Tag: criticalthinking

Academic Writing 101: Part 2

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The Difficult Part: Critical Thinking

Setelah ketiga aspek mendasar dari academic writing dapat membuat esai Anda lulus kriteria dasar, kategori berikutnya yang perlu diperhatikan dalam menulis esai di tingkat pascasarjana di Britania Raya, dan mungkin di negara-negara lain, adalah seberapa baik analisis Anda mengenai suatu masalah. Disini, hal tersebut lebih populer dengan nama critical thinking.

Critical in University work means being thoughtful, asking questions, not taking things you read (or hear) at face value. It means finding information and understanding different approaches and using them in your writing.

Getting Critical (Pocket Study Skills), pviiii, Kate Williams

(http://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/postgraduate/taught/learning-resources/critical)

Sebagai seseorang yang sejak kecil hingga perguruan tinggi bersekolah di Indonesia seperti saya, critical thinking adalah hal yang paling menantang saat menempuh jenjang pascasarjana. Ya, saya tidak terbiasa. Saya rasa, pandangan bahwa guru paling benar dan ilmu pengetahuan sebaiknya ‘ditelan’ saja mentah-mentah masih banyak membayangi saya pada awal berkuliah di Inggris. Sepertinya, sistem pendidikan di Indonesia pun hingga sekarang masih juga menggunakan pendekatan yang sama sehingga siswa tidak didorong untuk mencari ilmu pengetahuan dari berbagai sumber dan untuk bertanya. Saya beruntung karena pada masa kuliah S1, saya mendapatkan kesempatan untuk berlatih berpikir kritis (walaupun pada saat itu ya saya tidak dong juga). Setidaknya, saya tidak terlalu kaget walaupun masih kesulitan untuk melakukannya.

Salah satu cara yang ditempuh oleh beberapa universitas di Britania Raya untuk melatih kemampuan berpikir kritis para mahasiswa, terutama mahasiswa internasional, adalah dengan menyarankan mahasiswa untuk membaca berbagai buku mengenai keterampilan berpikir kritis dan menyelenggarakan kelas yang biasa disebut sebagai study skills class. Kelas seperti ini tidak populer di kalangan mahasiswa lokal, mungkin mereka sudah muak dengan pembahasan mengenai hal ini. Namun, bagi mahasiswa internasional, kelas tersebut bagai surga. Bagaimana tidak, berbagai keterampilan dilatih, mulai dari menulis, berpikir kritis, menulis referensi, sampai cara menggunakansoftware-software canggih untuk penelitian. Saya sangat menyarankan Anda untuk mengikuti kelas-kelas seperti ini untuk meningkatkan keterampilan akademis apabila universitas memang menyediakan fasilitas tersebut.

Apa sih sebenarnya mahluk bernama critical thinking ini? Seperti kutipan di atas, berpikir kritis berarti mempertanyakan segala sesuatu dan memperdalam pemahaman tentang suatu topik dengan mempertimbangkan berbagai perspektif yang ada. Berpikir kritis bukan berarti menolak suatu pandangan atau argumen, berpikir kritis adalah mempertanyakan. Pada bagian ini, saya akan mencoba memberikan beberapa tips untuk melatih kemampuan berpikir kritis. Beberapa tips yang saya sebutkan sudah pernah saya coba sendiri.

1.      Question EYERYTHING

Bagi saya pribadi, poin ini adalah inti dari critical thinking. Lihat anak kecil yang selalu bertanya ‘Ini apa?’ dan ‘Kenapa bisa begitu?’. Mereka sedang berlatih berpikir kritis, loh. Jadi, coba untuk mempertanyakan segala sesuatu, bahkan sesuatu yang sudah kita tahu. Kalau sudah merasa tahu tentang suatu hal, coba lihat dari sudut pandang lain, coba bertanya lagi. Salah satu hal yang menjadi kebiasaan saya pada saat berkuliah pascasarjana adalah menulis pertanyaan di buku catatan. Jujur saja, saya malas mencatat pada saat kuliah S2 karena hampir semua dosen sudah memberikan materi mereka online dan buku rujukan pun tersedia. Jadi, buku catatan atau hand out materi kuliah saya penuh dengan pertanyaan-pertanyaan mengapa begini mengapa begitu untuk melatih saya berpikir kritis. Seringkali saya juga mendapatkan inspirasi untuk esai-esai saya dari corat coret saya saat mendengarkan dosen. Mungkin cara ini bisa juga Anda coba. Tidak sulit, kan?

Lalu, apa yang harus ditanyakan? Banyak sekali hal yang bisa ditanyakan. Mulai dari kata tanya yang paling tinggi derajatnya ‘mengapa’ hingga yang paling dangkal ‘masa sih?’. Dalam hal akademis seperti teori, pandangan, pendekatan, dan hasil penelitian, saya menyarankan untuk bertanya ‘Apa sih yang mendasari orang ini berkata demikian? Apa buktinya? Mengapa dia bisa mengambil kesimpulan seperti itu?’. Tidak sebentar saya berusaha mencerna konsep mempertanyakan ‘apa yang mendasari sesuatu’ ini. Baru pada saat dosen S2 saya yang bule tulen itu ‘memaksa’ saya untuk membaca buku Pramudya Ananta Toer, Bumi Manusia, baru saya menyadari bahwa maksudnya adalah melihat aspek ekstrinsik dari suatu argumen sehingga dapat melihatnya secara utuh, sesuai dengan konteksnya. Bukan secara pragmatis dan mengambil yang kita suka saja.

2.      Free yourself from judgment

Berpikir kritis juga berkaitan dengan melihat segala sesuatu dengan skeptis. Oleh karena itu, kecenderungan untuk mempercayai sesuatu juga perlu diminimalisir. Tentu saja, semua orang memiliki hak untuk berpihak pada suatu teori atau percaya pada suatu hal. Tapi, demi mahluk bernama critical thinking ini, saya harus membebaskan diri dari judgment tertentu. Bahkan suatu teori atau pandangan yang saya suka dan saya yakini pun harus saya pertanyakan.

Saya rasa, perumpamaan Hipotesis Nul dan Hipotesis Alternatif dalam penelitian bisa menggambarkan poin ini dengan cukup baik. Dalam penelitian ilmiah dengan pendekatan kuantitatif positivis, peneliti diminta untuk membuat dua jenis hipotesis, yaitu Hipotesis Nul yang berisi pernyataan netral mengenai prediksi hasil penelitian dan Hipotesis Alternatif yang berisi pernyataan tidak netral mengenai prediksi penelitian. Lalu, peneliti mengambil data dan menganalisis data tersebut dalam konteks Hipotesis Nul. Jadi, yang diuji adalah pandangan netral, bukan pandangan dengan judgment tertentu. Pendekatan ini juga lah yang harus digunakan pada saat berpikir kritis. Saya sendiri selalu mencoba untuk berhati-hati saat membentuk argumen, bahkan opini saya pribadi, karena saya tahu bahwa selalu ada sudut pandang lain yang berbeda dengan sudut pandang saya dan selalu ada kemungkinan bahwa apa yang saya yakini tidak tepat (Hmmm… aneh juga paragraf ini dimulai dengan pendekatan positivis dan ditutup dengan pendekatan relativis). Ya, intinya seimbang lah dalam berpikir, lepaskan diri dan pikiran dari judgment.

3.      Reading before writing

Anda suka membaca? Suka atau tidak, berkuliah pascasarjana mewajibkan Anda untuk membaca. Betul? Kebiasaan membaca hanya ketika diminta dosen dan ketika akan ujian harus dibuang jauh-jauh.Kenapa? Coba jelaskan bagaimana Anda dapat membentuk argumen dan berpikir kritis tanpa dasar pengetahuan dan informasi yang luas. Bisa? Berpikir kritis membutuhkan usaha untuk mendalami suatu hal, melihat berbagai perspektif, dan mempertanyakan banyak hal (yang tidak sekedar dipertanyakan tapi dicari jawabannya). Oleh karena itu, membaca sangat diperlukan. Dalam hal ini, membaca tidak diartikan secara sempit, ya. Mungkin bahasa yang lebih tepat adalah information literate. Saat ini, banyak sekali sumber yang tidak membosankan untuk mendapatkan informasi. Selain buku dan jurnal, media non-mainstream seperti video, program TV, surat kabar, talkshow, buku fiksi, dan siaran radio bisa digunakan sebagai sumber informasi ilmiah maupun non ilmiah. Coba mampir kehttps://www.ted.com/talks untuk melihat video yang berkaitan dengan minat Anda atau cek surat kabar harian online. Bahkan, saat ini di http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-secret-life-of-4-5-and-6-year-olds ada sebuah penelitian mengenai perkembangan anak yang disiarkan online.Menarik dan tidak membosankan.

Nah, membaca pun tidak sekedar membaca dan menelan informasi. Lagi-lagi, kedua poin di atas harus kembali diperhatikan: mempertanyakan segala sesuatu dan tanpa judgment. Selain itu, perhatikan juga konteks tulisan karena tentunya perbedaan konteks bisa menyebabkan perbedaan hasil dan pandangan. Corat coret kembali bahan-bahan yang Anda baca. Pertanyakan lagi, cari lagi jawabannya.

Lalu, kapan berhenti membaca dan mulai menulis? Apa ada jumlah tertentu yang menjadi patokan? Berkaca dari pengalaman pribadi saya, biasanya saya akan mulai membaca dari teori-teori yang mendasar mengenai topik esai saya. Setelah itu, saya beralih ke bacaan yang lebih dalam mengenai topik tersebut untuk melihat dimana posisi argumen saya. Setelah merasa cukup memiliki dasar pengetahuan, saya akan mulai merancang framework penulisan saya. Saya akan mulai membuat poin-poin untuk struktur esai saya (lihat bagian sebelumnya dari tulisan ini). Sambil mulai menulis sedikit-sedikit, saya meneruskan membaca. Saya akan berhenti ketika informasi yang saya dapatkan sudah ‘jenuh’. Maksudnya, ketika saya sudah tidak bisa lagi menemukan informasi baru. Saat itulah saya akan berkonsentrasi menulis, menyudahi proses membaca saya.

Pengalaman saya sendiri, membaca merupakan hal yang sangat penting dalam mendukung proses penulisan esai-esai akademis saya. Saya membuka diri terhadap berbagai informasi dari berbagai sumber. Membaca berita menjadi kegiatan saya setiap hari. Selain itu, saya juga membaca buku rujukan dan jurnal-jurnal. Saat bosan, saya beralih ke TED talks. Sebagai contoh, untuk membuat satu esai dengan panjang 4000-6000 kata, saya biasanya membaca 100-150 rujukan. Hasilnya? Hard work pays off. Alhamdulillah, nilai saya cukup baik untuk ukuran mahasiswa internasional.

4.      Start with verb on your title

Tips keempat ini cukup ampuh digunakan ketika akan menulis esai. Saya mendapatkan tips ini dari kelas study skills saya di University of Hull. Contoh kata-kata yang diasosiasikan dengan critical thinkingadalah evaluating, critiquing, arguing, dan analyzing. Masih ada berbagai kata lain, tentunya. Lalu, mengapa harus memulai judul esai dengan kata-kata tersebut? Bagi saya sendiri, kata-kata tersebut berfungsi sebagai pengingat bahwa saya harus selalu menerapkan keterampilan berpikir kritis saya sepanjang pengerjaan esai. Dengan kata-kata pengingat tersebut, saya terus-menerus berusaha untuk melakukan pendekatan kritis terhadap topik yang saya diskusikan. Pretty straight forward, pretty easy.Sayangnya, tidak semua dosen memperbolehkan mahasiswa untuk menentukan judul esai secara individual. Tapi intinya adalah bagaimana pendekatan Anda akan sebuah topik lah yang menentukan apakah Anda telah berpikir secara kritis. Tanpa kata-kata tersebut di judul esai Anda, selama Anda memang bertujuan untuk menggunakan critical thinking dalam menulis esai, it should be just fine.

Tentunya masih banyak lagi tips mengenai cara mengasah kemampuan berpikir kritis. Silahkan cekwebsite universitas masing-masing karena biasanya ada panduan mengenai crtical thinking. Saya merasa critical thinking adalah backbone dari esai-esai saya. Tanpa critical thinking, esai saya cenderung deskriptif dan mungkin sudah dianggap seperti kacang goreng bagi para dosen.

Well, setelah penjelasan yang cukup abstrak di atas, saya akan memberikan salah satu contoh tulisan yang menggunakan critical thinking. Tulisan ini,http://izzadinillah.tumblr.com/post/51553369997/humanising-human, saya buat sebagai salah satu tugas portfolio di sebuah mata kuliah mengenai isu kontemporer dalam konteks pendidikan. Pada kuliah tersebut memang semua mahasiswa dituntut untuk membuat tulisan dengan menggunakancritical thinking setiap minggu. Mudah-mudahan dapat cukup menggambarkan bagaimana bentuk sebuah tulisan dengan critical analysis ya.

Fiuh, bagian tersulit sudah selesai,

now let’s get practical!

~ stay tuned

Jan 22, 2016

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Falling in Love

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One of the happiest moments during my time teaching in a primary school was when I looked at my students and their eyes bright with interest and enthusiasm in learning. I think that kind of passion in very rewarding for educators because they know that what students learn is going to be meaningful for the students. However, it may not happen a lot in schools these days. I saw students complain about the school, how it makes them bored, how the subjects they learn are useless, and how they want to get out of it as soon as possible. They do not feel, as Pranoto (2012) called, the experience of being in love with learning.

Then, I saw a talk by Robinson (2012) who mentioned that children nowadays are being robbed by the education system. They lost their excitement in learning. How come? I think humans have brains to think and to learn. It almost seems like students nowadays are robots who do what they are told, do not do what they are not told or what they are prohibited to, and feel no emotion during their learning process. People should feel something during the process of learning because they experience cognitive dissonance (Piaget, 1929) which makes people uncomfortable about their state of mind and therefore seek for equilibrium. This may explain why humans are naturally curious and motivated to seek for more.

Probably the reason of people’s disinterest in learning is that because learning, mostly related to an institution called school, instead of coming through personal interest, becomes the commodity of external forces, such as parents, teachers, and even governments. There is no more personal value put into education and learning. It is just something you do because you have to and you have no other choice. It seems, at least for me, that students now have a robotic tendency. They are controlled by others, have some kind of “intelligence” to “operate” but still, have no free will. No free will means no human, no?

The prison called school, invented by the education system makes those students, the ones in touch with education, those who experience education, devalue it. Education has no personal value anymore. What’s in it for students here and now, then? I can imagine how a student in remote area who has never seen airplane need to learn to count the speed of an airplane. It just does not make any sense. Yes, this is the era of global information when everyone can access everything from everywhere theoretically, but not in reality. The reality is curriculum used in education is irrelevant for students’ closest environment, to the present situation now as in 1973 when Freire suggested it. The content of education does not give people the ability to meet individual and local needs (Colin, 2011).

Education, despite of its purpose for global society, is about human. The priority should not be the benefit for the society first, but for the people educated first; as if the emergency situation in airplane requires people to help themselves first before helping others. Education needs to trigger sparks in people. People need to feel that it is worthwhile (Gingell & Winch, 2008). In order to do that, what is learned needs to be meaningful for them, connected to reality. Education, the content and process of it needs to be loveable so that people are in love with it.

May 28, 2013

If I Have a Child

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Son, be a good student. Learn diligently and get good scores so that you can be a teacher, a doctor… If you don’t, you’ll just be a cleaner.

 

I heard this from my friend’s story last night. That is a typical advice given by a father to his son. It does not sound strange, it sounds perfectly logic. However, is it really not strange? Because I think, when I really pay attention to the words, it is strange. Why should the son be a good student to be a teacher or a doctor? Can someone be a teacher or a doctor without being a good student? Or, can someone, although he is a good student, still ends up in a blue collar job?

I think, what that sentence represents is the common society belief, that education or being educated leads to a better job. It obviously has a logical explanation because better jobs require higher qualification. My question is what if the kid does not want to be a teacher or a doctor and wants to be a carpenter instead? Does that mean he cannot be a good student? Or what if the question is swapped? I remember one of my students who hated school and learning so that he decided to be a cleaner because he does not have to learn to be one. There is something not right here.

I think people have short-translated education as a pathway for job, and job only. I am not denying that one’s chance to have a good job increases if he has higher level of ‘education’. What is education anyway? I do not think education is the correct term here. Yes, higher level of schooling but not education. Education should not be understood shallowly because then it will lose its essence. If people see education only as a mean to get a better life in the future ‘money wise’, then education can be replaced by many things.

Education as economic tool will not survive. For example, since I was in high school there has been a trend in Indonesia that students are encouraged to cheat during the national exam. Not all teachers or even all schools do this but it exists. Once students have their high school diploma, their chance of getting a job is higher. My friend also told me that in Nigeria, once a person can earn enough money, education is not that important, especially among girls. Moreover, especially in developing countries where the ethics of education has not been wholly understood, people can pay for their higher education diploma so that they do not have to attend university to get the diploma. What a shame. Education has been translated to paper document and money.

In my opinion, people should go back, trace the root of the meaning of education so that they are not being manipulated by people who control education. In order to understand education, one may also need to unattached it from schooling as school according to Dewey (2004) is an environment to facilitate education and therefore it should not exceed education itself. It should not replace the meaning of education. Education comes from Latin word educare which means to nourish (Gingell & Winch, 2008). Historically, as Dewey (2004) explained, education is used to bridge the understanding gap between older members of society and the younger member of society so that the society exists in the future.

Education contains broad meaning for me. It does not only have something to do with economy but with life as a whole. It is not only about individual but also about society. Reflecting on this and looking at the beginning sentences on top of this text, if I have a child, I will say: Son, be educated so that you can grow to be whatever you want, whatever you think will be good for you and your society. 

May 28, 2013

Pursue of Happiness

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A few months ago I had a discussion with a friend. He asked me what my life purpose is. Wow, I have never really thought about it. The first thing comes to mind for an answer was to be beneficial for myself, others, and my environment. My friend told me that my answer was not adequate because it was a normative answer. Yes, I agree. My answer was what my culture and religion suggest to be the life purpose of human. Anyone in my culture and religion can answer the same thing. What my friend asked me was what my life purpose is, a specific purpose only for me. Well, I gave it a thought and I cannot disagree with my friend. Although I am not an existentialist, I believe that everyone is unique and humans have free will to choose and direct their life. Having a life purpose and free will are the characters of human.

Do people realise that children are given uniform information about life purpose? They are given the same explanation about the preferred life style: getting higher education degree, working in a multinational company or white collar job, owning assets to ensure their economic welfare, and by achieving those stuffs they will live happily ever after. First of all, there is no such a thing like living happily ever after because human will die eventually. More importantly, whose preferred life style is that? Do all people want that kind of life? In a sense, education contributes to the distribution of that way of life; education which according to Orr (1994) focuses only on personal benefit and intellectuality, abandoning feeling and sense of humanity.

Education is a tool for people; not only a certain group of people but all people. Therefore education has the obligation to facilitate people to achieve their life purpose, at least in my opinion. If educators, including those who have the power to make decision, agree with this, education may be understood differently. Education which is now regarded to be what Robinson (2012) called the producer of university professors because it pushes all children into one direction; can be regarded to be the facilitator of people’s different life purpose.

I think, this concept of education as a facilitator for people to achieve their life purpose puts back human in the centre of education. It respects human’s choice and gives a sense of power for people (Freire, 1973). It is the opposite of the reality of education now. Uniformity is spread all over the world as Colin (2011) showed similarity of national education system worldwide. In an extreme understanding, this kind of uniformity can be regarded as indoctrination which violates people’s autonomy (Gingell & Winch, 2008).

In my opinion, education should be able to help people to live their own unique life. It should go beyond material adequacy, it better be providing spiritual and emotional adequacy; by, as mentioned by Fairfield (2009), enabling people to give richer meanings to their lived experience. Education should also be made in a way that allows individual uniqueness to be celebrated and supports people to pursue their life purpose so that they will be content with happiness.

May 28, 2013

Humanising Human

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As education means to nourish (Gingell & Winch, 2008), one question comes into my mind: Who does it nourish? The players in education are people, human beings. And human beings, at least in my opinion, should be treated as human. However, as education nowadays is seen as a tool in globalised world – mostly seen from the economic point of view (Ball, 2006), people are regarded to be economic-, instead of human-being in education. Look at the statements mentioned by government officials, such as Indonesian vice president, Boediono (2012) who wrote that the purpose of education is to produce people who are competent in the workplace so that the national income can be increased.

In order to meet the demand from the government as a response of globalisation in economic sense, schools as the most common educational institution act as human factories. In a movie called Waiting for Superman (2010), I saw a clear description of students, categorised and directed towards different path of education in order to meet the workforce and business demand based on their test scores and intelligence. It seems like students, human beings, are treated as objects that can be controlled and moved around.

In another explanation, Freire (2008) proposed the concept of banking education which treats students as containers of knowledge. Education in this perspective seems to act as bank that deposits knowledge. How weird is that? Education which supposed to be controlled by human in general acts as if it is human and students – the human beings – are treated as if they are some kind of jars – non living things. Of course education in reality is controlled by human but only those who have power but nonetheless those people hide behind the ‘innocence’ of education. Then again, one can conclude from this point of view that education is used by people in power to oppress young people as what Freire (1996) suggested. It is a tool for the government to oppress citizens in order to achieve better economic performance which again benefits certain groups of people.

In my opinion, education should be used to humanise human. Education can be used as a tool to liberate people from globalised world’s ‘slavery’ to be fully capable human beings. Students, young people, or people in general should be the owner of globalised world, not the workers in it. I believe that it is the ideal condition as it is explained in the Koran that humans are the ones who inherit the world. The word inherit contains a sense of ownership, control, and power over the object. In order to do this – humanising human – Freire (1973) suggested that education should make people aware that they have the power to face challenges of the world.

One can see a sense of human empowerment in the process of humanising human. People need not to be passive which dehumanising, the lowest form of defence mechanism believed in critical psychology. Instead, they need to be reflective, a restless act to pursue knowledge through invention (Freire, 1973) so that they can act appropriately. Education should be able to empower people or students maybe, and make them capable of being truly humans in the era of globalisation now. Education need to humanise human if not re-humanise human at this point.

May 28, 2013

“The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. the more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them.”

Learning

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“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”

–

John Dewey

My take: People are learning creatures. We are learning all the time, in everything that we do and experience. Problems only arise if what surrounds us is negative, and if we haven’t been equipped (by others, by past experiences) to deal with that in a positive way. If the things we are adapting to, learning from and learning about are problematic, then we will develop problematic ideas and habits.

So if we’re interested in trying to ensure that learners have certain skills and understandings, we need to think about creating environments and activities that compel learners to make certain connections and develop certain skills over others. Instead of enumerating what we want them to know and trying to teach those things directly (rarely as effective as most people think), we should be designing learning environments where they can do things that will demand the kind of thinking (and eventually, learning) we want.

 

 

The Dead of Death

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I had an interesting lecture this evening. It’s about death, loss, and bereavement. In the beginning, I was thinking – how is it going to have something to do with education? Well, that is why it’s interesting.

Talking about death from different cultural points of view is interesting. And it is almost unbelievable how the concept of death, loss, and bereavement change historically. It was just never occurred to me, really. But how it is then connected to education is almost as bizarre. But then, hey, it’s not learning when you don’t have any cognitive dissonance, isn’t it?

However, here is my thought..

As any other concepts in the world, death concept is highly cultural. Looking back at my own culture and my experience, it is difficult to find the real conception of death explicitly explained. It is avoided as in taboo. Talking about death, especially to children is regarded inappropriate. Parents specifically ask teachers not to talk about death, especially to children who experience bereavement. WHY?

Yes, why? While on the other hand, other kind of loss which isn’t death, such as divorce, is often explained to children as death. Why is it? Is divorce then regarded worse than death so that children should not know about it and they better of with explanation about death?

Maybe, death is a simple answer. It doesn’t have any moral implication – right or wrong questions following it. Death is just.. death. Especially when then it is linked into religious explanation. Well maybe then.. death is an easy out.

What is going to happen then, if children are exposed with the idea that death is an easy out? They will find death as a solution for their problem. It’s easy – without thinking about the implication of it. There was this news about a primary school boy who attempted to commit suicide because his love was rejected by a girl he liked. This is a really good example about how death is seen as a quick fix to a problem.

This thought was just occurred to me during the class. Well then maybe, maybe.. it is the fact that the concept of death, loss, and bereavement is not thoroughly explained to children that they not only don’t understand about death and its friend but they also don’t understand about the meaning of being alive. When the concept of death is dead, how are children going to understand about being alive?

Mar 15, 2013

Educational Neurosis: ‘Kita’ and ‘Kami’ in the Context of Indonesian Education

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Education in Indonesia as in many other countries is separated into two forms, public and private. Basically, public education should be accessible by all citizens. However in Indonesia most educational provisions, public or private, are not free. As a result, education, especially good education, can only be accessed by certain groups of people who have social or financial capital.

The condition of education in Indonesia creates a wide discrepancy between people who are in the position of power and those who are not. Most citizens should be satisfied with the basic public education which provides them with basic skill to be workers, servants of powerful people. Education as public goods does not have power to inspire people to contribute to the society. On the other hand, specific group of people who can access qualified education in private institution feel that they have no obligation for the society and use education to benefit themselves.

The division of education as public and private goods is related to two words used to describe sense of togetherness in Indonesian language, ‘kita’ and ‘kami’. The English translation of those words is ‘we’. Indeed, since a long time ago, Indonesian people have two perceptions of togetherness.

The word ‘kami’ is used when one wants to describe about you and I and other people who stand in the same group with implicit message of exclusion (Hassan, 2005). Those who do not belong to ‘kami’are excluded or seen as enemy. On the other hand, ‘kita’ is used when one wants to describe you and me and other people all together (Hassan, 2005). “Kita” embraces individuality while people walk together in one reality. Those words which describe about Indonesian people’s perception of togetherness were used by Indonesian scholar, Fuad Hassan, to understand more about neurosis. According to Hassan (2005), individual’s existential crisis which leads to neurosis is a result of his confused perception about his place in the society, how they perceive togetherness.

Applying ‘kita’ and ‘kami’ in education world brings an interesting point of view. In Indonesian education, the culture of ‘kita’ was once implemented. At the time near Indonesian independence, educational philosophy as the foundation of education practice emphasised people’s empowerment within society. Education as public goods can be translated genuinely by ‘kita’ culture. It promotes inclusion, respect individuality in order to achieve better living condition for all. As the time goes by, people have started to become ignorant of the terms they use in expressing togetherness because they use ‘kita’ and ‘kami’ interchangeably (Sarwono, 2012). What happens in the society reflects what happens in education. Indonesian education is in confusion. On one hand, it tries to include as many people but at the other hand it resists the inclusion of certain groups and creates barriers to learners. The government wants it to be public goods for the sake of its benefit but seems to be resistant to invest in education. People who have power can change education system and create any educational policy with self-focused intention. Education can be pulled around, changed to be private goods with the shell of public provision. I think maybe Indonesian education has lost its identity. It does not know its aim, future, and direction. As human who cannot decide his position in the society become neurotic; Indonesian education may be at the same state, the state of educational neurosis.

Mar 07, 2013

Sustainable

Published on by Izza DinillahLeave a comment

I was thinking lately about this word. Sustainable. The first time I really involved with this word was when I had to teach my private student about 8 goals of MDGs. But then, it turns out that I have to use the word more often.

Several months ago I went home with my friend from school where I worked. I had a chat with her about some of my students. We were wondering why their scores in so many subjects are bad. I thought that there are three possible reasons for this.

First, the reason is unclear explanation from the teachers. But then there will be so many teachers at stake here. There is one teacher for one subject and we doubt that all teachers are that incompetent. No way. They are hired as a teacher for some reasons and the reasons must be good. Nope, I don’t think that the teachers are the reason.

The second reason is students’ preparedness of the test. It should be worked out by teachers and parents. At school they study, do exercises and they did well. They were given homework to study at home. I am quite sure that the parents were aware of the upcoming exam and asked their kids to learn. Well, at least the kids told so.

Then there is the third reason. Maybe they can’t absorb the materials and extract them when they are needed! Humans have brains, right? How can they not be able to absorb knowledge? I remembered one of my students who always gets answer for his questions easily. Whenever he is challenged, he step back and choose not to try. Maybe that is the reason. They always get the answers to their questions easily that they don’t have to think, analyze, and strive to come up with an answer.

Finally I concluded. The later reason lead me to think that maybe the schooling system which depends a lot on test scores makes children feel that learning is only a way to get good scores. If children can get good scores not by learning, then what’s the point? Maybe this is what Freire (1996) warned as the result of banking concept in education which reduce the whole educational experience into test scores. People forget the educational process. They forget, as Pranoto (2012) said, how to fall in love with learning, knowledge, and science. Education is treated as a mean to an end while it should make people to be full of resources which will benefit them in the future. Education makes people educated and educated people make what they got from education sustain in order to benefit not only themselves but other people and their environment, to make people and the world sustainable.

May 7, 2013