3rd Reflection – Ahmad Apriyanto

There are so many models of instruction, last week I learned 4 of them; The Direct Instruction, The Lecture Discussion, Group Instruction, and Guided Discovery. As a teacher candidate we need to understand all because we have to apply them when we are being a teacher someday. The important thing is they are not separated, so we do not think to use them one by one. We have to combine some of them because of their strengths and weaknesses, so each model can cover the other weaknesses.

For example, if we want to deliver the material about “Ratio and Proportion” we can use Group Discussion, Guided Discovery, and Lecture Discussion. First, we make a group, then each group will get some problems, then they discussed under our guiding, after that they can show their work in front of class, then we can discussed it together, so we combine some of them for teaching.

Usually, teaching “the concept” tends to use Direct Instruction only because the teacher believes that if he/she explains the material, then give them some examples, and then ask them to practice, then the students will understand the material. Do not ever think to use one model only because it does not guarantee our students will understand our teaching. Also it does not give opportunities to develop students’ thinking, just follow teachers instruction.

Based on my experience, my teachers used Group Discussion to deliver some materials, but they only gave us some tasks and then ordered us to complete it, after we completed it, they did not give us any feedback. They only checked our product, then gave the score, and returned it to us. We did not know why we got that score, we didn’t know where our weaknesses are, so sometimes the teacher uses the instruction wrongly.

Moreover, the teachers always use the same instruction for teaching which is not good because it makes our student bored. Again, based on my experience in Senior High School, my physics teacher wanted us to do a lot of practices, so he ordered us to finish all the questions on the text book. I think it’s good for us to practice, but he only explained a bit of material. He has a difficulty to encourage his students, so he only cared to some “smart students.” He only explained the steps to solve the problems to the students who asked and came to him, whereas he didn’t care to the students who didn’t do that.

In brief, we have to be very creative in presenting our material. We have to choose an appropriate model of instruction based on our learning objectives. It’s time to learn, let’s learn from our experiences, and repairs all the mistakes to be applied in the future.