2.1 TEACHING METHODS OF MY COOPERATING TEACHER

            Ms. Zuchra Ulfa, S. Si. is one of the faculty members of the Science Department of the UNSYIAH Laboratory High School. She was my Cooperating Teacher for the one-month duration, She is currently teaching Physics in various grades such as Grades 10, 11, and 12, only in High School Science Program.

            I observed her on 2IPA1 or Grade 11 Science Class and she is discussing about the difference between Heat and Temperature, Heat Transfer, and Expansion of Solids caused by heat. She made some recall of the topics and introduces new ideas. She gave worksheets for the students to answer which was related to the topic discussed. Afterwards, she encouraged the learners to solve the problems and to present it in class. Everyone got it correctly. I found interesting to use the inquiry-discovery-deductive methods of instruction. First, she throwed some triggering questions for the learners to think critically, then, she will allow the learners to discover it by themselves by considering the deductions on the complexity of the lesson. I observed that these methods are effective to use especially in science because it follows the primary roles of science to the learners which are to develop an inquiring mind and to be engaged in scientific investigations and experiments.

            But just like any other teachers like Ms. Ulfa or even me, classroom instruction cannot be graded as perfect, but we can grade it as excellent, very satisfactory, satisfactory, fair, and poor. I found Ms. Ulfa’s classroom instruction as either excellent or very satisfactory. There were strong and weak points. The strong points will be put into the mastery of the subject matter and content knowledge that she manifested and on the ways and means she delivered the topic effectively and efficiently. On the other hand, the weak points will be put into classroom management, redirecting and/or reprimanding students’ misbehaviour, and less physical proximity. Despite these, overall, the teaching and learning process were made successful!

 

 

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2.2 LEARNING MATERIALS AND INNOVATION

            Ms. Ulfa and other science teachers in UNSYIAH Laboratory High School use various learning materials and innovation to support learning. It can be in printed, visual, audio, and video media. Printed media includes activity sheets, textbooks, brochures and physics pamphlets.  Visual media needs a projector, laptop/computer, or an LCD TV. Projected visuals can be mnemonic, realistic, analogical, transformational, organizational, interpretive, and decorative. Non-projected visuals include realias, mobile, diorama and models. The use of learning materials depends on what Physics lesson Ms. Ulfa is dealing with. Audio media highly uses loudspeaker or any objects that create sounds to learn meaningfully. This kind of learning material can be highly used in the topic ‘Sounds’. Video media includes videos that can be downloaded in common websites such as YouTube, Vodcasts or Podcasts, etc. Ms. Ulfa used these videos in order to facilitate understanding by figuring out the physics phenomenon.

            Innovations can be seen on creative way of using the learning materials in a new angle and perspective by linking the physics content knowledge to what is actually happening in our real world.

 

 

2.3 SOURCES OF LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY

           The UNSYIAH Laboratory High School owns a library that can be used by learners when in need of information to gain knowledge and thorough understanding. There are a lot of available textbooks in science. I am surprised by their books because science textbooks are written in Bahasa Indonesia, and some of the other textbooks are bilingual or the contents of the book are written both in Bahasa Indonesia and English. It made me realized how hard I will be going through once I started teaching science. I knew that some of the Acehnese learners were not good in understanding and speaking the English language. There is a language barrier. It can obstruct understanding and learning. Ms. Ulfa was aware of this problem and encouraged the learners to speak in English. Despite this, I always dwell in my principle that adjustments must be mutual, therefore, I heightened my enthusiasm to learn Bahasa Indonesia. To sustain the momentum of my enthusiasm, I borrowed a bilingual Physics book as my source of learning.

            Other sources of learning are the e-Library of UNSYIAH Laboratory High School like the computer laboratory, available physics websites such PhET Interactive Simulations, physicsclassroom.com, scienceworld.com, etc.

 

 

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2.4 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT USED BY MY COOPERATING TEACHER

            There are arrays of authentic assessments that my cooperating teacher used in assessing students’ learning. Paper-and-pencil test was the common and often used assessment because it is easy to administer and minimal span of time is needed. Quizzes and short tests are paper-and-pencil tests as well as periodical examinations and national achievement test (Ujian Nasional). Performance-based assessment was a good authentic assessment in physics for high school. It tested the learners’ understanding of the lesson and the way he or she implements and applies it to a new stimulus. Learners’ mental, emotional and physical faculties are being engaged, as a result, it created an unforgettable learning experiences for the learners. Formative assessment done through inquiry and integrative approaches are also effective ways that Ms Ulfa being practiced in her teaching procedure to measure how well the students learn the lesson. In UNSYIAH Laboratory High School, I noticed that they are focused on tasks related to problem-solving which is also a very good authentic assessment especially if the problem is timely and extremely relevant to their lives.

 

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2.5 OTHERS: AMAZING AND MIND-BLOWING EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS

• The teachers in UNSYIAH Laboratory High School have no uniforms or teaching attires that could easily represent or identify the school.

• The teachers, I think, have few teaching loads, thus, they have a lot of time to prepare for their lessons in their next class.

• They allow their learners to have free learning on their class. Some just seldom reprimand and redirect learners’ extreme misbehavior because of the fear and worry that learners will not go to class the next day.

Some teachers believe that being terror is not a good way for the students to learn. They believe that it totally obstructs learning and do not create a conducive and comfortable learning environment for the learners.