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This blog is very useful for teacher candidates. Here we will provide a vary kind of information about education.

Friday, September 20, 2013

IChYEP 2013-Soar as High

“Let China sleep for when she awakes she will shake the world”-Napoleon



“Tuntutlah Ilmu Sampai Negeri Cina”. 

Since I was in elementary school, I really want to make that statement come true. On June, 2013, I got a chance to go to China. There were 100 youth delegation from all around Indonesia. I attended Kemenpora program and became the first winner for youth exchange program to China. It was a life time opportunity. Since long time ago, China and Indonesia have a mutualism relationship. The program that I attended has a role to strengthen friendship and mutual understanding between youth from both countries. Therefore, this program have several objectives:

1.       To  strengthen friendship and mutual undercut standing between youth of both countries;
2.       To broaden opportunity for youth to deepen of understanding about culture, custom and social economy of both countries;
3.       To build tolerance and creativity;
4.       To develop tolerance and adaptivity in address diversity;
5.       To expand way of think and new knowledge in develop youth activities;
6.       To broaden and strengthen cooperation between two countries in all aspects.

In this program I realized that we, as the next generation of educators really need to teach our students not only knowledge but also culture. China is really concerned about the preservation of their heritage cites. Lots of museums were built as symbol of their presence. Eventhough English Language is being used everywhere , but China still consistent in using their mother language. Facebook or other social media were being banned. This issue was due to protect their youngster from bad effect of globalization. As a result, China made their social network. They always try their best to use their product. What can I learn from this program is, we need to be more aware with our culture. When other country claimed that one of Indonesian culture is theirs, we need to reflect back. Do we care about it? Do we take a significant action to conserve it? Are we trying to expose our culture globally? For this case, we need to learn from China. The way they preserved their history and culture can be one of the solution to protect our heritage cites.

As the alumni of SSE (now called as USBI), I really encourage my sister and brother in USBI to be more active in building the community. A lot of chances can be achieved if you want to take an extra mile. USBI has embedded me with not only knowledge but also social and life skills. I am really confident that USBI student can compete with other Indonesian and global students. So start from now on, be proactive and spread our wings to soar as high. J


Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Contemporary Issue of ELT : Big Class


Problems of Large Class in Indonesia and Strategy to Overcome It
Failure in Indonesia Teaching and Learning context may be due to several problems that occur in classroom. One of the problems that often being neglected is the overwhelming number of students in classroom. Most schools in Indonesia, especially public schools have approximately 30-50 students in one classroom. These numbers of students will give more demand on teacher’s performance in delivering the content of subject. In fact, the appropriate number of students in classroom based on Permendiknas no.24 & 41 year 2007, emphasized that according to (SSN)  Standar Sekolah Nasional (National School Standard), each grade has their own suitable number of students. For instance: elementary level is not more than 28 students per class and for secondary is 32 students per class. As for international standard, each class should only consist of 28 students. In the real situation most of schools do not even achieve the international as well as national standard.
Many researchers argued that large class can decrease students learning quality. Ijaiya (1999) has proved that crowdedness in classroom will reduce the quality of teaching and learning process. As a result, it gives serious implication in attaining educational goals. Problems in crowded classroom are often neglected in educational “plans and reports” (Adesina, 1990)( as cited in Ijaiya, 1999). Based on what I observed during school experience programme showed that teacher did not consider number of students as part of teaching problem. They are accustomed to the crowded situation. Ironically, teacher did not use various strategies in teaching. Monotone teaching strategy (which is teacher-centered) often uses as a method.
Another problem is the situation of the seating arrangement was very poor. Each chair is placed too closed from one chair to another. Effective classroom activity that requires movement cannot be implemented. Cohen and Manion (1983) (as cited in Ijaiya, 1999) argued that giving attention to seating arrangement will give benefits to teaching and learning process as another aspect of classroom management. In Line with Adesina, she stated that “the quantity and quality of interaction in the class are likely to be adversely affected due to the lack of space moving round class and overwhelming number of students that teacher has to deal with 40 minutes lesson”. Therefore, providing some free space between each chair will be needed in order to create a “flexible” classroom.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Large Class
          According to McLeod (1998) (as cited in Carpenter, 2006), there are 4 advantages of large class: decreased instructor costs, efficient use of faculty time and talent, availability of resources and standardization of learning experience.
Despite those advantages, large class gives more disadvantages than the advantages. First is the limited range of teaching methodology. In small class, teacher have chances to implement variety of methods, such as learning center, higher order questions and other active approach. Second is the strained impersonal relation between students and the instructor. For a new teacher, memorizing student’s name might be the first job that they have to do. If it deals with numerous numbers of students, then their job will become tougher. Personal interaction with students will take time, especially if one teacher has to deal with 3 classes consist of 40 students in each class. If it is in smaller number of students, teacher will be able to pay closer attention to each student. Students participation will be more significant and become more engaged both in academically and socials (Finn, 2003). In addition, large class is noisier than small class. Wilson (2006) reported that pushing, crowding and hitting take place more often in large class. The last point is class size impact teacher motivation and job satisfaction. Finn (2003) found that teacher perceive their job as an enjoyment of their profession. Dealing with number of students’ assessment forced teacher to work harder. As a result, they might have not adequate time for themselves and it ends up to stress. Students’ behavior in classroom also gives impact to teacher. If number of students are too big, behavior disorder cannot be solved instantly, e.g: cheating. If the class is crowded and the seating arrangement is too close, the examination malpractices is hard to be avoided (Ijaiya, 1997).
Strategies in Teaching Crowded Class
There is no one absolute method in teaching crowded class. The strategy should be varied from one meeting to another meeting. Traditional ways of teaching use to be implemented in classroom where lesson is delivered to student using teacher-centered format. On the other hand, modern view of teaching which is constructivism, expect student to be active by participating in discussion and/or collaborative activity (Fosnot, 1989) ( as cited in Carpenter, 2006). Here I tried to explain some of the strategy in dealing with big class.
When I was assigned to public school, I was a little bit shock because the numbers of students are too many. I just feel that 1 teacher is overwhelmed by 35 students and it is really frustrating. What I did is by using two methods that have already tested to be successful for teaching large class; peer tutoring and jigsaw. Those methods really help me in cater students’ need. My burden is lessen due to all the methods are students-centered, means that I just acted as the facilitator and they will construct meaning based on discussion and explanation from me and their peers.
1.     Peer tutoring
                        Peer tutoring is an activity where students teach their peers. Many teachers feel that they do not have adequate time to have one-on-one interaction with students (classwide peer tutoring). Through peer tutoring, teacher can enlighten their teaching with students as teaching assistant.
                        How to conduct?
                                    Teacher asks some students as a tutor or master of content. In peer, one student explains the content to another student. Then it comes to questioning session and they will have discussion in peers.
This method is really useful, especially for slow learners. It gives benefits not only for tutor but also for the student who is being tutored by their peer. For the tutor student, they can master the content deeper because they put the concept into practice.  They teach and explain the concept repeatedly. This activity makes them comprehend the concept better. Moreover, for the student who is being tutored, they got persona assistant for learning. It seems more like private class and for slow learners, they might be able to catch up the materials.
I have an interesting experience in using peer tutoring in one public school during school experience programme. There is a student who did not want to speak or even ask question to teacher. What he did is, he always ask his friend to explain the material to him. Then I initiate peer tutoring session in the lesson and it works. I observed him and he asked many questions to his peer. From my observation, peer tutoring gives student to practice more on what they have learnt, ask questions when they are confused and have someone to help and encourage them to learn. If we look from the social aspect, peer tutoring strengthened students’ relationship with their peers. The sense of self-relatedness may appear because they feel that they are important and everyone care about their learning progress (Ormord, 2002).

What teacher should do in peer tutoring?
1.      Make sure that students understand on how to conduct peer tutoring. Give them the real examples by model it out.
2.      Gives guideline on how to become a good tutor. Tell them not to judge their peer and be more patient. No one is superior than others. the most important thing is they learn from each other. Remind the tutor that they have to master the content before they give tutorial to their peers.
3.      Gives chances to every student to become a tutor. If only several students are assigned, it is not judicious enough to neglect other students. Gives each student equal chances as a tutor.
4.      Always remember to monitor students’ discussion and progress. There might be some wrong concept or debate in the peer tutoring. Therefore, teacher presence in the class is really needed.
2.     Jigsaw
If we heard about jigsaw, the first thing that came up to our mind is puzzle. We need to find each pieces of puzzle and put it as a whole picture. The similar thing goes to jigsaw method. Students are group into 3-5 students (it can be more, based on teacher’s intention). Each of them will have different content to be mastered. For instance: in grammar class, Susi is responsible to find out what is the use of past tense. Another member of the group, Sharon, is responsible to find the format of past tense; Mely is responsible to find what are the time signal that is often use in past tense, and the last Budi is responsible to find past tense in a text as an examples for the group. Eventually they will gather again as a group and report it to their friends. Each part of the task is important. Thus, every student need to pay attention to their friend’s explanation in order to have a complete understanding of what past tense is, how to use it, the format and the examples in the real context.
Another activity is by using expert team. For examples: divide the class into 4 groups. Each group will have to be an expert of one English grammar. Group 1 is responsible for past tense. Expert group 2 is responsible for past tense; group three is responsible for future tense and the last group is responsible for present continuous. First each expert time will discuss the topic with their own group members. After that they will go to another “mixed group” that consists of one member from group 1, 2, 3, and 4. Each will take turn to explain their content to other member. After that they go back to their team and report their findings. They will explain what they have learnt and understand from other expert group. By doing these, each students will have all the understanding from different expert group. In order to make a clearer understanding, teacher can explain the difficult concept again to the student. This means to avoid misinterpretation of a concept.
The benefits of using jigsaw
            Tewksburg (n.d) mentioned some of the benefits of using jigsaw. First is student will have depth of understanding because they have opportunity to teach themselves, instead of the teacher teach it to them. Next benefit is each student has important role to contribute into a discussion. They develop their expertise then contribute it to achieve a goal. The third benefits is, it save time. The total amount of time devoted to the topic is comparable to coverage in a traditional lecture format. Conducting jigsaw takes time, but if it is planned well, the time will be more efficient rather than using traditional technique. In addition Aronson (2012) stated that jigsaw encourages student to listen, engage,and empathy by giving each member of the group an essential part in academic scope.
What teacher should do in jigsaw?
1.      Do not forget to give explanation at the end of the session. Some students might have different concept in understanding the materials. Makes ure that they come up with same definition of a concept.
2.      “Jigsaw is more likely to succeed if used to practice, review and apply skills that have already covered to some degree” (Parkins & Tagler, n.d).
3.      Jigsaw is suitable for students who are comfortable with group work. Make sure that the class situation and comfortable so they will have more responsibility in doing their part in jigsaw. (Clark, 2004).
4.      Teacher should give clear instruction for jigsaw technique. Make sure you model it in order to give clearer picture to students on how to do jigsaw.
Conclusion and recommendation
Looking at the classroom situation in Indonesia, we as a teacher cannot blame anyone. The situation may be due to several things such as: the lack of financial support to make a new school and new class, limited financial sources to hire a teacher and etc. It will not judicious, if teacher still blaming the government. It will be better if they enrich their teaching method from teacher centered to student centered. As a teacher, we have to take extra mile and do the best that we can do to accommodate our student’s need.
Those two methods can help teacher to make a meaningful 40-90 minutes lesson. Besides that, teacher does not have to be “absolute content tutor”. Students can help each other in learning. Make sure that you prepare yourself for the class. Teaching is a matter of practice and preparation.
Therefore, I strongly recommended peer tutoring and jigsaw to be implemented in large class. These methods can cater students’ need, save more time and energy and more to student centered. Teacher’ explanation is still important in order to avoid misunderstanding of a concept among the students. Prepare all the materials and content to make your teaching interesting and meaningful.



References:
Aronson, E. (n.d). Jigsaw Basics. Retrieved June 25, 2012 from http:jigsaw.org/pdf/basics.pdf
Carpenter, J. (2006). Effective teaching methods for large classes. Journal of family & consumer sciences education, vol.24, no.2.
Finn, J. (2003). The “why’s” of class size: student behavior in small classes. Review of educational research,73,321-268.
Holloway, J. (2002). Do smaller class change instruction? Educational Leadership, February 2002, 91-92.
Ijaiya, Y. (1999). Effects of over-crowded classroom on teacher_student interactions. Ilorin: Department of Educational Management.
Jigsaw strategy. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.schreyerinstitute.psu.edu/pdf/alex/jigsaw.pdf
Ormrod, J. (2008). Educational Psychology. New Jersey: Pearson Education
Perkins, D., & Tagler, M. (2011). Jigsaw Classroom. In R. Miller, & B. Rycek (Eds.), Promoting Student Engagement, Volume I: Programs, Techniques and Opportunities (195-197). Society for the Teaching of Psychology.
Wilson, V. (2006). Does small really make a difference? An update: A review of the literature on the effect of class size on teaching practice and pupil’s behavior and attainment. (SCRE research report no.123). Glasgow, Scotland: SCRE Centre, University of Glasgow. 

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Teaching Needs to Have A Goal

google.com

At first, our group thought that teaching listening was very easy. We just need to provide a song and a lyric with some gap on it. In fact, it’s not as easy as that. Teaching means you need to have a goal, what you want to get from that activity and how effective the material and the activity to enhance student’s listening skill. When we got into the real teaching in the class, suddenly we felt that there is something wrong. The material that we chose did not have a strong goal. Each activity has to have meaning, means that you have to know what you want from your student to achieve from that activity. There has to be a correlation between one activity to another. The best point from our teaching is we use several activities which are interesting. One of the activities is sport role play. We divided the class into several group and each group has to act out something based on the instruction. It is proved as an interesting activity because all the students (my friends) really enjoyed it. According to their feedback, they understood what we wanted to teach to them. The bad point is we did not really think about our goal when we use the activity. We just picked up any activity which is interesting without thinking about its effectiveness. So we concluded that it is effective enough. Next time when I teach listening, I will use different activity but before that I will think about what is my goal then choose the appropriate activity as a tool to accomplish my goal.
In general, other’s teaching group was very good. They can collaborate some of the teaching method in one lesson. It seems that they adapted our lecturer teaching method. In Nancy’s group, they got turn to teach speaking. Their activity was very interesting. They used drawing in the elicitation part. For the main activity they asked the students to write a descriptive text and role playing it. In my opinion, if they want to teach speaking, it will be more appropriate if they did not use the word “writing text”. Writing and speaking are two different things, even though they are related to each other. They have to be more specific in using such kind of “jargon”. It is ok to select vary kind of activity, as long as they can achieve their main goal that is speaking ability.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

hectic week

This is the toughest week. I have to think of a concept of a learning blog. I have look for materials and the right curriculum for a listening session. I have modified this concept a lot of times, which made me confused. Looking for a suitable listening material for beginners isn’t easy. At first I just put in all the materials without thinking twice. After I consulted it with my lecturer, I realized that I cannot put everything, the ones I put in need to have a purpose. Then I searched the right curriculum for a beginner level, after that I searched for a suitable listening material. Then I adapted several materials with my own way of speaking. The construction of this blog still continues even at this very second.Wait and see :)