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Direct Instruction

Using direct instruction as a teaching strategy means teacher plays a central role and has direct influence over what, when and how students learn. This strategy is not appropriate for a teacher who is lack of confidence and not well prepared. Students can easily become bored and lose interest. For students to learn from a direct instruction, they have to be able to listen actively and see the logic in the structure of the lesson. Since not all students capable of perceiving and gaining knowledge this way, teacher has to cater the different needs and abilities. In addition, direct instruction involves a lot of one-way communication, opportunities to gain students' feedback is limited. Some students might have developed misconceptions.


I believed the real challenge to successfully implement this strategy depends heavily on self-confidence and skill to project myself as an educated and energetic teacher in front of class. In order to do that, I must prepare myself with a detailed structured lesson plan. For example, start the lesson with a question to prompt learners to think about particular issue, provide an overview, and tell what outcomes students will be achieving in the lesson. I also need to engage students by using techniques like probing and using student ideas. Furthermore at a certain point, I have to summarise and put emphasis on important information. It will definitely help students to take note and ensure they know what exactly they are learning about.

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Whole Class Discussion

Whole class discussion enables teacher to control the learner activities and maintain focus on the lesson. It requires the teacher to explain why students are being asked to engage in discussion. If teacher fails to do so, students will think their participation is unnecessary and learning process will be hindered. For discussion to be successful, students are requested to state their ideas clearly, respect others' view, and respond appropriately. These mean students have to both listen and think during participation.


This teaching strategy helps students develop communication skills but at the same time potentially causes trouble. It is easy for talkative students to dominate discussion and either influence or annoy other students. As Killen (2012) stated in his book, students' contribution is sometimes judgmental rather than positive and constructive. This may lead into competitive emotional battlegrounds instead of productive discussion.


My strategy is to present different perspectives through media or presentation to make sure students are ready for discussion. I would rather carefully integrated discussions with other teaching strategies than using it as a whole lesson. The reason is that I found 2 main points which is really hard for me to refrain from. First, I need to contribute without giving students the impression that my opinion is more important. Second, I must able to hold myself from guiding the discussion too narrowly towards some predetermined conclusion. These will certainly help learners see that their ideas are valued, and that means a huge responsibility for me. To handle the undesired situation, “Let’s pause for a minute and consider where the discussion is now heading”. That statement I would like to use to refocus students on the purpose of discussion.

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Cooperative Learning

“Cooperative Learning means two heads learn better than one”, said Roger T. and David W. Johnson. Having students work together results in much more learning and like school better. To successfully create constructive environment, PRIOR is mandatory:

  • Positive Interdependence
  • Remarkable Interpersonal Skill
  • Individual Accountability
  • Ongoing Indirect Interaction
  • Reflection
Making members of the group responsible for each others' learning can place great a burden on some students. It is often seen in mixed-ability groups, stronger students are left to teach weaker students and do most of the work. The diverse backgrounds that students experienced while being involved in cooperative learning may also create conflict. Additionally, some students prefer to work alone and apply ideas in isolation from others despite they are not disruptive through their lack of cooperation. As for teachers to use this strategy properly, they need to keep very detailed records of each student’s performance and spend considerable time calculating achievement scores.

I will use this strategy not once a while, but used over an extended period so I know my students better and develop the necessary group interdependence. First of all, I decide what content each student will focus on. Second, create rubrics to explain in detail how the learning of individual assessed and it is expected that they contribute to team by assist each other as well as cooperating to produce the best conclusion. Last, make every one reflect how their performance in the group. This too will help me assess each student’s performance.

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Problem Solving


Problem solving enables students to develop the ability to make judgment and emphasizes the importance of explanation. Based on Savoie & Hughes’ experience, this teaching strategy helps to make learners responsible for shaping and directing their own learning. Yet for students are learning independently, they may acquire misconceptions or incomplete knowledge. In group, learners can identify flaws in their thinking and trying to understand the real concept. However, it is easy for less able or less confident students to be dominated by capable student. Another issue comes when students are discouraged to discover answers due to lack of interest or accustomed to their teacher being the main source of knowledge.

I am sure that motivation is a key element in problem solving. Excellent application of problem solving is best exemplified by my classmate which students are asked to find the best place to have a picnic. That means I will need to prepare a problem which is relevant to real life to engage students. I have another idea such as choose which dog is the most suitable for family with particular background. I will provide information about dogs and story of the family, encourage students to read problem several times and explain the important feature. Furthermore, I will pose questions and ask for clarification to help students understand and also enable me to monitor them.


Illustrate problem solving as picture above may be the best way to tell them that there are so many alternatives to solve problem so they respect any contribution and willing to discuss with others. I think this strategy is ideal to use as a conjunction with cooperative learning. Learning climate in which learners can freely discuss with one another what they understand support this idea.

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Role Play

Role play is learning activity in which one or more students are required to act or pretend to be someone other than themselves. The application of knowledge in real situations enable student deal with complex social interaction. Since it involves students because of the realism, it is usually time consuming and students may forget about their learning. The disadvantages from role play comes from some students who:
  • do not take it seriously.
  • become overinvolved.
  • are reluctant because lack of confidence.
  • are not able to play in credible way.
  • for observers, lack skills to analyse and only watching.
To successfully implement role play, I have to prepare the resource material, select carefully students who are confident for early attempt and  less confident to support roles, explain learning outcome for students participating directly and indirectly (observe, note taking), and then brief them on their role.


"Role-playing can be hard work for the instructor, both in preparation and in execution, but the work tends to pay off in terms of student motivation and accomplishment"
~Science Education Resource Center Carleton College~

After role play, I will bring discussion about their role play world and real world, evaluate, and debriefing to reflect on what happened and consolidate learning with focus on actors and observers separately. Last, praise all of students.

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Case Study

Cases offer students opportunities to grapple with issues, problems, an dilemmas in ways that are challenging. As a result, students have chance to foster their critical thinking.
 
"Most students are inductive reasoners, which means
that they learn better from examples"
~Dunne, D. and Brooks, K. (2004) Teaching with Cases~

Teacher may have to spend considerable time developing a case study. If the teacher fails to prepare case which is tantamount to students' ability, for instance many information in case are incomplete and misleading. Students will easily become frustrated because they feel they lack of background knowledge for resolving the cases. On the other hand, detailed analysis of cases by chance may bring students to devote too much time to one aspect only. Since some cases are very realistic and complex with no right answer, the teacher must also prepare satisfying conclusion.

In order to help students to not become frustrated, they first need to gain more approach within mind. I will present for example, newspaper or magazine articles as a structured introduction of the case. I will use whether closed or open cases depend on students' sufficient knowledge. My strategy is to use closed case study first to test students' understanding of well-defined fact and principles. After that, I will bring the open case study which has many possible solutions or actions that could be recommended for further deeper learning. In the end, I will deliberately narrow the discussion and summarise to bring satisfying conclusion. 

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