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Contemporary issues and Trend in Education

A. Janoordeen, Visiting Lecturer

Instruction: Instruction is vital for education, as it is the transfer of learning from one person to
another. Any time you are given directions or told how to do something you are receiving instruction.

The noun instruction is related to the word structure; both share the Latin root structus, "built." The
use of the word as we know it today appeared in the early 15th century from the Old French. Today it
refers to the action of teaching and the job of a teacher. It can also be used to denote the directions
themselves. Consider the word's connection with structure: effective instruction is presented in an
orderly, structured manner.

Ten research-based principles of instruction: This handout presents ten research-based principles
of instruction, and suggestions for classroom practice. These principles come from three sources: (a)
research on how our brain acquires and uses new information; (b) research on the classroom practices
of those teachers whose students show the highest gains; and (c) findings from studies that taught
learning strategies to students.

The following is a list of some of the instructional procedures that have come from these three
sources. These ideas will be described and discussed in this handout:

Begin a lesson with a short review of previous learning.

Present new material in small steps with student practice after each step.
Limit the amount of material students receive at one time.
Give clear and detailed instructions and explanations.
Ask a large number of questions and check for understanding.
Provide a high level of active practice for all students.
Guide students as they begin to practice.
Think aloud and model steps.
Provide models of worked-out problems.
Ask students to explain what they had learned.
Check the responses of all students.
Provide systematic feedback and corrections.
Use more time to provide explanations.
Provide many examples.
Re-teach material when necessary
Prepare students for independent practice.
Monitor students when they begin independent practice

1. Daily review: Daily review can strengthen previous learning and can lead to fluent recall. In
addition, teachers might consider doing the following during their daily review:

Correction of homework;

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 Review of the concepts and skills that were practised as part of the homework;
Asking students about points where they had difficulties or made errors;
Review of material where errors were made;
Review of material that needs overlearning (i.e. newly acquired skills should be practised well
beyond the point of initial mastery, leading to automaticity).

2.Present new material using small steps: Only present small amounts of new material at any time,
and then assist students as they practise this material.

3.Ask questions: Questions help students practise new information and connect new material to their
prior learning. Imaginative teachers have found ways to involve all students in answering questions.
Examples include having each student:

Tell the answer to a neighbour.1.

Summarize the main idea in one or two sentences, writing the summary on a piece of paper
and sharing this with a neighbour, or repeating the procedures to a neighbour.
Write the answer on a card that he or she then holds up.3.
Raise their hand if they know the answer (thereby allowing the teacher to check the entire
class).
Raise their hand if they agree with the answer that someone else has given.

4.Provide models: Providing students with models and worked examples can help students learn to
solve problems faster.

5.Guide student practice: Successful teachers spent more time guiding the students practice of new
material

6.Check for student understanding: Checking for student understanding at each point can help
students learn the material with fewer errors.

7.Obtain a high success rate: It is important for students to achieve a high success rate during
classroom instruction.

8.Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks: The teacher provides students with temporary supports and
scaffolds to assist them when they learn difficult tasks.

9.Independent practice: Provide for successful independent practice.

10.Weekly and monthly review: Students need to be involved in extensive practice in order to
develop well-connected and automatic knowledge

The ten principles in this handout come from three different sources: (a) research on how the mind
acquires and uses information; (b) the instructional procedures that are used by the most successful
teachers; and (c) the procedures that were invented by researchers to help students learn difficult
tasks. The research from each of these three sources has implications for classroom instruction, and
these implications are described in each of these ten principles. Even though these principles come
from three different sources, the instructional procedures that are taken from one source do not
conflict with the instructional procedures that are taken from another source. Instead, the ideas from
each of the sources overlap and add to each other. This overlap gives us faith that we are developing a
valid and research-based understanding of the art of teaching.

The critical importance of a common language or model of instruction:

Instruction provides a framework: A common language or model of instruction provides a
framework for a way to talk about instruction that is shared by everyone, at the school level.
Principals and teachers use a common language of instruction to converse about effective teaching,
give and receive feedback, collect and act upon data to monitor growth regarding the reasoned use of

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the strategies identified in the framework, and align professional development needs against the
framework.

While the focus on teacher effectiveness must be centered on improving student learning, a complex
evaluation system must focus on improving the expertise of the teacher across an entire system and
provide clear mechanisms for teachers to improve their instruction. A well-articulated knowledge base
is a prerequisite for developing expertise in any systematic way.

Schools and districts often struggle with defining effective teaching within the context of multiple and
competing approaches to teaching and learning while also creating challenging curriculum and robust
assessment systems amidst differing philosophies, unclear performance measures, and fragmented
professional development. Unfortunately, teachers bear a disproportionate burden within misaligned
systems, hindering their growth and effectiveness in working with their students. Current approaches
to monitoring classroom instruction, such as walkthroughs, typically use narrow checklists that do not
reflect the complexity of the teaching and learning process. Teachers are rarely provided immediate
and specific feedback to improve their teaching, which is not always aligned with teacher evaluation
or support processes. Given what we know from research, a common language/model of instruction
must:

Accurately reflect the complexity and sophistication of the teaching/learning process

Identify the key strategies revealed by research for effective teaching.
Go beyond a narrow list of high yield strategies
Identify which research-based strategies are appropriate for different types of lessons or
lesson segments
Include rubrics or scales with clearly defined continuums of implementation and evidences
sufficient to impact student learning
Allow for flexibility for districts to adapt and adopt the model to reflect local needs and
priorities yet retain the common language
Teachers to engage in deliberate practice: As shared understanding is developed based upon a
common language of instruction, the next critical process is for teachers to engage in deliberate
practice using the common language of instruction. Citing the work of Ericsson and his colleagues
(Ericsson & Charness, 1994; Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer,1993; Ericsson & Smith, 1991),
Hattie (2009) notes that the key difference between novices and experts is that experts engage in
deliberate practice or relevant practice activities at appropriate levels of challenge, focused on
improving particular aspects of their teaching. Deliberate practice is a mindset that requires teachers
to precisely attend to what they are doing in the classroom in order to identify what is working and
what isnt, and determine why students are learning or not learning. While there are quite possibly
hundreds of possible teaching moves that teachers make on a daily basis, teachers can identify thin
slices of teaching behaviors, derived from a common language of instruction, to focus on a specific
area for improvement.

Instruction to enable teachers to make real-time adjustments A major component of deliberate

practice also involves clear and frequent feedback against a common language of instruction to enable
teachers to make real-time adjustments in their teaching. Rubrics or scales aligned to the common
language provide a viable means for teachers and supervisors to both celebrate, reward, and replicate
effective teaching as well as provide a clear path for improvement. Feedback, then, can come from
various forms of self-assessment, mentor, peer, and supervisor feedback using a common language
with scales or rubrics.

Implications of Englsh Medium Instructions and issues:

Policy makers consider EMI as a mechanism for internationalizing their education offer, creating
opportunities for students to join a global academic and business community. They see EMI as a way
of rapidly increasing international mobility. Some see EMI as a way to build the English language

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capacity of their home country and ensure that their home students can compete in a world market.
The following descriptions, provided by respondents in Uzbekistan and Croatia, illustrate this
Sri Lanka:
In the immediate post-colonial period, English was called the kaduwa, the knife or sword that cut
the Sri Lankan community from its heritage. Sinhalese nationalism in the 1950s resulted in the
Sinhalese only laws, which saw both English and Tamil downgraded (and was certainly a major
step towards the ethnic conflict). These days, English has lost this association for most, though not
quite all, Sri Lankans, and is seen as the way to access modernity and prosperity. EMI is widely seen
among the public as being valuable as a means of learning English as a language/skill.

Teaching and learning through EMI

Respondents were asked to report on any issues centring directly on teaching and learning through
EMI. In summary, and as well as a general concern as to whether EMI produced better or worse
outcomes, their replies touched on the following areas:
a lack of EMI teachers
a lack of resources
a lack of clear guidelines for teaching.
whether English alone should be used or whether a mixture of English and L1 might permitted or
advised
subjects which are taught through EMI
exams and assessment
the age at which EMI starts, policies on age
a standard level of English for EMI teachers
the changing role of the teacher
the role of language centres and English teachers.

An EMI teacher in a school or university which has successfully attracted international students is
faced with a class of students many of whom may not speak the teachers L1. One would imagine that
a minimum requirement would be a sufficiently high level of English proficiency to be able to operate
in that language. However, one could hypothesise that they would additionally need to find alternative
ways of presenting academic material to students for whom English was also a second language. In
which case similar skills required of an EFL teacher would need to be found in an EMI teacher. They
would need to know how to modify their input, assure comprehension via student-initiated
interactional modifications and create an atmosphere where students operating in an L2 are not afraid
to speak; all this whilst taking into account the many cultural differences present in the room and the
potentially different language levels of individuals.

In the preliminary study teachers were found to have limited self-experienced or no previous
understanding of the implications of teaching through EMI. If it is indeed the case that teaching
through EMI involves changing from a teacher-led style to a more interactive dynamic, then few
teachers said they had considered the idea that EMI was not simply a matter of translating course
material and slides from L1 to L2. Recall that these teachers were on the British
Councils ATE courses and so must have been aware that they faced language problems when
teaching in
EMI, yet certainly at least at the beginning of the course were not sure what these problems were.

They were asked to rank seven attributes of an EMI lecturer. The most important attributes were
considered to be the ability to explain difficult concepts and the ability to create an interactive
environment. The least important attributes were considered to be a belief that you can help students
improve their English, a reflective approach and an awareness of the potentially diverse cultural
backgrounds of the students.
One interpretation of the Bologna process is that it is a lever for forcing change in higher education
pedagogy. If teachers teaching through English are sufficiently skilled only to deliver a more
monologic approach and less skilled at engaging in a dialogue or interaction, how can they convey
and discuss difficult concepts in their subject in English?

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A monologic approach also sits uneasily alongside the belief that EMI is a new tool for authentic
language learning in the classroom and a multilingual and multicultural tool for developing
intercultural communication.

Guidelines on how to teach through EMI

Moreover in very few countries adopting EMI was there a clear strategy in terms of educational
structure with regard to EMI.

The only countries where some written guidelines about how to teach through EMI were reported
were the Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nepal,
Netherlands,
Pakistan, Qatar, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka and Taiwan. Even here it was not clear what level of
advice was being provided.

One issue which has been the focus of research and practice interest in the EFL sphere is that of
codeswitching or the use of the L1 in the L2 classroom as opposed to English-only. Clearly this is
also a contested area in the EMI content classroom.

The EFL field has for some time now come to recognise that principled codeswitching could be
beneficial for L2 learning in a classroom situation where the teacher and students or students and
students share an L1. Clearly this may also be applicable to the EMI classroom.
7.3%
There are further questions as to the use and future of the home language. If students learn their
academic subject only in English, what happens to those concepts and technical terms in their home
language do they survive? If English-only is being used, and a teacher is not proficient, what kind of
English are the students going to be exposed to?

Subjects taught and subjects

examined through EMI
Guidance is given in some countries as to which subjects should be taught in English, but the basis
for those decisions is not clear. There is also a great difference between countries: In Sri Lanka,
however, ten subjects can be taught through EMI and more subjects can be taught if the students want
this and permission is sought from the Ministry of Education.

Maths, English literature, translation, science, engineering, physics, business, geography, biology,
agriculture, chemistry, arts, history, medicine, international relations, regional studies, and religious
education were all quoted as subjects taught through EMI. In other words there is no subject which is
clearly designed as a subject that can only be appropriately taught in the majority students home
language. Yet medicine might be a subject where learning it through the L2 might result in problems
when qualified students begin to practise.
Whilst it may be advantageous to be able to read the many medical journals written in English thanks
to a putative improved English language proficiency resulting from EMI, how will a doctor who has
not experienced clinically-oriented interaction in his/her home language during training perform when
talking to patients who may not speak a word of English?

Exams and assessment were also described as being problematic. Respondents reported that at
university
level, lectures were sometimes in English while exams were in L1 due to university policy, student
pressure or the law, or subjects were not taught in English but were assessed in English. In Taiwan,
for
example, English Literature is not taught in English but it is assessed in English. In Nepal, in English
medium schools, subjects such as Social Studies and History are taught in a mixed approach but
assessed in English. Our respondent in Mauritius reported that this was the case for all subjects.
EMI raises many questions for exams and assessment: What language should exams be in?
What form should they take? Do teachers have a sufficiently high level of English to write and mark

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exams? What is being assessed, the English or the subject content?

Age of EMI introduction

Traditionally, students have learnt English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at school, in other words
English as a subject in its own right. A question to be asked therefore would be at what point, if at all.

Therefore, instructions are means of education, investigation, and a methodology for knowledge,
skills and attitude transfer and transformation that takes place in a learner during the process of
learning.

References:

1. Anderson, L.W.; Burns, R.B. (1987). Values, evidence, and mastery learning. Review of
educational research, 57(2), 215224, Summer.
2. British Council Survry and Reports