Principles of Contextual Teaching Learning
Contextual teaching learning approach has seven main principles as follows:
1.Constructivism
Constructivism is a theory of learning, which emphasizes people in building their own knowledge little by little and enlarging it in a limited context (Johnson in Nurhadi, 2000). Knowledge is not a set of facts, concepts or principles, which is ready to take and remember but people have to construct and comprehend it through real experience. Students have to involve and active in a learning process by using prior knowledge and experience then apply it to a new situation. Teachers help students to find deep understanding of learning concept and make knowledge more meaningful, give a chance for students to find and apply their own ideas and learning strategy.
2.Inquiry
Inquiry is the core of Contextual Teaching and Learning activity that give an opportunity for students to get the active and concrete learning experience (Johnson in Djoehana, 2002). The students learn to initiate by developing their skill in solving problem, making decision and doing research. Inquiry activity pushes students to be a little scientist by following inquiry cycle, i.e. observation, questioning, hypothesize, data gathering and conclusion. The teachers have to always arrange activities in classroom that refer to doing an explanatory in order to fin new knowledge.
3.Questioning
Questioning is main learning strategy, which is based on Contextual Teaching and Learning. In teaching and learning process, questioning is seen as an attempt to encourage, lead, and evaluate students’ intelligence (Johnson in Nurhadi, 2002). It is also a part of inquiry activities. This enables the teacher to train students’ language function. Questioning is useful to stimulate other activities such as writing a report based on questioning information or telling it orally in front of the class. A questioning activity between teachers and students, students and students or other sources will make learning activities more lively, real, fun, and effective.
There are seven reasons why questioning:
a.To know the student’s knowledge
b.To raise student’s curiosity
c.To focus student’s attention to the objective of teaching and learning
d.To stimulate student’s response
e.To initiate further questions
f.To review the previous lesson
g.To find out whether students have understood or not the lesson presented
4.Learning Community
Learning Community (LC) is a group of people who cooperate and interact with others to reach a learning goals by speaking and sharing information, ideas, helping each other and create learning that is greater than if they worked alone (Johnson in Nur Mukminatien, 2002). Teachers make students involve themselves into heterogeneous groups so that those who have better intelligence can help others.
This technique gives such a big influence that the teacher can employ the learning process with applicable stages; constructing steps that follow some small or big discussion groups, inviting an expert in class such as a farmer and a nurse, working together with students in the same stage of class or a senior in school, and working together with society.
2 Crucial Points about Learning Community:
a.Speak and Share Ideas: LC is the implementation of CL with its activity of teamwork doing tasks.
b.Collaborate with others to create learning that is greater than if we work alone: It may result in achieving greater and more satisfying result than working alone.
5.Modeling
Modeling is a process of demonstrating to show how something is done. Modeling means action, exemplification, or demonstration. A teacher should give example of one task to the students, for example, how to use a thermometer, how to write a paper or pronounce English well. By doing so, they know and can identify the task then at the end, they can apply it in their own.
In a classroom based on Contextual Teaching and Learning, everyone can be a model. It can be a teacher, students, a nurse or a doctor. Students are able to use models as a competence standard, which should be obtained and support students to study more seriously.
6.Reflection
Reflection provides ways of what students have already learned and done in the past. In reflection student respond events, activities, and experiences, and think about what they have been learning and how to use it (Johnson in Nunung Suryati, 2003). For example, after learning English pronunciation the students realize that their pronunciation is still bad then they have to study hard to improve it. In the end of the lesson, the teacher does a reflection. To do this, she comes through the realization such as giving direct statement about what students have learned on that day on certain notes in students’ books, students’ impression and advice about the lesson on that day or the discussion over the students’ work (paper).
In short, for teachers, reflection enables them to introspect of what s/he has seen and heard, prevent from impulsive behaviour, and motivate the students to reflect about their lesson. For students, this will enable them to have responses to events, activities or knowledge they have just gained.
7.Authentic Assessment
Assessment is the ongoing process of gathering and analysing evidence of what a student can do. Authentic assessment is a variety of strategies to collect any data that can inform student’s learning improvement and also used to evaluate students’ knowledge skill (Johnson in Nurhadi, 2002). The data are very important for teachers to know whether students get any troubles in their learning process. These data are based on students’ daily activities, mid test and final test. However, the result of a written test is not the main way to evaluate students’ competence. In doing authentic assessment, teachers can use some media such as students’ project, homework, quiz, presentation or students’ performance, demonstration, report, and the result of the written test.
In other words, authentic assessment is used to describe the multiple forms of assessment that reflect students learning achievement, motivation, and attitudes on instructionally-relevant classroom activity.
The characteristics of authentic assessment:
a. Involving real experiences
b. Making use of the existing human resource and equipments
c. There is a chance to get information
d. Students are engaged in relevant activities
e. There is an effort and an exercise
f. Including self-assessment and reflection
g. Identifying student’s strength and weaknesses
h. Clear assessment criteria
i. Constructive answer
j. Students think more deeply
k. Meaningful and challenging tasks
l. Related tasks between language skill and knowledge
m. It needs collaboration and cooperative learning
n. Focusing on objects
Those authentic assessment characteristics can tell about the students. Besides, the students are trained to know about their environment
