Strategy-based instruction of primary six teachers

Abstract

In this paper, strategy-based instruction is instruction that promotes students' cognitive self-appraisal and self-management of cognition. By cognitive self-appraisal. students are taught cognitive and self-management strategies that will make them cognitively aware of the demands of the task in relation to their own capabilities and range of strategies. The teaching of cognitive self-management involves assisting students to plan, set goals and use a variety of strategies to monitor and regulate their performance. The central intention is to promote student understanding of the content as well as to teach students cognitive and self-regulated learning strategies that they will find useful in learning and thinking in the classroom. The study involved a sample size of 311 Primary Six teachers in 53 Singapore schools. Of these 311 teachers who participated in the study, 32 taught EM 1 classes, 194 taught EM2 classes and 85 taught EM3 classes. One-Way ANOVA was used to examine the differences in teachers' strategy-based instruction. Subsequently, a teacher interview was also carried out to further understand the kinds of strategies that teachers used in the three streams. Great variability in strategy-based instruction among the three streams was observed. However, even in this inconsistency, there is consistency in that many teachers have limited understanding of what the current literature might say about effective strategy-based instruction, particularly at the meta-cognitive end of the scale. Further implications will be discussed.