1.

0 Introduction

This School Based Experience (SBE) report is written after a week observing in
primary school, Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina Min Daik. During that week, I
manage to enter year 2 English period class to observe the teacher conducting her
lesson. At the same time, I also observe the students attitude and learning style in
the class. The observation of the students individual differences is important
because it can directly affect the learning style of the students.

2.0 Individual Differences

Each individual is unique and different from the biological and genetical aspect. As
we all know the rate of growth and development are different among each individual.
This difference rate of occurrence result in distinctive level of maturity. Gardner
(2006) states that every individual has the full range of intelligences that make
everyone different. From my observation, there are two aspects of individual
differences examined that are cognitive aspect and social aspect.

3.0 Analysis of Individual Differences

3.1 Cognitive Aspect
First of all, from what I have observed pupils are different in the aspect of cognitive,
by which they have different thinking level and ability to gain knowledge. The
cognitive are majorly influenced by the genetic. They have different concept and
perception toward a knowledge. For example, students give different kind of answers
toward the question been asked. When the teacher asks what should we do when
we meet our neighbour? One of the students answer to greet the neighbour while
another student answers to give some fruits to the neighbour. From this we get to
know that pupils think differently from each other and their creativity is beyond our
expectation. Their logical thinking and style of inferring are unique. In other words,
they have different ways in interpreting knowledge. Apart from that, a student who
her mother is a teacher has acquired a larger array of vocabularies. This is because
mother usually are more concerned and more involved in her childrens education.
Jen (2006) states that the mothers education has a significant impact on her
childrens learning process, which included influencing childrens reading levels and
other school achievements.

3.1.1 Importance and Implication of Cognitive Differences

Teacher should study the individual differences among the students as these
differences have a direct effect on the behaviour of the students. Moreover, the

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individual differences have also contributed to the different learning style of the
students. After teacher understands the learning style of the students, then teacher is
able to teach students based on their preference and achieve a better learning
outcome. There are some recommendations of implications on teaching and learning
activities in the classroom. As a teacher has to acquire a high awareness that
students are born with different potential. Hence, teacher must be creative and
innovative enough to carry out different activities that corresponded to the different
level of pupils cognitive. Students with different educational performance level can
be given the tasks with varying difficulties. Make sure that the academic tasks are
challenging yet within their ability to accomplish it so that they do not get the feeling
of inferior that will hind their learning (Haliza et al., 2008). For example, the weaker
pupils will be giving an easier task compared to a more advanced pupil. Recognition
upon their hard work will motivate them by praise them and giving rewards or giving
the easy tasks occasionally to let them have the chance to experience success.
Moreover, teacher can encourage pupils to use their insight in their problem solving.
When teaching and learning is going on, teacher has to give familiar examples that is
related to the pupils real life experiences. According to Andrea (2004), in connecting
to the real world teacher provide students with authentic setting for using and
developing their academic content. For example using stones in mathematic
counting, or use songs that is familiar to the students in teaching vocabularies and
sentence structures.

3.2 Individual Differences Social Aspect

The social aspect is also different from individual. Social interaction is highly
influenced by their family background and their environment (Noriati, 2017). Children
who live in a big family usually are extrovert or ambivert. They used to be in the
crowd situation. However, for the children who have only one or two siblings are
commonly quiet and shy, that we called introvert. Pupils who are extrovert are active
in class. They are highly engaging themselves in the lesson. From my observation,
an extrovert boy will ask question whenever he does not understand and try his best
to answer teachers questions. Besides the boy also prefer to sit at the first row in the
class and are talkative. On the other hand, the introvert are quiet and usually sit at
the middle or last row of the class. For instance, an introvert boy are physically not
active as others. They only respond when teacher asks them.

3.2.1 Importance and Implication of Social Differences

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 Students learn more when they are able to talk to one another and be actively
involved, meaning social interaction is vital to the learning process (Beth, 2013). The
social skills among the students will determine the engagement of the students in the
lesson. Teacher as a guider has to help pupil who has social interaction problems. In
the classroom, teacher can introduce collaborative learning or group works among
the students. For example, the pairing works among extrovert and introvert pupils
can initiate communication in two ways meanwhile encourage the students to seek
help from the peers. The group work will help the introvert to build up their confident
hence actively get involved in the lesson. Aileen et al. (2015) also states that when
students are working in groups, they will be a part of a community whereby everyone
will lend support to one another. When the introvert gets the sense of trustworthy
from the peers, they will gradually merge themselves into the community.

5.0 Conclusion

In conclusion, from my SBE I realised that every student is individually difference

from many ways. We as a teacher has to take into account the differences among
the students as the individual differences of the students affect their learning style.
Teacher should be creative and use differentiated teaching method to cater to diverse
learning needs among the student.

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Reference

Andrea M. Guillaume. (2004). K-12 Classroom Teaching. New Jersey: Pearson

Merrill Prentice Hall.
Beth Hurst et al. (2013). The Impact of Social Interaction on Student Learning.
Reading Horizons, 52(4), pp. 375-398.
Haliza Hamzah et al. (2008). Child Development. Selangor: UG Press Sdn. Bhd.

Jen Gratz. (2006). The Impact of Parents Background on their Childrens Education.
Accessed on 22 Mac 2017, from
https://www.macalester.edu/educationreform/publicintellectualessay/Gratz.pdf
Noor Aileen Ibrahim et al. (2015). The Importance of Implementing Collaborative
Learning in the English as a Second Language (ESL) Classroom in Malaysia.
Procedia Economics and Finance, 31, pp. 346-353.
Noriati Rashid et al. (2017). Murid dan Pebelajaran. Selangor: Oxford Fajar Sdn.
Bhd.