ANALYZING INSTRUCTION

ANALYZING INSTRUCTION

A.     INTRODUCTION

The emphasize on teaching has differed from the past; nowadays the institutions are trying hard to meet their goals which are tailor made with what learners’ needs. The curriculum which is so-called “KTSP” is developed as its relevancy by every group or denomination of education under coordination and supervision of educational official and department of religious affair for the basic and intermediate education. The development of KTSP refers to core standard and graduate competency standard and based on the guidlines of curriculum development issued by BSNP (standard council of national education) and consider school commmette policies.

The curriculum KTSP has been developed on the basis of some principles as follows: The basis on potency, development, needs, and interests of learners in their environment.

1.      Diversified and integrated

2.      Responsive toward the development of science, technology, and arts.

3.      Relevance with life need

4.      Comprehensive and continuous  

5.      Life long Education

6.      Proportional between national and regional interest. 

However, the most important thing is how it is applied in implementation through instruction and teaching.

B.     INSTRUCTION

The American Heritage dictionary defines Instruction as the act, process, or art of imparting knowledge and skill. It is also as known facts, ideas, and skill that have been imparted (www.answer.com/main/referrence.jsf). It is like the way how we teach.

The purpose of instruction is to help people learn. The goal of instructional designers is to make learning easier, quicker, and more enjoyable. Some people view training as a process of finding out who the brightest employees are. But performance in a course is not very highly correlated with the basic ability to be good on the job. We believe that an instructional designer's job is to help everyone to learn and be successful.

The key to improving our instruction is to know what methods of instruction to use when. It's helpful to think of different methods of instruction as different tools for a carpenter. If you only have a hammer, then everything looks like a nail to you. And you won't be able to make a very good piece of furniture. So what we need is a knowledge base about methods of instruction to supplement the creative, "art" aspect of training. Such a knowledge base would offer optimal methods for given situations.

But what are the important situations that call for different methods? How can we tell what methods (tools) to use when? Some of the options are the nature of:

Ø  the learner

Ø  the content

Ø  the goals

Ø  the learning environment

Ø  the teacher

Ø  the resources

Which do you think are most important? Why?

In order to design our instruction, we need to know two things:

• We need to know about methods (what tools are available).
• We need to know about situations (when the tools should be used).

C.     ASPECTS OF INSTRUCTION

a.       The institution

The indicators of qualified institution as Morris (1994) in Richard (2001) are as follows:

«  There are clearly stated educational goals

«  There is a well planned, balanced, and organized program that meets the needs of its students.

«  Systematic and identifiable processes exist for determining educational needs in the school and placing them in order of priority.

«  There is a commitment to learning, and an expectation that students will do well.

«  There is a high degree of staff involvement in developing goals and making decisions.

«  There is a motivated and cohesive teaching force with good team spirit.

«  Administrators are concerned with the teachers’ professional development and are able to make the best use of their skills and experience.

«  The school’s programmes are regularly reviewed and progress toward their goals is evaluated.  

  

b.      The Teachers

Suherdi (2006:107) states that the instruction which the teachers chose affects the complexity of learners’ language and the level of difficulty of teaching material presentation. The teachers are regarded as professional is indicated by some factors as follows:

«  Employment terms and conditions: do the teachers have a written contract that clearly lays out their roles and responsibilities? Are they given full time contracts or employed simply on a casual basic with few or no benefits? A program that is staffed entirely by teachers on casual terms cannot hope to attract the same level of commitment as one staffed by teachers on long-term contracts.

«  Support and reward system: What support is available to help teachers carry out their varying roles and what rewards are given for quality service?

Meanwhile Lortie (1975) in Richard (2001) stated that a profession is characterized by:

Ø  A homogenous consensual knowledge base

Ø  Restricted entry

Ø  High social status

Ø  Self-regulation

Ø  The legal right to govern daily work affairs

The teachers also have to own some knowledge and skills as Robert (1998) said such as follows:

Ø  Practical knowledge: the teacher’s repertoire of classroom techniques and strategies.

Ø  Content knowledge: the teacher’s understanding of the subject of TESOL, e.g., pedagogical grammar, phonology, teaching theories, second language acquisition, as well as the specialized discourse and terminology of language teaching.

Ø  Contextual knowledge: familiarity with the school or institutional context, school norms, and knowledge of the learners, including cultural and other relevant information.

Ø  Pedagogical knowledge: ability to restructure content knowledge for teaching purpose, and to plan, adapt, and improvise.

Ø  Personal knowledge: the teacher’s personal beliefs and principles and his or her personal approach to teaching.

Ø  Reflective knowledge: the teacher’s capacity to reflect on and assess his or her own practice.

c.       Teaching process

d.      The Learning Process

D.    TEACHING PROCESS

Quality teaching is achieved not only as a consequence of how well teachers teach but through creating context and work environments that can facilitate good teaching.

The successful of teaching is determined by many factors, it includes determining learners’ needs, analysis of the context for the program and consideration of the impact of contextual factors, the planning of learning outcomes, the organization of a course or set of teaching material, the selection and preparation of teaching materials, provision for and maintenance of effective teaching, and evaluation of the program. (Richard: 2001)