‘Inquiry-discovery method’ in teaching remedial classes

IF I were to be given a task to teach slow learners or remedial classes of learners of English, one of the methods I would utilise is the ‘inquiry-discovery (retrieval) method’ as this method is effective for teaching remedial classes.

By creating inquisitiveness (the desire to inquire) in the minds of learners and then letting them discover the answer for the inquiry can be interesting if not an effective teaching approach for primary, secondary and tertiary levels of remedial classes.

The effect that can be achieved from this teaching will entail what Benjamin Bloom (1913-1999) has stated in his six-level hierarchy of increasing complexity known as ‘the taxonomy of educational objectives, namely Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation.

This article discusses what inquiry-discovery method is and how it can be implemented to teach the English language in a teacher-fronted classroom.

The teaching process is done by inquiring the learners first, showing them the objects by flashing, hiding the objects and asking them to retrieve or rediscover the objects.

In the inquiry stage, the learners use their previous knowledge. If they do not know the objects to be learned, they do so through curiosity.

However, the successful implementation of this approach will depend on how competent the teacher is to implement it.

Nevertheless, it is not to say this is the only effective teaching approach for remedial classes but as one of practitioners’ efforts to improve teaching.

Learning by the inquiry discovery method will enable learners to learn and achieve knowledge at least the first three levels of understanding in Bloom’s Taxonomy (knowledge, comprehension and application). The third level of knowledge will promote acquisition and usage (application) of the language learned.

In the inquiry stage, the teacher tries to create curiosity, interest and awareness in the learners’ minds (based on the belief that teenagers are mostly curiosity seekers).

This is done by creating or choosing interesting and curiosity-arousing stimuli, which the learners can behold or listen to.

In language teaching, curiouslooking objects can be used to attract learners’ attention to respond and curiosity to know what they are.

Curiosity is reinforced by the teacher’s clever way of making use of the teaching materials available.

The teacher can use flash cards with pictures and names of objects vividly written on them.

Then the teacher asks questions which are designed towards arousing the learners’ curiosity to learn.

The teacher must also know good questioning techniques (which are not explained here).

It means he or she has to use simple words to explain, instruct and question the learners.

In the intensity of the learners’ curiosity, the teacher can drill to them difficult words or names in terms of meanings and correct pronunciations.

The materials used as teaching aids can be pictures of real animate things, for example, plants or animals and inanimate objects such as all types of vehicles or machines.

In the absence of real pictures, tangible things that are commonly found in the immediate environment can also be used.

The teacher can bring to the classroom as many objects as he or she can to be shown to the learners.

The tangibility and availability of the objects used for teaching can create a sense of familiarity and belonging to the learners. For example, if the teacher wishes to teach nouns to weak learners, all types of animals can be used.

It is by showing them the real pictures of the animals (nouns) that will promote quick and better understanding.

As they look at the pictures, all they need to know are the names of the animals and how the names are pronounced correctly.

Thus, by drawing the learners’ curiosity in the first place, inquiry method can encourage learners to give a total physical-mental response to the lesson of knowing, identifying, classifying, spelling and saying the nouns correctly.

By looking at all the animals once again may enable registration of the knowledge into their memory.

Before repeating, those nouns must be hidden for a while.

The teacher starts to do retrieval method by flashing the same pictures shown during the inquiry (flashing) stage.

By re-showing the animals again, the learners are given another chance to recall the names which they may not have remembered during the first flashing.

It is not wrong for the teacher to repeat many times showing to them and saying the names of the animals especially when learners are not really able to recall the names.

This is part of the drilling task and it is at this point that a teacher’s patience is tested.

But flashing and verbal explanation may not be enough for the learners to acquire the knowledge intended to be learned. The teacher must provide for them a writing exercise by labelling the names of the animals which they have seen through flashcards.

By being able to name the animals through seeing, reading, writing (labelling) and speaking, the learners have properly learned English language (nouns) through all the four main language learning skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking).

This method of teaching will be improved through practical experiences and reflectivity of the teacher.