Teacher-Guided Drill in Qur’anic Recitation: Practices and Constraints in a Grade VIII Madrasah Classroom

This qualitative descriptive case examines teacher-guided drill practice in Grade VIII Qur’an and Hadith instruction at Al-Ishlah Danau Pauh, an Islamic junior secondary school (Madrasah Tsanawiyah, MTs) in Merangin, Indonesia. The study concerns a class of 19 students and draws on reported classroom observation, interviews, and documentation. Six instructional activities are identified: teacher modelling, guided recitation, repetition, correction, individual reading, and performance checking. Three interconnected learning demands emerge: precise letter articulation (makhraj), application of Qur’anic recitation rules (tajwid), and fluency in connected oral reading. Implementation is characterised by variation in learner readiness, limited instructional time, and concerns about repetitive tasks becoming monotonous. The teacher reportedly responded through further guidance, corrective prompts, encouragement, and varied participation formats. However, the available evidence does not establish how often each activity occurred, how individual learners responded after correction, or whether recitation performance improved. The findings characterise a repertoire of teacher-supported practices rather than a validated sequential intervention. They underscore the importance of distinguishing reported instructional routines from learner-responsive decisions and demonstrable changes in performance when evaluating recitation pedagogy in Islamic secondary education.