Learning by serving: our students’ reflection on their service teaching to the ethnic minority children

Abstract

This paper outlines the course design of a service project in which the students learn to teach Chinese to the children of ethnic minorities with the language arts element. Reflective journal is seen as a key assignment to review what students have learned in this subject. Students are encouraged to take log of each lesson from the very beginning when the lecturers prepare them for the teaching. During the service period, they are required to record the major activities of each lesson, service recipients’ response and what they can do to improve. At the end of the service teaching, each group has to write up a report for the organization they serve. Finally they have to write reflective journal incorporating all the log sheets, teaching records and reports as appendices. The guideline of the reflective journal is given to students before they set off do the service teaching, and from the journals, students reviewed they personal growth, teach work, teaching performance and the care of children from ethnic minorities. Some extracts were chosen to show the students’ reflection on the learning outcomes we expect.