How Your Teachers Teach? Students Perceived Characteristics of Effective Teaching Strategies

Aims: The aim of this study was to determine the relevant experiences of the students on teaching strategies used by their teachers in the classrooms; what made these teaching effective; and what suggestions the students can offer to enhance the teaching strategies.

Study Design: Qualitative-phenomenology.

Place and Duration of Study: Institute of College Education and Graduate Studies (IEGS), Southern Philippines Agri-Business and Marine and Aquatic School of Technology, School year 2018-2019.

Methodology: Included 200 college freshmen taking BSEd Secondary Education and were the first batch graduates of the K-12 program. They were grouped into 40 focus groups. Information were obtained through interview.

Results: Data analysis formulated five themes. Prevalent used strategies discussed the commonly used strategies; improvements gained from strategies looked into the benefits the students obtained; evaluation of ineffective strategies dealt with the irrelevant strategies the teachers used; relevant experiences showed the meaningful encounters of the students to the strategies and suggestions centered on the comments students had offered to improve the use of strategies.

Conclusion: Strategies are relevant in delivering the lessons. However, strategies should be well-thought before they are used. Thus, teachers need to identify who the learners are. Moreover, teachers should also consider the topic. Various topics require different strategies. Also, teacher needs to discuss thoroughly the marking criteria used. Mark criteria guide students to set their targets and to avoid confusion. Likewise, teacher should always prepare and set plans before coming to class. Further, nearing retiring teachers should not solely rely on their experiences because curriculum changes. Lastly, one of the best ways to know what strategies fit the students is consulting the students themselves. Teachers will not get wrong if they know better their students.