Benefits of Contextual Teaching and Learning Method

Discussion the learning process, of course, there won't be endless because there is a lot of things. The use of learning methods that correspond to the material, the readiness of students in learning, the availability of books as learning guidelines, the supporting infrastructure of learning and there are many other things that are interesting to be discussed and examined. Sometimes teachers feel let down, especially if associated with an understanding of student learning to the materials. Since tens of years ago, there have been many efforts made by stakeholders of education to improve the quality of education. One of those efforts, namely by means of changes and improvements in the methods of learning. Several learning methods that never applied such methods lecture and question and answer method retained, however, needs to be combined with other methods so that the learning process is not boring.

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In addition to changes and improvements in the methods of learning, the role of teachers is also very important in determining the success of learning. Various efforts were ever undertaken to enhance the interest of students in the subject matter which in the end brought the students to focus on learning. In the discussion this time, I will write down the advantages and disadvantages of the methods Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) in order to be a reminder and a consideration for teachers to implement it in a class. The method of Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) is a learning method that helps teachers to relate between the material taught with real-world situations students can encourage students to make connections between knowledge that are learned by the establishment of in everyday life. It is believed will enhance students ' interest in learning.

There are 7 aspects which must be strictly observed to implement contextual learning:

1. Constructivism; is the Foundation of thinking for the method of contextual knowledge, namely that built little by little that the result is expanded through a limited context and not instantaneous. Real knowledge for students is something that was built or is determined by the students themselves. The learning process should be packed into the process of "constructing", does not mean accepting its own information or find out through your involvement actively in the learning process.

2. Find (Inquiries); is part of the core activity-based contextual. Students do not receive knowledge and skills only from the given set of facts but come from the experience of finding yourself. In this activity teachers should always design the activities refer to activities of any of the materials found, he teaches.
   Enquiries measures, among others; (1) formulates the problem, (2) observe and conduct observation, including the read book readings or gathering information; (3) analyze and conclude the work in writings, reports, images, tables and so on; (4) serves communicates the results of his work in front of teachers, classmates or audit others.

3. Learning Community; In classroom activities that use methods of CTL, the teacher advised always executes in the group, knowledge learning community continually encourages the occurrence ofmulti-directional communication process. Some things can be realized to develop include: (1) The formation of small groups; (2) The formation of large groups; (3) Bring in experts in the classroom (letters, figures, and others); (4) Works with equal class; and (5) Cooperate with the community.

4. Question; usually, the knowledge and skills possessed someone originating from a question. Useful questions to encourage, guide and assess the students ' ability. For students useful questions to explore the information, check the information that he obtained, directing and ensuring knowledge discovery.

5. Modeling; the next component is the modeling, that is to say in study skills and knowledge there is certainly a model that could be emulated. That model could be how to operatesomething, how to throw the ball in sports, for example, paper, how to memorize language of United Kingdom and so on.

6. Authentic Assessment; is the process of collecting the data that give an overview of the development of student learning. Not only do the assessment at the end of the period, but performed throughout the process or integration of learning activities. Authentic assessment can be obtained from the project, HOMEWORK, quizzes, papers, demonstrations, reports and so on. Thus, the assessment of authentic true "illustrates the process in learning from beginning to end".

7. Reflection; the last one in the method of contextual is a reflection. Have you ever reveal what been done before? If ever, you've done the reflection. Reflection is an activity reflect back, reminiscing, construct or make the core experience. Reflection is a response to the experience that has been done, the new activity of living and newly received knowledge with reflecting on something. Students feel acquiring something useful for himself about what's new to learn. The reflection can be made per part, end hour lessons, at the end of chapters or themes in any occasion.

The following advantages and disadvantages of the methods Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) that my auto-summary from several sources.

Excess

• Learning to be more meaningful and real. This means that students are required to be able to understand the relationship between the learning experience at school with real life. This is very important because with correlating material that can be found with the real life, not only for the students of that material will serve functionally, but the material he had learned would be closely embedded in the memory of the students. So, will not be easily forgotten;
• Learn more productive and able to encourage the reinforcement of concepts for students to learn methods because CTL embraced Constructivism, where the flow of students was led to find it yourself. Through basic philosophical Constructivism, students are expected to learn through their own experience, not through memorization.

Weakness

• The teacher is more intensive in the Guide. Because of the method in the CTL. Teachers no longer serve as an information center. The task of the teacher is to manage the class as a team that works together to discover new knowledge and skills for students. Students are seen as an individual. A person's study skills will be affected by the level of development and the extent of its own experience. Thus, the role of the teacher is not as an instructor or "rulers" that forces the will but rather the teacher is supervising students so that they can be studied in accordance with the stage of its development;
• The teacher gives the opportunity to students to find or implement your own ideas, and invite students to knowing and knowingly using their own strategies for learning. However in this context surely teachers need extra guidance and attention towards the students to learning objectives in accordance with what is applied again.

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