161
In terms of the establishment of classroom rules and routines, to a certain extent Tina had a set of standards and rules, though on some occasions she failed to
notice the consequences of these standards. For example, some disruptions were left unattended. Some classroom routines were in place, but there were also
some times of uncertainty and disorganization. This happened mostly because the time allocated to do the exercises was longer that what was needed by the
students.
5.2.2.3.4 Student engagement
Aspects of student engagement observed in the classroom covered the efforts made by the teacher to promote and sustain engagement. In terms of efforts to
engage the students, Tina was able to make some of the students voluntarily participate in the classroom more particularly by responding to her prompts or
questions. However, such engagement had not reached a level where students actively volunteered information or insights, or manipulated the materials.
Tina tried to sustain students‘ engagement to a level where most of them were
engaged in most of the class activities. For example, she went round the class to supervise and help students working in pairs or groups.
5.2.2.3.5 Curriculum implementation
Tina put significant effort into implementing the newly issued curriculum 2006, more particularly in terms of the preparation she made prior to teaching. She
used the syllabus and lesson plans she made together with the teaching forum in
162
the municipality as the bases of her teaching. This syllabus and the lesson plans were developed based on the objectives recommended by the government.
Although Tina had made several adjustments in relation to the teaching materials, there was still a gap between the materials she presented and the
competence of the students in her school. There was an indication that the lessons were too easy for the students.
To a certain extent, Tina tried to contextualize the teaching materials and activities so that they were more meaningful for the students. Such efforts were
done by providing examples and illustrations that were close to the students‘
life. She also used translation on some occasions.
Tina implemented the genre-based approach in her classroom as recommended by the CBIT. However, it seemed that she tried to implement it in a rigid way.
She did BKOF at the beginning of the teaching, followed by MOT, JCOT, and finished the presentation with ICOT. Because the steps were somewhat
predictable, there was an indication that the teaching was monotonous and did not provide challenges for the students.
There were not many occasions on which the teacher promoted inquiry among the students. The activities were very teacher-controlled where freedom to
explore ideas among students was limited. Tina attempted to provide model of the outcomes she expected to happen in the students, but the modeling activities
were not very effective. This was again due to the indication that the students
163
were already able to produce such outcomes. For example, when giving model of the structure of a narrative, the students seemed to have known such structure
of the text. However, credit should be given to Tina ‘s efforts to encourage
interaction among students. A great amount of time in the classroom was spent in either pair or group work.
Throughout the class, Tina did not seem to have a systematic plan for undertaking assessment. Question and answer activities or pair and group work
did not seem to be designed to assess students‘ achievement that would
contribute to the students‘ achievement rapport, instead they seemed to be a means to achieve the instruction goals.
5.2.2.4 Case Summary
