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On the 26th Nov 2005, Saturday,
Republic Polytechnic played host to about 80 parents for the Parents’
Outreach Seminar. This seminar was jointly organized by Centre for Educational
Development (CED) and Office of Corporate Communications (OCC), with the aim of
sharing our unique Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach with more parents of RP
students.
The seminar began with a welcome speech by
Deputy Principal, Mr Eden Liew. This was followed by an introduction of the PBL
process and a detailed explanation of why RP adopted this system of learning.
There was active participation on the part of the parents which sparked off a
lively discussion on the challenges faced by their children. Directors like Dr
Alwis (Office of Academic Affairs) and Mr Glen O’Grady (Centre for Educational Development) were present to
answer some of the queries. Also, career coaches from the Student
Career Centre (SCC) provided useful advice regarding future career prospects for
RP graduands.
After hearing from the school and the
experts, it was a refreshing change for the parents to see education issues from students’ perspectives. Ivy, Henderson Stacey and Emiko gave a brief but
insightful presentation on the experiences they had outside of
their studies. RP students attend enrichment programmes, join interest groups and
embark on service
learning trips to become all-rounded young adults.
Personal experiences on the difficulties
faced when they first started classes in RP were shared by Addison and Calvin.
This gave the parents a better understanding on the transition that their own
children underwent.
Aside from conducting an English session for the parents,
we also opened our doors to Mandarin-speaking parents. That particular session
was held in a separate meeting room and conducted in Mandarin. This proved to be
a fruitful arrangement as the Mandarin-speaking parents were more comfortable with the language
and hence more forthcoming with their queries.
When the seminar came to a close, all attendees were
treated to a sumptuous buffet lunch. Many of the parents grasped this
opportunity to voice their individual concerns to the many helpful staff who
were around to mingle with the parents. This marks the beginning of a lasting relationship between
RP facilitators and parents. This is significant as
we need to work closely with parents
to help our students maximize their potential in their academic pursuit.
* For RP Staff - Click here to view the rest of the photos from this event
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