Balinese Local Wisdoms and their Implications in Science Education at School

Abstract

This study was aimed to dig Balinese local wisdoms, to reconstruct, and develop them in the teaching process at school. Local wisdoms are parts of local culture which can be understood as a human effort by using their cognitions to act and behave as the response to something, object, or an event that occurs in a particular space. The method used in this study is meta-analysis of empirical studies done by the researcher since 2005 in Bali. Eastern communities (Balinese - Indonesian in particular) have worldview which is very different from that of the eastern communities (Euro-American) being the places where the culture of sciences was born. The students who live in the eastern cultural environment will find it difficult to learn science at school since the indigenous culture does not receive enough attention and is different from what they learn in science. Therefore, in the process of science teaching at school, Balinese local wisdoms need to be used as learning resources in the context of science teaching. One model of teaching that is suitable for overcoming this problem is by applying local culture-based teaching model. This model uses collateral learning theory in its implementation. If the student’s culture matches the science lesson, mutual strengthening will occur, but if it differs then they will be developed together in parallel without alienating