Is this Educational World We Created?



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Is this Educational World We Created?


Abstract

The goal of this work is to describe a problems that never solves related environment, 21st century needs, teaching, and indonesia’s education. It revealed there must great efforts by the Indonesian government, teachers, alsa researchers as well, to combat both the global and country’s challenges, include improve education policies, activities, also reseacrs as well

Introduction

It is amazing grace for the opportunity to join science educator, especially natural science teachers (Setiawan, 2018). I find that teaching and the students keep life going, and I would never accept any position in which somebody has invented a happy solution for me where I don’t have to teach. If you’re teaching a class, you can think about the elementary things that you know very well. These things are kind of pleasure and delightful. It doesn’t do any harm to think them over again. And one of them is the problem of teaching (natural) science in Madrasah TBS Kudus.

The problem of teaching (natural) science in Madrasah TBS Kudus is only part of the wider problem of teaching (natural) science anywhere. In fact, it is part of the problem of teaching anything anywhere—problem for which there is no known satisfactory solution. The problem of teaching (natural) science in Madrasah TBS Kudus can also be generalized in another way, to remind us of the problem of doing anything in Indonesia. We must get at least partly involved in the special social, political, and economic problems that exist here. All the problems come into sharper focus if there is before us a clear picture of the reasons for teaching (natural) science in the first place. So I will try to give some reasons why I believe we should teach (natural) science. We can then discuss about current problems in earth, our need, and Indonesia.

Basic Principles to Teaching (Natural) Science

The first reason is (of course) that (natural) science’s concept is a basic our activities, as such is implements to solving our environment problem, and has all kinds of applications in technology. (Natural) science is the understanding of nature (which human includes there), that tells us how things work. In particular, I am stressing here how devices of various kinds – invented by men in present and forthcoming technology – work. Therefore, those who know (natural) science will be much more useful in coping with the technical problems arising in local industry.

It might be argued, and in practice it is argued, that in the earlier stages of industrial development that we have in Indonesia especially on 1970’s when Militeristic Era (1966-98), such talent is completely superfluous because it is so easy to import good technicallytrained personnel from more advanced countries outside. Therefore, is it really necessary to develop highly-technically-trained people locally like Tjia May On, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, and Pantur Silaban?

I do not know enough economics likes Marthatinova Hari Safitri to answer correctly, but I will give an opinion anyway. I think it is vitally important to improve the technical ability of the peoples of Indonesia. By education, the man with higher technical ability is able to produce more, and I believe that in the improvement of the technical ability, and thus the productivity, of the people of Indonesia lies the source of real economic advancement. Of cource it needs long time to see that impact.

It is not economically sound to continuously import technicallyskilled people. If Indonesian people were educated technically they would find positions in the developing industries here; it would soon be realized by the people who now import such workers that there is a supply of really able men and women in this country, and that this local supply has many advantages. The local people would not demand such high wages, would know the customs and ways of the country, and would be glad to take more permanent positions in occational’s context.

It is true that Indonesian with the same degrees in science or engineering as their foreign counterparts likes Singaporean seem to be very much less able. This (as I shall explain) is because they have not really been taught any science. This experience has probably conditioned industrialists to pay very little attention to the local universities. If they were wise the industrialists would see the problem quite the other way around and would be the first to clamor for a meeting of the kind we are having today, to find out what is the matter with the local product and how to teach (natural) science in a really satisfactory manner in their countries. Yet none of them are here.

A secondary reason for teaching (natural) science, or any experimental science, is that it incidentally teaches how to do things with your hands. It teaches many techniques for manipulating things as well as techniques of measurement and calculation, for example, which have very much wider applications than the particular field of study. It’s also reason why I I agreed with Queen when they sang, “Galileo figaro magnifico...” on their Bohemian Rhapsody.

Thirdly, another major reason for teaching (natural) science is for the science itself. Science is a human activity; to many men and women it is a great pleasure and it should not be denied to the people of a large part of the world simply because of a fault or lack in the educational system. In other words, one of the reasons for teaching science is to make scientists who will not just contribute to the development of industry but also contribute to the development of understanding of nature (which human includes there) like Isaac Newton, joining others in this great journey of our times like James Clerk Maxwell, and (of course) obtaining enormous pleasure in doing so like Lisa Randall.

Fourthly, there is a good reason to study nature to appreciate its wonder and its beauty, even though one may not be a actively working professional scientist. This knowledge of nature also gives a feeling of stability and reality about the world and drives out many fears and superstitions. Was we forgot Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil’s contributed to the completion of the scientific revolution in France and to its acceptance in Europe?

A fiveth value in teaching (natural) science is to teach how things are found out. The value of questioning, the value of free ideas (not only for the development of science, but the value of free ideas in every field) becomes apparent. “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.” said Richard Phillips Feynman at the fifteenth annual meeting of the National Science Teachers Association, 1966 in New York City. In (natural) science, at 1925, a yesterday afternoon boys Werner Karl Heisenberg should sliding tackle a great scientist Albert Einstein to push the father of photoelectric effect opinion away from the quantum field.

Science is a way to teach how something gets to be understand, what is not known, to what extent things are known (for nothing is understand absolutely), how to handle doubt and uncertainty, what the rules of evidence are, how to think about things so that judgments can be made, how to distinguish truth from fraud, and from show. These are certainly important secondary yields of teaching science, and (natural) science in particular.

Finally, in learning science you learn to handle trial and error, to develop a spirit of invention and of free inquiry which is of tremendous value far beyond science. One learns to ask oneself: “Is there a better way to do it?” (And the answer to this is not the conditioned reflex: “Let's see how they do it in Germany, United States, and Japan,” because there must certainly be a better way than that!). Indra Jaya Piliang say, when he wrote him journey as an author, that we don’t implants social theories without understand all reasons. Nong Darol Mahmada say that we must understand context when receive ideas. We must try to think of some new gimmick or idea, to find some improvement in the technique. This question is the source of a great deal of free independent thought, of invention, and of human progress of all kinds.

How Students React to Hazard in this Earth?

During the 1970s researchers observed that the amount of ozone in the atmosphere was decreasing moderately and an ozone “hole” was visibly expanding around the polar regions. The idea of a rapidly-growing hole in the atmosphere – which could have fatal consequences for humanity – caught on with the public so strongly that people reduced their use of chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting substances, and compelled companies and governments to take action. In 1987 the Montreal Protocol was signed, phasing out the use of some of these substances in industry.

Douglass, Newman, and Solomon (2014) say that the ozone layer is now recovering, if slowly. This success story is exceptional – see, for instance, the challenges in addressing global warming – but it shows how important it is to increase our youth’s environmental awareness for the future of Earth. Looking into the environmental awareness of 15-year-olds, Echazarrai (2018) tries to answer some important questions: Are students increasingly aware of environmental problems? Have 15-year-olds become more optimistic about the future of Earth? And who are the environmentally aware students?

Echazarrai (2018) results show that environmental awareness is increasing moderately among 15-year-olds. In the nine years from 2006 to 2015, and for most of the environmental issues cited in both cycles of PISA, the share of students who reported that they are informed (“I know something about this and could explain the general issue”) or well-informed (“I am familiar with this and I would be able to explain this well”) increased moderately, on average across OECD countries. For instance, the percentage of students who stated that they are informed about the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rose from 57% in 2006 to 64% in 2015, and a similar percentage-point increase was observed when students were asked about the use of genetically modified organisms.

The discover of Echazarrai (2018) reveals that the overall improvement in environmental awareness was largely the result of increases in Israel, Mexico, Portugal and Turkey in the extent to which students reported being knowledgeable about environmental issues. Among OECD partner countries, similar increases were observed in Indonesia, Qatar and Tunisia. Meanwhile, environmental awareness deteriorated the most, though only moderately, in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong (China), Italy, Japan and the Netherlands. However, students are not becoming more optimistic about the environment. On average across OECD countries, the share of students who are optimistic about the fate of the planet – those who reported that the problems associated with environmental issues would get better over the next 20 years – remained relatively stable over the same period. In 2015, 15-year-olds were slightly more optimistic than their counterparts in 2006 about the problems associated with the clearing of forests, nuclear waste and air pollution, but more pessimistic about the availability of water in the future.

That a greater awareness does not lead to greater optimism is hardly surprising given that students who reported being knowledgeable about environmental issues were considerably more likely to consider that these problems would worsen in the future. For instance, 15-year-old students who claimed to be informed about the increase of greenhouse gases, water shortages and air pollution were about 40% more likely to believe that these problems would get worse over the next 20 years.

Many characteristics of students and schools are positively associated with environmental awareness. For instance, scientifically-minded students – that is, high-performing students who participate in science activities, expect to pursue a career in science and are interested in broad science topics – and those in schools offering science activities showed greater environmental awareness. However, only a few characteristics were also positively related to optimism about the environment: the number of science activities in which students participate and students’ exposure to enquiry-based teaching.

Most people agree that the environment has deteriorated over the past few decades, even if there is an ongoing debate about the magnitude and consequences of this degradation. Fortunately, there are plenty of public and private initiatives to protect the environment, and students around the globe are increasingly aware of the most important environmental problems affecting the planet today. If we want to preserve the environment for future generations, it is essential that students become more aware of the threats to the environment and use this knowledge to adopt sustainable lifestyles, lower the cost of action and search for innovative solutions to environmental problems.

The Complexity of Teaching for The New-Classic Need

Above specific problem, it has become clear that teaching skills requires answering “What should students learn in the 21st century?” on a deep and broad basis. Teachers need to have the time and flexibility to develop knowledge, skills, and character, while also considering the meta-layer/fourth dimension that includes learning how to learn, interdisciplinarity, and personalisation. Adapting to 21st century needs means revisiting each dimension and how they interact.

Fadel (2011) identifies the following dimensions of a 21st-century education, and the related challenges for curricula::
Character (behaviours, attitudes, values) – to face an increasingly challenging world: As complexities increase, humankind is rediscovering the importance of teaching character traits, such as performance-related traits (adaptability, persistence, resilience) and moral-related traits (integrity, justice, empathy, ethics). The challenges for public school systems are similar to those for skills, with the extra complexity of accepting that character development is also becoming an intrinsic part of the mission, as it is for private schools.
Knowledge – relevance required: Students’ lack of motivation, and often disengagement, reflects the inability of education systems to connect content to real-world experience. This is also critically important to economic and social needs, not only students’ wishes. There is a profound need to rethink the significance and applicability of what is taught, and to strike a far better balance between the conceptual and the practical.
Skills – necessity for education outcomes: Higher-order skills (“21st Century Skills”), such as the “4 C’s” of Creativity, Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and others are essential for absorbing knowledge as well as for work performance. Yet the curriculum is already overburdened with content, which makes it much harder for students to acquire (and teachers to teach) skills via deep dives into projects. There is a reasonable global consensus on what the skills are, and how teaching methods via projects can affect skills acquisition, but there is little time available during the school year, given the overwhelming amount of content to be covered. There is also little in terms of teacher expertise in combining knowledge and skills in a coherent ensemble, with guiding materials, and assessments.
Meta-Layer:  Essential for activating transference, building expertise, fostering creativity via analogies, establishing lifelong learning habits, and so on.

So what is actually being done to ensure that our workforce is skilled for 21st century success and  to ensure that students are skilled, ready to work and contribute to society? The global transformation, often called the “21st century skills” movement is helping move schools closer to learning designs that better prepare students for success in learning, work and life. It is important for us to respond this by shifting the focus from a quantitative notion of human capital, measured in years of formal education, to the skills people actually acquire, enhance and nurture over their lifetimes.

My hope is that schools, universities and training programs will become more responsive to the workforce and societal needs of today, and students will increasingly focus on growing and applying essential 21st century skills and knowledge to real problems and issues, not just learning textbook facts and formulas. This will raise levels of creativity and innovation, and provide better  skills , better jobs, better societies, and ultimately better lives.

When we took current environmental problem and 21st century needs into teaching, it is more complex althougt in special context. The complexity of teaching is real, not just rational nor imaginary or joking. Education experts have spent the last 50 years debating over a seemingly simple question: what’s the best way to teach science? On one side of the divide are those who support self-guided, enquiry-based approaches, under which students direct their own learning. On the other are proponents of teacher-directed instruction, who say this approach makes it easier for teachers to manage classrooms and cover a wider range of content. Complicating the debate even further is the increasing diversity of student populations, which has raised demands for science curricula to adapt to student needs through adaptive teaching approaches.

Mostafai, Echazarrai, and Guilloui (2015) using data from PISA 2015 to reveal that each approach has advantages and drawbacks for learning—and that identifying the most effective strategy isn’t as clear cut a proposition as it may seem. In almost all of the 68 countries and economies that participated in PISA, students in the least disciplined science classes perform worse when exposed to enquiry-based science teaching, however in 33 countries and economies, this negative association disappears when students are learning in a disciplined environment (Mostafai, Echazarrai, and Guilloui, 2015, p. 30). In Thailand, exposure to enquiry-based teaching accounted for a four-point increase in performance among students in the most disciplined science classes. But students exposed to enquiry-based teaching in the least disciplined classrooms, scored about 13 points lower than those in more disciplined environments. The benefits gained from attending disciplined science classes with enquiry-based teaching are largest in Georgia (+20 points), Kosovo (+15 points), Lebanon (+13 points), Malta (+14 points), and Slovenia (+13 points) (Mostafai, Echazarrai, and Guilloui, 2015, p. 31).

In OECD countries, enquiry-based teaching seems like the most promising way to nurture positive attitudes toward science – including interest and enjoyment in science-related topics, and participation in science-related activities (Mostafai, Echazarrai, and Guilloui, 2015, p. 36-7). They also found that all three teaching practices – enquiry-based, teacher-directed and adaptive teaching are associated with higher expectations among students to pursue a career in science. This association is particularly strong among girls who are exposed to enquiry-based teaching. Teacher-directed science instruction, on the other hand, is associated with better science performance in almost all countries. This positive association is equally strong across all science sub-domains and proficiency levels, and does not vary with student and school characteristics (e.g. disciplinary climate, student composition, resources, etc.). Based on these findings, we can conclude that teacher-directed practices are likely to deliver good results regardless of environment.

Indonesia Education’s Context

In our country context, Indonesia Curriculum has been changed for several times (Setiawan and Sari, 2019). Science education growths gradually refer to these changes. The purpose is to improve the education quality and also to solve other problems that are facing by the country. Curriculum completions have been doing continuously as an effort to adjust it with science and technology development and also society demand. It was done to get perfect proportion of learning goals, student potential, neighborhoods condition and facilities. As Indonesia Constitution 1945 have a big purposes to develop citizen ability and personality traits also dignified civilization in order to educate all people, national education should be capable to guarantee the equity of education’s opportunity, quality improvement, relevancies, and education management efficiency.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) will be unveiling its results for 2018 sometime next year. When it does, one of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries that will come into focus is Indonesia. In the PISA results for 2015, Indonesia fared poorly in mathematical, reading, and scientific literacy compared to all the other ASEAN member states involved in the study (OECD, 2016, p. 4). For mathematical literacy, Indonesia managed to score 386 points, for reading literacy, the country scored 397 points, and for scientific literacy, Indonesia only scored 403 points. From the 70 countries reviewed in 2015, Indonesia was ranked at 62nd. This, however, is still an improvement compared to its ranking of 63 out of 65 countries in the PISA 2012 results. In comparison with some other ASEAN countries, Singapore ranked 1st in 2015 and 2nd in 2012. Thailand ranked 55th in 2015 and 48th in 2012.

So why is Indonesia trailing behind? Andrew (2018) found that one of the main problems with Indonesia’s education system stemmed from “politics and power”. The report claims that there is little incentive for old elites to drastically overhaul the education system, arguing that they would rather exploit it to “accumulate resources, distribute patronage, mobilise political support, and exercise political control.” According to this work, problems which have stemmed from this lack of political will include corruption, poor quality of teaching and staff absenteeism.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) (2017) says that in rural and remote parts of Indonesia, early childhood development services are either absent, inaccessible or unaffordable to most children, meaning they miss out on valuable early learning and development opportunities that their urban counterparts receive. As if this wasn’t a big enough issue on its own, UNICEF also pointed out that the country is situated in one of the world’s most active disaster hotspots with disasters ranging from tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions to landslides, floods, droughts and forest fires.

Conclusion

Based on information given, there must great efforts by the Indonesian government, teachers, alsa researchers as well, to combat both the global and country’s challenges, include improve education policies, activities, also reseacrs as well. Whether all efforts by the Indonesian to improve the state of education in the country will be fruitful quickly or slowly is yet to be seen, but hopes are running high as the countdown begins for the 2018 PISA survey. It’s more than likely that many Indonesians are hoping that their country will be able to bump up its ranking by a few notches at least.

There are many new plans, just in Indonesia, for trying to teach (natural) science various oriented (i.e. scientific literacy nor STEM education), which shows that nobody is satisfied with any method. It is likely that many of the new lesson plans look good, for nobody has tried them long enough to find out what is the matter with them; whereas all the old methods have been with us long enough to show their faults clearly. The fact is that nobody knows very well how to tell anybody else how to teach. So when we try to figure out how to teach (natural) science we must he somewhat modest, because nobody really knows how. It is at the same time a serious problem and an opportunity for new discoveries.

Acknowledgment

Adib Rifqi Setiwan dedicated this work to my role model Surotul Ilmiyah of her amazing inspiring and motivating my self as well as for her endless shaping my mindset and influencing my journey.

Work Cited

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