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Friday 18 January 2013


Comparing Trained and Untrained Teacher in Giving Instruction

A.    Background of the Study
Teacher has significant roles in teaching and learning process. Their roles don’t stop as an instructor in the class but the students look to teachers as parents in some cases, counselors in some cases, and teachers take those roles on because they really know these students. Whereas, the students put some qualities of their teacher based on these requirements; who makes the course interesting, teach with a good pronunciation, shows the same interest in all students, shows great practice, and makes the students’ work[1].
Thus, English teachers are demanded to have competence in English teaching to guide their students in conveying the material which is needed. As stated by Kjersten MacKensie, there are some characteristic of teachers’ competence, those concerning about content area knowledge, pedagogical capabilities, communication skill, and professionalism[2]. Indeed they are required to be knowledgeable about multiple methods of instruction and construct the appropriate instruction to their students.
Some characteristics of teacher’s competence above will be found on the teacher who has a broad consider about students quality and their achievement through instruction that they are given to their students. Its means that they are qualified teacher that most of them are trained teacher who have relevant education background. But the problem is not all teachers do that and they are not coming from relevant education background. In other word, they are untrained teacher that have limited knowledge about some strategies in teaching.  
Untrained teacher sometime have some problems in their teaching. They are not know well their students, they are lack of knowledge in giving instruction in the class, and so on that make their students have low achievement in some subject and less attention to them. In some cases, untrained teacher is the resource of the failure curriculum implementation about the new syllabus[3]. It is clarified with the result of the survey that was conducted by Australian Education Union's State of Our Schools Survey, it showed that “while 58.9 per cent of schools experienced teacher supply problems in the past year, 56.5 per cent of schools indicated the teacher supply problem was becoming worse”[4].
To clarify and illuminate the statements above, this research focus on comparing both trained and untrained teacher in giving instruction in the class.
  
B.     Problems formulation
According to research background above, the writer formulate the question for this research as stated below:
1.      How do untrained and trained teachers teach to the extent of instruction in the class?
-          What are the differences between trained and untrained teachers based on instructional theory?

C.     Scope of the study
This study emphasize on describing trained and untrained teacher in giving instruction in the class. It is not judge the best between two subjects but it is pure describe the way of both teacher’s in giving instruction in the class.

D.    Purpose of the Study
This research is aimed to describe two different background’s teacher in giving the instruction in their class when they are teaching.

E.     Significance of the Study
The writer expected that through this study, the reader will know the differences between two characteristic of teacher in giving instruction in the class and their competence, for the parent, they will know and understand in choosing a good private teacher for their child. Besides, the writer hopes that it will become reference for the next researchers who conduct the research related to the field.  

F.     Literature Framework
1.      Definition of Teacher
Teacher has various meaning, it can be defined as a people who delivered knowledge to the students who have many strategies in conveying the knowledge to their students, it clarified by Bruce Joyce (1980 p.4) that teacher has storehouse of models they can draw upon to teach students to think[5].
Extending the student’s knowledge is not an easy task but the teacher should do that. It is clarified by Clark (1993,) that, “Obviously, the definition involves someone who can increase student knowledge, but it goes beyond this in defining an effective teacher”[6].
Indeed, those are a teacher’s job where she/he has responsibility to the students in the school who instruct the knowledge to their students professionally. In other word, it has similar meaning with what was written in Cambridge dictionary that the teacher is someone whose job is to teach in a school or college.  
  According to those definitions about the teacher, the writer sum up that a teacher is a people who has a job to increase and extend about student’s knowledge.

2.      Trained and Untrained Teacher
Trained teacher means that they are who teach with the relevant subject with their background study. In other word, they have qualified competencies in their teaching. A good teacher is kind, is generous, listens to students, encourages them, has faith in them, keeps confidences, likes teaching children, likes teaching their subjects, takes time to explain things, helps them when they are stuck, tells them how they are doing, allow them to have their say, doesn't give up on them, cares for their opinion, makes them feel clever, treats people equally, stands up for them, makes allowances, tells the truth and is forgiving (MacBer, 2000)[7]. According to Moore (2004), teachers are trained in the acquisition of certain competencies related to aspects of classroom management, long-term medium-term and short-term planning, recording and reporting students' work leading to the achievement of prescribed, assessable and (presumably) acquired-for-life 'standards'[8].
Meanwhile, untrained teacher can be defined as a teacher who has no relevant education background in their teaching. In the education field if the teacher is untrained then whole of education system will be disturbed, because he is not familiar with modern educational methods. (Jafri & Shahzadi, 2002)[9].
3.      Instruction
Direct instruction refers to instruction led by the teacher, as in “the teacher provided direct instruction in solving these problems. In other word, it can be defined that instruction led by the teacher regardless of quality[10].
According to Harmer (1991 p.50) there are some stages in language learning/teaching on productive skill, they are:
a.       Introducing new language. The introduction of new language is frequently an activity that falls at the ‘non-communicative’ end of our continuum. Often here the teacher will work with controlled techniques, asking students to repeat and perform in drills (though the use of discovery techniques).
b.      Practice. Practice activities are those which fall somewhere between the two extremes of our continuum. While students performing them may have a communicative purpose, and while they may be working in pairs there may also be a lack of language variety, and the materials may determine what the students do or say.
c.       Communicative activities. Communicative activities are those which exhibit the characteristic at the communicative end of our continuum.
Indeed, some stages in teaching receptive skills are needed for the teacher, those includes:
a.       Lead-in. Here the students and the teacher prepare themselves for the task and familiarize themselves with the topic of the reading or listening exercise.
b.      Directs comprehension task. Here the teacher makes sure that the students know what they are going to do. Are they going to to answer questions, fill in a chart, complete a message pad or try and re-tell what they heard or saw?
c.       Listen/read for task. The students then read or listen to a text to perform the task the teacher has set.
d.      Direct feedback. When the students have performed the task the teacher will help students to see if they have completed the task successfully and will find out how well they have done.
e.       Direct text-related task. The teacher will then probably organize some kind of follow-up task related to the text[11].
Meanwhile, there are four phases of necessary teacher’s activity in instructional theory which is developed by Thornburg (1973), they are:
1.      Identifying students need. This task consists of determining whether or not the student has the skills prerequisite to the learning to be ensued. Implications for Instruction are (a) to proceed if such skills are available or (b) to teach diagnosed learning deficiencies before proceeding.
2.      Stating student’s behavioral objectives. This instructional component requires formally stating the specific behaviors or activities expected of students after completing a teaching unit or course of instruction. Those objectives typically include the three behavioral domains-cognitive, affective, and psychomotor.
3.      Developing a teaching strategy. This activity is the most crucial aspect of the instructional model. While on the surface it appears to be the same as methodology, teaching strategy incorporates known psychological components that prove effective in terms of students’ learning. presenting materials (stimuli), providing for student response, and giving feedback to the students are the primary function of the teaching strategy.
4.      Assessing student behavioral change. The teacher has always been concerned about evaluation. Traditionally, evaluation has consisted of giving tests in order to determine how much the students has learned and then assigning marks accordingly. The contemporary view is more concerned about a) assessing student learning irrespective of grading and b) assessing student behavior on selected criteria”[12].
Furthermore, it clarified by Penny Ur (1991, p. 16) [13]Experience shows that teachers’ explanations are often not as clear to their students as they are to themselves”. Being a good teacher who has high qualified, there are some criteria that the teacher should to have, they are:
·         They must hold at least a bachelor’s degree
·         They must have obtained full state teacher certification or licensure in special education.
·         They must not had special education certification or licensure requirements waived on an emergency, temporary, or provisional basis[14].    
  
G.    Research Methodology
-          Research Approach
This research approach is designed to comparative study. It’s one of Qualitative approach types. Whereas, according to Clissett (2008, p. 100) qualitative research covers a wide range of approaches for the exploration of “human experience, perceptions, motivations and behaviors” and is concerned with the collection and analysis of words whether in the form of speech or writing[15]. While comparative study can be defined as Comparison of outcomes, results, responses, etc for different techniques, therapeutic approaches or other inputs[16] So that, through this research, the writer will compare two different result of her research.
-          Setting
This study will be conducted on March 2013 at SMA 25 Muhammadiyah Pamulang.
-          Sample and Population
The population in this study is English teacher at SMA. Muhammadiyah 25 Pamulang. Some of them are graduated or studying in relevant field and some other are not.
-          Data Collection
Presenting an accurate data is the aimed writer in presenting readable and reliable paper, so that, the data that will be collected through phases below:

Interview
In this first stage, the writer will design some questions that will be asked to both trained and untrained teacher with the same question. It is aimed to compare the two different teachers’ background in making the instruction in their class. In a qualitative interview, good questions should be open-ended (ie, require more than a yes/no answer), neutral, sensitive and understandable[17].
Observation
After getting some information and listening some avowal from the teachers and the students, the writer will search and going to show directly the truth of the data with observing the class for several days. It’s clarified with Taylor-Power and Steele (1996) statement that “suggest that seeing and listening are the key aspects of direct observation”[18]. Systematically, in the direct observation method, the researcher observes people’s normal behavior without disturbing the situation. So that, after getting the data from this stage, the writer will compare the result from both interview and observation and sum up the real result based on the real class.  

-          Data Analysis
If all result would had been collected, the writer will compare it with the theory that she had been written before about teacher competence, teaching strategy and theory of instruction. So that, it can be conclude depend on the result and its theory.





REFERENCES
Britten N. A Qualitative Interviews in healthcare. in Pope C Mays N. A Qualitative Research in Healthcare 2nd ed. in British Dental Journal vol.204 no. 6, Mar 22 2008.
Joyce, Bruce, Marsha Well, Models of Teaching. 2nd ed, Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice Hall, Inc. 1980.
Clark, D. Teacher evaluation: A review of the literature with implications for educators. Unpublished Seminar Paper, California State University at Long Beach, 1993.
Hershel Thornburg, School Learning and Instruction: Reading, United State of America: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1973.
Hodder, I. The Interpretation of Documents and Material Culture, 1994.

Jafri, H., & Shahzadi, S. Comparison between untrained teachers and achievement of students at secondary level. Lahore: Unpublished master thesis, University of the Punjab, 2002.
McBer, H. Research into teacher effectiveness: A model of teacher effectiveness. 2000.
Mochtar Marhum, English Language in Indonesian Schools in the Era of Globalization. 2009.
Moore, A, The good teacher: Dominant discourses in teaching and teacher education. London: Routledge Palmer, 2004.
Nahúm Samperio Sanchez, Classroom Action Research http://idiomas.tij.uabc.mx/revistadom/volumen5/.pdf (January, 13 2007)
Rosenshine, Barak, Five Meanings of Direct Instruction. Center on Innovation & Improvement, 2008 p.1
Shulman, L. Those Who Understand: Knowledge Growth in Teaching. Educational Researcher. Vol.15 No.2 (Feb 1987).
 Tavallaei, Mehdi and Mansor Abu Talib, A General Perspective on Role of Theory in Qualitative Research. Uluslararası Sosyal Ara_tırmalar Dergisi The Journal of International Social Research Volume 3 / 11 Spring 2010
Taylor-Power, E., Steele, S. Collecting Evaluation Data: Direct Observation. G3658-5, Program Development and Evaluation. University of Wisconsin, 1996.
Wehrli, G., Nyquist, J.G. Creating an Educational Curriculum for Learners at Any Level. AABB Conference, 2003.




[1] Harmer Jeremy, The Practice of English Language Teaching, (USA: Longman Group UK, 1991), p.6

[4] http://www.theaustralian.com.au (Saturday, December 12, 2012))

[5] Bruce Joyce, Marsha Well, Models of Teaching. 2nd e (Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice Hall, Inc. 1980)  
[6] Clark, D. Teacher evaluation: A Review of the Literature with Implications for Educators. Unpublished Seminar Paper, California State University at Long Beach.p.10
[7] McBer, H. (2000). Research into teacher effectiveness: A model of teacher effectiveness. Retrieved October 9, 2006 from http://www.dfes.gov.uk/ esearch/ data/upload files/RR216.doc. In Farooq S Muhammad,  Effect of Teachers’ Professional Education on Students’ Achievement in Mathematics, Bulletin of Education & Research June 2006, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp.47-55
[8] Moore, A.(2004). The good teacher: Dominant discourses in teaching and teacher education. London: Routledge Palmer.
[9] Jafri, H., & Shahzadi, S. (2002). Comparison between untrained teachers and achievement of students at secondary level. Lahore: Unpublished master thesis, University of the Punjab. In Farooq S Muhammad,  Effect of Teachers’ Professional Education on Students’ Achievement in Mathematics, Bulletin of Education & Research June 2006, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp.47-55
[10] Barak Rosenshine, Five Meanings of Direct Instruction. Center on Innovation & Improvement (2008) p.1
[11] Harmer Jeremy, The Practice of English Language Teaching, (USA: Longman Group UK, 1991), p.6
[12] Hershel Thornburg, School Learning and Instruction: Reading, (United State of America: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1973), p. 37

[14] Penny Ur. A Course in Language Teaching. (Cambridge U.K: Cambridge University Press 1991). In Nahúm Samperio Sanchez, Classroom Action Research http://idiomas.tij.uabc.mx/revistadom/volumen5/.pdf (January, 13 2007)
[15] Mehdi Tavallaei and Mansor Abu Talib, A General Perspective on Role of Theory in Qualitative Research. Uluslararası Sosyal Ara_tırmalar Dergisi The Journal of International Social Research Volume 3 / 11 Spring 2010
[17] Britten N. A Qualitative Interviews in healthcare. in Pope C Mays N. A Qualitative Research in Healthcare 2nd ed. in British Dental Journal vol.204 no. 6, Mar 22 2008
[18] Taylor-Power, E., Steele, S. (1996). Collecting evaluation data: Direct observation. G3658-5, Program Development and Evaluation. University of Wisconsin. Retrieved September 26, 2009 from http://learningstore.uwex.edu/pdf/G3658-5.pdf in Jarko Suhonen, Scientific Methodology in Computer Science, fall 2009 pdf