1. Raffles Institution
Year 2 Research Education
Design For Change School Challenge 2011
Team Leader: Tommy Ong (2I)
Team Members: Eric Zhao (2I)
Benedict Ng (2I)
Deng Jinyang (2I)
Teacher-Mentor: Mr Leon Lai
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2. Acknowledgement
We would like to express our gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to complete this
research. Firstly, we would like to thank Mr Sarkkunan, without whose support the interview
would not have been possible. We are deeply indebted to our teacher-mentor, Mr. Leon Lai, from
Philosophy Department, whose help, stimulating suggestions and encouragement had helped us
in all the time of research for and writing of report by looking every piece of our work carefully as
well as correcting both English style and grammar, at the same time offering precious
suggestions for improvement.
We are also bound to thank the Year Ones whose unwavering support had helped us to make
our implementation of plans a success and most certainly our former RE classmates supported
us in our research work. We want to thank them for all their help, support, interest and valuable
hints.
Especially, we would like to give our special thanks to our parents whose patience and
understanding with us as we worked long hours into the night was very helpful.
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3. Table of contents
1. Introduction
1.1 – Context 4
1.2 – Objectives 4
1.3 - Why Design For Change? 5
2. Background research 7
3. Preparation for Action Week
3.1 - Work Allocation 8
3.2 - Target Group 8
3.3 - Observation of Classrooms 8
3.4 - Social Survey 10
3.5 - Interview 13
3.6 – Analysis of Results 14
4. Our Action Week 16
5. Reflections
5.1 - Our Learning Journey 21
5.2 - Our Thoughts 21
6. Bibliography 24
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4. Section 1: Introduction
1.1 Context of our Design For Change Project
When we are still brainstorming the theme of focus for the project, we observed that
many classrooms we had entered are very dirty, with a lot rubbish like tissue papers,
erasers, empty discarded plastic bottles (mostly for isotonic drinks), sweet wrappers, etc.
Upon closer inspection, there is a general trend that most of these rubbish are related to
food and drinks, although they are banned in class. Nevertheless, the dirty state of the
classroom are not due to the cleaners not cleaning the classrooms or whatsoever—the
cleaners clean every classroom at least one everyday.
That, it can only be explained that the students are not taking good care of their
classrooms at all, and that’s why they litter all over the classroom.
This problem poses an obstruction to learning. Due to the fact that every classroom is
air-conditioned, its doors has to be closed, allowing little or no air-ventilation. Thus, the
smell from certain discarded rubbish gets trapped in the classroom. Sometimes, the
smell remains in the classroom for more than 8 months.
This smell often hinders the students’ learning process by distracting the students away
from the lesson. One example is that the classroom we go for Research Education has a
durian smell, which some of us find unacceptable, and thus are often distracted from
concentrating on the teacher’s instructions.
Besides, certain teachers want a clean classroom before start teaching. As a result,
certain periods of the lesson time has to be allocated into cleaning the classrooms.
Whereas the lesson time is fixed, the time for the actual impart of knowledge from
teachers to their students is greatly reduced, hence limiting the amount of knowledge the
students can receive.
We find this problem of students littering too much rubbish in their classrooms with many
disadvantages and thus, disturbing. That is why we want to make a change, a difference,
an improvement.
1.2 Objective of Design For Change
As a RE group whose theme is Design For Change, we wanted to abolish the conditions
stated above and thus provide, a more condusive learning environment for the students,
which does not hinder their process of learning. The best solution to this is none other
than a one which solve the root cause: Students not taking care their classrooms. And
that’s to ingratiate a sense of belonging to the their classrooms into the students. Thus
they would automatically stop littering and take care of their classrooms’ cleanliness,
hence the tendency for students to litter is greatly reduced.
The proposed solution is to let the students clean their own classrooms during Protected
Interaction Time so as to achieve our goal of bonding the students with their own
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5. classrooms. Nevertheless, some students may object to this idea since they may be lazy
to do cleaning themselves. However, in the long run, they will start having the idea of
themselves having to take care of their classrooms so that they do not have to labor so
hard while cleaning their classrooms. But, in an even longer run, the students will start
loving their classrooms, treat it as if it is their second home and begin taking care of it by
not littering. Besides, this activity would also help to further the bond between the class,
lessen the cleaners’ burden, nurture a sense of responsibility in students, but these are
not the main point yet.
In this project, we want to keep the area of focus small, by just carrying this activity out in
one to two Year One classes, (which are selected upon the extent of their classrooms
being dirty, the two most dirty classes would be selected)based on the following reasons:
1) PIT is just twice per week, and the group has only four members, thus two is the most
appropriate number to observe each class, hence only a most of 2 classes can carry out
this activity.
2) Currently, Year One will have the longest time to stay in RI, thus the benefit is
stretched to the biggest extent.
3) Assumption: Since Year One is the youngest students in school, they should be the
group which is the easiest to be changed.
4) To maximise the benefits of this project, the two most dirty classes have to be
selected to be changed.
1.3 Why Design For Change?
Many people have asked our group, the reason for which we have chosen to do DFC. It
seems perfectly commonsensical for one to choose a RE project which makes our life
easy. Why would we want to choose such a project and put ourselves through the
hardship of having to implement social change? In many people’s eyes, 14-years-old
children do not exactly seem to be the best candidates to help improve social issues.
Less so, if they are Singaporeans. Even less so, if they are Rafflesians. This is because
many people, including Singaporeans ourselves have a notion that children are too
pampered and thus cannot take any hardship. Therefore, we are not normally seen as
people who would choose a social change project.
What they don't know, is that dreams are magic. They allow our spirits to shine, and they
reflect our uniqueness and authenticity. As we grow and mature, we are inundated by
the ideology of people that call for us to get our heads out of the clouds and come down
to earth and that ask us to stop dreaming dreams simply because they will never come
true. Sometimes these voices come from others, and sometimes they come from
ourselves from our maturity. Our maturity comes at a price; we underestimate the power
and possibility that life is the act of dreaming what can be and that we all have to do the
work it takes to make our dreams a reality.
What they don't know, is that social change is not really that hard if we put our hearts to
it. It is all in our hands, all it takes are our hands to start the ball rolling. It is only our
heart and our mind stopping us. Never fear anything which seems impossible, because
dreams guide us to do things which we are passionate about.
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6. The day we decided to embark on this project was the day we let our dreams take flight.
Our dream might be small, literally small-scale, but we hope to touch the RI Batch of
2014 with our humble dream.
inspired by [ (Magsamen, 2009)]
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7. 2. Background Research - Credibility
In Singapore, education takes up a large part of our childhood and youth. From the
tender age of 6 to a young adult of 18 or 19, we learn. we learn in our schools, being
taught by our teachers and being led the way. And the area in which our learning is
carried out is our classrooms. Of course, our classroom cleanliness is essential for a
more cohesive learning experience. On February 16 2011, The Procter & Gamble
Company released a survey carried out by them, where they surveyed 1000 teachers.
Out of these 1000 teachers, 94% believed that students learn better in cleaner
environments. (CINCINNATI, 2011) Evidently, teachers also place a great emphasis on
the teaching environment around them. In the same survey, 51% of teachers report
avoiding certain in-class activities as they are scared of the clean-ups. This would
severely impact the interactive learning of students. (CINCINNATI, 2011)
As we can see from the above evidence, our classroom environment is extremely
important for our learning and development. The fact that Raffles Institution is a premier
institution in Singapore makes it all the more important that we uphold a certain high
standard of cleanliness in our classrooms to facilitate learning. We often rely on the
school’s cleaners to clean our classrooms for us, but we believe that it is time for the
student body to step up and take responsibility for their own classroom and indirectly,
their learning.
After we decided to focus on the cleanliness of classrooms, we decided to narrow our
scope down to the Year 1s as they are new to the school. We stayed back after school
for a few afternoons and checked out their classrooms before the cleaners came in. To
our dismay, their chairs were in utter disarray and litter was strewn all over the floor.
Pieces of paper had imprints of feet all over them. What was needed to clear the mess
was just for one person to take an effort to pick up these paper and throw them away in
the dustbin.
As such, we set about brainstorming ways in which we could educate the value of
classroom cleanliness in Year 1s. One idea that we came up with was that the
classrooms remain uncleaned for a whole week and at the end of that week, we allow
the students to clean up their own classrooms. In this way, we could allow the students
to experience learning in a dirty classroom and from that experience, learn the
importance of maintaining the cleanliness of their classrooms.
We got this solution because we wanted to instill a sense of responsibility in the students
and even after our Design For Change project was over, such simple actions could
continue on the classes’ own accord. Even if we have only impacted a few classes, we
have still made a change, one small step at a time.
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8. 3. Preparation for Action Week – Methodology
3.1 Work allocation
Benedict and Tommy did background research on the topic to give us a general
foundation to base our project on. Every group member was involved in coming up with
the interview and survey questions. Eric took the photos of the classrooms for both year
one classes and our own class, as well as sending out and interpreting the interview.
Jinyang and Tommy gave out the survey forms.
3.2 Target group
We could only pick out a few classes to conduct our project on, since we could not
possibly extend our project to every single class due to manpower and time constraints.
With only four people and seven days, we eventually decided to select three classes
from the year ones cohort aside from our class to focus on. We decided to spend one
day to give out leaflets to year one classes, three days to improve our own class’s
awareness and effort towards keeping our classroom clean, and the remaining three
days to talk to three different year one classes on keeping the classroom clean.
3.3 Observation of classrooms
Photos of year 1 classrooms were taken to see which classes were the least clean and
tidy. Photos were taken from all 15 year one classes and were then compared to see
which were the least clean and tidy. Although this may not be a hundred percent
accurate, it was a fair representation of a classroom and we used the information to pick
out the three target year one classes. We only took one or two photos of each classroom,
and they do not show every piece of litter or disorganized tables and chairs, but rather
only the angle that could capture the most problems was chosen and the pictures were
taken this way.
On the next page are actual photos taken of the three classes, 1F, 1I and 1K:
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9. There was paper lying on the floor of class 1F. There were also other items found lying
around (photos below only show some areas):
In class 1I, the tables were quite messy and the photo shows a PE shirt, an empty file on
the floor and others(photo does not show other small objects):
In class 1K, there were objects in the middle of the classroom.
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10. 3.4 Social Survey
Our team conducted a social survey on RI students to find out the perception of RI
students towards their own classrooms and how it could be improved best. Respondents
between year 1 and two were asked on their personal opinions on the state of their
classrooms, how it affected them personally, their degree of reliance on school cleaners,
their opinions on school cleaners cleaning up their classrooms as well as how they felt
the situation could be improved. The survey was designed to help us develop plans for
our poster for Action Week as well as how we would try to persuade the students in our
scope to keep their classrooms clean and tidy.
Our actual survey form is on the next page.
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11. Raffles Institution Research Education
We are students from class 2I and we are doing a project to investigate the
condition and possible improvements of cleanliness in classrooms. Your
responses will help us understand the students’ perception of classroom
cleanliness in RI and how it can be improved best.
Which class are you from? _____
On a scale of 1 to 5, how clean and neat do you perceive your classroom to be?
(1 being very dirty and messy and 5 being very neat and tidy) ___
Do any of your classmates consume any of the following in class? (You may tick
in more than one box)
Food (from canteen)
Food (from home)
Sweetened drinks bought from canteen
Sweetened drinks brought from home.
If you have ticked two or more boxes, then which kind of food is consumed with
the highest frequency?
___________________
In your opinion, which kind of consumed food (Snacks, sandwiches, sweets etc)
is causing the greatest problem to the maintenance of classroom cleanliness?
___________________
How much are you affected when your classroom is unclean? (1 being not
affected at all and 5 feeling extremely uncomfortable) ___
Do you think a clean classroom is important as a learning environment? (1 being
not important at all and 5 being very important)
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12. Do you think the school is doing enough to ensure that our classrooms are clean?
Yes No Neutral
In your opinion, do you feel that our cleaners are doing a good job in cleaning up
our classrooms?
Yes No Neutral
Which of the following activities do you think would be the most effective in
improving the state of classrooms?
Students briefly cleaning classrooms once a week
Students briefly cleaning their classrooms twice a week
Having a competition for the cleanest class
What suggestions do you have to improve the cleanliness of classrooms? (This
is an open-ended question)
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Thank you for your patience in answering this questionnaire. Your responses are
greatly appreciated.
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13. 3.5 Interview
In order to hear about teachers’ opinions on classroom cleanliness, we
conducted an interview with Mr Sarkkunan, a teacher currently teaching in
RI. Mr Sarkkunan teaches physical education, which is conducted outside the
classroom, but he also conducts lesson in class in his other roles and his duty as
the form teacher of a year 1 class. This can suitably reflect the opinions of
teachers in Raffles Institution on the state of classrooms, especially a PE teacher
who would usually be more active in engaging students and therefore would
better understand the psychology of students.
Our group asked Mr Sarkkunan about how he felt about the level of cleanliness
of RI classrooms and how important he felt a clean and tidy learning environment
was. We also asked him for suggestions as to how to improve the state of
classrooms as well as how the year 1 students might respond to our campaign.
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14. 3.6 Analysis of results
Social Survey
Our social survey yielded some important results. Firstly, we realised that
different students had very different interpretations of their own classroom, even
though they were from the same class. The students were also affected by
varying degrees by their classroom environment. We could thus infer that there
are a wide range of attitudes across students in a class, and thus those who care
less about classroom cleanliness and tidyness or who are more accustomed to a
dirty and untidy classroom do less to take care of their classroom. This, however,
has an impact on the many who are affected greatly by the level of tidyness and
cleanliness of their classroom. This difference in opinion is thus a problem that
should be solved.
We found out that food brought from home was the most common food
consumed in the classroom, followed by food brought from the canteen. Also, we
found out that students feel that the school cleaners are doing a good job while
not keeping the classroom clean themselves. This is a sign of overreliance on
cleaners.
Finally, equal and large numbers of our repondents answered that they felt that
spending a short amount of time during PIT (Protected Interaction Time) for
cleaning up classrooms once or twice a week was the most effective way of
keeping classrooms clean. Very few respondents felt that a competition for the
best class would be effective. Therefore, time should be spared for such cleaning.
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15. Interview
Mr Sarkkunan, like most students, found the classrooms acceptable after
cleaners clean it. However, cleaners can only clean up the classrooms
thoroughly about once in a week. Also, he feels that relying on cleaners to
maintain classrooms leads to a habit of laziness and reliance on others, as well
as causing the classrooms to be untidy with litter lying around on days when
cleaners do not clean the classroms. The interviewee also said that the level of
cleanliness and tidyness of a classroom does indeed affect his teaching.
He says that different people have different degrees of dislike towards a dirty and
messy learning environment. This compliments our survey results.
On the issue of why students are not taking proper care of their classrooms, Mr
Sarkkunan explained that many children have others to pick up their litter after
them at home, thus making them lazy. Reliance on cleaners is also a reason for
such laziness.
When asked whether banning students from bringing food out of the canteen
would be effective in improving classroom cleanliness, Mr Sarkkunan replied that
it would only have an impact to a limited extent, and that more important factors
include keeping things organised under and on their desks and the teacher’s
table. He also mentioned that a competition would not be effective because the
enthusiastic classes would outshadow the other classes, and the other classes
would be disengaged, such that the campaign would only reach out to better
classes, which have less of a problem in the first place. This led to us deciding
not to have a competition for the best class.
Overall, Mr Sarkkunan brought out two main points. Firstly, laziness and reliance
on others was a large reason why students are unwilling to keep their classes
clean, and secondly, we must try to initiate in the students a habit of taking
responsibility for their classrooms.
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16. Our action week-Time for action
Our action week consists of seven disjoint days during which we got our own
class, 2I to clean up our classroom, after which we used it as an example to
extend it to 3 year 1 classes as well. However, our action plan has not yet been
carried out completely on the day of completion of this report. This is due to
unforeseen obstacles that either prevented us from carrying out our action plan
or made carrying out our plans meaningless.
The details of each day’s action plan in the original plan is as follows. Where the
tasks were unable to be completed, the words in red explain why, and where
applicable describes the actual happenings and the date on which they
happened.
Day 1- Tuesday 2/8
We put up A4 leaflets to 3 classes, 1F, 1I and 1K, in order to encourage them to
clean up their classrooms. This was to try to persuade them that it is important to
take proper care of their classrooms. The leaflet included pictures that had been
taken of their classrooms a week before. Later on, we will return to their
classrooms to see if there is an improvement in the upkeep of the classroom.
A sample of a leaflet, in this case the leaflet given out to class 1I, as on the next
page.
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17. Hey class of 1I,
At the end of Monday your class looked like this:
Not bad, of course not perfect…
Please take better care of your classroom!
It’s not just you. Many people use this classroom-yourself, your classmates,
as well as all your teachers. Even if you don’t care, a dirty and untidy
classroom affects your other classmates, as well as your teachers. So play
your part to keep your learning environment as good as possible for
everyone. So after your last lesson, make an effort to pick up whatever
litter there is left on the floor and keep your tables tidy. It makes the
cleaner’s life easier too. Don’t be messy and dirty like a stray cat…
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18. Day 2- Thursday 11/8
After the last lesson, our group intended to call for the class to stay back. We
wanted to tell them the importance of cleaning up and tidying up their own
classroom to try to keep them in class for five minutes to pick up litter and tidy up
their tables. This will be easier in our class than in other classes because we are
familiar with our own classmates and therefore the class would be more likely to
listen to us. However, there turned out to be a meeting for a small group of
classmates after school. This disrupted our group’s initial plan. However, we
managed to get the small group of students to pick up visible litter and tidy up the
chairs and tables before leaving the classroom. Therefore it turned out not to be
a failure although the plan had to be changed at the last minute.
Because of an after-class meeting, it was not possible to ask students to pick up
their litter. Also, the meeting meant that if we asked the students to stay back, we
would be causing a disturbance. Also, we realized that it was impractical to get
the class to stay back because some were busy, and most litter would be cleared
up in a short time anyway. Therefore, we decided to only give a short speech on
the last day of the three days of asking the class to maintain the classroom
before leaving.
This day’s event was pushed back to 15/8. On 15/8, we briefly, for only about five
minutes, tried to get people to pick up litter and arrange the tables before leaving.
We tried a variety of approaches. First, we tried to shout the message to the
class. Some, but not many, responded. We then tried to engage individuals by
persuading them personally. This worked to a certain extent, but reduced our
scope. Finally, we tried to lead by example and see if others would follow.
However, again, only a few did, although we indeed managed to improve the
state of the classroom a fair amount with our own effort.
With this result, we reflected and decided that the next time we carried out this
plan, we would write the message of picking up litter and tidying the classroom
on the whiteboard during recess or lunch so that our classmates will get the
message and hopefully more will respond when we call for it.
Day 3- Monday 15/8
After the last lesson, we will get our own class to pick up litter and tidy up the
tables after the last class ended for the day. We will attempt to educate our class
about the importance of keeping the classroom clean and tidy. The process and
the state of the classroom can be documented through photos.
This had to be postponed to term 4. This is because this was pushed back to
Wednesday, and on Wednesday due to a surprise arrangement of lessons and
programmes, the class was dismissed outside of the classroom. It was also not
possible to ask the class to pick up the litter before going to the lecture theatre
because the class had to rush in order not to be late.
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19. We wanted badly to finish this plan by 26/8. However, due to reasons we do not
know, the cleaner would come into our classroom and do a brief clean-up near
the end of the last period for the whole of the week 22/8 to 26/8. This does not
happen in other days. Therefore it did not make sense to ask the class to pick u p
litter, and we only asked them to tidy their tables. Since the tables were rather
tidy, we do not consider this day to be an ―action day‖ and we have to push it
back to term 4.
Day 4- Wednesday 17/8
As with the previous day, we will hold the class back a short while after the last
class after school. In addition, we will tell our classmates that although we will
not ask them to stay back to take care of their classroom any more, they should
still be responsible for their classroom. This debrief will make this day’s action
plan slightly longer than the previous session.
This will also be done in term 4.
Day 5- Friday 19/8
After seeking permission from the form teacher of the class, we will speak to the
students of class 1F during their Protected Interaction Time. We will use what we
have gathered from our survey and interview to find the best method to persuade
students to take responsibility for the upkeep for their classrooms. We will remind
them that although some people do not care about a dirty and untidy classroom,
there are also many who feel bad learning in a poorly maintained environment.
We also told them that teachers are also affected by the level of cleanliness in a
classroom. Finally, we will tell the class that it is good to develop a habit of
responsibility for their classroom and that they should not be lazy. We will use
our class as an example of how a class can keep its classroom clean. Hopefully,
our example can let the students see that they too can improve the state of their
classrooms.
On Friday, we were not given permission by our form teacher, Ms Huang Yuting,
to leave the class during PIT for our task. Therefore, it had to be pushed to the
following Wednesday, 24/8. Yet on Wednesday, we were forced to do a current
affairs quiz, which delayed our time such that we had only less than ten minutes
to give our speech. We went to the classes we wanted to give our speech to,
only to find that in both teachers, the form teacher was not inside. We therefore
could not wait for them and had no choice but to leave.
We will therefore be giving our speech for 1K on Monday 29/8, as planned with
their form teacher.
Day 6- Wednesday 24/8
With permission, we will also speak to the students of class 1I during the
Protected Interaction Time. We will carry out the same procedure as Friday 19/8.
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20. However, we will also use our experiences from 19/8 to help us better engage
the class. Between then and 19/8, we will also continue to observe the state of
1F’s classroom.
The speech for 1F will be given on Wednesday 31/8.
Day 7- Friday 26/8
Finally, on Friday 26/8, we will persuade the last class, 1K, to take responsibility
for the upkeep of their classroom. Our group will observe the impact of the
leaflets and speeches on all 3 classes and do a final evaluation of the
effectiveness of our project. After that, we will put up a final set of leaflets in the
class to encourage them not just to take care of their classrooms on one day, but
on every single day.
The speech for 1I will be given in term 4.
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21. Section 5: Reflections
5.1 Our Learning Journey
―It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.‖
Isaac Asimov
Throughout the course of this learning journey, we were faced with many
difficulties but at the same time, we learnt many valuable lessons. Just like
Asimov, we were faced with many difficulties throughout the phase of our project.
Indeed, our learning journey was not exactly smooth sailing, and we were
challenged to overcome many of the difficulties which came our way. We set
many targets for ourselves, but yet, we were not able to meet them due to
several reasons. In our timeline, our deadlines to finish certain tasks was barely
met as we had too few meetings and all of us overestimated the time that we had
on our hands.
5.2 Our Thoughts
Not everything we have done has been exactly successful, we have had many
obstacles in our way, but we never gave up, simply because we believed that we
could do it. Our initial purpose was to make a change in our school’s cleanliness
of classrooms, and even though we had to scale down our size, our group is very
sure that future batches which choose to make a change in society by choosing
DFC as RE would find our project useful and they can actually use this (our
report and our research) as a foundation for their very own DFC and thus be able
to improve on the many limitations of our projects.
These limitations have manifested themselves in many parts of our projects, and
we have tried our best to minimise these but however it is impossible for us to
make DFC a perfect project, because perfection simply does not exist in social
change projects. Firstly, we have not had the privilege of a truly random sampling,
and this is largely because we did not really know many people in the Year 1
Batch and we reasoned that people we did not know would not want to do our
survey simply because it was a waste of time. As such, we only distributed the
surveys to people we know who might or might not have similar viewpoints which
would then undermine our survey results and our analysis.
Secondly, it could be said that we lacked enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is an essential
part of social change and it is because of this that we have to scale down on our
project. Enthusiasm is often underestimated in projects, and some members did
not display this trait and because of this, we found things much harder, we found
communication lacking, and this was clearly a large limitation on our part,
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22. something which we caused ourselves. This then undermined many parts of our
projects and it is only in the later part in the process of our project that we pulled
ourselves together and managed to finish the whole project.
Thirdly, only one person was interviewed, so the perspectives that we could
obtain was limited and possibly even biased or one-sided. This was mainly due
to the fact that many teachers are busy and rejected our requests for an interview.
However, this could also possibly be interpreted as the teachers becoming busier
as the End-year Exams draw closer. It was also because of the lack of time we
had to search for suitable interviewees and conduct the interview as at many
times, group members could not make it for an interview. If there was more time
for the project, two or maybe even more teachers could have been interviewed to
get different perspectives from people who have taught different students.
However, we have had our strengths too. One of the strengths of our project is
that the results can be applied directly to into the context of schools in Singapore.
We found out the opinions of people of litter in their classrooms and primary
causes of them, and also asked respondents for improvements that could be
made. This direct question is relevant to students and schools in Singapore. We
also found out which items people usually consumed in class, allowing the school
to consider lee-ways to consume such food in class, or even make the rules
stricter so as to enforce discipline.
Another strength in our methodology is the cross-comparison of results. We
interviewed a teacher (Mr Sarkkunan) and compared it with the survey findings to
make sure that the results corresponded with each other. The interview was also
used for the survey results to be more useful. The analysis which eventually
result was clear and simple.
Certainly, just as any other social change project, we faced several challenges
which tested our tenacity. Firstly, we lacked time, more of which would have
allowed us conduct a more comprehensive survey involving more people, which
would have made our survey results more reliable and allowing the analysis to be
more in-depth and in so doing, allow us to derive more information on the
mentality and views of Year 1 Rafflesians.
Secondly, the scale of our project was quite small so few classes were involved.
If the scale of our project was bigger, we would have been able to see the
difference between classes and thus see how different people in different
environments do things (eg. cleaner classrooms having more enthusiasm in
cleaning up and seeing less enthusiasm in dirtier classrooms). This would have
certainly helped in many parts with our analysis for our Action Week.
We have learnt many lessons in the course of this project. We were also able to
discover many part of our inner selves and our personalities through this project.
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23. We discovered that even as we ourselves are Rafflesians, we are not perfect (as
many expect us to be) and we have many flaws. One of them is that we lack
enthusiasm for service learning. We were not fully committed to our project and
did not put in our full passion for it. We ended up having to scale down on our
project, which was originally a fairly big scale.
As such, our thinking has grown and has affected our perspectives. We have
learnt to be more responsible and to take charge of our own project because
unlike in primary school, we have to become more independent and do more
things on our own. However, much as the act of social change is exciting, our
enthusiasm is hindered by the busy lifestyles which Raffles imposes on its
students. Thus, we find it hard to continue social change as all of us are kept
extremely busy.
In the future, the school could then adopt our project to make it a schoolwide
activity, so we would be able to lessen the burden of our cleaners. Our cleaners
are often taken for granted and the work they do is overlooked. As Rafflesians,
as Thinkers, Leaders, Pioneers, the least we could do is to start by caring for
people around us, and this would be a good place to start. Starting from the
basics. The issues which remain is the enthusiasm of the students. However, this
could be solved if we implement this project continually. Rafflesians would adapt
and eventually get used to it, and look upon it as a weekly activity as part of their
lives in Raffles Institution. Eventually, looking at this issue from a wider
perspective - one could see that if every student cultivated this habit, we could
teach the students to be responsible and take ownership for what they do. This
would allow the school to cut costs in hiring cleaners and direct this money to
other avenues where it would be better use. Simply to say, this is killing two birds
with one stone.
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24. 6. Bibilography - Inspirations
Bibliography
CINCINNATI. (2011, February 15). PG.com news release. Retrieved from PG.com :
http://www.pginvestor.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=104574&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1528931
Magsamen, S. (2009, September 11). Oprah.com. Retrieved from Oprah.com:
http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Dream-It-Believe-It-Be-It/1
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