CONTEXTUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING

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CONTEXTUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING

• Muchlas Yusak

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CTL ASSUMPTIONS

• Teaching and learning are interactional
  processes.
• Individual learners must decide to learn and to
  engage in the attentional, intellectual, and
  emotional processes needed to do so.
• Teaching isnt happening if learning is not
  occurring.
• Learning is a developmental process that takes
  place throughout life.

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SIX INTERRELATED STRATEGIES

• (Who are the learners?)
• Help students become self-regulated learners
  capable of high achievement.
• Address the diversity of students unique skills,
  interests, and cultural backgrounds so that they
  feel valued and learn respect for others.

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SIX INTERRELATED STRATEGIES

• (Where does learning take place?)
• Make learning take place in many sites multiple
  contexts not just in the classroom. Museums,
  parks, government offices, and health-care
  facilities are just a few of the places where
  learning can occur in the community.

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SIX INTERRELATED STRATEGIES

• (How does learning take place?)
• Make the students learn from real world problems.
• Encourage the students to work in interdependent
  learning groups.
• Give authentic assessment.

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1. SELF-REGULATED LEARNING

• Teach students to take responsibility for their
  own learning. As adults, they will be expected to
  acquire knowledge and skills on their own.
• Self-regulated learners have both academic
  learning skills and skills in self-control that
  help them to learn more easily.
• Self-regulated learners have the skill and the
  will to know.

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SELF-REGULATED LEARNERS THE
SKILL THE WILL TO KNOW
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SELF-REGULATED LEARNERS KNOWLEDGE

• Knowledge about
• themselves
• the subject
• the task at hand
• learning strategies
• the contexts in which the students will apply
  their learning

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SELF-REGULATED LEARNERS KNOWLEDGE

• The students shall become expert learners who
  know how they learn best
• their preferred learning styles
• what is hard or easy for them to learn
• how to use their strength to learn.
• They approach different learning tasks in
  different ways.

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SELF-REGULATED LEARNERS KNOWLEDGE

• They know a range of specific learning tactics
  networking, mapping, self-questioning, taking
  notes, using imagery, hypothesizing, etc.
• They understand how to match the most effective
  learning tactic to the task .
• They think about the contexts in which they will
  apply their knowledge and when and where they
  might use it again in the future.

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SELF-REGULATED LEARNERS MOTIVATION

• Self-regulated learners are motivated to learn.
• School assignments are interesting to them
  because they value learning.
• They know why they are studying and see
  themselves as being in control of their actions
  and choices.
• Even if they are not intrinsically motivated by
  their school activities, they still attempt to
  derive a benefit from what they are learning.

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SELF-REGULATED LEARNERS SELF-DISCIPLINE

• Self-regulated learners are disciplined.
• They know how to avoid or deal with distractions
  so that they are not distracted.
• They know what to do if they feel unmotivated or
  sleepy. In other words, they persist and keep
  themselves on task.

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Encouraging the Students to Become
Self-Regulated Learners

• Teach the students specific learning tactics
• taking notes networking
• mapping self-questioning
• using imagery hypothesizing
• identifying reasons for actions
• analyzing similarities and differences
• Teach the students how to compare their own
  performance to expert models.

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Improving students level of motivation their
self-discipline by

• Tying instruction to students backgrounds and
  experiences.
• Encouraging students to set goals.
• Providing opportunities for problem-solving,
  decision-making, and cooperative learning.
• Giving options in assignments.
• Teaching study skills.

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Improving students level of motivation their
self-discipline by

• Grading students progress.
• Allowing students to progress at their own rate.
• Developing leadership opportunities for all
  students.
• Teaching students to monitor and evaluate their
  own progress and to correct their learning
  strategies as needed.

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Helping students become self-regulated learners
involves coordinating

• knowledge about child development in general
• knowledge of the particular childs development
  and progress, and
• knowledge of strategies to help children

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2. Teaching and Learning in Diverse Contexts

• All students can learn, regardless of race,
  ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, family
  background, or initial level of (dis)ability and
  knowledge.
• Children usually learn best in classroom
  communities that reflect diversity.
• Students often learn because of diversity, rather
  than in spite of diversity.

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2. Teaching and Learning in Diverse Contexts

• Plan instruction in relation to the diverse
  beliefs, values, skills, and experiences that
  students bring to class.
• These prior experiences, and the values and
  knowledge each student has constructed from them
  are the very foundation and mental context for
  future learning.

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2. Teaching and Learning in Diverse Contexts

• Encourage each of the students to build on prior
  knowledge and to make meaningful connection
  between their own knowledge and values and the
  material to be learned.
• Offer the students a variety of ways to learn and
  to demonstrate their learning.
• Diversity is a valuable resource for the learning
  of all participants in the classroom community,
  including the teacher.

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2. Teaching and Learning in Diverse Contexts

• Bring diverse elements and members of the outside
  community into the classroom and to take students
  out of the classroom into a variety of community
  settings for many of their learning activities.
• Value and accommodate students individual
  qualities and backgrounds
• Let students develop at a rate and along paths
  that are right for them.

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2. Teaching and Learning in Diverse Contexts

• Because students work together to achieve real
  goals with others who are quite different from
  themselves, they learn to understand and value
  different viewpoints and abilities and to
  collaborate effectively with people who have
  ideas and talents different from their own.

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2. Teaching and Learning in Diverse Contexts

• Students have a greater chance of retaining what
  they have learned because
• the teacher connect learning to students lives
  in the community
• the students are encouraged to set and pursue
  personal goals in their learning

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2. Teaching and Learning in Diverse Contexts

• Employ an array of strategies for individualizing
  students work.
• Have very good interviewing techniques.
• Get students to talk with you about their
  background and their interests.
• Invite students to incorporate these interests
  in the projects they choose.
• Consider the students past participation in
  projects.
• Confer with past teachers to find out if there
  were problems with maturity.

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3. Teaching and Learning in Multiple Contexts

• Students retain higher-level knowledge and skills
  longer when their learning experiences are framed
  by contexts that are as close to real life as
  possible.
• Learning is situated in particular physical and
  social contexts.
• Knowledge is inseparable from the contexts and
  activities within which it develops.

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3. Teaching and Learning in Multiple Contexts

• How and where the person learns a particular set
  of knowledge and skills are fundamental to what
  the student learns.
• Students make sense of new information, given
  their internal mindsets, by relating it to their
  past social, cultural, and physical experiences.

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3. Teaching and Learning in Multiple Contexts

• Learning occurs naturally in a variety of
  contexts, both inside and outside the school.
• Before, during, and after the school day, as well
  as before and after the school year, students are
  continually learning.
• The contexts may be home, community, or
  workplace.
• Some contexts may be less tangible, such as
  cyberspace and the imagination.

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3. Teaching and Learning in Multiple Contexts

• Use as many different contexts as possible
  because they offer meaningful learning sites
  where students can engage in authentic tasks.
• Authentic tasks are those that resemble real-life
  activities.
• Involve the students in a variety of learning
  experiences outside of the classroom.

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4. Problem-Based Learning

• Specific touchstone teaching and learning
  events need to be present in problem-based
  learning. Touchstone events include
• Engagement. Learners prepare to be self-directed,
  collaborative problem-solvers and encounter a
  situation that invites them to define one or more
  problems and to propose hunches, actions, and so
  forth.

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4. Problem-Based Learning

• Inquiry and Investigation. Learners explore a
  variety of ways of explaining events and their
  implications they gather and share information.
• Performance. Learners present their findings.
• Debriefing. Learners examine costs and benefits
  of the solutions generated and reflect on the
  effectiveness of their problem-solving approach.

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4. Problem-Based Learning

• Employ instructional techniques that raise
  questions, issues, and challenges or present
  difficulties that are in need of a solution.
• Activities are organized around solving problems
  in context in order to increase students
  learning of subject matter.

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4. Problem-Based Learning

• Generating solutions to problems is complex,
  requiring students to
• Use critical thinking skills and a systematic
  approach to inquiry.
• Draw on multiple content areas.
• Address a series of questions of different types.
• Acquire new skills and knowledge.
• Apply, analyze, synthesize, transfer, and
  evaluate old skills and knowledge in new ways.

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4. Problem-Based Learning

• Meaningful solutions requires a significant
  amount of time and should not be relegated to a
  brief encounter with the issue or problem.
• Focus on worthwhile problems that are relevant to
  students families, school experiences, workplace
  activities, and community issues.

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4. Problem-Based Learning

• These types of problems hold greater intrinsic
  motivation for students and serve as the catalyst
  for engaging in inquiry that promotes the
  learning of new knowledge and skills, while
  generating heightened understanding of specific
  content.
• Support student-centered instructional activities
  to set expectations for students that encourage
  them to define and research their own problems
  collaboratively with a teacher or other
  practicing professional.

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4. Problem-Based Learning

• Thus students experience the messiness of
  ill-structured situations that are typical in
  real world environments.
• Design authentic assessments to allow students to
  demonstrate their ability to apply and transfer
  these new or enhanced skills, knowledge, and
  understandings to multiple situations.

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5. Interdependent Learning Groups

• Divide students into work groups on a regular
  basis.
• Learning is a social process.
• Learning can be enhanced when the learner has
  opportunities to interact with others about
  instructional activities.
• Structure schools as democratic learning
  communities.
• Use different kinds of learning groups.

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Cooperative Learning a particular type of
interdependent learning groups

• Five elements define true collaborative-learning
  groups
• Face-to-face interaction
• Positive interdependence
• Individual accountability
• Collaborative skills
• Group processing

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Cooperative Learning a particular type of
interdependent learning groups

• Students interact face-to-face rather than across
  the classroom.
• Group members need each other for support,
  explanations, and guidance.
• Even though group members work together, hold
  them individually accountable for learning.

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Cooperative Learning a particular type of
interdependent learning groups

• Teach the students collaborative skills
• giving and receiving feedback,
• reaching consensus,
• involving others.
• Students practice collaboration before starting a
  new learning task.
• Teach the students how to monitor group processes
  and relationship to make sure the group is
  working effectively.

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Cooperative Learning a particular type of
interdependent learning groups

• Learning environments that encourage social
  interactions and respect diverse ideas encourage
  flexible thinking and social competence.
• In interactive and collaborative learning
  contexts, students have opportunities to adopt
  various perspectives and think reflectively in
  ways that foster social and moral development and
  self-esteem.
• Learning groups can help students feel safe about
  sharing their ideas an actively participating in
  the learning process.

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Cooperative Learning a particular type of
interdependent learning groups

• Help each student to develop his or her own
  approach to the project, so that each persons
  contribution is clearly identifiable.
• Make sure that students get credit for the work
  that they do.
• It helps to identify the less mature students as
  well as the students who give far more than a
  teacher might reasonably expect.

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How the Groups Get Chosen

• Who is interested in a particular topic
• Get the students working with new people.
• Dont let them become too social.
• Keep social cliques from getting in the way of
  the learning we share.

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6. Authentic Assessment

• Authenticity in learning is based on the premise
  that its demonstration must be through
  experiences with and performance in the real
  world.
• For learning to have personal value, to generate
  interest, and to produce functional knowledge and
  skills, the act of learning must be in the
  context of and directly relevant to the
  knowledge, skills, and performances expected in
  the real world.

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6. Authentic Assessment

• To gauge ones performance authentically is to
  have both oneself and the group examine the
  process of learning through reflection, feedback,
  and redirection of performance.
• Authentic assessment can best be distinguished
  from traditional modes of education assessment by
  qualities that foster formative development of
  teaching and learning processes.

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6. Authentic Assessment

• Qualities that foster formative development of
  teaching and learning processes (authentic
  assessment) include
• Using assessment tasks that are real instances
  of extended criterion performances of actual
  learning goals.
• Involving students in in-depth situations in
  which they develop and habitually solve problems
  and employ higher-order thinking.

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6. Authentic Assessment

• Featuring collaboration between students and
  teachers to determine meaning and to produce
  knowledge.
• Including multiple opportunities for students to
  learn and practice the desired outcomes, along
  with multiple opportunities for feedback and
  reflection.
• Directing students toward producing discourse,
  products, and performances that they value beyond
  school success

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6. Authentic Assessment

• Using rubrics and other criteria checklists at
  the core of authentic assessment as standards to
  improve learning and teaching.
• Drawing on multiple sources of information over
  time and in multiple contexts, employing
  reflective use of journals, reflective essay
  writing, portfolios, applied performance
  exhibits, work samples, peer mirroring, action
  research, case studies, checklists, and the like.

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6. Authentic Assessment

• Sampling the actual integration of knowledge,
  skills, and dispositions desired of teachers as
  they are used in multiple kinds of pedagogical
  practice contexts.

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Report Card

• The report card for every student is really a
  qualitative assessment.
• Each student fills out parts of his/her own
  report card, listing goals and accumulated
  evidence of achievement.
• Add comments about this evidence.
• Fill out a rubric on the achievement of the
  goals, as well as your perspective on the
  appropriateness of the goals each student chooses.

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Report Card

• The report card is cumulative in that, each term,
  the teacher and students add new goals and
  comments. This helps parents see their childrens
  progress throughout the year.
• Assess on many levels
• Think about each of the subject areas and tease
  them out from cross-curricular approach in order
  to make sure students are developing
  competencies.