progress in all aspects. If not for this trip, I would have still thought that China was a laidback country and had bad living conditions according to others. I learnt to inquire things deep, so that the answer we find will be an accurate picture of a particular situation. Once blinded by unpleasant facts and stereotypes from word of mouth and the internet, I thought the whole China was in an undeveloped stage. When I went on this trip, however, I witnessed myself entering a busy city and travelling on well maintained roads. Though these may not exist in every part of China considering the expanse land that the government has to develop, at least it was made known to me that China’s technologies are advanced and is progressing well economically too. In terms of sales market in the world, China had the capability to conquer a part of the percentage of it. From these, it taught me to make better inferences in future.

Singapore is a young and developing nation with advanced technologies adapted from various countries, in an effort to make Singapore a better place to live in. I feel that there are somethings that Singapore can adapt from China.

Firstly, we could consider preserving old buildings for education like China. As a young nation, we still have our glorious past and significant historic moments. Perhaps, we can make use of the examples shown by forefathers to educate our fellow Singaporeans certain values that we can all achieve to have. By preserving more old designed buildings, we can spread those cultures to Singaporeans and cultivate more knowledgeable citizens who know their roots well.

Secondly, we can inculcate an attitude in students. Singaporeans students are seen to be very inactive in lessons and needs constant prompting by teachers to answer questions raised by teachers. By training students in future to be active in classrooms, it will be efficient when it comes to learning, both for the teacher and the students. By answering questions quickly, it promotes a better class atmosphere, and more work will be gone through. After developing this culture, we will be able to educate the students to be spontaneous and active when they graduate so that they will be able to grasp the fast paced life well in this 21^st century.

Last but not least, we can always consider having a timetable that has consistent short breaks between lessons. It was a 10 minute break between each hour’s lesson that energized them, and I personally felt that it made a great difference to a student’s daily life. That few minutes can provide the opportunity for the class to consolidate their learning, or just purely a rest time for them to a break from work and recall materials that they learnt. These little steps will let students absorb lessons more, and make learning efficient. Singapore will then be able to develop successful talents with better learners.