Jigsaw Strategy in Teaching Philippine Narratives in English

jigsaw strategy in teaching philippine narratives…rjgacantilado 1

Chapter I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

Teaching of literature is a very laborious yet rewarding endeavour. It requires

continuous study of literature, general knowledge, creativity in designing classes and

passion in teaching. Although it is very intensive, Fernando (2000) assures us that “in the

hands of a creative, dedicated teacher, even the mundane of language activities can come

alive in the classroom with effective learning transfer taking place.”

Literature classes invite numerous methods of teaching. However, it seems that

literature teachers are resorting to only a few, not to mention traditional methodologies, in

teaching the field. Gocer (2010) said that in activity-based education, teaching literary

genres was mostly based on narration. In a study of Ahmad and Aziz (2009) found out

that teachers still practice being the „custodian of knowledge‟ whenever necessary. 79.3

% of students thought that teachers carried out the whole class instruction, 40.8%

perceived that teachers read, paused and explained every paragraph, and 35.3% witnessed

teachers explaining texts throughout the lesson.

On the other hand, international studies including those of Gocer (2010) and

Hwang and Embi (2007) prove that student-centred teaching strategies are effective in

teaching literature - one of them being the jigsaw-learning technique. It is one of the

many strategies under the concept of cooperative learning, which constitutes a great deal

to the body of pedagogical researches (Johnson, Johnson and Stanne, 2000). This study

is an attempt to prove the flexibility of cooperative learning, in this case applying jigsaw

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learning technique in teaching Philippine narratives; this can be an addition to those

numerous studies and further strengthen the proofs of the effectiveness of cooperative

especially...