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BEST TEACHING TECHNIQUES AND ISSUES FACED DURING PRACTICUM:
A CASE STUDY
Punethawathi Rajagopal PhdIPG Kampus Ipoh Jasmin_Nitha@Yahoo.Com
Abstract
This study aims to investigate the best teaching techniques applied and used by five practicum pre-service teachers who underwent practicum during their training phase. A qualitative research design is used to gather data. The instruments used were open ended interview, observation and written reflections. Among the discussions were to analyze the teaching techniques used for the various skills namely listening and speaking, reading, writing and language arts. This study also aims to investigate the issues in using the teaching techniques. This research hopes to enlighten the educators and teaching practitioners the issues faced by teachers in using the teaching techniques. This study is significant as it reveals the diversified techniques used for the various skills. Besides, this study highlights the issues by pre-service teachers in using the teaching techniques.
Keywords: Teaching techniques, issues, practicum.
PENGGUNAAN KAEDAH PENGAJARAN YANG TERBAIK SERTA ISU YANG DIHADAPI OLEH GURU PELATIH SEMASA PRAKTIKUM
Abstrak
Kajian ini bertujuan meninjau penggunaan teknik pengajaran yang berkesan yang diamalkan oleh lima orang guru pelatih semasa fasa praktikum. Data dikumpul dengan menggunakan kaedah kualitatif. Instrumen kajian yang digunakan ialah temuduga terbuka, pemerhatian dan penulisan refleksi. Kajian ini akan meninjau teknik pengajaran yang digunakan untuk mengajar kemahiran seperti pendengaran dan bertutur, pembacaan, penulisan dan seni sastera. Kajian ini juga akan meninjau isu yang dihadapi semasa menggunakan teknik pengajaran. Kajian ini dapat menjelaskan kepada pendidik mengenal isu yang dihadapi oleh guru semasa teknik pengajaran. Kajian ini signifikan kerana ia mendedahkan pelbagai teknik pengajaran yang diamalkan untuk pelbagai kemahiran disamping mendedahkan isu-isu yang dihadapi oleh guru pelatih dalam pelaksanaan teknik pengajaran semasa fasa praktikum.
Kata kunci: Teknik mengajar, isu, praktikum.
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INTRODUCTION
Research Background
This study focuses on the teaching techniques for the four skills in English language in the KSSR modular syllabus. There are four modules for each level, module 1 which comprises of listening and speaking, module 2 for reading , module 3 for writing , module 4 for language arts and module 5 for grammar for level 2 (Evans, 2012) .Some of the advantages of modular syllabus are, it provides intensive and focused time for each skill and topics, allow more room for application of various strategies for each skills and allow more space for interaction as well as provide meaningful and contextual learning which includes thinking skills, mastery learning, ICT skills, multiple intelligence, constructivism, contextual learning, learning how to learn, values, knowledge acquisition, creativity and application in real life context (Curriculum Development Division, 2011). The KSSR lesson planning needs a stipulated systematic procedure as it follows a modular syllabus. The right approaches and strategies are needed to teach each of these skills. When a pupil is said to be fluent in English, it is when he is able to comprehend what is being said and can respond. Among the suggested teaching techniques are to immerse pupils in various language experiences and to provide clues to enhance their comprehension ability.
To become an effective teacher, one has to experience and undergo practicum .Practicum sessions are important aspects of teacher education as it is an avenue for application of theories into practice (Goh & Matthews, 2011).Training during practicum is important because it provides the opportunities to experience the real life situation in a classroom. This would assist the pre-service teachers to experience and understand the issues and challenges they would face in a real life situation (Hamaidi, Al-shara, Arouri, & Awwad, 2014).
Statement of Problem
One of the aspects of teacher education curriculum is to apply theories to build teachers’ character so as to face future challenges as an educator. Among the learning outcome of the teacher education aspiration is to enable the pre-service teachers to apply and transfer knowledge and skills to carry out teaching and learning during practicum in their respective field (Ching & Education, 2012).
Teaching practicum in teacher education institutions involves few phases. Firstly, a week of school based experience (SBE) which is conducted during the 1st and 2nd year. During the 3rd year pre- service teachers experience a month long practicum. This is followed by a two month practicum
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session during the 6th semester. Finally pre-service teachers experience a three month session of practicum during the 7th semester of their term. The final term ends with a month long internship where pre-service teachers complete a minimum of 3 projects related to their respective major subjects. These teachers are challenged to apply various teaching techniques. During these phase, they face many issues and challenges. Among the issues and challenges faced by teachers are the pupils behavior during the lesson, classroom management and adapting to the new environment (Mohd, Che, & Yusoff, 2014). Hence, this study would investigate the various teaching techniques applied and the issues anticipated in using these techniques faced by pre-service teachers from Ipoh campus during their practicum .
Research Objectives
Among the aims of the study is to investigate the teaching techniques used by pre-service teachers to teach listening, speaking, reading, writing and language arts skills. Secondly this study would gather information regarding the issues in using the teaching techniques.
Research Questions
i. What are the teaching techniques used by pre-service teachers to teach listening, speaking, reading, writing and language arts?
ii. What are the issues faced by pre-service teachers in using the teaching techniques?
Significance of the study
This research hopes to enlighten the educators and teaching practitioners the issues in using the various teaching techniques by pre-service teachers during their practicum . This study is significant as it will reveal the various techniques used as well as the issues anticipated by pre-service teachers in using the teaching techniques.
Research Limitation
The study was only conducted based on a case study. A comprehensive study would provide supportive findings and feedback with regards to the various teaching techniques applied as well as provides more significant related evidences of issues faced in using the techniques.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
The Malaysia Ministry of Education (MOE) in its efforts to improve the Malaysian Education Curriculum came up with the “Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025” (MOE, 2012). The Blueprint reaffirms the implementation of the New Standard Curriculum in the primary and secondary schools in 2011 which sees additional time allotted for English subject. The new KSSR curriculum helps to formulate in producing pupils who are knowledgeable and competent in preparation for the 21st century era. The transformation of the curriculum is based on the needs of National Education Policy which promotes modulating intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual individuals. In lie with this aim, it also enables the teachers to identify improvement strategies to assist pupils to understand content knowledge (Sulaiman, Ayub, & Sulaiman, 2015).
Furthermore, emphases is focused on critical and creative thinking as well as reasoning skills to be incorporated in the lessons (Curriculum Development Division, 2011).Therefore teachers are faced with the tasks to design activities to facilitate application of cognitive skills. Teachers carry the burden in relation to aspects of types of instructions, factors that influence teaching and learning, management and assessment.
The KSSR lesson planning needs a stipulated systematic procedure as it follows a modular syllabus.
The right approaches and strategies need to be chosen to teach each of these skills in the modular syllabus. Some best methods to enhance listening and speaking can include reciting poem, rhymes, playing games, watching video clips, sharing and expressing opinions and views. Reading is usually associated as acquisition which requires meaningful interaction in the target language.
Therefore teachers can enhance pupils reading comprehension by helping them build schemata.
Some teaching techniques to enhance reading are reading words, sentences, and stories and using synonyms to explain unfamiliar words and summarizing. Likewise, writing skills are to promote vocabulary building. Similarly some teaching techniquess to enhance writing is brainstorming ideas and opinions in the form of graphic organizer or charts to enable pupils to organize their thinking and review in the form of piece of writing (Rattan, Librarian, Kahn, & Nabha, 2014) .
METHODOLOGY Research Design
This study uses the qualitative research design to gather data from the open ended interview, observation and reflective journals.
46 Sampling
The purposive sampling was employed to choose five participants as the target respondents. Two schools from Ipoh town were chosen randomly. Among the selection criteria was the level of participation, ability and batch. The participants had undergone a week of school based experience (SBE) which was conducted during the 1st and 2nd years. During the 3rd year pre-service teachers experienced a month long practicum. The participants are in the 4th year of study in a teacher education institution undergoing a two month practicum session. Therefore the respondents have enough experience and skills to give suggestions and recommendations of their teaching techniquess as well as state the issues they anticipated while using the teaching techniques.
Research Instruments
Three instruments were administered to gather the qualitative data. The instruments were open ended interview, observation and written reflections. The interview was conducted individually after each observation for three consecutive lessons. The interview session was about 20 minutes for each respondent. Observation checklist was used during the practicum visits for three sessions.
The written reflections of pre-service teachers were collected and analyzed throughout the two month practicum sessions.
Data Collection Procedure
The instruments used were open ended interview, observation and written reflections. The data collected were triangulated to identify the themes. The observation was carried out during the practicum visits. For each respondent a total of three observations were recorded and analyzed. The open ended interviews were conducted for about 20 minutes for each respondent. The onset of each interview was after every practicum observation. A total of fifteen open ended interviews were recorded and transcribed. The written journals were collected throughout the two month long practicum.
Data Analysis
The written reflections were analyzed using content analysis and categorized according to the best teaching techniques and issues anticipated during the teaching process. The teaching techniquess are categorized according to the four skills; listening and speaking, reading, writing and language arts. The participant’s issues were analyzed through the open ended interview and written
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reflections. To triangulate the data, the observation checklist was used to support and substantiate the findings. The data from the three instruments were analyzed to identify the themes.
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
This section discusses the finding of the research namely the best teaching techniques used to teach listening and speaking, reading, writing and language arts and the issues anticipated during the teaching process. As shown in Table 1, the participants listed using video recording, poem recitation, storytelling and songs to teach listening and speaking. From the interview, it was gathered that all respondents agreed that during listening skills, all the other skills were used in integration. This enhanced language learning in a more meaningful manner. From the observation checklist, the researcher observed that the pupils participated actively during listening skills and were able to use the other skills simultaneously during the lesson. All the participants agreed that teaching listening is an interactive process and all the pupils are able to understand what they are listening and are able to give appropriate responses orally. All the participants agreed that listening should be taught in integration. Integration of skills exposes ESL learners to authentic language and challenges them to interact naturally in the target language (Tavil, 2010).Therefore all the participants agreed that teachers should give more importance to teaching listening skill in integration. Two participants agreed that varied teaching techniques enhance pupils listening ability. Three participants agreed that story telling involves active participation of pupils.
Storytelling improves pupils listening skills when they exhibit their skills in memory and concentration (Oduolowu & Oluwakemi, 2014).
Table 1:
Teaching Listening and Speaking
Participants Techniques
P1,P2 Video recording
P3,P4 Poem recitation
All Story telling
All Song
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With reference to Table 2 below, the participants listed using reading aloud, choral reading, chain reading and read and do as the techniques to teach reading. All the respondents agreed that reading tasks enable the pupils to apply their critical and creative thinking skills. Respondents P2, P3 and P4 used reading aloud method to check understanding of main ideas and to check pronunciation and spelling of words. Respondents P3, P4 and P5 used choral reading to enable pupils to master reading skills like read in sequence, read correctly and read for pronunciation.
Table 2:
Teaching Reading
Participants Techniques
P2,P3,P4 Reading aloud
P3,P4,P5 Choral reading
P2,P5 Chain reading
All Read and do
Table 3 below demonstrates the teaching techniquess used to teach writing. Among the methods used were gap-filling, sequencing, change a word, matching, postcard and letter writing. All the respondents agreed that gap filling activities; sequencing and matching are easy and engage every level of pupils. Pupils are able to apply their critical and thinking skills during the individual and group activities. The evidence was gathered during the observation where there was active participation of all the pupils regardless of their language ability. During the interview sessions, P3,P4 and P5 agreed that pupils found the activities were not only easy but enabled the pupils to participate actively.
Table 3 Teaching Writing
Participants Techniques
All Fill in the blanks gap filling
All Sequencing
P2,P5 Change a word
All Matching
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P3,P4 Post card writing
P5 Letter writing
With reference to Table 4, all the respondents agreed that the pupils enjoyed role play and creating mask and puppets. This was also gathered during the observation where the pupils showed enthusiasm during role play sessions. The element of fun and enjoyment was inculcated during the activity of creating masks and puppets. All the respondents recorded in their journal reflection that role play enhances not only language learning ability but encourages active participation of pupils from all language level.
Table 4
Teaching Language Arts
Participants Techniques
All Role play
All Create mask/puppet/diorama
P2,P5 Poem recitation
P2,P4 Big book
To address the second research question, the respondents highlighted six issues faced during the teaching techniques. Among the issues highlighted were class control, pupils mixed ability, wrong choice of activities, time management, and physical interruption to carry out the activities and inability to predict the level of difficulty of activities. As shown in Table 5, during the interview sessions, all the respondents mentioned that class control was their main problem. Consequently, all the respondents agreed that the choice of materials and activities were not appropriate for the different level of pupils. All the respondents agreed that they need to plan accurately and accordingly to enable participation of all levels of pupils. During the observation P3, P4 and P5 had difficulty in class management. Among the observation recorded was the mis-match of activities with the level of language proficiency of pupils. The other contributing factors observed through the practicum sessions and written reflection were the voice control, the inefficiency in managing the activities and inaccurate instructions. During the interview none of the respondents mentioned about their voice control and clear instructions. Besides that time management was also another issue which was agreed by all the respondents. The allocation time for each activity either exceeded
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or was insufficient. This was a result of improper time management. There was evidence of this issue during the observation and check list. The respondents recorded in their journal reflection that they were unable to carry out some of the activities due to lack of time. During the observations P3 and P2 were unable to carry out the closure session due to lack of time management skills. Contrary to this, P1 had more than enough time before the end of the lesson.
Table 5
Issues and Suggestions
No Issues Suggestions to overcome
All Class control during activities Provide more engaging and interesting activities and challenging activities P3,P4, No power supply, video or song cannot be
used
Have plan B.
All Pupils mix ability- difficult to use same activity
Prepare different activities, group pupils according to homogeneous, heterogeneous grouping, or according to language learning abilities
All Wrong choice of activities for the skills Less exposure to the skills, mismatch of ideas, not prepared thoroughly, not according to pupils ability
All Unpredictable- too easy or too difficult Prepare adequately, prepare more challenging activities, enrichment, and vocabulary enhancement.
All Time management Too little or too much time
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
KSSR aims to produce a balanced, creative, critical innovative individual with good communication, aesthetic development, personal skills, humanity and spirituality and moral values.
All these are achieved by mastering the four language skills. Teachers concluded that it is the role of the teacher to make decision about what is going on in the classrooms and what is important is to enhance pupils learning through best teaching techniques and innovations (Philipps, 2010). The above was apparent among the pre-service teachers in the study. Essentially, the whole-language approach to teaching and learning reflects a constructivist philosophy of learning in which children are viewed as inherently active, self-regulating learners who construct knowledge for themselves,
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with little or no explicit decoding instruction as reflected in the findings. However, there is a strong body of evidence that constructivist whole-language approaches are not in the best interests of children experiencing learning difficulties and especially those experiencing reading difficulties (McNeil, 2009). In contrast, code-based approaches focus on explicit teaching of the structure and function of written and oral language in ways that allow children, regardless of their backgrounds, to reflect on and consciously manipulate the language as evidence from the study conducted. This involves an awareness of phonemes, syllables and morphology. Thus, unlike whole-language approaches, code-based methods typically require a high degree of teacher-centered presentation of learning material, with an emphasis on explicit instruction, scheduled practice, and feedback which was agreed upon by all the participants.
Suggestions
Past researchers and studies have indicated that learners employed their own strategies in the classroom. This study would recommend a defined methodology to incorporate the 21st century skills. Among the recommendations are employing teaching techniques which integrate and incorporate the criteria of project-based learning, problem based learning and design based learning. The project based learning would benefit the learners better as it accommodates learners’
different learning styles and preferences. The problem based learning creates a collaborative environment where learners are encouraged to explore and solve problems, enhance critical thinking, communication skills, collaboration and application of knowledge. Design based learning encourages and promotes innovation and inquiry based learning.
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