Reaction on the article: Planning and Instruction

1. Dialing, Christine Rosemel O. September 2, 2015
Instructional Methods and Technology Dr. Clark G. Armstrong – Instructor
Reaction to the Article: Planning and Instruction: Instructional Methods
JAMES H. STRONGE, a Heritage Professor in the Educational Policy, Planning, and
Leadership Area at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia whose primary
research interests are teacher effectiveness and student success, and teacher and administrator
performance evaluation said, “teaching is a complex activity that involves careful preparation
and planning objectives and activities on an hourly, daily, and weekly basis. In addition, long-
term planning ensures coverage of curriculum across a marking period, semester, and
year. Teaching and learning as a focus must be consistently communicated to students in the
classroom and to observers.”1 To me, he was saying that planning and preparation are one of the
most crucial things to be done in teaching.
My journey of collecting data for my thesis has made me understood more what it really
means to be a facilitator of the learners’ understanding. Most of the time theories are not enough
tools for us to understand the principles behind to become an effective educator in the sense of
planning instruction. Hearing and learning from teacher’s experience is one of the greatest
sources that we can have in learning and understanding more about planning and instruction.
Shuell was right when he said that, “There is not one "best" approach to instruction. Some goals
are better suited to teacher-centered approaches while others clearly need student-centered
approaches.”2
Most of the respondents in my research that happens to be facilitator of learning
agreed at one point and that is, students are the main actor and actresses ineducation, and
1 http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/105156/chapters/Planning-and-Organizing-for-Instruction.aspx
2 http://edtech2.tennessee.edu/projects/bobannon/in_strategies.html

2. that without them school and being a teacher has no worth at all – they are saying to me that
the teachers as they plan what to be taught, what are the identified results and other things, they
have one common thing in their minds and that is directing the instruction to facilitate the
learning of the students. A teacher cannot and should not always use only one approach in
teaching to the learners but rather integrate everything to address the need and what is
appropriate in a certain situation to aid the learning of the learners. Different teacher-teacher and
student –centered approaches are actually good and ideal but when using one or few of it as the
major approach threatens the development of the learning of the students. I am not saying that
lecture is not good nor is the discussion nor is the discovery learning approach but each of the
approaches are actually good and helpful and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. As I
can recall, my respondents told me that they have to choose whatever seems best that fits to the
lesson and also to the interest of the learners.
In every lesson, it has its own distinguishing characteristics and only a particular
approach could help it to be taught and communicated to the learners clearly and effectively. To
me, it doesn’t matter what approaches I will use, as long as I would be able to address the need
of the learners and be able to facilitate to their learning. There are always many ways to achieve
our goals in our lives it is just our creativeness that will help us reach our goals meaningfully. In
the same way, as teachers we should not only be focused to what approach we will use or just to
the content rather we will also make it sure to provide meaningful experience in their learning
and that is through doing variations of approaches we use in teaching to them.