The curriculum and instruction specialization involves a lot of areas which are investigated and discussed by teacher-researchers in order to change instructions and improve learning in the classroom.
The teacher-researcher’s main task is to examine the aspects of such processes as teaching and learning and focus on the conditions for improving the situation within the definite field.
One of the most discussed topics in relation to the curriculum and instruction specialization is the students’ perception and understanding of the material presented by the teacher.
The topic of perceiving and understanding the material is connected with the students’ learning activities, and there are many problems which are associated with the topic because the students’ perception and understanding can be based on many factors, and the teacher’s task is to examine all the factors in order to provide the strategy with the help of which it is possible to overcome the challenges.
It is also important to note that the diverse learning environments affect the students’ abilities to perceive and understand the necessary material effectively.
The main problem associated with the topic is the different level of the students’ abilities in perceiving and understanding the same material, and the way to overcome the problem is the concentration on the methods to improve the learning with the help of decreasing the difficulties in perceiving and understanding the definite material presented by the teacher.
Thus, the topic of perceiving and understanding the material can be discussed with references to many problematic questions, and the problem of the inequality of the students’ abilities in learning the material while perceiving and understanding it should be discussed basing on the analysis of the context of the educational setting.
From this point, there are many challenges for the students’ effective perception and understanding of the new material. The first challenge is connected with the age and the knowledge base of the students who learn the new material. The material is perceived effectively when it is based on the other successfully learnt material.
The next possible barrier is the students’ individual abilities to perceive and understand the material quickly or not, wholly or partially (Dunn & Dunn, 1993). The other possible barrier is the language used to explain the new material and the national diversity of the group.
The peculiarities of remembering the facts and material by different people of the same age should be also discussed.
The problem of perceiving and understanding the new material by students which is presented by the teacher in relation to any subject is urgent and requires its researching because the aspects of perceiving and understanding the new material are directly connected with the process of the effective learning.
Many students suffer from the inability to perceive the new material successfully because of the curriculum’s peculiarities, because of the speed of the thinking processes, and because of the language barriers.
Presenting the new material in the diverse classroom environment, the teacher should concentrate on the method to provide the information effectively and improve the students’ learning process (McVicker, 2009).
For instance, the usage of visual aids is discussed by many researchers as the important technique to improve the process of presenting the new material (Bell & Quazi, 2005).
To resolve the problem of students’ difficulties in perceiving and understanding the material, it is necessary to study the question of improving the students’ learning and proposing different techniques to make the process easy for students with references to their individual features and abilities.
The problem should be studied because a lot of students do not speak about their difficulties in learning the new material at the stage of its perceiving and understanding when it is presented and explained by the teacher.
Moreover, many important questions about the aspects of the material are not asked in time because of the possible difficulties in understanding the material. The effectiveness of the learning process is based significantly on the mentioned students’ activities and mental processes.
That is why, the problem requires its studying carefully in order to find the ways to resolve the problematic question.
The discussion of the problem should be based on resolving definite research questions (Anderson, O’Connor, & Greene, 2006). It is possible to determine three potential research questions the discussion of which can help in resolving the problem:
- How can visual aids help improve the students’ perception and understanding of the new material?
- What are the effects of using the contemporary techniques to stimulate the students’ understanding of the material on the improvement of the learning activities?
- How can using multimedia presentations improve the students’ effective perception and understanding of the new material?
To improve the practice, the teacher should concentrate on the research of the problematic questions which are important for him or her personally. Thus, many teachers can face the problem when students have definite difficulties in perceiving and understanding the new material because of various factors.
However, the understanding of the problem is only the first step to resolve it. Moreover, to overcome the issues in teaching, it is important to determine the questions which should be resolved with the help of the research which is necessary to improve learning in the classroom with references to the classroom’s environment.
References
Anderson, P. J., O’Connor, K. A., & Greene, H. C. (2006). Action research: Questions asked, questions answered. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 72(4), 13–28.
Bell, R., & Quazi, R. (2005). Student perceptions of effective visual aid usage. Journal of Business and Leadership: Teaching, Practice and Research, 1(1), 234-244.
Dunn, R., & Dunn, K. (1993). Teaching secondary students through their individual learning styles: Practical approaches for grades 7 – 12. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
McVicker, C. (2009). Inquiring Illinois teachers want to know: Action research questions from the field! Illinois Reading Council Journal, 37(1), 22-26.