Today’s lectures were awesome. Yes, ALL three of them. masya Allah. I might’ve been struggling to stay awake during the first lecture (I didn’t have mymorning coffee), but I heard everything and I got everything! Honest! The lecturer practically killed the DSM by the end of the class. What’s not interesting about that? Haha. Now, the other 2 remaining lectures got me thinking about its applicability to Brunei’s educational system.
Sending off children for private “tuition” is a well rooted culture for pre-university (lower primary up to 6th Form) Bruneian students. School in the day. Tuition in the evening. This is how it is for the majority of the population (i.e. these pre-university Bruneian students). Shouldn’t this be seen as a red flag for the Ministry of Education and its subcomponents (i.e. schools, teachers, UBD, etc)? Any objective observer would think that this is an indication that students are just not learning enough at schools. When effective learning does not take place in the classrooms, it doesn’t mean that the students can’t learn nor does it mean that the teachers can’t teach. It simply means that the contingencies within the environment does not allow effective learning. There are insufficient (let alone a maximisation of) learning opportunities. All students can learn despite their history. A student that comes from a less fortunate socioeconomic background might not grow up with ‘educational toys’ which may make them less ‘advanced’ than those who were exposed with educational toys from a young age. However, they are still able to learn if the contingencies within the learning environment allows learning to take place effectively. Similarly, teachers cannot be blamed for being “bad teachers” or “not knowing how to teach”. They are only a product of the educational system (BA is quite huge on the influence of environment and consequences on behaviour). If the eduational system does not equip them with the right tools to teach effectively, how can they even teach effectively to begin with? A person can’t try to fix the electricity with a hammer. No matter how he twists and turns and uses the hammer, he will never be able to fix the electricity.
Imagine a math class. The teacher is about to introduce a new formula or a new mathematical whateveryoucallit. He writes on the board, explains everything, and the class stays quiet and pays attention (at least hopefully!). The teacher would then say, “Any questions?”, or “Do you understand?”. A question or two might be raised but a majority would just remain silent or indicate that they have understood the concept. So the teacher then gives a set of questions to do in class, and some others to do as homework. Of course, the teacher remembers to say, “Let me know if you have any questions”.
Seems pretty alright, doesn’t it? Doesn’t seem as if there’s anything wrong there, is there? Well, let’s see…
1.The teacher started off great. He taught the new concept and asked the students if they understood. But then again, how likely is it for the average student to put himself or herself out there to ask a question. A question that he might assume would make him look stupid, yet very important for his learning? Remember how peer pressure gets really intense during our adolescent years (lol. I’m making myself sound old).
2. If a student doesn’t fully understand what is being taught, he or she is likely to make mistakes when doing the calculations. Once they try and do the math tasks independently, they would probably be making the same errors repeadtedly reflecting that gap in their understanding. Ever heard about the saying “old habits die hard”. Well, it’s an empirically validated phenomena – but differently termed. Hence it is important that teaching should target to minimise as many errors as possible from the beginning.
An effective learning environment is a situation which allows the students to get as many learning opportunities as possible. Learning should also aim for fluency, which involves BOTH accuracy and speed. Not just accurate answers which takes a while to come up with; or a quick response that is inaccurate. Memory retention and recall is also important in learning. Thus, a learning environment (teaching methods, students behaviour) should have all these components.
For subjects such as history or psychology, we often see the teacher stand in front of the class and starts talking. They’ll go on and on and then…drrrriiiingg!! The school bell goes off and the class ends. For subjects that are so heavily loaded with concepts and sometimes rather dry, the mind just wanders after 10mins into the lecture. Sometimes, a lot less than that. So how can we ensure that the students are actually listening, but more importantly, learning in class? Accurate and observable FEEDBACK (e.g. active student responding – ASR) is the answer, my dear readers. An accurate feedback from the students (no, “do you understand?” questions!) can be an observable and objective measure as to whether the students have understood what has been taught.
ASR allows more frequent responding in the classroom DURING and AFTER the lessons. If we refer to the aforementioned math class scenario, the teacher might breakdown the concept into smaller components. After each component, the teacher might stop and turn to everybody and ask them to do one question to test if they have understood that component. Now, there are a number of ways to makes sure that EVERYBODY answers. In this situation, writing the answer on an A4 piece of paper and lifting it up when the teacher signals for it is one possible way. However, it has to be ensured that they all show the answers at the same time (to avoid referring to others’ answers), and that EVERYBODY have to give their responses (letting them know that EVERYBODY has to answer – escape extinction). So there should be a few trials before implementing this response technique. If there is a majority of inaccurate responses, it would indicate that the students are still unsure about the concept. Thus, the teacher should go back and teach the concept again…and test them again. Response methods can vary from using coloured cards to answer MCQs, choral responding, and guided notes. This type of strategy could provide the teachers on immediate feedback on the performance of both the teachers and the students during AND after each learning units.
In light of the SPN 21 (which is still a tad bit blurry to me), I am hoping that the new system involves the training of teachers on effective teaching methods. Not pseudoscientific or anecdotal types of teaching methods, but teaching methods that actually work and have empirical evidence to back it up. For instance, there is a program called Direct Instruction (big DI). It’s a systematic approach to designing and delivering instructions. It involves repeated trials, quick responses, demands attention, starts with developing basic skills then moving to more complex, and so on. DI also involves a script, and this script is scientifically proven to work. What more do you need? Though, when a teacher hears about this, there might become apprehensive about this method, “It’s so prescribed and robotic,” “Where’s the creativity?” A script only makes up HALF of the effectiveness. A teacher’s enthusiasm, reinforcement procedures and scheduling, classroom management, etc. are also prominant in making the program a success. I also believe that Brunei educational system could learn something from this DI in the delivery of language and maths. HERE is a link on DI and the different programs available. They can also be purchased through the website.
Below are some videos on DI so you can have a flavour on what it’s about.
If you’re interested in knowing more about DI, ASR…or would like to employ me or do my thesis on you class (hehe), leave me a commet here or e-mail me (e-mail address if found in the She. I. Me page). If I can’t answer your questions, I’ll get back to you once I do find the answers to you questions, insya Allah.
P.S.: I really hope that the committe/consultants for the SPN21 involves a Behaviour Analyist. If the committe can’t find one, I’m sure I can try and get hold of the contact details of a BAst specialising in education, insya Allah.
