Macleod College

This is our fourth school visit and we went to Macleod College today. Macleod College is one of the most famous schools in Victoria, and it is providing education for students from prep year to Year 12. The school has distinguished academic results and strong music programme. In terms of language teaching, the school provides special English learning classes for ESL students which run in parallel to main stream English classes. The ESL classes will be operated in small-class teaching, and teachers in ESL classes are specially trained. It is hoped that the levels of English of students can be enhanced by individualized teaching assistance from teachers.

In year 10, there is a special programme named ‘Central Learning Programme’ provided by the school to cater to individual difference. Teachers are trying to integrate different subjects into one. Based on students’ interests, teachers will try to relate learning to different individuals by making authentic teaching materials to suit the different learning needs of students. There are different layers of knowledge in one concept, and such student-centred learning would allow teachers scaffold these different layers on students’ knowledge base.

We did not have the chance to observe a full language lesson, but we were shown the different types of learning spaces around the campus. There are many different open spaces of learning, and teachers can make use different learning spaces to suit their lessons. Unlike in traditional classrooms, there are no doors or walls to restrict the learning area of students, and the furniture in the classroom are moveable to create a more flexible learning space. Teachers will make use of their physical movements such as maintaining eye contact with students and walking around the classroom to monitor the learning progress of students. However, such innovative style of teaching and learning may pose challenges to some teachers as they have to walk out of their comfort zones and change their teaching styles to suit the changed learning spaces.

Macleod College demonstrates a new teaching and learning style with its flexibility in learning spaces. However, such teaching and learning style remains not very feasible in Hong Kong context because the flexibility in learning spaces requires plenty of space and funding. Schools in Hong Kong may not be big enough to spare a lot of open areas for learning. Besides, the setting in the classrooms cannot possibly be changed due to the small classroom areas and numerous number of desks and chairs. The flexibility of learning spaces in Hong Kong classroom is low, and it could be enhanced only if the class size is reduced.