Investigating Learners Previous Experiences Method

Teaching is a profession of constant communication. The ability to communicate is vital to effectively transfer knowledge and change lives. Teachers across the country have received a wakeup call to be more responsive about the student’s learning and motivation. Teachers are demanded to integrate technology in their lesson, make classes more interactive and lecturing synthesized. As a result, different teaching methods for instructional design have been implemented. In this paper, I will compare the Investigation Learners Previous Experiences method (ILPE) to what I think is the best teaching practices.

Introduction

The ILPE method is base on constructivist perspective as distinctive class method to introduce a new topic in an engaging way (Gabler and Schroeder, 2003). This method helps the teacher to develop student’s initial understanding of an interest in a topic, explore the nature of knowledge students have regarding the topic and concepts, and provide the opportunity for students to generate questions (Gabler and Schroeder, 2003). The ILPE lesson plan method has four main components: the Prelude, Enactment, Assessment, and the Evaluation Plan. These methods are design to help the teacher start a new lesson by awakening student’s interest, find out what students know about the topic, give a meaning of why is important for them to learn the new topic, and prepare them to embark in a new journey for the following classes.

ILPE and Best Teachers Practices

The ILPE Prelude includes national standards to be accomplished in the class, a performing objective predicting what students can do or show what they know, and a list of materials and lesson aids to be used during the class.

Teachers often complain about the student’s lack of motivation. Teacher’s motivation to learn is critical to student’s success. It is the responsibility of teachers to keep children motivated and excited about school. But, the truth is for must children learning can become a nightmare, because learning is often a synonymous of hard work instead of enjoyment. Teachers can use the ILPE method to motivate students (Gabler and Schroeder, 2003). I believe the key to a teacher’s success is to find relevance and connections with what students are going to learn. The ILPE method enables the teacher to introduce the lesson by asking questions related to student’s personal experience and the use attention grabbing questions to help students make up their own understanding (Gabler and Schroeder, 2003). Most of the development of the ILPE method occurs when teachers can provide students with the tools necessary to satisfy their curiosity. I believed that when teaching using practical examples applied to student’s daily life, the learning process becomes better to understand and easier to remember.

Another factor, which influences the development of student motivation, is the learning environment. Once classes begin student start to feel the sense of what school demands from them and begin to cope with school-related problems such as successes and failures. Gabler and Schroeder suggest that a good way to start the school year is with a lesson plan using the ILPE method, where students can learn from the teacher and each other and what they can expect in class.

Good teaching involves using different strategies to help students learn. The ILPE method provides teachers the opportunity to learn more about students thinking, by asking open-ended questions to inquiry students’ thinking and not merely looking for a right or wrong answer (Gabler and Schroeder, 2003). A great example of open-ended question strategies was illustrated by Gabler and Schroeder of Mr. Newman’s class, where the teacher asked the students how they had use energy in the past twenty four hours (Gabler and Schroeder, 2003).

Best teaching practices involve engaging students in different activities. The ILPE method proposes open-ended activities to help create ideas, the opportunity to consider student’s personalities, learning styles and attitudes toward a topic.

The final categories of the ILPE method are the assessment and evaluation. The ILPE method suggests wrap up the class by informally assess students by “observing their actions and listening to their comments” (Gabler and Schroeder, 2003). However, getting student’s background knowledge and aptitude about specific topics does not measure the student’s comprehension that is why it is so crucial to check for understanding. Teachers that implement innovating alternative assessment will have a greater view of what the students are learning, what instructional procedures and assessment practices will have greatest impact in the student’s achievement, and what needs to be done to help student succeed.

The ILPE method should be use as a particular teaching practice to introduce a new topic, and learn about students understanding of what they know and what they want to learn. The questioning in the ILPE method requires the teacher to have a mastery level of knowledge about the content, in order to be able to develop an effective instructional plan for future lessons. In the other hand, this method does not give a complete guide on what to do with the questions that emerge during class discussion, nor how to use them to plan future lessons. Best teaching practices utilize formal assessment to check student understanding that leads to a learning objective. On the contrary, the ILPE method only utilizes informal assessment and sometimes based on “teacher’s observation” (Gabler and Schroeder, 2003).

Conclusion

I think the ILPE method should be used with other teaching practices to find ways to engage the students to new topics. Teachers should always keep the principles of motivation at the top of all instructional plans. The ILPE method offers an effective way to develop critical thinking by encouraging curiosity and helping teachers learn about the student’s knowledge. Some aspects of the ILPE method should be clearly addressed, like how to improve future lessons after all the information gathered in a class discussion. After all, I truly believe that teachers need to be leaders, be consistent, and encourage student’s learning. A good teacher is who have passion to teach her students, be enthusiastic with her lessons, and who is clear with her expectations.