The Assignment

“...teach them the statutes and instructions and make known to them the way they are to go and the things they are to do.” --Exodus 18:20

Introduction

The value of the assignment in the teaching-learning process has long been recognized by educators. It is an integral part of any lesson. In lieu to this, good teachers plan their assignments well because they know that the success of any lesson depends in a large measure on the kind of assignment given to students. Consequently, students do assignments that are clear, worthwhile, and purposeful.

Moreover, assignment is that part of the lesson which tells the pupils what they are to do and what they have to accomplish in the lesson. It is synonymous with homework and agreement. Modern teacher looks at it as a lesson to be studied, a theme to be written, a project to be accomplished, an exercise to be explained, a selection to be memorized, a question to be answered, an interview to be accomplished, or a review of the past lesson/s. Such activities are parts of the teaching-learning cycle.

Theoretical Constructs

A theory related to this topic is the Theory of Minimalism by J. Carroll. The theory suggests that (1) all learning tasks should be meaningful and self-contained activities, (2) learners should be given realistic projects as quickly as possible, (3) instruction should permit self-directed reasoning and improvising by increasing the number of active learning activities, (4) training materials and activities should provide for error recognition and recovery and, (5) there should be a close linkage between the training and actual system.

The critical idea of minimalist theory is to minimize the extent to which instructional materials obstruct learning and focus the design on activities that support learner-directed activity and accomplishment. Carroll feels that training developed on the basis of other instructional theories (e.g., Gagne, Merrill) is too passive and fails to exploit the prior knowledge of the learner or use errors as learning opportunities.

According to Carroll, the learners should be allowed to start immediately on meaningful tasks. Also, minimize the amount of reading and other passive forms of training by allowing users to fill in the gaps themselves. Likewise, include error recognition and recovery activities in the instruction.

Reflections and Insights

During my observation, the significance of assignment is apparent. It is the chief means of stimulating and directing learning activities inside or outside the classroom. It helps the students in creating favorable attitudes toward the task to be done. My critic teachers always make it to a point that every meeting there is an assignment given. Stenography, Drafting, Bookkeeping, and Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE) were the subjects that used assignment liberally by my critic teachers.

Through giving such work to be done at home, students are being developed to be more creative, resourceful, and motivated towards the subject matter. It is also a way of preparing the students to the next day’s discussion. It improves their classroom performance in which they became more active in participating in the class discussion because of their enough preparation due to assignment given and accomplished. Likewise, the interest of the students will be visible through complying with it. Moreover, students take pride in their accomplishments, and each assignment completed is regarded as an accomplishment which serves to motivate the student to do better. It can be the means of developing good study habits and independent work.

It was been used by the teachers in a purposeful manner perhaps it is their duty to ensure that all his assignments are significant and meaningful to students. It is a way of enriching the lesson. However, it is also used when the students were lacking enough time during quizzes or activities to accomplish things, some of the teachers came up to a decision to make them to be an assignment to be continued at their respective houses. In addition, some teachers were using assignment to give some remedy on the grades of some students who had a weak performance—a chance to get good grades. Also, there were teachers who used assignment to develop the habit of studying their subject regularly, for example Stenography and Bookkeeping.

Recommendations

Hence, the importance of assignment in the educative process is overwhelming. It is in the teacher’s own strategy on how to make it more interesting for them to have a more positive attitude towards the lesson and have a purposeful agenda that answers the needs

However, I have observed that most of the teachers, gave assignments that are too long. If a student had long assignments in, for example, 6 subjects to be submitted the next day, the probability of completing those would not be good. Perhaps if they could be able to finish everything, the quality of their work would be affected. However, if the teacher was able to provide an assignment which has definite number of items that are more possible to be made meticulously by the students, the dilemma for this would be solved. As a teacher, he should be able to be sensitive enough on the capacity of the students to accomplish the assigned tasks, including the consideration for other subject that his students were having.