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Rabu, 26 Juni 2013
Teaching Methods
Teaching Methods
Herbert J.
Walberg
PEDAGOGICAL
METHODS
Evidence from
many studies of 275 pedagogical methods and
educational
conditions are summarized elsewhere.3 This section
concerns several
that are relatively simple to employ and
that have
excellent records of promoting learning. The research
on these methods
and conditions has accumulated over
half a century.
Most of the studies employed control-groups
and contrasted
the amount learned, or gains, from pretests to
posttests given
before and after the intervention. Other studies
analyzed
national and international achievement surveys
of as many as
several hundred thousand students.
Parent
Involvement
Learning is
enhanced when schools encourage parents to
stimulate their
children’s intellectual development. Dozens
of studies in
the United States, Australia, Canada, England,
and elsewhere
show that the home environment powerfully
influences what
children and youth learn within and outside
school. This
environment is considerably more powerful
than the parents’
income and education in influencing what
children learn
in the first six years of life and during the
twelve years of
primary and secondary education.
As previously
mentioned, one major reason that parental
influence is
potentially so strong is that from birth through
age eighteen
children spend approximately 87 percent of
their waking
hours outside school under the nominal or real
influence of
their parents. Cooperative efforts by parents
and educators to
modify alterable conditions in the home
have strong,
beneficial effects on learning. In twenty-nine
controlled
studies, 91 percent of the comparisons favored
children in such
programs over nonparticipant control
groups.
Sometimes called
“the curriculum of the home,” the
home environment
refers to informed parent-child conversations
about school and
everyday events; encouragement
and discussion
of leisure reading; monitoring and critical review
of television
viewing and peer activities; deferral of immediate
gratification to
accomplish long-term goals;
expressions of
affection and interest in the child’s academic
and other
progress as a person; and perhaps, among such
unremitting
efforts, laughter and caprice. Reading to children
and discussing
everyday events prepare them for academic
activities
before attending school.
Cooperation
between educators and parents can support
these
approaches. Educators can suggest specific activities
likely to
stimulate children’s learning at home and in school.
They can also
develop and organize large-scale teacherparent
programs to
systematically promote academically
stimulating
conditions and activities outside school.
Graded Homework
Students learn
more when they complete homework that is
graded,
commented on, and discussed by their teachers. A
synthesis of
more than a dozen studies of the effects of
homework in
various subjects showed that the assignment
and completion
of homework yields positive effects on academic
achievement. The
effects are almost tripled when
teachers take
time to grade the work, make corrections and
specific
comments on improvements that can be made, and
discuss problems
and solutions with individual students or
the whole class.
Homework also seems particularly effective
in high school.
Like a
three-legged stool, homework requires a teacher to
assign it and
provide feedback, a parent to monitor it, and
a student to do
it. If one leg is weak, the stool may fall
down. The role
of the teacher in providing feedback—in reinforcing
what has been
done correctly and in reteaching
what has not—is
key to maximizing the positive impact of
homework.
Districts and
schools that have well-known homework
policies for
daily minutes of required work are likely to reap
benefits.
Homework “hotlines” in which students may call
in for help have
proven useful. To relieve some of the workload
of grading,
teachers can employ procedures in which
students grade
their own and other students’ work. In this
way, they can
learn cooperative social skills and how to evaluate
their own and
others’ efforts.
The quality of
homework is as important as the amount.
Effective
homework is relevant to the lessons to be learned
and in keeping
with students’ abilities.
Direct Teaching
Many studies
show that direct teaching can be effective in
promoting
student learning. It emphasizes systematic sequencing
of lessons, a
presentation of new content and skills,
guided student
practice, feedback, and independent practice
by students. The
traits of teachers employing effective direct
instruction
include clarity, task orientation, enthusiasm, and
flexibility.
Effective direct teachers also clearly organize their
presentations
and occasionally use student ideas.
The use of
direct teaching can be traced to the turn of the
century; it is
what many citizens and parents expect to see in
classrooms. Done
well, it can yield consistent and substantial
results. The
usual aspects of direct teaching are as follows:
• Daily review,
homework check, and, if necessary,
reteaching
• Presentation
of new content and skills in small steps
• Guided student
practice with close teacher monitoring
• Corrective
feedback and instructional reinforcement
• Independent
practice in seatwork and homework with a
high (more than
90 percent) success rate
• Weekly and
monthly reviews
Organized
Lessons
Showing students
the relationships between past learning
and present
learning increases its depth and breadth. More
than a dozen
studies show that when teachers explain how
new ideas in the
current lesson relate to ideas in previous
lessons and
other prior learning, students can connect the
old with the
new, which helps them better remember and
understand.
Similarly, alerting them learn key points allows
them to
concentrate on the most crucial parts of the
lessons.
Well-organized
lessons enable students to focus on key
ideas and
concentrate on the relations among them. Moreover,
understanding
the sequential or logical continuity of
subject matter
can be motivating. If students simply learn
one isolated
idea after another, the subject matter may appear
arbitrary. But
having a “mental road map” of what they
have
accomplished, where they are presently, and where they
are going can
help them avoid unpleasant surprises and set
realistic goals.
Similar effects can be accomplished by goal
setting,
overviewing, and pretesting that sensitizes students
to important
points and questions in textbooks and by
teachers.
Teaching Methods
63
It may also be
useful to show students that what they are
learning solves
problems that exist in the world outside
school, problems
they are likely to encounter in life. For example,
human biology
that features nutrition and exercise
applications is
likely to be more interesting than molecular
biology, at
least for beginning students. Teachers and textbooks
can sometimes
make effective use of graphic organizers.
Maps, timetables,
flow charts depicting the sequence of
activities, and
other such devices may be worth hundreds of
words. They may
also be easier to remember.
Learning
Strategies
Giving students
some choice in their learning goals and teaching
them to be
attentive to their progress can yield learning
gains. In the
1980s, reformers sought ways to encourage selfmonitoring,
self-teaching,
or “meta-cognition” to foster both
achievement and
independence. They viewed skills as important,
but the
learner’s monitoring and management of his or her
own learning had
primacy, since citizens in democratic societies
are expected to
learn and think for themselves. This approach
transfers to
learners part of the direct teaching functions of
planning,
allocating time, and review. Being aware of what goes
on in one’s mind
during learning is a critical first step to effective
independent
learning.
Some students
lack this self-awareness and must be taught
the skills
necessary to monitor and regulate their own learning.
Many studies
have demonstrated that positive effects
can accrue from
developed skills. Such effort can be premature
and overdone,
however, since it would be wasteful to
expect students
to rediscover large parts of knowledge on
their own.
Students with a
repertoire of learning strategies can
measure their
own progress toward explicit goals. When
students use
these strategies to strengthen their opportunities
for learning,
they increase their knowledge as well as
their sense of
self-control and positive self-evaluation.
Three possible
phases of teaching about learning strategies
are as follows:
• Modeling, in
which the teacher exhibits the desired
behavior
• Guided
practice, in which students perform with help
from the teacher
• Application,
in which students act independently of the
teacher
As an example, a
successful program of “reciprocal teaching”
fosters reading
comprehension by having students
take turns in
leading dialogues on pertinent features of
texts. By
assuming the roles of planning, preparation, and
monitoring
ordinarily exercised by teachers, students can
learn
self-management and how to collaborate as well as gain
knowledge and
skills. Perhaps that is why tutors learn from
tutoring and why
it is said, “To learn something well, teach it.”
CONDITIONS FOR
EFFECTIVE TEACHING
The methods
described in the last section are hardly astonishing.
They reflect not
only research findings but also common
sense and
personal experiences we may have had with our better
teachers. What
is astonishing is that they are so seldom
practiced or
well practiced. Because policy makers, citizens,
and parents now
more fully realize both the need and the potential
to raise
achievement substantially, they need to know
about what
promotes good teaching methods. Unfortunately,
the research on
this important matter is neither voluminous
nor as rigorous
as the control-group studies on teaching methods.
Some expert
syntheses, large-scale surveys, and case studies
of outstanding
schools that attain exceptional achievement
do provide
useful and promising insights.
Indicators of
School Quality Associated with Achievement
A. Curriculum
1. Develops
quality curriculum
2. Ensures
effective implementation and articulation of curriculum
3. Evaluates and
renews the curriculum
B. Instructional
design
1. Aligns instruction
with goals
2. Employs
data-driven instructional decision making
3. Actively
engages students in their learning
4. Expands
instructional support for student learning
C. Assessment
1. Clearly
defines the expectations for student learning
2. Establishes
the purpose of assessment
3. Selects the
appropriate method of assessment
4. Collects a
comprehensive and representative sample of student
achievement
5. Develops fair
assessments and avoids bias and distortion
D. Educational
agenda
1. Facilitates a
collaborative process in developing a shared vision
2. Develops a
shared vision, beliefs, and mission
3. Defines
measurable goals focused on students’ learning
E. Leadership
for school improvement
1. Promotes
quality instruction by fostering an academic
learning climate
2. Develops
schoolwide plans for improvement
3. Employs
effective decision making
4. Monitors
progress in improving student achievement and
instructional
effectiveness
5. Provides
skillful stewardship
F. Community
building
1. Fosters community-building
conditions within the school
2. Extends the
school community through collaborative
networks and
improvement
G. Continuous
improvement and learning
1. Builds skills
and capacity for improvement through comprehensive
and ongoing
professional development
2. Creates the
conditions that support productive change
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