Knowledge and Self-Study from Students’ Perspectives

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study were 1) to investigate how the teacherstudents of English Program in Savannakhet Teacher Training College perceive and develop their knowledge, 2) to find out how and why they carry out their self-study and
3) to discover how they prefer to be encouraged to carry out self-study in order to help
them develop their knowledge. The samples of this study consists of 6 students in grade
3 of English Program (final year), 2 of whom were from the low-study performing capacity group(low-grade students), 2 of whom were from the fair-study performing capacity
group(averaged-grade students)and 2 of whom were from the good-study performing
capacity group(high-grade students). In each sampling group, 1 from grade 2 ; and 1 is
from grade 3. The samples were selected through a purposive sampling method. The
data is collected through interviews and discussion with the 6 sampling students and 1
teacher. The results point out that the samples create different views between general
and school knowledge; they see general knowledge as something concrete, socially
acquired and widely used in daily life, but see school knowledge as something specific
in school, theoretical and learned from textbooks and teachers. The samples from the
low-gradeand fair-grade groups have different insights from the good-grade students on
how and why to carry out self-study, and self-study encouragement. The low-grade and
fair-grade students carry out self-study to repeat learning things in the previous lessons
they have learned and preparing for coming lessons, but the good-grade students carry
out self-study for understanding deeper and more detail about things they have learned
and creating new knowledge. The good-grade students need self-study encouragement by
being given tasks that match or even a little bit higher than their levels, and given scores
by teachers for completing the tasks, but the fair and low-grade students need self-study
encouragement by being given easy tasks with clear instructions and assistant, and also
prefer to be given scores for completing the tasks. At the same time, the fair and good
grade students like to carry out self-study in the quiet place and without people talking
with, while the low-grade students still need someone to talk with for their self-study.