Technique for encouraging college students to become good readers and writers

Purwati

Galuh University

           

            Chronologically, the psychical dominant of college students is very mature. The problem is that they have been so far treated immaturely as adult learners. It is reflected in the teaching learning process in their prior education. The instructions are delivered through teachers’ oriented. The test and assessments are also teachers’ centered. Therefore, it is undeniable that there are many college students who find difficulties in reading and writing.

            This paper puts together the techniques for encouraging college students to become good readers and writers. Divided into three major parts, this paper presents the problems of college students to become good readers and writers in the first part, followed by discussing who good readers and writers are in the nex part. The proposed technique comes in the last part. 

            Discussing college students with their unique phenomenon since they already adult readers and write academically, this paper comes to the conclusion that teachers of college students have to bear big responsibility in helping their students to become good writers and readers. This paper proposes three techniques namely learning contract, critical thinking, and information access technique that can be applied by the teachers of college students by considering which one that will be workable in their own colleges.

Keyword: learning contract, critical thinking, and information access technique

1.      College Students’ Problem of Being Good Readers and Writers

It is undeniable that our college students find many obstacles in reading and writing academic papers. We can see from their difficulty in answering essay questions demanding critical thinking in which they are asked to think critically by synthesizing the answers they have in minds and constructing them into their sentences. Not intending to blame each other, this can be caused by the wrong techniques their teachers did during their prior educations. One of the examples is the spoon-feeding techniques the students encounter while they are junior and high school students even until they are college students in which some of the teachers are still using this kind of technique regarding that college students are not adult learners yet, they are just an extension of senior high school students.  This superficial technique does not encourage students to be able to think critically. Students come to class with blank minds and teachers explain the materials all of the time during the teaching learning process. Teachers’ centered happens. It is only the teachers who have autonomy to select the material, use the method as they wish in delivering them and design the tests to asses the students understanding about the materials. Therefore, it is unavoidable that the students are not used to spend their time to read assigned books and write responses based on their reading. It is getting worse that the students are not motivated to read and write from their surroundings, either. Teachers have not recognized yet how students’ experiences obtained in their real life also play an important role in grinding down their ability to read and write.

The example is the teachers’ role in managing wall magazines in which they do not provide opportunities for their students to perform their reading and writing competence by letting them to manage the wall magazine freely. Students have to consult the materials to the teachers first before posing them all on the wall. Students are not given autonomy to read and write whatever subjects they are not interested in and concerned with. It is in contradiction with project-based instruction in which teachers let the students to choose the project they like most and give freedom to them to expand.

Now, teachers of college students have to deal with this kind of live experiences their students had in their previous education that they bring to class. It is not an easy task for the teachers of college students because their students are now demanded to read many scientific books and write many scholarly papers.

Fortunately, teachers and students are very much helped by the spread of information technology in this global era. In today’s information society, becoming information literature is no longer an option but a must. Understanding what information is where to find it, how to evaluate its quality and then using the relevant information for problem solving can facilitate adult learning on many levels.

The previous part has described college students’ difficulties to become good readers and writers because the wrong techniques they have encountered during their prior education. The next part of this paper examines the characteristics of good readers and writers.

II. Who Good Readers And Writers are

            There are several factors involved in considering what is good writing/reading and what is not. A good writing must flow smoothly via sentence fluency, have interesting ideas, use correct word choice and be well organized throught througout. To list all the many characteristics of good readers are impossible, however, a good reader sometime reads for literal experience, reading to be informed, form an initial understanding and develop an interpretation. In my opinion, for a piece of writing to be considered good quality writing there are a few aspects that the writing, the main theme. The ideas are strong when the message is clear, not garbled. The writer chooses details that are interesting, important, an informative, often and the kinds of details the reader would not normally anticipate or predict. Successful writers do not tell the readers things they already know; e.g., ‘it was a sunny day, and the sky was blue, the clouds were fluffy white.’ They notice what others overlook, seek out the extraordinary, the unusual, the bits and pieces of life that others might not see. (www.megaessys.com/viewpaper/26669.html)

Besides, there are some characteristics of good writer that his writing has a clear defined purpose, makes a clear point, supports that point with specific information, which is clearly connected and arranged. Unfortunately, college students still have to struggle hard to be able write well, they often find difficulties in writing the assignments or reporting the project assigned by the teachers. In the next part of this paper, there are three proposed techniques that can be applied by the teachers to help their students ro become good readers and writers.

III. Proposed Technique

Refering to the above explanations in the previous parts of this paper stating that the literacy of college students in Indonesia is still law, the present part of this writing discusses the ways how teachers help them to become good readers and writers. Three techniques are proposed in this paper, they are learning contract, critical thinking technique and information access techniques. Before exposing them all, learning contract will start the discussion as clarified as follows:

3.1. Learning Contract

            Refering to the findings mentioned in the prior parts and to bridge the gap between the teachers’ orientation and the learners’ need and interests, what teacher of college students can do in facing this challanging task is by setting a precise instruction in class, i.e. designing in appropriate method, facilitating the students with suitable materials, assesing the accomplishment of their students properly, etc. One of the technique that can be applied as proposed in this paperis Learning Contract. Galbraith (Ed) in his book Adult Learning Method states that a learning contract is a formal agreement written by a learner which details what will be learned, how the learning will be accomplished, the period of time involved and the specific evaluation criteria to be used in judging the completion of the learning. The learning contract is a method that is used to individualize the learning process. The use of the word contract suggests that what is written in the agreement is important, legitimate and fair to the party or parties concerned. The learner is responsible for establishing the parameter for the learning effort. However, as with other instructional methods, flexibility is important (267). Assuming that college students are already adult learners whose self-concept moves from being dependent toward being an independent self-directed human beings, acumulate a growing reservoir of experience that can be used for learning, whose readiness to learn is linked with the develomental tasks of their life roles and whose time perspective toward learning shift from postponed to immediate application and from subject-centeredness to performance-centeredness (Knowles, 1980:44-45), teachers can apply this technique to develop college students to become good readers and writers. Before starting the course, teachers and students design an agreement what instruction they will follow during the teaching and learning process, what materials that will be used and what assessments to measure the students’ achievements. It is better to reconcile between the teachers’ objectives and learners’ needs and wants toward the course. The choosen materials are those which college students are interested in and concerned with, for example in the teaching of literature, teachers can use popular literature such as ‘Harry Potter’ besides canonized literature which hoped that it will encourage them to write by responding to the assigned texts. Therefore, the students’ critical thinking can be sharpened. The issue of college students’ critical thinking is also examined in this paper presented in the next section.

3.2. Critical Thinking Technique

            In the above section, this paper has described Learning Contract Technique as one of the ways to develop college students to become good readers and writers. In the present context, many teachers of junior and senior high schools have not tried to apply this technique yet because many of them are still using spoon-feeding techniques. By using the mentioned technique, teachers do not encourage the students to think critically. It can be seen from the college students’ difficulty in answering essay questions demanding their reading and writing skill. Actually, this problem can be minimized if the teachers use one of the other instructions also proposed in this paper is one such trend called as project-based-instruction. ‘In its simplest form, project-based learning involves a group of learners taking on an issue close to their hearts, developing a response, and presenting the results to a wider audience’ (Wrigley, 1998, p. 13). Through project-based instruction, adult learners develop their language, literacy, and problem-solving skills as they research an issue of concern or interest. Writing often plays a central role in project-based instruction. For example, learners in one ESOL project discussed, researched, and wrote down traditional recipes (GaerS). Another decided on themes and then wrote and enacted short plays and skits. Yet another group of students decided to write an orientation handbook for future students of their literacy program.  Still other projects have involved research and writing to create educational materials on health (North and Campbell, 1998). Project may last only a few days to several months. In some projects, students serve as apprentices, as, for example, when they learn from their teacher how to put together their own newspaper. Tasks, timeline, and responsibilities are often posted to track the status of a project and sometimes students to keep budgets. Often such projects have real audience and a goal of affecting change in a community. Although no research studies have yet been conducted that study this approach to instruction in adult contexts, proponents claim it helps adults to develop skills that are more closely matched to the literacy requirements of work and everyday life. Project-based instruction encourages collaborative learning requirements of work and authentic purposes. This form of instruction also helps to make visible the processes that are usually hidden from learners in typical programs, such as the publishing process (Wrigley, 1998)

            Unfortunately, in Indonesia context, many teachers of junior and senior high schools have not tried to apply this instruction yet. Consequently, teachers of college students have to deal with this kind of live experiences their students had in their previous education that they bring to class.  It is not an easy task for the teachers of college students because their students are now demanded to read many scientific books and write many scholarly papers. What the teachers can do is by giving project-based instruction in which the students  are given freedom to choose their own project not necessarily job-relation but also literacy at workplace which interests and concerns those students most. For example is asking them to read and write about problem-solving to develop their critical thinking assuming that the capacity of humans for good for good reasoning can bu nurtured and developed by an educational process aimed directly at that end. It assumes that sound critical thinking maximizes our ability to solve problems of importance to us by helping us both to avoid common mistakes and to proceed in the most rational and logical fashion. Based on the above explanations, the other techniques that can be  used by the teachers of college students to develop their students to become good readers and writers also proposed in this paper is by applying Critical Thinking Technique. Brookfield states that critical thinking seems to hold the promise of constituting a universal theory of adult learning and, by implication, a template for adult education practice. If critical thinking is uniqually adult learning process, then postering critical thinking becomes by implication, a uniquely adult learning process. As a process, critical thinking involves adults in recognizing and researching the assumptions that undergird their thoughts and actions. In terms of its purpose, critical thinking tends to focus on the scrutiny of the two particular and interrelated, sets of assumptions. First, there are those assumptions that frame how we view power relation in our lives. Second, the purpose of critical thinking is uncovering hegemonic assumptions. Therefore, one of first things teachers of critical thinking need to confront is the hostility students will exhibit to the idea that they need to reexamine any of the ideas or actions that they are the outset of their efforts. Their entreaties that critical thinking is good for people will do nothing to convince adult learners of its educational validity, or of its relevance to their own lives. It is crucial that teachers confront and acknowledge this hostility at the outset.  One way to respond to it is to make sure those teachers of adult model a public commitment to, and engagement in, critical thinking before they ask their students to do this (Galbraith.Ed., 1998:317-318)

            Referring to the understanding of the prior explanations, teachers of college students can apply this technique by designing critical reading and writing activities. It happens when readers, i.e. college students make explicit the assumptions authors hold about what constitutes legitimate knowledge, take alternatives perspectives on the knowledge being offered so that this knowledge comes to be seen as culturally constructed, undertake positive and negative apparaisal of the grounds for, and expresssion of, this knowledge, and analyze commonly held educational ideas for the extent to which they oppose democratic values (332). By doing so it is hoped that college students will bear critical thinking in their minds so that they will be able to answer essay questions more comprehensively, read their textbook more easily and produce their own writing more often.

            To this end, this paper has proposed two technique that teachers of college students can apply in developing their students to become good writers and readers. Another technique that will also be examined in this writing is Information Acces Technique assuming that information continues to proliferate at an outstanding rate, finding, evaluating, and educators. Therefore, the next section elaborates this technique following the discussion in this paper.

2.4.3. Information Access Technique

            In the previous section, this paper has examined Critical Thinking Technique as an alternative way that teachers of college students can use to develop their students to become food readers and writers as the main issue revealed in this paper. In the present section, Information Access Technique is also investigated to enrich the teachers of college students’ knowledge in facing the challenging task as teachers of students in modern era.

            College students become independent, self-directed learners who know how and where to find information they need. Because there is also much information available, they sometimes feel overwhelmed and helpless both in acquiring and appropriately using information. Innovative uses of technology may represent one of the most significant of the promising trends. In growing numbers, adult literacy learners are surfing the Web to research areas that interest them, communicating through e-mail, creating Web pages, and forming on-line groups of various kinds (Rosen, 2000). In way never before available, adult students can find audiances to read and respond to their texts. They can combine visual and print literacy to communicate their ideas, and they can form long-distance collaborations with others. Each of the National Institute for Literacy’s regional LINCS (Literacy Information and Communications System) sites now has links to resources by and for learners. For example, Southern LINCS (http://hub2.coe.utk.edu.html) has links to learner-developed projects on topics such as stress, home remedies, and the influence of television commercials on viewers and ways in which inmates can keep in touch with the outside world. Brown University’s literacy center maintains a site at which adult beginning readers can post their poetry, short stories and essays (http://www.brown.edu/department/swearercenter/literacyresources/learner/html) . Dave’s ESL Cafe http://www.eslcafe.com contains more that twenty discussion forums for ESOL students and has provided the means for thousands of ESOL students to become pen pals with other ESOL students from around the world. Some programs also publish their curriculum materials and teaching tips on-line. Write on Nashvile http://cls.one.utk.edu/lpm/writeon/html, for exampl, gives teachers tips on how to prepare for a public event in which students read their stories. (The Literacy List, a comprehensive, hyperlinked list of adult literacy, basic education, and ESOL Web sites, is maintained by David Rosen and can be found at http://alri.org/literacy.html)

            Information Access Technique can be used to help them learn and teach any content area. Adult educators have a responsibility to help learners acquire and skillfully use information technique asses, information resources, and technology in order to effectively assist adult learners to acquire these skills. Adult learners have a responsibility to take seriously the evaluation of information and determine its scope and relevance to the problem or topic at hand (Galbraith, 1998: 374)

            Referring to the above explanations, the first step that teachers of college students can do is defining the problem, issue, or question and determining what information is needed. A search strategy will help specify where the information might be located. The strategy might include questions that will guide the search and sources that will be contacted. It will be similar with to a map with designated stops to pick up fuel (information) that will help to arrive at the destination (knowledge). In finding the information, college students need to critically evaluate whether it is reliable and valid. For the information students decide credible, they need to synthesize the data from all the sources in order to understand and organize the information. They might put it into written from such as a report or memo. If they are looking for information to use orally, they might prepare an outline. After they use the information, they might decide that they need to research at a specific part of what they found to clarify it more.

            Up to this part, this paper has described the problems in literacy faced by college students, the characteristics to become good readers and writers and the proposed techniques to overcome the problem. What can be concluded from this paper is that teachers of college students can help their learners to develop as good good readers and writers through many ways. It is a matter of willingness of the teachers of college students to adopt which kind of techniques as proposed in this paper that they consider will be workable in their workplace. Hopefully this poor simple writing can help teachers of college students to bear their big responsibility to be able to know their student better as assigned by the government ruled in permendiknas no 16 year 2007 so that they can help them to become good readers and writers.

Refferences:

Gaer, S. (1998). Learning More and Teaching Less. Focus on Basics, 2 (D).

Galbraith, Michael W. Ed (1998). Adult Learning Method . Krieger Publishing Comp.

Knowles, M.S (1980). The Modern Practice of Adult Education. Andragogy Versus Pedagogy. Eglewood Cliffs: Prencite Hall/Cambridge et al.

Norton, M., & Campbell, P. (1998). Learning for our Health: A Reseource for Participatory Literacy and Health Education. Edmontion, Canada: Learning Centre Literacy Association.

Rosen, D. (2000). Using Electronic Technology in Adult Literacy Education in J. Commings, B. Garner, & C. Smith (Eds.). Annual Review of Adult Learning and Literacy: Volume 1 (pp. 304-316). San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.

Wrigley, H. S. (1998). Knowledge in Action. The Promise of Preject-based (www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/26669.html)