— Essentials of Basic Principles to Teaching (Natural) Science in Indonesia
بسم الله و الحمد لله الذي يفتتح بحمده كل رسالة ومقالة والصلاة والسلام
على سيدنا محمد ابن عبد الله صاحب النبوة والرسالة وعلى آله وأصحابـه الهادين من
الضلالة ومن تبع سنته وجماعته من يومنا هذا إلى يوم النهضية
Some facts about me
My name is Adib Rifqi Setiawan, Adib for brief, ΛRS for briefer mononym. I
am not the next anyone and love 2NE1 as well as admire BLΛƆKPIИK's. If you are interested
in my work, you can find all my dumbs in Google Scholar, Qureta, or just put “Alobatnic” or “Adib Rifqi Setiawan” in search engine like Google.com.
If you hate me, you can deliver that hatred to alobatnic@gmail.com, or direct message to my social media
accounts: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram with username @alobatnic for all
accounts.
I was born at 26 March 1994 in a village called Colo, right on the
outskirts of Kudus, on the mountain. My rural education at Colo journey twice
consisted of one-room class where a single teacher educated, took care of, and
supervised students everyday. So I never forget Zaini Sirojan, my teacher at
that condition. I lived there until 10 July 2009, when I was fifteen. I went to
Madrasah Tasywiquth Thullab Salafiyyah (TBS) Kudus for three years, and then I
went to Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) Bandung, in about 13 June 2012.
During the time I was at TBS, I am Muhammad Arifin Fanani’s student whose
role is to guide me select Islamic Studies coursework, as well as shaping, refining,
and directing me of sub-discipline Fiqih. Perhaps he is the most deeply
affecting me. He contributes significantly to the start of the high order
thinking skils in academics dicipline—he is the very trained educator to do so.
Not least, his lectures and papers influences materially to the rise of my
interest on the research.
When I was at UPI majored Physics Education, I loved it. I thought it was a
good place have great atmosphere. I was assigned to Setiya Utari, of whom I had
not heard but it the best. Setiya Utari was usually around and available to
talk that stimulated me to develop my own academic-style. She often advise me
to learn what the rest of the world is like and the belief in the ignorance of
experts. Her talk and articles affecting my research’s interest in scientific
literacy.
I have been interested in principles to teaching (natural) science in
Indonesia (it's with less economically developed country), for a long time and
would like to discuss it based on my limitations. The main limitations is my
very evident lack of understanding of (natural) science, a lack which will grow
more apparent as we proceed.
In the second place, I don't know anything about (natural science). I am
undergraduate from physics education, so I know that I don't know. As a matter
of fact, I have experience in teaching students in branches of science (natural
sciences, religious sciences, formal sciences, social sciences, as well as
interdisciplinary studies). As a result of the experience I know that I don't
know how to teach. “I don’t know what to do without you... uh... uh... uh...”
said Rosé then Jisoo in BLΛƆKPIИK's Don’t Know What To Do.
An amazing grace in my journey
ITZY amazing grace for the opportunity to join science educator, especially
natural science teachers. 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.
There are many new plans in many countries for trying to teach (natural)
science, 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.
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 ask whether any particular educational plan is in fact satisfying any
of the reasons.
The first reason is ...
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 technically‑trained 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 technically‑skilled
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.
An Other Reasons is ...
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.
Coda
I am moslem (at least peoples’ say that I’m moslem and I’m huge fans of Ḥafṣah).
As a moslem, I believe in six axioms or postulates called arkān al-īmān
(Arabic: أركان الإيمان).
So, as an analogues to my believe, I will say that the six reason is arkān
ta'līm al-ulūm al- ṫobi'īyyat (Arabic: تعليم العلوم
الطبيعية) or basic principles to teaching (natural) science:
1.
(Natural) science’s concept is a basic our activities that
implements to solving our environment problem, and has all kinds of
applications in technology.
2. Teaching (natural)
science is incidentally teaches how to do things with your hands.
3. 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),
joining others in this great journey of our times, and obtaining enormous
pleasure in doing so.
4. To study nature to
appreciate its wonder and its beauty, that will gives a feeling of stability
and reality about the world and drives out many fears and superstitions.
5. Teach how things are
found out, to belief in the ignorance of experts.
6. Learn to handle trial
and error, to develop a spirit of invention and of free inquiry which is of
tremendous value far beyond science.
This ends our list of reasons for the teaching of (natural) science as a
science. This essay don’t give descriptions of some of the major
characteristics of science education in Indonesia which appear to me to be of
special concern for us. Finally, let me say, “Sciences do not directly teach
good and bad, love do.” I don't trying to fill my head with sciences, for to
fill my heart with love is enough. So, sciences is not the most important
thing, love is. I don’t believe I can really do anything without loving
something.
Acknowledgment
Adib Rifqi Setiwan dedicated this work to my role model Laila Fariha Zein
of her amazing inspiring and motivating my self as well as for her endless
shaping my mindset and influencing my journey.