Scholarship / AAS - study/work in a group and mutual help - 'solving a challenge, implementing reform' essay [5]

leading in a group

Questions/Instructions:

How have you contributed to solving a challenge and to implementing change or reform?
Be specific and include:
- What aspect/s of your leadership knowledge, skills and practice you consider to be well established and effective?
- Which people or organizations you worked with to solve the problem?
- What creative methods were used?

Answer:

Challenge solving, implementation of change, as well as reforming people are great things to do to contribute to realize a better society. As the Latin saying goes, non nobis solum nati sumus, which loosely translated as we are not born only for ourselves. We are indeed social creatures who can never stand alone. Life is meaningful when we help each other.

I have had some experiences in this matter. For instance, I made a study group to help my friends to understand more about a particular topic. They believed that they were not smart enough to study alone. I tried to change their mindset by encouraging them to believe in themselves. One way that I implement to achieve this was to tell them to speak up and share their opinions in front of the group mates. It did not only improve their understanding regarding the topic, but it also helped to boost their self-confidence.

Although it is hard to do, sometimes I try to bring the best in people, such as when I encouraged my students to speak up and be confident. I wanted them to have qualities of a leader: confident, able to make good decisions, can endure pressure, etc. It worked for some students. They were braver in expressing themselves. I also taught them some moral lesson, such as being kind to others, that bullying is bad, and to always appreciate what they have.

Furthermore, whenever there were group works, I always become the leader. I tried to share the group work equally among the group members. I want all of them to participate no matter what, even if it means that some will only come to the meeting as spectators, although I still try to encourage them to contribute in the group. Sometimes I tried to speak to them nicely and some other times, I had to be bold and straightforward. Both ways of communications worked, but it depends on them in the end. Every method of solving problems can be double-edged sword.

Scholarship / AAS - Knowledge / Skills / Procrastination - examples of use, as well as the constraints [3]

Instructions/questions
Please:
a. give up to three practical examples of how you intend to use the knowledge, skills, and connections you will gain from your scholarship. Possible tasks can be personal and/or professional; and

b. list any possible constraints you think may prevent you from achieving these tasks.

Answer

constrained by procrastination

Australia Awards Scholarship is a prestigious scholarship one can achieve in order to study further in the desired field. After completing the study, I will be equipped with sophisticated knowledge and skills, as well as having connections with great people. I will use these advantages that I will have gotten as good as possible.

First, the university and courses that I propose will provide me with knowledge of teaching and linguistics, as well as how to be a good educator. I want to share this knowledge with my future students in hope to hone their English skills, and/or their understanding in linguistics if I become a lecturer one day. In addition, as an educator, I also want to inspire them to understand how important education is to better their lives.

Second, broad knowledge is nothing if we do not have sufficient skills to transfer it to others. By the end of the study, I will have better teaching method comprehension, as well as experiences in teaching English in a classroom. Of course, this will be very beneficial for any place that I will be working in. Good teachers and educators are defined by how good they are in transferring their knowledge to others, are they not?

Third, while having knowledge and skills are important, we are still social creatures who can never stand alone. This is where good connections play a role. I will have people whom I can ask for an advice, professionally and personally. Also, their positivity will surely have an impact on the way I think and behave. As people say, positivity is contagious.

However, these things that I have stated might be constrained by one thing: procrastination. I have to admit that I am easily distracted by things around me and sometimes, it is quite hard for me to get back on track. But, I have my own way of "constraining the constraint", such as writing a self-reminder of what I want to achieve, limiting myself from avoidable distractions, etc. Power of will is the key to solve this.

Scholarship / AAS - teaching is my passion; pursuing master's degree in applied linguistics with TESOL [3]

How will the proposed study contribute to your career?

Some information regarding the essay.
1. This is the second question I have to answer to apply for the AAS scholarship.
2. The first one asks how I chose the institutions and courses, and this one asks how the study will contribute to my career.
3. Is the essay below good enough to answer the question?
Thanks a lot.

As I have stated in the previous question, teaching is my passion. I want to be a great role model for my students. It is personally satisfying for me to see my students' positive feedbacks when they learn something new from me. The feedback could be a smile, giggle, classroom participation or even a simple nod while learning. Although I haven't taught at any professional levels, I have taught English at two different places voluntarily and my students seemed to enjoy learning from me. They gave positive feedbacks that I have mentioned.

However, after some meetings, I started to feel that I was getting boring for them. They did not seem as enthusiastic as they used to be and honestly, it was saddening. This is one of the reasons I intend to pursue my master's degree in applied linguistics with TESOL specialization at Macquarie University. I believe that some courses will be beneficial for me, such as Language Teaching Methodologies which will equip me with more sophisticated knowledge in terms of language teaching; Teaching English for Academic Purposes which will specifically sharpen my ability to teach English; and Practicum in TESOL which will provide me a chance to implement the acquired knowledge and theories directly in the classrooms.

Another reason is that I also aspire to be a lecturer in the teaching field. After obtaining the knowledge from the proposed university, I intend to share the methods or theories I have learned to my future students in order to sharpen their skills in terms of teaching because I have had some teachers whose teaching methods were not interesting and made me lose the interest to study. I definitely do not want my students to repeat this cycle. In short, I believe that with great role models, comes great future role models.

Scholarship / English Teaching - Why did you choose your proposed course and institution? - AAS 2019 [6]

two universities to pursue master's degree

I majored in English teaching in a local university in my hometown. Although I have not worked on a professional level previously, I have had experiences in teaching as a voluntary work at two schools. However, I felt that I was lacking in terms of skills which was proven by the fact that some of my students looking uninterested and bored after some meetings in the classrooms. This is what drives my motivation into continuing my study in English teaching. I am confident that by doing this, I will be equipped with more sophisticated teaching skills towards the end of the study. In order to make it come true, I propose two universities to pursue my master's degree.

The first is Macquiarie University, which offers a variety of courses that cater my needs and interests as an English teacher, such as Language Teaching Methodologies, Planning and Programming in TESOL and Practicum in TESOL; as a linguist, such as Genre, Discourse and Multimodality and Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication; and as a researcher, such as Research Method in English Study.

The second is The University of Queensland. The university also offers courses that is tailored for students who want to sharpen their skills in English teaching, such as TESOL Curriculum & Pedagogy: Classroom Strategies, Language Testing & Assessment and Classroom Second Language Acquisition: Theory, Research & Practice.

The subjects offered in these universities are very critical to study in order to become a more skilled teacher, especially in English language which in turn will give me chances to improve my future students' motivation and knowledge by implementing the acquired skills.