Indonesian National Curriculum Research Articles

Empowering students’ numeracy skills: Mathematics teachers’ perceptions regarding the effectiveness and challenges of Indonesian national curriculum and the programs – A mixed method study

As the Indonesian National Curriculum (INC), the Merdeka curriculum was implemented in response to students' difficulties in comprehending and utilizing basic mathematics, contributing to low numeracy skills. This study investigated mathematics teachers' perceptions in Indonesia concerning the effectiveness of INC and the supporting programs, such as the National Assessment (NA) and Pancasila Student Profile (PSP), in improving students' numeracy skills. It also aimed to identify mathematics teachers' challenges in integrating numeracy skills into the curriculum and these programs. A mixed-method study with a sequential explanatory design was used to achieve this objective. The data collection was carried out through quantitative and qualitative approaches. Closed questionnaires were explicitly used for quantitative data, while open questionnaires and interviews were used for qualitative data. Inferential statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data and a thematic analysis for qualitative data. The quantitative results showed that most teachers positively perceived the effectiveness of INC and the programs in empowering students' numeracy skills. The implementation of INC and PSP significantly influenced the empowerment of numeracy skills. The qualitative analysis provided an in-depth exploration of teachers' perceptions and the challenges faced in promoting numeracy skills in implementing INC and the programs.

Education4Conservation, an evolving international program and 14-year curriculum of environmental education.

Education4Conservation evolved from an environmental education program in Balikpapan Bay, Indonesian Borneo, after its critical evaluation. The initial goal of the program was to support the development of future conservation leaders who would join the ongoing efforts to conserve proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus) and their coastal forest habitat in Balikpapan Bay. We realized that to achieve this goal, we would need to work with students from the age of 4 years and continue to educate them for many years. We also realized that we needed to focus more on mentoring teachers and incorporating their feedback into the curriculum. The new program, which is in line with the new Indonesian national curriculum (Kurikulum Merdeka), has proved attractive to teachers and has spread from Kalimantan to other Indonesian islands and countries outside Asia. The curriculum continues to improve through regular monthly revisions that incorporate feedback from teachers, while teachers' pedagogical skills have improved through guidance provided by responses to each of their reports. We have been following and supervising participants since the Education4Conservation program began in 2022. Although a preliminary evaluation seems to indicate substantial improvements over the earlier program (in terms of high participation, positive teacher response, improved reporting skills, and increased clarity and applicability of the curriculum), it remains to be seen whether the program ultimately achieves its primary goal to help raise some of the students into conservation leaders.

Being an effective English teacher through internship: Voices from the involved parties

The Indonesian national curriculum encourages higher education stakeholders to provide an internship program to increase students’ employability. In the field of education, an internship comes in the form of a teaching practicum where all interns or prospective teachers get hands-on experience in schools to develop the characteristics of effective teachers. To identify areas for improvement in the running program, gathering insights from those involved is necessary. The current case study details how the internship program facilitates effective teaching for prospective teachers. This research also discussed recommendations from involved parties to obtain reliable references to improve the program. The data were collected by interviewing four prospective teachers, two university supervisors, and two mentor teachers. This study used transcribing, member checking, and coding to analyze the interview results. The data revealed that the four steps in the program, i.e., deployment, observation, coaching, and teaching practices, helped the prospective teachers to build a robust construct of effective teachers, including socio-affective skills, pedagogical competence, content knowledge, and personal qualities. Additionally, the findings demonstrated the participants’ suggestions related to several technical issues of the program and recommendations to the prospective teachers regarding what they should do in joining the program. Regardless rooms of improvements that the program should follow-up, all participants agree to say that the practice teaching facilitates prospective English teachers to develop competencies of being an effective teacher.

Analysis of Cambridge Curriculum Implementation in Character Education Aspects in Economic Learning (Case Study at Singapore Intercultural School Semarang)

Objective: This study aims to analyze the implementation of Cambridge curriculum in the field of Economic and to find out the implications for developing student’s character. Method: This research is conducted at Singapore Intercultural School (SIS) Semarang and carried out by interview, observation and documentation. The validity technique used is triangulation. Results: The results showed that the implementation of Cambridge Curriculum at SIS Semarang is very high in terms of the planning, implementation, and evaluation stages of learning, and has integrated character education through aspects of school input, process, and output. Novelty: This study combines educational character variables in the Cambridge International Curriculum and the Indonesian National Curriculum with research objects in international schools.

Teachers’ enactments of character education: A case study from Indonesia

The Indonesian national curriculum and educational policies mandate the integration of character education into every classroom learning activities in schools. This qualitative case study aims to investigate Indonesian subject teachers’ agency to enact character education, including how they plan, assess, and execute it, in their teaching practices. In addition, it also explores the ways they select the character traits as well as the challenges they encountered in character education. The data include in-depth semi-structured interviews with three experienced Indonesian senior high school teachers. The results delineate that the teachers enacted character education that covered cognitive, affective, and behavioural aspects. Nevertheless, these enactments were unplanned and unassessed. In the process of character selection, the teachers reflected on their contextual situations, past experiences, and future orientations. They encountered difficulties in character education due to the abundance of academic materials, and the lack of professional development programs and proactive involvement from other school members.

MEANINGFUL LEARNING MODEL THROUGH CONTEXTUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING; THE IMPLEMENTATION IN ENGLISH SUBJECT

Teaching English in the Indonesian National Curriculum demands a change in the learning paradigm towards student-centered, participatory, and contextual learning. However, there are still many teachers who do not know the true nature of English learning. Thus, it causes problems in English language teaching. This research aims at 1) determining the learning process using meaningful learning through contextual teaching and learning, and 2) improving student learning outcomes after being taught using the learning model. This study was conducted at eighth grade of SMP Islam Pecangaan, Jepara regency in which it consisted of 18 students and one English teacher. The design was collaborative classroom action research with two cycles, where in each cycle consisting of four steps; planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The data were collected through observation, interview and test with qualitative and quantitative analysis. The finding indicated that the implementation of the meaningful learning model through CTL could 1) improve the students learning completeness from 44% in the first cycle to 89% in the second cycle, 2) improve the learning process carried out by teachers in the aspects of advance organizer, progressive differential, contextualization and constructivism, meaningful learning development, and evaluation, and 3) improve students learning outcomes in each cycle.

Exploring the graduates’ perception of English language materials in Vocational High Schools

Instead of continuing their studies, Vocational High School (SMK) students are prepared to work following graduation. Thus, instead of using general English, ESP (English for Specific Purposes) should be integrated in SMK. However, the Indonesian National Curriculum decided to teach both SMA (General High School) and SMK the same general English content. The purpose of this study is to see how graduates feel about the EFL materials they received at SMK. This research involved three SMK graduates as participants. This investigation yielded three recommendations. First, ESP resources should be incorporated to the English topic in SMK without omitting the need for general English materials. Second, SMK classroom activities should place a greater emphasis on practical communication. Third, extensive reading and/or listening activities should be implemented in SMK.DOI: 10.26905/enjourme.v7i1.7445

Portraying English Teachers’ Obstacles in Applying 2013 Curriculum for High School Level

Abstract. Curriculum is an essential part in education. Every change occurs in the national curriculum requires readiness of teachers to cater the demand of the new curriculum. This research was aimed at portraying the obstacles encountered by high school English teachers in Ambon city in applying the new Indonesian national curriculum known as Curriculum 2013. Survey method was used as research method. Questionnaire was used as the instrument in collecting data needed in this study. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. There were 20 English teaachers from 10 high schools as participants. From the analysis results, this study confirms that most teachers understand the Curriculum 2013 . However, some teachers are still facing some difficulties. These difficulties include the use of learning technology, the availability of learning resources, and the allocation of learning time. The results of this study can be used as a consideration in developing training program for the Curriculum 2013 implementation to be more effective and follow the needs of teachers. Keywords: Curriculum 2013 , teaching English, teachers’ perception

Promoting Students’ Scientific Habits of Mind and Chemical Literacy Using the Context of Socio-Scientific Issues on the Inquiry Learning

This quasi-experimental study used a pre-/posttest design to investigate student’s scientific habits of mind (SHOM) and chemical literacy. There were 32 students of the 11th grade selected for the experimental and control class. They were taken by random sampling. The experimental class applied inquiry learning via Predict-Observe-Explain-Extend (POEEd) using the socio-scientific issue (SSI) context, while the control class used a scientific approach that addressed the Indonesian national curriculum. The Acid-Base Chemical Literacy Test (A-BCLT) consisted of 19 items that used four contexts. Argumentative question added on each context. The other instrument was the SHOM scale in the SSI context. The scale consisted of 20 items in seven factors of SHOM. A group of experts looked at both instruments to ensure content validity. Then, the empirical test showed that both instruments have good reliability. MANOVA as the inferential statistic technique was used to analyze the differences among the group. The results showed that there was a significant difference in SHOM and students’ chemical literacy simultaneously. However, there was only a significant difference in students’ chemical literacy on separate analyses. Students have a better scientific argument in the case of acid rain as SSI, but it was less good for consumption of ulcer medicine for fasting people. Meanwhile, for SHOM, students have better thinking in open-mindedness and objectivity factors but less on curiosity. Some of the interesting findings and their implications are discussed in this study. The integration of SSI in chemistry learning is important. It is meaningful in promoting students’ thinking skills to become responsible citizens in the future.

Teachers’ Perception toward the Use of Ethnomathematics Approach in Teaching Math

Albeit the research on the ethnomathematics have extensively undertaken, little empirical evidence reports teachers’ perception on the ethnomathematics approach. To fill the gap, this present case study showcases that the teachers positively perceived ethnomathematics approach. The case study design was applied in this study with a focus on an exploratory overview of Indonesian’s teachers understanding ethnomathematics and practices. Teachers apply myriad media from Buginese and Makassar traditional meals and games in teaching math through the ethnomathematics approach, and most participants agree to include ethnomathematics in the math curriculum. This study found from the findings that by ethnomathematics students can grab the lesson easily and acknowledge their own culture based on the Indonesian National curriculum. Drawing on these findings, policy recommendations for teachers and school stakeholders, along with conceptual and empirical implications are discussed.

CULTURAL CONTENT ANALYSIS ON GOVERNMENT-ISSUED ENGLISH LEARNING TEXTBOOKS

In today’s world, the English language is seen as the international language for its world-wide use in all aspects of life. The language thus becomes the medium in bridging communication gaps between countries by providing a common ground for communication. To cater to the need of human resources with intercultural communicative competence (ICC), the government in Indonesia has issued textbooks for English learning for middle school students. In Indonesian national curriculum, English language is first formally learned in middle school, where the students are at the age of shaping their own ideology and values, which could also come from learning. This study examines the English textbooks issued by the government by analyzing their cultural content. The cultural elements are examined and divided into three components using the framework from Yuen’s cultural elements, a modified version of Cortazzi and Jin’s cultural aspects by Tazeddin & Teimournezhad, and Gomez Rodriguez’s surface culture and deep culture. The results show that the cultural content is disproportionate, and it might lead to the failure of creating ICC learners as it dismisses other aspects and elements of culture that are important in nurturing ICC.

Student empowerment in a constructivist values learning environment for a healthy and sustainable world

Civic education is a moral development imperative of the Indonesian national curriculum and the United Nation’s policy on education for sustainable development. It was within this context that we investigated the impact of ethical dilemma story pedagogy (EDSP) on student learning in a constructivist Indonesian STEM learning environment. EDSP uses specially-designed stories to engage students in ethical decision-making for resolving sustainable development dilemmas occurring in their daily lives. The research was conducted in six Indonesian middle schools with 462 students of chemistry, and it was designed to lead to understanding of how well students engaged in a constructivist values learning environment aimed at developing chemistry knowledge/skills and ethical values for living sustainably in the 21st century. Data were collected using the Constructivist Values Learning Environment Survey (CVLES), classroom observations, student interviews and students’ reflective journals. Generally, students had positive perceptions of their constructivist values learning environment, engaged deeply in chemistry learning, reflected critically on their values and the social use of chemistry, and practised mutually-respectful communication and collaborative decision-making as strategies for solving sustainability dilemmas. We conclude that ethical dilemma story pedagogy can play an important role in integrating STEM education and civic education.

Effective Communication-Based Teaching Skill for Early Childhood Education Students

The research aims to develop a series of effective communication-based teaching skills for early childhood education teachers that develop in accordance with the Indonesian National Curriculum framework used recently in Department of Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Education, State University Jakarta. Research will be conducted in two years using research and development methods. The literature review has been conducted on effective communication and teaching skills for the first year and a series of teaching skill indicators. Data gathered from early childhood education teachers in Jakarta are related to the theory and practice of teaching skills with observation, interviews and performance tests. The results of the study are indicators for Early Childhood Education (PAUD) teacher teaching skills. On the other hand, drafts of effective communication practices are conducted to be applied in teacher teaching skills. These two concepts will be used to develop a model of effective communication based teaching skills for teachers of early childhood. The result can be consideration of educational institutions educators, researchers and governments in developing training models to improve teacher teaching skills.

Recontextualisation of genre-based pedagogy: The case of Indonesian EFL classrooms

Genre-based pedagogy has been adapted to the Indonesian national curriculum for subject English since 2004. There has been reports of its success and it now remains as an important part of the language curriculum at schools. However, there is a couple of considerations need to be taken seriously in relation with genre-based adaptation. First, genre-based pedagogy, based on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) theory, was developed in Australia in English as a mother tongue and ESL classrooms. Indonesian classrooms are different from those in Australia, not least because they teach English as a foreign language. Secondly, the Indonesian curriculum is prescribed from the centre, and though teachers are required to follow the genre-based approach that has been adopted, it is not clear how well teachers have understood it or implemented it. This article aims to discuss critically the recontextualisation of genre-based pedagogy in the EFL classrooms in Indonesia by investigating the ways teachers interpret and implement the teaching of English under the genre-based pedagogy. The study reported here was drawn from an action research project and involved observing one teaching learning unit of the teachers trained to implement the genre-based pedagogy. The findings indicate that the genre-based pedagogy in Indonesian EFL classrooms has been recontextualised only in part, because the influence of other teaching methods tends to prevail. This is problematic to the interest of the national curriculum to improve students’ English literacy. The main goal of genre pedagogy which aims to uphold social justice through equal distribution of knowledge will not prevail if the principles of the pedagogy itself is not recontextualised properly.

Indonesia Vocational High School Science Teachers’ Priorities Regarding 21st Century Learning Skills in Their Science Classrooms

The purpose of this study was to examine vocational high school science teachers’ instructionalprioritizing the 21st Century Skills mandated in the Indonesian National Curriculum 2013 revision. The Indonesiangovernment implemented this curriculum in 2017 to support students’ career readiness, which was inadequatelyaddressed in previous curriculum documents. Survey data was obtained from the population of vocational highschool science teachers in the city of Pontianak, West Kalimantan province, Indonesia. The study contrasted theprioritizing of 21st Century Skills objectives with previous curriculum objectives, in order to determine if teachersgive priority to current curriculum requirements or are still focusing on previous requirements. The studyfurthermore examined whether teacher demographic data are associated with their teaching priorities. Resultsindicate teachers do prioritize the 21st Century Learning Skills over previous curriculum objectives. Novice teachersreport higher priority on communication skills and male teachers give higher priority to problem solving. Futureresearch includes determining how these priorities translate into classroom practice.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDONESIAN NATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK (INQF) - BASED ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC SUBJECT AT VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL KAL-1 SURABAYA

Purpose of Study: Ineffective implementation of curriculum 2013 and low quality of vocational school graduates underlay the present study. The Presidential Regulation of the Republic of Indonesian number 8 year 2012 stipulates that the implementation of Indonesian National Curriculum Framework-based on curriculum 2013 will improve the quality of vocational high school graduates at level 2 and their learning outcomes, including cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains. The development of the Indonesian National Curriculum framework-based curriculum 2013 was an activity in generating an educational curriculum at an institutional level which aligns the needs of business and industry.
 The design of this study was the 4-D models of Thiagarajan, namely 1) the definition; 2) design; 3) development; and 4) deployment, but this was only conducted up to the development stage.
 Methodology: Regarding the background, the research questions were formulated as follows: (1) how is the validity, practicality, and effectiveness of the instructional design of the Basic Electrical and Electronic subject?; (2) how is the students’ response to the instructional design of the Basic Electrical and Electronic Subject?; and (3) how are the results of students’ learning outcomes of Basic Electrical and Electronic Subject?.
 Results: This study aimed to find out: (1) the level of validity, practicality, and effectiveness of the instructional design of the Basic Electrical and Electronic Subject; (2) the students’ response of the instructional design of the Basic Electrical and Electronic Subject; and (3) the students’ learning outcomes of the Basic Electrical and Electronic Subject.
 Implications/Applications: The conclusion of this research is: 1) the average score on the validity of the instructional design was 3.722 (very high), the average score on its feasibility was 3.72 (very practical), while the average score of its effectiveness was 71.87 (effective); 2) the students’ responses to the instructional design were 92%, which was satisfactory; and 3) the average score of the students’ learning results was 85, over the minimum score determined, with the learning mastery of 100%.

METACOGNITIVE LEARNING STRATEGY: IN SEARCH OF THEORETICAL MODEL FOR READING COMPREHENSION

<p>This paper was presented on the basic of senior high school teachers’ complaint over the implementation of scientific- based approach in 2013 Indonesian National Curriculum. Their path to successful learning is obstructed by the discontinuity of five stages of scientific- based approach which comprises of observing, questioning, associating, experimenting, and networking. This study was aimed at developing a theoretical model of reading comprehension based on metacognitive learning strategies. Descriptive qualitative approach was carried out to determine some possible theories which might lead to coin the theoretical model of reading comprehension based on metacognitive learning strategies for Indonesian students of Senior High School. Results of the study showed that underlining, note taking, summarizing, concept mapping might also be instantly working together to help senior high school students get the text content well-comprehended.</p><p> </p><center><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" rel="license"><img src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a></center><p> </p>

The implementation of interest-based entrepreneurship curriculum in the Theory of Economics course

College and university are educational institutions and they should be able to design entrepreneurship program in order to strengthen creativity and innovation. Potential grown-up citizens potential is the main problem of national development solved through the role of universities by reconstructing the curriculum based on 2016 Indonesian National Curriculum Framework. The interest of building entrepreneurship becomes the work of all elements which one of them is a university. Reconstructing interest-based entrepreneurship curriculum is the first step to construct characterized economic. Economics lecturers have a responsibility to develop the curriculum. This study aimed to explore the interest in entrepreneurship used to develop the contextual learning using problem-based learning (PBL) method that refers to Universitas Negeri Surabaya’s motto “Growing with character” and integrated into 2016 Indonesian National Curriculum Framework. This study was qualitative explorative. The subjects of the study are 86 students in their first semester. The objective of the study was curriculum development interest-based entrepreneurship in the theory of economics course. The results of the study showed that the interest-based entrepreneurship curriculum was able to reach the targeted learning outcome as well as to create a product in the culinary and services project in Wonorejo mangrove forest according to students’ interests.

USING A GENRE-BASED APPROACH TO PREPARE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS FOR AN ENGLISH THESIS DEFENCE EXAMINATION: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY TO ADDRESS THE ‘PEDAGOGICAL CONTROVERSY’

A great deal of research has been conducted on genre based approach, suggesting that it is an important approach. Its importance is also indicated by the fact that it is adopted in the 2004 and 2006 National English Curricula of Indonesian secondary schools. However, the pedagogical benefit of this approach to English language teaching is still controversial. Some research has shown that it is effective to develop language competence, some has not. The fact that since the adoption of this approach in the 2004 Indonesian National Curriculum the quality of Indonesian English language teaching at Indonesian schools has not significantly improved complicates the issue further. The present study was intended to contribute to the debate. It is an experiment to discover whether the approach can help improve the performance of students in university thesis defence examinations. The study was conducted at a university level because of an important practical issue, that is complaints among members of the academic community about the poor performance of undergraduate (UG) students in the thesis defence examination (TDE) event at Indonesian universities especially in Aceh. It was believed that even though students were competent in speaking general English, they were poor in their oral thesis defence performance. This study concludes that, with some conditions, it can help at least in some respects.

Linking pre-service teachers’ questioning and students’ strategies in solving contextual problems: A case study in Indonesia and the Netherlands

IntroductionThere is now a widespread body of knowledge that identifies the potential and challenges of using contextual problems to advance children's learning of mathematics. Some studies have demonstrated that context plays a significant role as a starting point of learning for students because it allows students to start with informal strategies and offers opportunities for students to solve the problems at different levels of formality (Freudenthal, 1983, 1991; Gravemeijer & Doorman, 1999; van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, 1996, 2000; van den Heuvel-Panhuizen & Wijers, 2005). This was also reported in earlier studies from Indonesia where the use of contextual problems supported students to develop mathematical understandings (Dolk, Widjaja, Zonneveld, & Fauzan, 2010; Sembiring, Hadi, & Dolk, 2008; Widjaja, Dolk, & Fauzan, 2010). However, existing studies have also revealed the challenges of incorporating contextual problems into students' learning for two main reasons. Firstly, students bring different experiences and prior knowledge to the classroom. This may influence the students' interpretations of the contextual problem and lead them to solve the problem in an inappropriate way (Boaler, 1993; Carraher & Schliemann, 2002; Widjaja, 2008, 2013; Wijaya, van den Heuvel-Panhuizen & Doorman, 2015). Secondly, the way students solve contextual problems depends on how the students have been taught (van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, 2005).Since 2000 a movement called 'Pendidikan Matematika Realistik Indonesia ' (PMRI) was adapted and implemented in Indonesia. This was inspired by Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) which was developed in the Netherlands (Freudenthal, 1983, 1991; Sembiring, Hadi, & Dolk, 2008; Sembiring, Hoogland, & Dolk, 2010). PMRI advocates the teaching of mathematics which moves away from teaching based on symbolic manipulation. Studies incorporating the use of contextual problems in Indonesian classrooms confirm this assertion (Widjaja, Dolk, & Fauzan, 2010; Dolk, Widjaja, Zonneveld, & Fauzan, 2010). Nevertheless, the bottom up approach in the PMRI movement implies that these changes are not mandated. As a result the PMRI movement has not been implemented nationally and is not reflected in Indonesian national curriculum. To date there are still limited opportunities for students to engage in making sense of mathematics through contexts in Indonesian textbooks (Fauzan, Plomp & Gravemeijer, 2013; Wijaya, 2015; Zulkardi, 2002). Similarly, solving contextual problems in multiple ways is another approach which is not common in Indonesia. Many concepts in mathematics are introduced without context, nor do they enable students to explore multiple meanings of the concept. For instance, fractions are only introduced as parts of a whole. Fractions as quotients and ratios are excluded. This is not in line with the RME principles where fractions are introduced through various real-life contexts such as fair sharing, measurements and money so as to enable students to understand the relationship between all the concepts involving fractions. According to RME principles, students are expected to learn fractions in informal ways using their investigations before moving on to more abstract and formal mathematics (van den Heuvel-Panhuizen & Wijers, 2005).This case study is based on teaching experiments conducted by volunteer Indonesian and Dutch pre-service teachers using contextual problems on fractions with Grade 4 children in Indonesia and the Netherlands. The study aims to examine how pre-service teachers' questioning influence students' reasoning in solving contextual problems with fractions. Whilst a number of cross-national studies on the topic of fractions have been documented (Alajmi, 2012; Cai & Wang, 2006; Moseley, Okamoto, & Ishida, 2007; Mosvold, 2008; Son & Senk, 2010; Yim, 2010), to date there is no study where pre-service teachers examine their own questioning as a way to engage students when solving contextual problems about fractions. …