A study on microteaching students` ability in designing coherent learning objectives and learning activities - USD Repository
A STUDY ON MICROTEACHING STUDENTS ’ ABILITY IN
DESIGNING COHERENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By Meita Enjayani
081214139
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
A STUDY ON MICROTEACHING STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN
DESIGNING COHERENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By Meita Enjayani
081214139
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
“Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may
come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if
you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no
effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.” Helen KellerI dedicate this thesis to my beloved parents, my lovely brothers and sister,
ABSTRACT
Enjayani, Meita. 2012. A
Study on Microteaching Students’ Ability in Designing
Coherent Learning Objectives and Learning Activities . Yogyakarta: Sanata
Dharma University.
Having a good preparation before teaching is important. Teachers have to prepare a lesson plan before they teach. A good preparation can guarantee the achievement of learning objectives in class and the success of the teaching and learning process. Learning objectives would also be achieved if there were chances for students to experience classroom-learning activities that lead them to those learning objectives. Therefore, the researcher is interested in studying the design of learning objectives and learning activities.
This research intended to see the coherence of learning objectives and learning activities designed by microteaching students and to find out the problems that might occur. There were two research questions presented in this study: (1) Is there any coherence between learning objectives and learning activities designed by microteaching students of English Language Education Study Program? (2) What problems might occur in designing coherent learning objectives and learning activities?
To answer the research questions, the researcher conducted document analysis on seven microteaching students’ lesson plans from different classes. The data would be analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The qualitative data would be obtained from the lesson plans and the interview. Then, the quantitative data would be obtained from the checklist used to assess the lesson plans.
From the analysis, the researcher found out that there were 5 out of 7 lesson plans or 71.42% showed the coherent learning objectives and learning activities. However, dealing with the second formulation of research question, the researcher still found some problems which could be categorized into the formulation of learning objectives and the design of learning activities. The formulation of learning objectives (1) did not cover the three domains 71.42% (2) did not fulfill the criteria of clearly stated learning objectives 57.14% (3) did not derive from the competence standard 28.57%. The design of learning activities (1) gave unclear instruction 57.14% (2) did not fulfill the congruence principle 42.85% (3) did not fulfill the organization principle 42.85% (4) did not fulfill the variety principle 28.57% (5) did not fulfill the higher level of thinking principle 28.57%.
Most of the lesson plans showed coherent learning objectives and learning activities since the learning activities designed met at least the terminal objectives. The main problem that influenced the failure of designing coherent learning objectives and learning activities was the absence of supporting learning activities. The learning activities designed did not achieve the same level as what is expected in the learning objectives.
ABSTRAK
Enjayani, Meita. 2012. A Study on Microteaching Students ’ Ability in Designing
Coherent Learning objectives and learning activities. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Memiliki persiapan yang baik sebelum mengajar itu penting. Guru harus
menyiapkan rencana pelaksanaan pembelajaran (RPP) sebelum mengajar.
Persiapan yang baik menjamin tercapainya tujuan dan kesuksesan proses
pembelajaran di kelas. Tujuan pembelajaran akan tercapai apabila siswa
diberikan kesempatan untuk mengikuti aktivitas pembelajaran yang mengarahkan
mereka pada tujuan pembelajaran itu sendiri. Oleh karena itu, peneliti bermaksud
mempelajari rumusan tujuan pembelajaran dan rancangan kegiatan
pembelajaran.Penelitian ini bertujuan melihat kesesuaian antara tujuan pembelajaran
dan kegiatan pembelajaran yang dirancang oleh mahasiswa kelas Pengajaran
Mikro dan untuk menemukan masalah yang muncul. Rumusan masalah dalam
penelitian ini adalah: (1) apakah ada kesesuaian antara tujuan pembelajaran dan
kegiatan pembelajaran yang dirancang mahasiswa kelas Pengajaran Mikro
Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris? (2) masalah apa yang muncul dalam
merancang tujuan pembelajaran dan kegiatan pembelajaran yang sesuai? Untuk menyelesaikan masalah, peneliti menganalis tujuh RPP darimahasiswa kelas Pengajaran Mikro yang berbeda. Data akan dianalisis secara
kualitatif dan kuantitatif. Data kualitatif diperoleh dari RPP dan wawancara.
Data kuantitatif diperoleh dari checklist yang digunakan untuk menilai RPP.Dari hasil analisis, peneliti menemukan bahwa 5 dari 7 RPP atau 71.4%
menunjukkan kesesuaian antara tujuan pembelajaran dan kegiatan pembelajaran.
Di sisi lain, berhubungan dengan rumusan masalah yang kedua, peneliti
menemukan beberapa masalah yang dapat dikelompokkan berdasarkan
perumusan tujuan pembelajaran dan rancangan kegiatan pembelajaran.
Rumusan tujuan pembelajaran (1) tidak mencakup tiga ranah 71.42% (2) tidak
memenuhi kriteria rumusan tujuan pembelajaran yang jelas 57, 14% (3) tidak
sesuai dengan standar kompetensi 28,57%. Kemudian, rancangan kegiatan
pembelajaran (1) memberi instruksi yang tidak jelas 51,14% (2) tidak memenuhi
prinsip kesesuaian 42.85% (3) tidak memenuhi prinsip organisasi 42,85% (4)
tidak memenuhi prinsip keberagaman 28,57% (5) tidak memenuhi prinsip
berpikir kompleks 28, 57%.Sebagian besar RPP menunjukkan kesesuaian antara tujuan pembelajaran
dan kegiatan pembelajaran karena kegiatan pembelajaran yang dirancang telah
memenuhi setidaknya tujuan pembelajaran utama. Masalah utama yang
mempengaruhi kegagalan dalam merancang kegiatan pembelajaran yang sesuai
dengan tujuan pembelajaran adalah tidak adanya kegiatan pembelajaran yang
mendukung. Kegiatan pembelajaran yang dirancang tidak mencapai tingkat yang
sama seperti apa yang diharapkan pada tujuan pembelajaran.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest gratitude for Jesus Christ for health and His blessing so that I can finish my thesis.
I also express my sincere appreciation for my sponsor, V. Triprihatmini, S.Pd., M.Hum., M.A., who guided me in the process of writing this thesis by giving feedback and suggestions. Then, my next appreciation goes to microteaching lecturers, Ag. Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A., Caecilia Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd., Carla Sih Prabandari, S.Pd., M.Hum., Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., Christina Kristiyani, S.Pd., M.Pd., V. Triprihatmini, S.Pd., M.Hum., M.A., and Gregorius Punto Aji S.Pd., M.Hum., for giving me opportunities to conduct resear ch on their students’ work. I would also thank those who became the participants of my study by permitting me to access their lesson plans and giving the information that I needed.
I would also like to express my greatest gratitude for my beloved family: Bapak, Ibu, mas Agus, mas Doni, Risa, mbak Nita and mbak Widy for the support and motivation that encourage me to finish my thesis as soon as possible.
I owe much to my friends, Andre, Ayuk, Anisa, Yeni, Dita, Rean and all PBI students of 2008 academic year who always support and make me laugh in this hard time doing my thesis. Not to forget, my great thankfulness goes to my friends in “kost idjoe”, mbak Ria, Usie, Hita, mbak Dwi, mbak Novi, Ita.
Finally, my deepest thanks go to all who have helped me in finishing my thesis.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page TITLE PAGE...................................................................................................... i APPROVAL PAGE .......................................................................................... ii DEDICATION PAGE....................................................................................... iv STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ................................................... v ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... vi
ABSTRAK ........................................................................................................ vii
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ................................. viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................... x LIST OF APENDICES .................................................................................... xii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A. Research Background ...................................................................... 1 B. Problem Formulation ....................................................................... 3 C. Problem Limitation .......................................................................... 4 D. Research Objectives ......................................................................... 5 E. Research Benefits ............................................................................ 5 F. Definition of Terms ......................................................................... 6 CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW A. Theoretical Description .................................................................... 9 1. Lesson Planning in Language Teaching ..................................... 9 2. Learning Objectives in Lesson Planning .................................. 10 3. Learning Activities in Lesson Planning ................................... 13 4. The Relation between Learning Objectives and Learning Activities ................................................................................. 17 5. Writing Skill............................................................................ 18
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY A. Research Methods ......................................................................... 24 B. Research Setting............................................................................ 25 C. Research Participants .................................................................... 25 D. Research Insteruments................................................................... 27 E. Data Gathering Technique ............................................................. 28 F. Data Analysis Technique ............................................................... 29 G. Research Procedure ....................................................................... 31 CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A. General Description of Microteaching Students’ Lesson Plans ........ 33 B. The Formulation of the Learning Objectives ................................... 34 C. The Design of the Learning Activites .............................................. 47 D. The Application of Six Principles Proposed By Pasch et al. (1991) in Designing the Learning Activities ................................................... 54 E. The Coherence of the Learning Activities and the Learning Objectives ...................................................................................... 71 F. Problems that might occur in the Design of Learning objectives and learning activities ..................................................................... 75
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions .................................................................................... 81 B. Suggestions .................................................................................... 82 REFERENCES ................................................................................................ 85 APPENDICES ................................................................................................. 87
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix Page
1. Surat Permohonan Ijin Penelitian .................................................................. 87
2.Checklist.............................................................................................................. 89
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION There will be six important sections to discuss in this chapter. They are the
research background, problem formulations, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and definition of terms.
A. Research Background
Nowadays, English is taught from kindergarten to high school. However, the researcher is curious why Senior High School students still have poor ability in English even after they have learned English for many years. The researcher thinks that one of the possible reasons is because of bad teaching preparation among teachers. The ability of the students should be good if the teachers had a good preparation or idea. Teacher s’ teaching preparation can be seen from the lesson plan. Therefore, the researcher is interested in observing lesson plans of microteaching students.
As future teachers, students of the English Language Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University are prepared to master all aspects of teaching such as designing lesson plans and materials, classroom management, and the way of delivering the material during their study. All of those aspects are important in order to achieve successful teaching. The students will get the chance to implement all of those aspects in one of the subjects that is called microteaching. It is offered for sixth semester students.
The first step taken by microteaching students before doing the teaching performance is designing a lesson plan. The lesson plan becomes the foundation of the teaching since it is a plan of the learning process in class. It will be the guidelines for the teacher on how or what to do, to control the way the learning activities run.
Designing a lesson plans is not easy. In fact, it is still a challenging task for some students. Most of them even do not know what kind of things should be written there, including the arrangement. Moreover, there are many things to consider since a lesson plan consists of some points. As written in Permendiknas no 41 year 2007 on Standar Proses, a lesson plan covers the subject description, competence standard, basic competence, indicator, learning objectives, material, time allotment, teaching method, learning activities, assessment, and learning source. These become important parts which relate to one another. For example, the standard competence and basic competence will be the foundation in determining the learning objective. Then, the objective will be the foundation in determining the learning activities, so on and so forth.
Here, the researcher discusses the learning objectives which determine the design of the learning activities. As Kemp (1977) said , “Objectives indicate the type and extent of activities that are required for successfully carrying out the learning” (p. 34). Learning objectives are the focus and will be the target of the teaching and learning process. It can be achieved by providing the supporting learning activities for students so that they experience the learning process which
Microteaching students should think carefully before determining the learning activities. Burden & Byrd (1999) recommend three sequences of learning activities which are introductory activities, developmental activities, and closing activities. The learning activities written in the lesson plan should be clear and in a good order so that the material can be delivered well and easily. Besides, the important thing to be considered is that the learning activities should be based on the learning objectives.
By the fact that designing coherent learning objectives and learning activities is important, the researcher wants to know whether there is coherence between learning objectives and learning activities designed by microteaching students of the English Language Education Study Program. It is important since the students are expected to be professional teachers who are successful in teaching after they graduate later. The coherence can be seen from some criteria.
They are related to the formulation of learning objectives and the design of supporting learning activities.
B. Problem Formulations
In relation to the topic of the study, the problems of the research can be formulated as follows:
1. Is there any coherence between learning objectives and learning activities designed by microteaching students of the English Language Education Study Program?
2. What problems might occur in designing coherent learning objectives and learning activities?
C. Problem Limitation
The designs of lesson plans are varied based on the skill focus which is going to be taught. It can be listening, speaking, reading or writing. In this study, the lesson plans analyzed are those that focus on writing skill. The researcher experienced that producing a piece of writing is not easy. There are some sequences to face, such as getting the idea, pre-writing, revising, re-writing and proofreading. From the first sequence, which is finding the idea, it is not easy.
Even after the researcher gets the idea, the researcher should consider the vocabulary, grammar or organization to put the idea into a good writing. Because of those phenomena, writing teacher should be careful in choosing the kinds of classroom activities to help the students develop their writing skills. It is obvious that becoming a writing teacher is a big challenge. That is the reason why the researcher chose the lesson plans which focus on writing skill as the data.
There are some parts in a lesson plan which are all important and related to each other. Dealing with the objectives of this study, the focus will be only on the objectives and learning activities written in a lesson plan. The researcher is going to study the coherence of both.
This research will use document analysis on seven lesson plans written by seven students of the English Language Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University year 2009 as the participants from different microteaching class. The students have written and implemented them in their microteaching class.
D. Research Objectives
Based on the problem formulations, the objectives of conducting this study are listed as follows:
1. To see whether there is coherence between learning objectives and learning activities designed by microteaching students of the English Language Education Study Program.
2. To know some problems that might occur in designing coherent learning objectives and learning activities.
E. Research Benefits
By conducting research on the coherence of learning objectives and learning activities designed by microteaching students, it is expected to provide contributions for: 1.
Students
This research is expected to provide feedback or to evaluate microteaching students of the English Language Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University in designing coherent learning objectives and learning activities. By understanding the importance of it, they are expected to improve their ability in designing those two. Hopefully, they can think more critically about what kind of
2. Lecturers
This research gives description for the lecturers on microteaching students’ ability in designing coherent learning objectives and learning activities. If the result is that microteaching students have not designed coherent learning activities, the lecturers can improve their teaching technique and create new methods in teaching designing lesson plan.
By knowing the microteaching students ’ problems in designing coherent learning objectives and learning activities, the lecturers are expected to find better solution to help the students solve the problems.
3. Other researchers
This research can help and develop further research on designing similar topics about the coherent learning objectives and learning activities.
F. Definition of Terms
There are some terms which are often used in this study. In order to avoid misunderstanding, the researcher is going to define the terms as follows:
1. Microteaching
Purnomo, Rismiati, Domi & Rohandi (2008) state that in microteaching class, the students are expected to master the basic teaching competence and implement a certain approach of teaching method. In this study, microteaching is one of the courses in the English Language Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University. This course belongs to a compulsory course and is offered in
2. Coherent In a piece of writing, there is one principle that is called coherent principle.
It means that every sentence in a paragraph should support the idea. As Langan (1996) said, “All the supporting ideas and sentences in a paper must be organized so that they cohere, or stick together ” (p.104).
This study is going to see the coherence of learning objectives and learning activities. Coherence here means that the learning activities should be designed to reach the purpose of learning that is formulated in the learning objectives. Learning activities might be varied. However, it should be well organized, set in a logical order, and meet at least one of the learning objectives.
3. Learning Activities
Harmer (2001) states that learning activities are the main body of the lesson plan in which the procedure of teaching process is listed together with the time taken for each activity (p. 315). In this study, the learning activities refer to the learning activity as one of the components of lesson plan designed by microteaching students of the English Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University. Here, the researcher will use the list of activities written by the students in their lesson plans as the main data.
4. Learning Objectives
According to Kemp (1977), “A learning objective is a precise statement that answers the question, “What does the student have to do in order to show that he or she has learned what you want the students to learn” (p. 28). It means that also says, “An objective implies direction and goal, cause and effect, process and product” (p. 104).
As written in Permendiknas no 41 year 2007 on Standar Proses, a learning objective describes the process and expected achievement of students learning based on the basic competence. Then, an indicator is observable behavior to indicate the achievement of basic competence. From those two sentences, it is obvious that both learning objective and indicator are related to the target of learning. Therefore, learning objectives and indicators are interchangeable.
In this study, learning objectives refer to the learning objectives listed in the lesson plan designed by microteaching students of the English Language Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University. The researcher uses these as the main data. These learning objectives are derived from the basic competence and will be the main data of this research. However, these learning objectives can be exchanged with indicators.
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE In this chapter, the researcher presents the theoretical description and the
theoretical framework. Theoretical description presents some theories which support the study conducted. Theoretical framework presents the logical concept on the use of the theories to answer the problem formulation.
A. Theoretical Description 1. Lesson Planning in Language Teaching
According to McNeil & Wiles (1990) , “Lesson plan is a teaching outline of the important points of a lesson for a single class period, arranged in the order in which they are to be presented
” (p. 59). From the definition of lesson plan given, it is obviously known that a lesson plan is important to design before the teachers teach in class. They have to plan all of the things related to the teaching and learning process first and write it in the lesson plan. It will be the guidance for the teacher in delivering the lesson, what they have to do is just implementing the designed plan.
Burden & Byrd (1999) present the reason why designing a lesson plan is important: The goal of planning is to ensure student learning. Planning therefore, helps create, arrange, and organize instructional events to enable that learning to occur. Planning helps arrange appropriate flow and sequence of instructional events and also manage time and events (p. 19). A lesson plan give the teacher guidelines about things to do in the class; it includes the sequence of learning activities and the time allocated for each activity. In other words, the teacher will have a sense of direction in teaching the students. The lesson plan is also important to guide the learning process to the goal or the objectives of learning. Without the planning, the objectives will be difficult to achieve since there is no rule to control the learning process in class.
As written in Permendiknas no 41 year 2007 on Standar Proses, there are some elements which should be written in the formal lesson plan. They are subject description, competence standard, basic competence, indicator, learning objectives, material, time allotment, teaching method, learning activities, assessment, and learning source. All of those elements should be designed in coherence, showing the logical relation to one another.
2. Learning Objectives in Lesson Planning
One important part that should be written in a lesson plan is the learning objectives. Burden & Byrd (1999) explain that learning objectives are statements of what is hoped from the learning process. In other words, learning objectives are the goal or the direction which is expected to be achieved through the learning process. There will be some instructions during the learning process. Therefore, after the instructions have been done, the students are expected to meet the learning objectives. If the learning objectives can be achieved, we may say that the teaching and learning process succeed (p.30).
Burden & Byrd (1999) explain that there are three reasons why the teacher of a lesson plan. The first reason is that because learning objectives become the focus of learning process. It is related to the things should be achieved by the students. The second one is that objectives help teacher in determining the task or assignment in class by specified the general goals. The last reason is that objectives assist the teacher in designing the test or evaluate the students’ mastery. The evaluation should be designed so that it can measure the students’ achievement whether it has met the expected goal or not (p.65).
There are three ways of stating objectives as what Burden & Byrd (1999) have described. The first one is called action statement. It is stated in terms of what the student is expected to know or to do using the action verb. The second one is called condition statements. The condition includes the material given to the students, time limits, and the location for the performances. The third objectives statement is criterion statement. It stated the standard in which the students’ successful completion of the objective is measured. It refers to the standard to determine whether the students’ performance is acceptable (pp.66-67).
Similar to the previous ways of stating the objectives, Pasch, Langer, Gardner, Starko, & Moody (1991) give the easy way to remember the important points in writing the learning objectives in form of A, B, C, D mnemonic aid. A stands for the audience, B stands for behavior, C stands for conditions statement and D stands for degree statement (p.70). In short, we may conclude that in writing the objectives, we start by stating who are the students, followed by what the students should do, then stating the requirement which the students are expected to do, and finally to the criteria or standard to measure the students’ achievement.
Bloom (1987) explains that learning objectives can be written in three learning domains. The first one is the cognitive domain. It is related to those objectives which deal with the recall or recognition of knowledge and the development of intellectual skills. The second learning domain is affective domain which is related to the emotional dimension of the learning process. It includes the objectives which describe changes in interest, attitudes, and values, and the development of appreciations and adequate adjustment. The last one is the psychomotor domain. It is closely related to the physical behavior (p. 7).
In line with Bloom taxonomy, Kemp (1977) writes the verbs that are often used for each level of cognitive domain. It can be seen in Table 2.1.
Level of Cognitive Verb Domain
1. Arrange, define, duplicate, label, list, memorize, Knowledge name, order, recognize, relate, recall, repeat, reproduce
2. Classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, Comprehension identify, indicate, locate, recognize, report, restate, review, select, tell, translate
3. Apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, Application illustrate, interpret, operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use
4. Analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, Analysis contrast, criticize, diagram, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, inventory, question, test
5. Arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, Synthesis create, design, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, write
6. Appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose, compare, Evaluation defend, estimate, judge, predict, rate, score, select,
According to Brown (2001), there are two kinds of learning objectives. The first one is terminal objective. It is the final outcomes that will be measured after completing the class activities. The second one is enabling learning objectives. It is only learning objectives which actually support or lead the students to the terminal objectives (p.150).
All of those reviews of the learning objectives theory are presented based on some consideration. The definition of learning objectives is presented first in order to give the same perception to the reader about that. Another one, the importance of determining the learning objectives are also presented here to emphasize to the microteaching students that the objectives they will write in the lesson plan are important. It also shows the importance of conducting this study.
This study is conducted to see the ability of microteaching students in designing coherent learning objectives and learning activities. Therefore, it is important to present the way of stating the objective which later will help the researcher in analyzing the objectives written by micro teaching students in their lesson plan.
3. Learning Activities in Lesson Planning
After the learning objectives have been defined, the plan for designing the learning activities is on firm ground. Gagne (1977) describes some analysis on the learning objectives that should be conducted first to create the proper learning activities. The activity of analyzing the learning objectives is called task analysis which requires three steps. The first one is called information-processing analysis. If the objective is stated in human performance, we can analyze the steps required task classification. It is proposed by the taxonomy of Bloom which divides human task into three domains as stated in the previous paragraph. They are cognitive, affective and psychomotor domain. Cognitive domain covers the knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation. Affective domain covers receiving, responding, valuing, organization, characterization. In psychomotor domain, skill of movement with certain form guides into some purposeful outcome. The last task analysis is called learning task analysis. It reveals the prerequisite learning in which the students will recall their knowledge (pp. 116-130).
In a different way, Pasch et al. (1991) explains six principles that may be better to implement when designing the learning activities.
a.
Congruence Principle This principle teaches us to make sure that there should be a match among objectives, activities and evaluation. It means that we have to select the activities which later can lead the students to meet the objectives of the learning and to test whether the objectives have been achieved. It is closely related to the research conducted in which the researcher is curious with the learning activities designed in the lesson plan by microteaching students of the English Language Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University whether it is coherent with the learning objectives or not (Pasch et al., 1991, p. 115).
b.
Organization and clarity principle It will be easier for the students to acquire the knowledge if the material is information obvious to students so that the students know how one activity relates to another. Stating directly the relation of the activities will help students focus on the relevant information (Pasch et al., 1991, p. 117).
c.
Variety Principle We have to consider the different students’ learning needs and styles in selecting kinds of activity. Therefore, it is better to plan various activities which later can attract each learner and hold her or his attention throughout the lesson so that the learning objectives can be achieved (Pasch et al., 1991, p. 119).
d.
Active Processing Principle This principle teaches the teacher to design learning activities which can help the students to make the new information more meaningful. This principle covers two things. The first one is called linkage to prior knowledge. Here, the teachers should make sure that the students understand the new information by relating the topic to the previous knowledge in the long-term memory or something the students already know. The second one is active involvement. It me ans that the learning activities should encourage the students’ participation. That is why teacher should include various activities which enable students to be more active. If they were actively participating in class, they would find it easier to remember the material than those who are passive (Pasch et al., 1991, p. 120).
e.
Experience Based Learning Principle The teacher should select the learning activities which are close to real life.
As cited from Dale (1963) who introduces the idea of the experience level called experiences, contrived experiences, and dramatized experiences. Another one is learning through observation which covers demonstration, study trips, exhibits, educational television, motion pictures, recordings, radio, and pictures. The last one is learning through abstraction which covers visual and verbal symbols (Pasch et al., 1991, p. 121).
f.
Higher level thinking principle The selection of the learning activities should encourage the higher level thinking in all students. The students are expected to use more information rather than directly recall it. This can be done by placing the students to analyze the causes, effects, motivations, problem solving and decision making in real or simulated situations (Pasch et al., 1991, p. 125).
After we know the principle of designing learning activities, we may start to think about the activities. Burden & Byrd (1999) recommend three sequences of learning activities which are introductory activities, developmental activities, closing activities. Introductory activities are designed to capture students’ attention, motivate and lead them in learning objectives. That is the reason why in this activity, the teacher should tell what the students will learn, how the lesson is related to the previous one and the learning objectives which are expected. The second activity is developmental activities which is the main part of the learning process. Here, the teacher can use many instructional strategies such as lectures, questions, practice, group discussion, problem solving. Teacher should vary the instructional strategies to fulfill the students’ different learning styles and vary the instructional strategies selected must help the students achieve the instructional objectives of the lesson. We should also concern with the students characteristics in selecting the instructional strategies. The last learning activity is closing activities in which the teacher will summarize the lesson’s content (p. 63). As previously stated, this study is mainly conducted to see the coherence of learning objectives and learning activities listed on microteaching students’ lesson plan. Therefore, it is important to review some related theories which later become the guidance for the researcher to analyze the data. The researcher presents the theory on how to design learning activities after doing the task analyzes of the learning objective. It is done to fulfill one of the principles of designing learning activities, which is congruence principle.
4. The Relation between Learning Objectives and Learning Activities
Burden & Byrd (1999) state that “After carefully selecting the precise performance objectives in different levels of the learning domain, you need to select strategies and learning activities that will help students achieve those objectives” (p.32). It means that the first thing to do was defining the learning objectives. These learning objectives will be the foundation of designing the learning activities.
The teacher should be careful in selecting the class activities since these should be appropriate in order to meet the learning objectives. Each of the learning objectives should appear in the learning activities designed. The learning activities should provide the opportunities for the students to practice at the considering the objectives, the goals of learning will not succeed and the teaching and learning process will be considered as a failure. That is the reason why we have to consider the learning objectives when designing the learning activities. As stated by Kemp (1977), “Successful learning is more likely when objectives are clearly stated for students and when learning activities are carefully sequenced in relation to those objectives.”
All of those theories present the relation between learning objectives and learning activities. It shows and emphasizes that designing coherent learning objectives and learning activities is very important in the teaching and learning process. That is why the ability of microteaching students to design coherent learning objectives and learning activities is important to see. As the objectives of this study, knowing the microteaching students ability will give benefit for both the lecturer and the students to know how or what to behave and find the solution for that.
5. Writing Skill
Writing is a productive skill which requires a complex process to produce a piece of writing. Raimes (1983, p. 6-11) describes what the writers have to deal with in the following figure.
Figure 2.2 writing featureIn every single class, the teacher may emphasize only on some of the features. For example, in one meeting the teacher may only focus on teaching about the organization of a certain text or others.
Students’ writing skill will improve through the process of doing the activities or assignment given in class. Therefore, microteaching students should be able to design and sequence the learning activities to reach the desired learning outcomes. Writing performance that is proposed by Brown (2004, pp. 220-234) might help the students to determine the appropriate assessment in class. There are four types of writing performance, which are: a.
Imitative This writing performance let the students to attain the basic task of writing letters, words, punctuation, and brief sentences. Here, the students are trying to master the mechanics of writing. This writing performance covers:
1) Tasks in writing letters, words and punctuation
The assignments can be so varied, such as copying, listening close selection task, picture cued tasks, form completion tasks or converting number and abbreviations to words.
2) Spelling task and detecting phoneme-grapheme correspondences.
It can be done through some kind of assignments such as spelling test, picture- cued tasks, multiple-choice techniques or matching phonetic symbols (Brown, 2004, pp. 221-225).
b.
Intensive (controlled) This writing performance considers the context and the meaning of a writing product. The example of the assignments are dictation, grammatical transformation tasks, picture-cued task, vocabulary assessment task, ordering task, short answer and sentence completion task (Brown, 2004, pp. 225-231).
c.