How to Promote International Level of Schooling If I were Agency Head of Education

 

By: Ridha Esty Argarini

09301241008

Student of Mathematics Education 2009

Nowadays International Level of Schooling became a brand that is interesting for the world of education, and Indonesia is no exception. Every district government in Indonesia competed to create International Level of Schooling in their region. Actually global competition that was begun in International education world demanded every country to prepare their own young generations quickly to improve their readiness to face it. With district autonomy that was applied in Indonesia, the district government has a rule on the case of construct their own district including in the side of education. The rising of International Level of Schooling in a district actually will raise the image of this district.

                The international level of schooling was wished to be able to compete with other schools at the international level and it’s not only at the national region of Indonesia but also at the international region of this world. But unfortunately, the rising of international level of schooling in Indonesia nowadays is like only as a label or a symbol. There are many matters that were still need to improve from the case of teacher, student, headmasters and also the agency head of education a leader that have a rule to decide a wise. For example, there was still a teacher on the international level of schooling that was used traditional method on the process of teaching learning, maybe actually they already use and apply the procedure of modern teaching learning method, but in fact it’s just a procedure like using different formation on the position of the student and the use of modern technology but actually they still apply teacher center learning and as we know that it was the characteristic of traditional method of teaching learning. This was indicated that there is misunderstanding about modern method of teaching learning. It should be an attention for the government especially agency head of education in every district as a decider of wises.

                The agency head of education has a function as a planner of education developing program, a coordinator, a supervisor and a decider of an education policy. Base on the function or rule of the agency head of education, then if I were an agency head of education I will create an innovation that have an aid to improve the system and the quality of education, in the case of teacher, student, headmaster and also all of stakeholder at school is my first priority as the first step to construct the real of international level of school. In my point of view, quality is the most important. A school that was declared as international level of schooling should really suitable in a facility and quality manner.

                As a principal that the rising of international level of schooling should be considered as a necessary, such as the necessary of better quality so they can compete with other international level of schooling in the world and not only as the necessary or better image for a district. So that as an agency head of education, then the policies that I am able to take is developing and supervising the school that is has a potential to be international level of schooling overall. The school that was promoted to be international level of schooling should be able to give a real contribution for the district development, such as reliving the local potential in order to make it known in the international society.

                Beside that, the quality development of teacher, headmaster and staff should through a right and appropriate process. The development of school to be international level of schooling should be balanced with the development of teacher competence in order to grab international level of teacher. The way to do this development are through deciding a right policy such as give a facility of lesson study for the teacher with doing a cooperation with university in order to extend the teachers’ ability, competency and knowledge. The giving of facility like a chance for the teacher to develop their competence also should be balanced with a continue supervising to the development of teachers’ work. Beside that in aid to create good international level of schooling, as a agency head of education I should be able to construct an international network specially in the case of education, through promoting local potential that was developed at school or through give a support by give a facility and enough budgeting for school and student to follow kinds of international competition and workshop.

                However for me, to be real international level of schooling so that school should really understand about the situation of international competition and also understand about the level should be reached to be able to parallelized with others real international level of schooling. The international level of schooling is not only about applying English as an international language and doing moving class at the process of teaching learning but also as a level and quality that is appropriate with that name as international.

                 

Mathematics Teaching Across Multicultural Context

By:

Ridha Esty Argarini

Faculty of Mathematics and Science

Mathematics Education 2009

Yogyakarta State University

A.      Introduction

Nowadays the development of education, particularly mathematics education has shown a change in paradigm of learning from teacher center to student center. The students center learning is developed through a variety of ways begun the preparation of appropriate curricula, until increase the competence of teachers in developing teaching methods that support. One step has been taken in order to increase the competence of teachers through lesson which is scaled regional, national and international.

Through international lesson study development an educator can find an effective method to increase the learning process of mathematics, especially that is based on the student center learning from various countries. Because in fact, although each country has the same basic concept to develop learning based on student center that is effective but there are differences within a particular point of view, which further these differences will bring its own characteristics for each State . For example, learning mathematics in the context of Japanese may be different from the learning of mathematics in the context of Indonesian, this is the implication of various factors such as social conditions, culture and environment in which learning was implemented and many more other factors. Both the State, Indonesia and Japan may indeed talk about the same thing that is the development of learning which is based on student center but, the way to developing learning-based view of the student center in Indonesia maybe different with  Japan.

In this paper will discuss some of the characteristics of learning mathematics in the context of Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Malaysia with the aim to find out how the learning of mathematics is developed through a different context but with the same purpose in order to increase the knowledge and experience. Various contexts of learning mathematics is in this paper based on the papers of the keynote speakers from various countries who delivered upon the symposium in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand.

B.      Japanese Context

In learning mathematics are two of the few things that teachers use as a reference method development is to use the book and watching the results of recent research. In the use of text books often teachers do not notice that the contents of the book is designed based on the its own curriculum and different types. Teachers should be able to adapt the contents of the book and deliver it to their students based on the type and characteristics of the students they faced. Not only the text books that require adaptation but also the research results. The results of the research will probably give a different effect when applied to different subjects, therefore a teacher must be careful if they want to use the results of existing research to developing mathematics learning, not necessarily with direct use of research results as a reference.

Besides that, Takahashi (2011) also said that effective assessment plays an important role at all stages mathematics. So beside the use of text books and research that need to be adjusted, the other thing that the teacher must be concern is the development of an effective assessment. Assessment is not only after learning was complete but it is also allocated evenly at the beginning of learning, during the learning process and after the learning process. Assessment before learning begins will provide an overview to the teacher about the level of individual students' understanding, from this case the teacher can determine what kinds of things that student need in order to develop their knowledge and ability, based on the results of these tests the teacher can also determine the teaching methods which are suitable to be applied to students with a certain ability level. Assessment in the learning process aims to monitor students' learning process so teachers can maximize the learning so that students can also develop their knowledge and understanding optimally. Assessment after the learning process will provide data to teachers about achievement of students after going through the learning process, in addition to providing information about the level of student achievement through teacher assessment the teacher can also do evaluation how far the method that was applied successfully to maximize student achievement, then make improvements on things that still needs improvement.

In the context of learning for Japanese people this importance of assessment on learning process raises an issue of what kinds of method that can develop teacher assessment ability. One of the steps taken in order to develop teachers' assessment skills is through workshops and training which is provided by universities and other professional organization. However, the training provided is focused on certain aspects of knowledge based on specific curriculum.But every teacher has a class of their own with the conditions that may be different from what is delivered through that workshop oar training. Therefore, teachers also need to adapt the curriculum based on students' own abilities, based on plans that was arranged by the teacher so that the assessment that is used are appropriate with their own students ability and characteristics. So to be able to develop the assessment skills of teachers, not enough just to follow the workshop or training but also with collaboration and cooperation with other teachers through lesson study.

Lesson study is relatively new to schools outside of Japan, so it is still has not been a lot of forums that can be used by teachers to develop observation skills that are part of the assessment capabilities, while developing observation skills by simply following the training course and workshop felt not quite adequate. This is the reason for the emergence of new methods in Japan that can be used to develop the assesment skills of teachers, that is through the using of technology such tablets.

Some of the advantages provided by this tablet-based tool first help the teacher to    

to be focus on the most important data such as the quality of student work, second, it should emphasize collection of factual information through time stamp, audio recording and photograph, third, it needs to be maximally flexible about the data to be collected, so that users are never prevented from recording something they judge as important, fourth, it should enable users to organize their data and report it in different ways (Takahashi).
One of the tools that can be used is an iPad LessonNote-based observation tool.

C.      Indonesian Context

Developments in mathematics education requires every State to continually make changes in the education system of the country, Indonesia is no exception. Indonesia has implemented a new curriculum with the point of view and new methods of learning, the curriculum is called based-school competence curriculum. Through this curriculum the government set up the education system by giving freedom to each institution to develop its own curriculum and learning methods. Based on the school-based competence curriculum,teaching methods that should be developed is a learning method that is based on student center.

In school-based curriculum, it was stated that mathematics in primary and secondary school should encourage the students to think logically, analytically, systematically, critically, creatively and be able to collaborate with other (Marsigit.2011). To develop this kind of mathematics there are several wayss that can be used by teachers include problem solving methods. The problem that was discussed at the problem solving activity could be form as closed and open problems that was taken form real environment or taken form textbook. Because of that the problem solving activity can develop by the use of appropriate and qualified text book. The Indonesia teachers’ perception of good textbook are it should motivates the student to learn mathematics, It should develop students’ oriented teaching learning of mathematics, support of achieving learning objective, employ flexible teaching learning method, facilitate the students’ need to learn mathematics, dealing with the students’ difficulties in learning mathematics, consist of summary, as a communicative writing, develop the cognitive schema of learning mathematics, be as students’ learning oriented and encourage the students to solve mathematics problem.

D.      Taiwan Context

In view of Taiwan developing a mathematics learning can be done by tracing three major problems in learning mathematics that is the challenge of integrating the student's perspectives into teaching practice, the gap the between theories and practices, and the lack of learning theories for teachers and educators.

Integrating student's perspectives into teaching to improve their learning is the central in mathematics education (Fou Lai Lin.2011). One way to overcome this problem is to use a method of problem solving. Through this problem solving approach in the learning mathematics mathematics then students can freely express what they think, so teachers can know and understand the student's perspective. However, the need to consider is the criteria of the problem to be solved by the students through problem solving activities, it is not uncommon problem that is provided by the teacher to be completed by students is a foreign problem for students. If this is not understood by teachers and teachers still think that these issues are familiar with the students then it is possible to make student feel down and make the students are not enthusiastic about learning. Therefore, in the implementation of problem solving in learning mathematics teachers need to design appropriate learning with a student's perspective.

Another problem encountered in learning mathematics is the difficulty of applying the theory into the context of learning mathematics, because in fact integrating a theory into the context of learning mathematics is a complicated and complex for teachers and educators. For that this problem requires both teachers and educators to be able to build bridges between theory and real mathematics  learning context.

The third problem is the lack of learning theories for teachers and educators. Theory is important in the development of learning mathematics, because through the theory then the teacher and educator can develop research that is useful for improving the quality of learning. In fact arrange a learning theories for teachers is more difficult and complex than for the  students.

Based on these three issues in the context of Taiwan can be resolved by first elaborating the rational of focusing on conjecturing, and then delinate the scaffolding approach for experienced mathematics teachers by asking Them to design tasks involving types of conjecturing.

Conjecture are guesses based on intuition, conjecture also important in mathematical thinking activities. Some of the advantages to be gained through the development of the ability of conjecturing is can enhance conceptual understanding, the fluency, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, and productive disposition.

E.       Hong Kong context

Based on the views of Hong Kong the principle that need to consider in the development of lesson study to improve the learning of mathematics is making mathematics learning design that delivers the right proportion between the where and when students must construct knowledge independently and also where and when the teacher should provide interventions to align the concept of students who less precise. Besides that the most important thing in mathematics learning process is to build students' motivation in learning, this can be done through learning activities that provide opportunities for students to construct and express his own knowledge, because this activity is a best way to motivate the student in learning. Problems discussed in the learning activities should also according with the level of students’ cognitive development so it allows students to answer correctly so that the teacher can motivate students by showing that in fact students can solve that matter.

F.       Vietnamese Context

Based on the Vietnamese context the most important thing in learning mathematics is a class. Therefore, in the implementation of learning activities in mathematics classroom, must be maximized by the teacher as the use of facilities to support learning including teaching aids. Particularly in teaching geometry, teaching aids will greatly help students to be able to develop the their sense ability, so they can develop their knowledge and understanding based on the concept that they have understood.

In the process of learning mathematics using a problem solving students are given the opportunity to solve a problem based on what they understand, they are given flexibility in thinking and it is allowed as long as in accordance with the procedure that the correct concept.

G.     Singapore Context

Since lesson study become one of popular models of teaching mathematics development in Singapore, it is implied the available of chance for the teacher to develop their ability and knowledge. Through lesson study the teacher can evaluate each other to increase the quality of teaching mathematics. The development of teaching learning mathematics in Singapore also done by improve and increase the quality of textbook that was use in the process of teaching learning mathematics, this case is based on the point of view that the development of textbooks that was contained of open-ended task and problems and arranged appropriate with the level of student cognitive development can help the student to increase their knowledge specially on the case of mathematical thinking including creative thinking. This development of mathematics teaching is one of alternative ways which is more effective than the old ways with their activities such as provide workshop and training.

H.     Conclusion

Based on the description above, in fact, each country with different culture have a difference in terms of technique and systems of development and implementation of learning mathematics. Although basically every country equally seeks to develop student center learning, but there are some things that make each state has their own way in the development of mathematical learning, such as environmental factors both social and cultural force in each State them. However, by knowing the development of mathematics learning across multi-cultural context it will provide broad insight about the development of learning mathematics background of each country so it can be a means of evaluation to improve the quality of learning math so the better.

I.        Reference

Marsigit and Rosnawati.(2011).Teachers’Simulation on Developing Solving-Based

     Mathematics Textbook in Vicational Senior High School Mathematics Teaching in

     Indonesia.Paper: to be presented at APEC-Ubon Ratchathani International Symposium

     2011.In Thailand.2-5 November 2011

Akihiko Takashi and Thomas McDougal.(2011).A tablet-based application for supporting

     effective lesson study. Paper: to be presented at APEC-Ubon Ratchathani International

     Symposium 2011.In Thailand.2-5 November 2011

F.L Lin,H.Y Hsu,K.L Yang,J.C Chen & K.H Lee.(2011).Adventuring Through Big Problem as

     Means of Innovationa in Mathematics Education. Paper: to be presented at APEC-Ubon

     Ratchathani  International Symposium 2011.In Thailand.2-5 November 2011