The sub-themes below refer to the different aspect of student-centered learning, showing teachers’ efforts to use an inductive instructional approach and engage students in a variety of collaborative leaning activities.
83 a) Implementing inductive instruction
Teachers described how they used inductive instruction in the classroom. This process included determining the suitable topic, depending on the amount of information to be covered and time available. Teachers’ instructional plans include the examples of inductive instruction in various subjects: defining the concepts of arithmetic and geometric sequences and series; providing a definition of the electrolysis solution of potassium iodide; realizing grammatical rules by using examples provided by the teacher (including excerpts from fiction texts, newspaper articles, etc.), and other examples. Teachers posed prompting questions to engage students in the observations of data and the consequent determination of the concept, as it can be seen from the extract below.
We have usually started the lesson from the explanation of a concept. Now I try to take a different approach when time allows for it: to present students with the concept elements, ask them questions and then lead them to building the idea of the concept (Biology teacher’s report).
b) Enhancing students’ cognitive abilities through collaborative learning activities
In their working meeting records and instructional plans, teachers noted the necessity to increase instruction involving discussions and brainstorming. These were designed as a whole classroom activities and were also conducted in small groups in the framework of extra-classroom work. It was done for several reasons: examining students’ comprehension of the course material and increasing the cognitive abilities of students. The description in Appendix 11 shows how the social work teacher conducts the brainstorming session on violence and the ways to eliminate it in society. As it can be seen from teachers’ words below, they emphasise the importance of a proper conduct of the discussion and brainstorming sessions.
I was careful to remind students that during discussion or brainstorming, they should speak clearly and present logical arguments in an organized fashion (Hebrew teacher’s report).
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All the teachers emphasized the importance of brainstorming for Arab students.
I believe it is so important to do this (brainstorming – A.), even it is time-consuming. You yourself know how it has been in the past: we explain, they listen, and that’s it. All our education has been built on this. Now we have to teach them to use their brains more effectively and speak out freely (Focus group interview).
c) Developing inquiry skills by involving students in collaborative learning projects.
According to the HOTS programme’s recommendations, most of the collaborative inquiry projects were implemented by teachers in the form varying from structured to guided inquiry. Collaborative projects included collecting data in the fieldwork, searching for online resources, analysing and interpreting the data collected, and a presentation of findings. During the interviews, teachers claimed that unguided inquiries were not used because of time constraints. In fact, most of the teachers were in favour of structured inquiry, claiming that other types of inquiry are more appropriate for post-secondary institutions. Teachers noted that their main goal was to teach students the research basics and techniques of using various procedures and equipment that can be later used in more complicated and independent investigations. The data from teachers’ written reports and interviews revealed that in two of the five collaborative projects, opportunities for more independent work were provided. In the biology project, for instance, students developed research questions. The extract below demonstrates that in the history project, students were more independent in conducting research activities.
The students searched through the links I recommended to them and picked up the theme for the project and identify the issues to address. They decided to prepare an oral presentation on the nature of modern fascism and present findings by using a PowerPoint slideshow and audio recordings (History teacher’s report).
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d) Promoting students’ cognitive and metacognitive skills by the peer and cross-age tutoring Teachers reported that working in pairs or small groups was used in the form of peer and cross - age tutoring in order to enable low-achievement students to learn from the more successful peers. Prior to implementing peer tutoring, teachers examined the ability of students to explain the material and provided necessary recommendations. The following extract from teacher interview demonstrates the belief that peer tutoring is important for reinforcing students’ subject knowledge and metacognitive skills.
We decided that some good students would have to be responsible for one or two classmates or younger students who were challenged with learning assignments. The strong students enhance their skills through teaching. They will knew that they are doing something useful with their knowledge (Interview with the teacher of English).
It can be seen from the said above that teachers attached a great deal of importance to student- centered learning and collaborative activities, and seemed to understand the significance of inductive instruction. By drawing on the cognitivist teaching approaches, some researchers (Klinger, 2007; Rowe, 2006; Kirschner et al., 2006) believe, however, that carefully planned direct instruction can be more effective than student-centered learning. Teachers’ beliefs that only structured inquiry should be used in secondary schools differ from the HOTS programme guidelines and from the perspectives of researchers (Krystyniak & Heikkinen, 2007; Berg et al., 2003) who claim that open inquiry is most effective to become more familiar with the nature of scientific knowledge. Teachers’ responses, however, show that they were careful to follow the recommendations of the HOTS programme that placed an emphasis on constructivist learning approaches.
4.1.3 Developing students’ thinking creativity by employing problem-based and