Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Why should it be "Less Teaching More Learning"?


The idea of Less Teaching More Learning has challenged teachers to do better in their class. Teachers are not only supposed to explain and drill the materials, but also to guide students on how to solve problems. Meanwhile, in reality, it can be seen that teachers only teach materials that later will be used in examinations. Like the old days, students only listen to the teacher’s speech in class, and they are rarely included in the discussion. This is actually the main obstacle of the teaching activity in Indonesia because the teacher is not the center of the teaching and learning activity, but the students are. Therefore, it is expected for the students to be active and critical in class. There are several reasons why teachers should agree with the idea of Less Teaching More Learning in class.
Firstly, teaching is not merely about the materials or competences. Teaching is about giving the students something meaningful, so that they both learn the materials and the values on related subject. If the students are able to achieve the good values in certain subject, they will posses a better behavior in their society.
Secondly, teaching is about guiding students to follow their curiosity. What Indonesian students need the most is the critical thoughts and creativity. By feeling curious and having a lot of questions on their head, the student will enhance their creativity and their critical thoughts by their own. Here, teachers’ role is to become a guide for students to help them find the answers to the questions.
Finally, the teacher’s role in class is to become the facilitator for the students. Teachers could provide students some questions that will lead them to understand certain materials. The questions may relate to the students’ daily activity or their behavior. Here, students not only learn how to solve some problems but also how to reflect their daily behavior related to the problems.
Therefore, Indonesian schools can start implementing the Less Teaching More Learning by providing two teachers or more in one class. It would be beneficial because the students will have more facilitators to help them in class. Moreover, Indonesian students like to be appreciated. Teachers can appreciate the students’ work by providing students with some rewards or honors.

1 comment:

  1. A good piece of writing! This is a great start for our blog. I agree with your idea where students have to be active and critical. When I started my study here and my supervisors asked me to write a critique for some journal articles, I never realized that I saw them superficially. I knew it when they read my writing and stated that the writing I had was very descriptive. I should be more critical in a way that I needed to understand the strengths and weakness or the articles. In view of this idea, I will understand how the articles relate to my research or not. I believe our students must have this kind of skills: reading, listening, writing and speaking critically. It is one of our duties as teachers to inspire our students to do all of them.

    This is awesome Pak Dariss, and I'll be waiting for your positive comments or feedback to your friends' posting to.

    ReplyDelete