Individual Interactions Across Cultures - Dissertation Example

Expertise and Development. Introduction. The concept of expertise in the field of educational development has gained much importance today. Stevenson(2003. P 11) evaluates the psychological inclination this term has lately invited. These explanations are seen to have formed ideas of “various cognitive representations in the mind – for example, schemas. Expertise is sometimes referred to in terms of performance and the use of language while in other situations it is often seen as the ability to solve problem and transfer. There are various other ways how expertise has been seen and interpreted as Stevenson (2003) points out: expertise as creativity or innovation, as conceptual change, as judgment and appropriate practice and so forth. The education system is also in regular pursuit of development and expertise in students. One way is by using different instructional strategies and methods while teaching. Strategies determine the approach a teacher may take to achieve learning objectives (Saskatchewan, 1988). Mitchell (2008) points out about twenty types of teaching strategies that could be effectively used. The strategy of ‘peer tutoring’, for example refers to “situations in which one learner (the ‘tutor’) provides a learning experience for another learner (the ‘tutee’), under (teacher’s) supervision” (Mitchell, 2008. P 52). Sometimes a strategy could simply mean building up a comfortable ‘classroom climate’ for the students to learn. The idea behind such approach is that “they learn better when they have positive perceptions of the classroom environment, particularly of…the educator” (Mitchell, 2008. P 103). However, teaching strategies have been widely and popularly segregated into five major types: direct instruction, indirect instruction, experiential learning, interactive instruction and independent study (Saskatchewan, 1988). In this paper we shall discuss in detail the teaching strategy of direct instruction and explain all the different kinds of knowledge that it develops. We shall than look at how the strategy based on the knowledge that it imparts leads to the development of skills, expertise and transfer of knowledge. We shall also compare the strategy of direct instruction with Indirect Instruction and Independent Learning and lastly give a general appraisal of the chosen strategy and assess its application in one’s teaching area. Direct instruction and the kinds of knowledge it develops. Mitchell (2008. P 188) defines Direct Instruction as “a multi-component instructional strategy centring on teacher-directed, explicit, systematic teaching based on scripted lesson plans and frequent assessment”. The strategy is similar to what is generally known as precision instruction, explicit teaching, structured teaching or systematic teaching. Drill is “concerned with the fixation of spcific associations for automatic recall, whereas practice is concerned with improvement” (Moore, 2005) both of which are part of direct instruction.The methods of teaching in this strategy includes “telling, lecturing, or discussing; showing or demonstrating; or any combination of these” (Srivastava & Kumari, 2005. P 23). This strategy facilitates the teacher in information dessimination and helps in imparting step-by-step skills in students. Saskatchewan, (1988) argues although this strategy appears to be easier to plan and use, “it is clear that effective direct instruction is oftern more complex than it would first appear”. Direct Instruction is widely and often used by teachers especially in higer grades or colleges. Direct Instruction develops different kinds of knowledge in students based on the methods that are adopted in the strategy. We shall define each knowledge before explaining how they are developed by the strategy in question. Declarative knowledge has been defined as “awareness and understanding of factual information about the world – knowing that in contrast to knowing how” (Colman, 2003. P 187). In other words it is the knowledge of ‘what’ being learnt. Judi Hetrick (1999) in his journalistic report argues that “Declarative knowledge is the kind of factual or technical information that can be transmitted in a lecture or reading”. It can be seen therefore, that declarative knowledge is developed by the strategy of Direct Instruction. To elaborate, lets consider that a teacher is teaching on the topic ‘Essay Writing’ and he is using the lecture method. In order for the student to understand the topic and to be able to effectively write an essay, s/he needs to first know the general structure of an essay writing. This means that the student would first of all know ‘what’ an essay writing is - a declarative knowledge. Colman (2003. P 586) defines Procedural Knowledge as “information about how to carry out sequences of operations – knowing how in contrast to knowing that”. This knowledge makes students put into practice their intellecual knowledge that they have accumulated. Demonstration method for example helps students, in our above example, know ‘how’ to write essay. This is because the teacher in this strategy demonstrates how to write an essay by giving a step-by-step method of ­the same by writing a sample essay in the chalk board or by informing students the different steps involved in an essay writing: introduction, body and conclusion. Conditional knowledge refers to “knowing the ‘why and when’ of things” (Earley & Soon, 2003). In other words it refers to ‘when’ to use a particular skill or procedure or when not to use it or evaluating why one procedure is better than others. It adresses the ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘why’ of a particular information. A combination of lecture, discusssion and demonstration in the Direct Instruction strategy will help students gain Conditional knowledge. In our above example of teaching ‘essay writing’, the strategy with the combination of these methods makes students understand ‘when’ to write an essay: in the examination or while expressing one’s feelings. It makes students know ‘why’ to write essay: to improve one’s language, to pass the examination, to be able to express one’s feelings and understandings and so forth. Needless to say, then, the students would also know ‘where’ to write an essay. We shall now see how the strategy of Direct Instruction based on the knowledge that it imparts, also leads to the development of skills, expertise and transfer of knowledge. Development of skills, expertise and transfer of knowledge. The Oxford English Minidictionary (1999) difines skill as “ability to do something well” the development of which has always been a concern for students’ improvement. Thus, it refers to almost all the the activities that a students will be able to do or all the ablities that will be formed in students as a result of training or in our case, the teaching strategy. Kellen (2006. P 103) argues that Direct instruction helps students achieve many types of learning outcomes, particularly those that are based on knowledge and attitudes or values…and can also be used to demonstrate skills …”. There are various skills that the Direct Instrction will develop in a student. The lecture method for instance, develops listening skills. Srivastava & Kumari (2005. P 23) point out that lecture method is a way to present the ‘official view’ of the thing being studied and that it “can help students focus on what …the lecturer considers is important”. This is instrumental in making the student develp the skill of listening, for without doing so, the content of the topic being taught will not be understood. The need to understand the topic clearly improves listening skills in them. The demonstration, lecture or discussion methods also help students gain others skills such as the skill of note-taking, communicative and verbal skills, analytical skills, research skills and many more. Lecture method teaches students take down all the important points of the lession. Since instructional strategy sometines also includes discussion method, it improves the communicative skills of the students for, they constantly need to interact with the peers or ask questions to teachers to analyse the topic. If the students are asked to share their openions for topics, it also improves their verbal skills. Since this kind of instruction is not enough in installing an in-depth detailed knowledge of the lession in question, this allows students to find out about the same through research and further readings which gradually improve their skills of the same. Stevenson (2003. P 4) defines the word ‘expertise’ as “the ability to do something well – better than others just starting out on the undertaking”. He argues that expertise is relative to others, that is, a person can be regarded as expert “if one can do things better than others can”. An expert musician, plumber or gardener are judgements of expertise made in relation to work while people can also be expert lawyers, teachers or engineers based on their occupation. In order to gain expertise a person must go through the stages of novice, beginner, confident, profecient and expert. Psychological concepts of expertise include performance, “where the performer engages in activity that achieves a goal and, through practice, smooths out that performance and is able to execute the performance when warranted” (Stevenson, 2003). The Direct instruction strategy attempts to build expertise in students. That is because the teacher through lecture and discussion help the students act as performers in understanding the lession well. The student must perform the acts of listening, note-taking, analysing, discussing and so forth all of which accent the student through the process of expertise. In other words the declarative, procedural and the conditional knowledge interact among one another in the Direct Instruction to propell the student towards the achivement of expertise in the lessions learnt. Development is also relative to the transfer of knowledge which has been defined as “the capacity to utilise past experience in interpreting and dealing with new experiences” (Stevenson, 2003. P 15). It is classified into near and far transfer. It is noticed that novices are capable of near transfer that is “when previous knowledge is transferred to new situations that are closely similar but not identical to previous situations” (Haskell, 2000), and experts have the ability of far transfer: “applying learning to situations that are quite dissimilar to the original learning” (Haskell, 2000). As we have seen above, the strategy of direct instruction develops all kinds of knowledge and hence many skills. The acquisition of these skills is mostly because of transfer of knowledge. The petty interactions or discussions that a student engages in with his friends and teacher in the class may help him in being a good speaker or orator – a near transfer. This is because the knowledge that he had gained in the class during duscussion can be made use of in other similar situations too. This transfer can be accomplished by novices. As the student reaches the level of expertise, he will have ability for far transfer. Taking the example that we gave earlier, when a teacher lectures about essay writing, the student might be able to write a well structured story, both of which are quite dissimilar. Although the ability for far transfer depends upen the student, the Direct Instructional strategy facilitates students to form concepts and opinions of their own which will consequently be used in far transfer. We shall now compare Direct instruction with Indirect Instruction and Independent Learning. Direct Instruction Vs Indirect Instruction and Independent Learning. The Indirect Instruction which is also known as learner/student centered instruction can be defined as “ a discipline that involves the interaction of a team of students that experience creative learning to be used in the real world” (Srivastava & Kumari, 2005). Unlike the Direct Instruction, this strategy is mostly student centered and “the role of the teacher shifts from lecturer/director to that of facilitator, supporter, and resource person” (Saskatchewan, 1988). The methods involved in Indirect Instruction are “reflective discussion, concept formation, concept attainment, cloze procedure, problem solving, and guided inquiry” (Saskatchewan, 1988). The merits of this strategy over the Direct Instruction are that it “seeks a high level of student involvement in observing, investigating, drawing inferences from data, or forming hypotheses” (Saskatchewan, 1988) and it takes into consideration what the students are interested in and curious about and helps in problem solving. It allows students to think in various possible ways acknowledging their opinions and it “reduces the fear associated with the possibility of giving incorrect answers” (Saskatchewan, 1988). Students often gain higher abilities to understand things in indirect study and also improve interpersonal skills. These traits are difficult to be found in Direct Learning. Independent Learning has been defined as “the range of instructional methods which are purposefully provided to foster the development of individual student initiative, self-reliance, and self-improvement” (Saskatchewan, 1988). The focus of this strategy will be to allow students for an independent study under the guidance or supervision of a teacher. It would also mean learning in companionship with other students. The advantages of this strategy over the Direct Instruction are that it encourages students to be responsible for their own improvement and learning. It helps students recognize their abilities that they already possess and look for methods for further improvement. It develops the skills of using learning resources and conducting researches since they need to learn independently. However there are grounds in which Direct Instruction facilitates and benefits students better. Srivastava and Kumari (2005.P 27) point out some advantages of lecture method. It can provide material not otherwise available to students and can present large amounts of information. It especially appeals to those who learn by listening. Discussion method helps students by making them think and analyze efficiently while interacting with the rest of the group members. Demonstration method, needless to say, accelerates the students’ understandings with a step-by-step explanation being provided. General appraisal of Direct Instruction. Leinhardt, Young, & Merriman ( 1995. P 404) argue that “The academy must first value specific, pragmatic, procedural knowledge; then make it explicit, formal, and examinable, thus opening what is learned and known in practice and is usually situational, intuitive, and tacit for careful examination”. This end can be fulfilled by the Direct Instruction strategy, for no method can give students more procedural knowledge than this can. The lecture and demonstration allows the student to gain the most and best of the information that can be available. Lets look at the nature and importance of this strategy. Direct Instruction is mostly formal in nature and the instruction methods used include lecture, demonstration, discussion and practice and drill. In lecture the student appears to be passive listener while the active role is that of the teacher. The objective of the lession is identified by the teacher and he takes the responsibility of guiding the class by providing information and explaining them. In order for the teacher to provide in-depth information about the lession, the lecture method is most suitable. It allows the student avail the information of what the teacher considers to be the most important. This helps both the teacher and students in prioritising the information based on their importance. The demonstration method provides step-by-step explanation of the lession and it helps the students especially if they need to practically learn a skill or understand the lession more closely. Another method in this strategy called practice and drill provide “systematic and repeated ‘workout’ in the intended skill area, with the purpose of achieving automatic acccuracy and speed of performance” (Moore, 2005). Overall, the importance of Direct Instruction is that the teacher has the control over the class and lession being taught and can choose to provide the best of information that are generally unavailable to the students. The teacher can use appriopriate methods and technique to interact with the students and find out the limitations and merits of each student and accordingly maintain flexibility in the teaching methods. Conclusion. Improvement in pedagogical instructions has always been a concern for teachers across the globe for the general improvement in the standard of education. This has generated considerable amount of debate in the field of academia over the strategy or method of instruction which would best be suitable for the betterment of the students. Direct Instruction is a teaching strategy in which the teacher has the active control over the class and the lession being taught. The lecture, demostration, practice and drill all of which are part of this strategy has many merits if implimented in the class. The lecture has the advantage of making information available to the students, plenty in amount and unique in nature and allows both the teacher and the students to prioritize the lession based on what is more important. Demonstration, with its step-by-step method of giving information allows an indepth analysis of the lession and facilitates greater understandings. However, there are other teaching strategies that can be beneficail to the students too. Indirect Instruction, for example shifts the focus to a student-centered learning. This benefits the students since it seeks a high level of student involvement in observing, investigating, drawing inferences from data, or forming hypotheses (Saskatchewan, 1988). It takes into accout what the student is interested in and respects the views and capabilities of the student thereby fostering creativity and development of interpersonal skills. The strategy of Independent Study, more than any other methods, provides the platform for the development of individual student initiative, self-reliance, and self-improvement (Saskatchewan, 1988). This strategy enhances the potential of every individual thereby making them more responsible and self-sufficient. It must be remembered that no single method or strategy of teaching can be entirely benificial to the students, for, the needs and requirements of each student based on the topic or lession being learnt each time varies to a large degree. Depending entirely on one strategy of teaching may lead to stagnation of knowledge. Thus, the best strategy or method in teaching is when all the strategies and methods are used complimanting one another based on their appropriate needs. References Colman, A. M. (2003). Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. Earley, P. C., & Soon, A. (2003). Cultural intelligence: individual interactions across cultures. The USA: Stanford University Press. Haskell, R. E. (2000). Transfer of Learning: cognition, instruction, and reasoning. London: San Diego, Calif. Hetrick, J. (1999, April). Looking for Insight into Teaching. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from Indiana University website: http://www.indiana.edu/~rcapub/v22n1/p15.html Kellen, R. (2006). Effective teaching strategies (4th ed.). Australia: Thomson Social Science Press. Leinhardt, G., Young, K. M., & Merriman, ,. J. (1995). COMMENTARY INTEGRATING PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE: THE THEORY OF PRACTICE AND THE PRACTICE OF THEORY. Learning and Instruction , 401-408. Mitchell, D. (2008). What Really Works in Special and Inclusive Education Using evidence-based teaching strategies. New York: Routledge. Moore, K. D. (2005). Effective instructional strategies: from theory to practice. California: Sage Publications, Inc. Oxford English Minidictionary. (1999). 483. New Dalhi, India: Oxford University Press. Saskatchewan. (1988). Chapter 2: Instructional Models, Strategies, Methods, And Skills. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from www.sasked.gov: http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/policy/approach/instrapp03.html Srivastava, D., & Kumari, S. (Eds.). (2005). Education Instructional Methods. Delhi: Isha Books. Stevenson, J. (Ed.). (2003). Developing Vocational Expertise Principles and Issues in Vocational Education. Australia: Allan & Unwin. Read More