From Passivity to Activity: Guided Learning Strategies towards Joyful and Meaningful Classroom Encounters

Guided learning is a strategy which is based on constructivism, a learning theory that uses active learning and asserts that learners construct their own understanding of a certain topic by building upon their prior knowledge (Prince, 2004). As an English lecturer, the researcher made an action research built on this theory and aimed to determine how the students regard their guided learning activities in the college; how these activities help them achieve the learning outcomes of the module; sought the values the students gained from the guided learning activities and the gaps as well as the issues found in the implementation of the guided learning activity sessions. For this purpose, two batches of General English classes were utilised in a survey and selected some of them for a focus group interview (FGD) for the deepening and more meaningful data gathering for this enquiry. From the results yielded by the survey and the interview, it is eminent that this Wednesday sessions are positively taken by the students and that they gain new knowledge, skills and attitudes which are in line with the institutional learning outcomes, programme outcomes and learning outcomes for each module. They are able to deepen their learning from the previous lessons through the interactions in pair work, small group, mini presentations and other collaborative activities given to them. It was also observed that they show notable interest in joining the tasks and engage themselves actively especially in small groups. There is a lively flow of conversations and they seem to forget individual differences as they accomplish their assigned undertaking. As such, it was noticed that there is an improvement in attendance in the classes during Wednesdays which is attributed to the guided learning activities done inside and sometimes outside the classroom. With this, words like engage in, participate in, show enthusiasm for, take interest in and take part in must be in the consciousness of every tutor who conduct guided learning activities (Astin, 1982). Some minor issues on implementation of the guided learning activities should be addressed in the course of its conduct in so far as these batches of students were concerned. A very slim number of the class are not yet very comfortable with the idea of mixed grouping (male and female) and still prefer individual work rather than working even with a small group only. The researcher suggested some strategies to be able to bring joyful and meaningful learning sessions to every classroom encounter between tutors and students.