PROBLEM-BASED STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING MILITARY ENGLISH

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Teaching and learning of most English courses at Mae Fah Luang University emphasize rote learning or a traditional teaching approach. Large class sizes combined with a traditional teaching approach consequently produces a learning environment there is rather passive. Students rely on memorization of grammar points and fragmented discipline-centered knowledge to pass exams. It was discovered that even though students pass exams, they performed low in English proficiency. To solve this problem, a group of English lecturers began to explore a teaching method that would allow active learning where it requires students to be actively involved during the learning process. Being active learners, students will consequently sharpen their English proficiency. This study describes an educational management experience which integrates an innovative pedagogy called problem-based learning (PBL) into the teaching of two major required courses in the English Program. The study involved 109 students and 16 teachers from the English Department. The course syllabi were redesigned by merging the two courses to be taught in tandem and integrated PBL into the teaching/learning process. Through out the semester, teaching/learning was done through project work which was derived from students' interests. Students worked on their projects in groups of 6-7 members, and facilitated by advisors. At the end of the semester, two sets of the questionnaire were distributed to both teachers and students in order to get feedback and reflections on teaching/learning of the new approach. Also in-depth interviews with both students and teachers were conducted to document their perceptions towards the teaching/learning approach. The results indicated that participants perceived and reflected positively towards the use of PBL approach. Furthermore, the paper also discusses advantages and disadvantages of PBL used in the traditional educational environment, problems and lessons learned during the operational period, and possible solutions suggested for the future implementation of PBL.

Over the course of the last decades, an increasing emphasis has been laid on the importance of creative thinking, as an underlying component of education, in general, and of military instruction, in particular. Starting from the premises that any individual has substantial creative abilities, we set out to elaborate an approach that advocates the relevance of developing creative thinking skills in adult teaching, as a way of building on long-lasting life capabilities on the background of the language acquisition process. Taking into consideration the already formulated definitions of creativity and creative thinking, we propose to adapt and exploit the theoretical foundations in order to come up with an efficient method usable with military students who are part of a language course at an academic level. The practical part of the paper presents a series of exercises and activities that we have successfully used to develop creative thinking abilities alongside high-level language skills. Our method is not an exhaustive one, but the originality consists in its application in the field of language learning, as we consider this domain to be suitable for the implementation of creative thinking methods and techniques.

Preparing Soldiers to learn from problem-solving experiences requires that Army instructional practices become more responsive to individual student need, better attuned to operational requirements, and more representative of social learning contexts. To help instructors achieve this goal, the principles for facilitating problem-based learning must be investigated and their implications for professional development explicated. In this research, the instructor characteristics and competencies required to implement problem-based learning were explored. Techniques for instructor professional development in civilian and military contexts then were examined to identify best practices. The Army environment was assessed for its readiness to employ these best practices, and recommendations were developed. The findings suggest that the Army environment partially supports the development of problem-based learning facilitators. Recommendations emphasize transforming basic instructor preparation to be more outcomesbased and student-centered given the time, personnel, and resource constraints of the current Army environment. Ultimately, a comprehensive preparatory approach is needed that targets all implementers of Army education.

Linguists: Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching, 2019

The Problem-based Learning model is one of the learning models that can develop students’ critical thinking because it uses real-life problems foundation of learning activity. This research aims to describe the implementation of PBL in English language learning in developing students’ critical thinking, teacher’s role in PBL, teacher’s barriers and the impact of PBL toward students’ critical thinking. This research took place in one of the senior high school in Majalengka. The observation was conducted three times in the class of eleventh grade and then the interview was delivered to one English teacher. The result of the research reveals 1) PBL in English language learning begins with the teacher delivered the problem to the students as the foundation of learning activity and the problem was ill-structured and need deep analysis to formulate the solution; 2) teacher’s role is only as facilitator and co-investigator by providing situation to the students and help them in analysis; 3...

Washington, DC: Center for Adult English Language …, 2007

Hello-Teen Society, 2020

Critical thinking and problem-solving skills can play a vital role in preparing cadets of the cadet colleges to meet up the demands of the 21st-century professional arena. To make them competent to work anywhere in the world in any situation and to ensure the best career for every cadet, critical thinking and problem-solving skills can help a lot. These skills enable someone to be confident and well prepared before the unseen difficulties of the future. For ensuring maximum success of the cadets, critical thinking and problemsolving skills can be acquired through the activities related to classroom, leadership, creativity, collaboration, and communication among the cadets and faculty members. The present study aims at analyzing critical thinking and problem-solving skills, evaluating the qualities required in the 21 st century, and teaching those skills to the cadets considering the realities of cadet college classrooms in general, and providing guidelines to make the teaching-learning process of the cadet colleges more effective in specific.

Scandinavian Military Studies eBooks, 2021

2018

Learning can be considered the most important mental function of humans and it has been given much more importance recently. After behaviorist and cognitivist learning theories, constructivist learning has gained popularity in the late of 20 th century. Problem based learning a subpart of constructivist approach was first applied in medicine and then it began to be applied to other disciplines of science. It is new in language learning and teaching. The study conducted at English language teaching department of a state university in the first term of 2008/2009 academic year. The study aimed to find out freshmen's attitudes towards problem based learning in Effective Communication Skills Classes. The qualitative data collection tool was used in this study and the data were collected from 38 freshmen. In order to get qualitative data, in the 4 th and 6 th week of the term students were asked to write their opinions about PBL. Besides, at the end of the term students were given semi-structured questionnaire consisting of 15 questions and they were asked to answer the questions. The content analysis of their answers was made and the out-1 This article was produced from Ahmet Şahbaz's MA thesis which was submitted and accepted by the Institute of Social Sciences of Muğla Sıtkı 325 standing, repeated expressions were shown in the figures. The most significant result obtained from this study shows that there is a change from negative to positive in students' attitudes towards PBL.

The formation of the necessary motivation and competencies that will allow graduates to successfully immerse themselves in the intensive and constantly updated flow of foreign scientific, technical and public information is an important problem in teaching foreign languages at universities in the context of a universal global intellectual space. The requirements for the quality of professional training of students of non-linguistic specialties provide, among other things, the renewal of the former and the creation of new linguistic teaching techniques. One of the promising projects in this direction is the teaching of a foreign language basing on problem and project-based learning. Its basis is the development of students' cognitive skills, the ability to independently construct their knowledge, orient themselves in the information space, and develop critical and creative thinking. The main purpose of the method is to provide students with the opportunity to independently acquire knowledge in the process of solving practical problems or problems that require the integration of knowledge from various subject areas. Considering the existing pedagogical realities, the application of this complex teaching method in the modern sociocultural environment gives grounds to characterize it as a new technology, naturally creative. Its features make it possible to individualize the educational process, effectively solve student-centered problems, enable the students to reveal their potential, to show greater independence in planning and organizing their activities. The purpose of the article is to reveal the genesis and analyze the distinctive features the problem and project-based learning, in comparison with other student-centered teaching methods conducted in an interactive mode, clarify the background and formulate the organizational and pedagogical framework for the application of this educational program. The methodological basis of the research is the system-structural approach, the categories and concepts of cognitive linguistics; the authors used the comparative analysis, the expert evaluation method and other comparative methods. The publication has been prepared with the support of the RUDN University Program 5-100.