Jumat, 07 Maret 2014

Tanggung Jawab Seorang Pemimpin

Nabi saw.: Sesungguhnya kalian akan sangat menginginkan kekuasaan, tetapi hal itu akan menjadi penyesalan di Hari Kiamat. Maka betapa lezatnya ketika memperoleh dan betapa buruk ketika berpisah dengannya. (HR Al-Bukhari)

Al-Muhallab menjelaskan: keinginan berkuasa itulah yang membuat manusia sanggup berdarah-darah, menghalalkan segala cara, dan melakukan kerusakan di muka bumi hingga dengan kekuasaan itu ia mencapai kelezatannya. Namun, kemudian setelah itu ia menuju kondisi yang buruk, mungkin ia akan terbunuh karena kekuasaannya, atau diasingkan dan menemui kehinaannya; atau ia mati, lalu dimintai pertanggungjawabannya di akhirat, kemudian menyesal.

Selecting and Developing Teaching/Learning Materials

The Internet TESL Journal

Kenji Kitao, Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan)
kkitao [at] mail.doshisha.ac.jp
S. Kathleen Kitao, Doshisha Women's College (Kyoto, Japan)
kkitao [at] mail-t.dwc.doshisha.ac.jp

Why do We Use Materials/What are Materials for?

Language instruction has five important components--students, a teacher, materials, teaching methods, and evaluation. Why are materials important in language instruction? What do materials do in language instruction? Can we teach English without a textbook?
Allwright (1990) argues that materials should teach students to learn, that they should be resource books for ideas and activities for instruction/learning, and that they should give teachers rationales for what they do. From Allwright's point of view, textbooks are too inflexible to be used directly as instructional material. O'Neill (1990), in contrast, argues that materials may be suitable for students' needs, even if they are not designed specifically for them, that textbooks make it possible for students to review and prepare their lessons, that textbooks are efficient in terms of time and money, and that textbooks can and should allow for adaptation and improvization.
Allwright emphasizes that materials control learning and teaching. O'Neill emphasizes that they help learning and teaching. It is true that in many cases teachers and students rely heavily on textbooks, and textbooks determine the components and methods of learning, that is, they control the content, methods, and procedures of learning. Students learn what is presented in the textbook, and the way the textbook presents material is the way students learn it. The educational philosophy of the textbook will influence the class and the learning process. Therefore, in many cases, materials are the center of instruction and one of the most important influences on what goes on in the classroom.
Theoretically, experienced teachers can teach English without a textbook. However, it is not easy to do it all the time, though they may do it sometimes. Many teachers do not have enough time to make supplementary materials, so they just follow the textbook. Textbooks therefore take on a very important role in language classes, and it is important to select a good textbook.

The Role of Materials in Relation to Other Elements

Since the end of 1970s, there has been a movement to make learners rather than teachers the center of language learning. According to this approach to teaching, learners are more important than teachers, materials, curriculum, methods, or evaluation. As a matter of fact, curriculum, materials, teaching methods, and evaluation should all be designed for learners and their needs. It is the teacher's responsibility to check to see whether all of the elements of the learning process are working well for learners and to adapt them if they are not.
In other words, learners should be the center of instruction and learning. The curriculum is a statement of the goals of learning, the methods of learning, etc. The role of teachers is to help learners to learn. Teachers have to follow the curriculum and provide, make, or choose materials. They may adapt, supplement, and elaborate on those materials and also monitor the progress and needs of the students and finally evaluate students.
Materials include textbooks, video and audio tapes, computer software, and visual aids. They influence the content and the procedures of learning. The choice of deductive vs inductive learning, the role of memorization, the use of creativity and problem solving, production vs. reception, and the order in which materials are presented are all influenced by the materials.
Technology, such as OHP, slides, video and audio tape recorders, video cameras, and computers, supports instruction/learning .
Evaluations (tests, etc.) can be used to assign grades, check learning, give feedback to students, and improve instruction by giving feedback to the teacher.
Though students should be the center of instruction, in many cases, teachers and students rely on materials, and the materials become the center of instruction. Since many teachers are busy and do not have the time or inclination to prepare extra materials, textbooks and other commercially produced materials are very important in language instruction. Therefore, it is important for teachers to know how to choose the best material for instruction, how to make supplementary materials for the class, and how to adapt materials.

What are Characteristics of Materials?

Littlejohn and Windeatt (1989) argue that materials have a hidden curriculum that includes attitudes toward knowledge, attitudes toward teaching and learning, attitudes toward the role and relationship of the teacher and student, and values and attitudes related to gender, society, etc. Materials have an underlying instructional philosophy, approach, method, and content, including both linguistic and cultural information. That is, choices made in writing textbooks are based on beliefs that the writers have about what language is and how it should be taught. Writers may use a certain approach, for example, the aural-oral approach, and they choose certain activities and select the linguistic and cultural information to be included.
Clarke (1989) argues that communicative methodology is important and that communicative methodology is based on authenticity, realism, context, and a focus on the learner. However, he argues that what constitutes these characteristics is not clearly defined, and that there are many aspects to each. He questions the extent to which these are these reflected in textbooks that are intended to be communicative.
In a study of English textbooks published in Japan in 1985, the textbooks were reviewed and problems were found with both the language and content of many of the textbooks (Kitao et al., 1995).

Language

English textbooks should have correct, natural, recent, and standard English. Since students' vocabulary is limited, the vocabulary in textbooks should be controlled or the textbooks should provide information to help students understand vocabulary that they may not be familiar with. For lower-level students, grammar should also be controlled. Many textbooks use narratives and essays. It would be useful to have a variety of literary forms (for example, newspaper articles, poetry, or letters), so that students can learn to deal with different forms.

Information on Culture

The cultural information included in English textbooks should be correct and recent. It should not be biased and should reflect background cultures of English. It should include visual aids etc., to help students understand cultural information.

From Learners' Viewpoints

Content English textbooks should be useful, meaningful and interesting for students. While no single subject will be of interest to all students, materials should be chosen based, in part, on what students, in general, are likely to find interesting and motivating.
Difficulty. As a general rule, materials should be slightly higher in their level of difficulty than the students' current level of English proficiency. (Exceptions are usually made for extensive reading and extensive listening materials, which should be easy enough for students to process without much difficulty.) Materials at a slightly higher level of difficulty than the students' current level of English proficiency allow them to learn new grammatical structures and vocabulary.
Instructional issues. English textbooks should have clear instructional procedure and methods, that is, the teacher and students should be able to understand what is expected in each lesson and for each activity.
Textbooks should have support for learning. This can take the form of vocabulary lists, exercises which cover or expand on the content, visual aids, etc. Traditionally, language teaching materials in Japan are made up mostly of text, with few, if any, visual aids. However, with the development of technology, photos, visual materials and audio materials have become very important components of language teaching materials, and they are becoming easier to obtain. Teachers need to learn how to find them, and how to best exploit these characteristics.
Materials are getting more complicated, and instructional philosophy, approach, methods, and techniques are getting more important. Teachers need to be able to evaluate materials involving photos, videos, and computers now.

How Can We Learn About Materials?

There are various ways to get information about textbooks and other teaching materials. Many materials are published by publishers and developed and distributed by commercial companies. Thus, publishers are useful (if not entirely unbiased) sources of information and advice about what materials are available and what materials are appropriate for various purposes. Many publishers provide sample copies on request. Bookstores that carry textbooks are another possible source of information. Clerks at such bookstores may help you find the materials you want. In addition, publishers' displays at conferences are useful. They usually have the most recent materials, exhibitors are willing to help you and answer your questions, and in some cases, you will have opportunities to meet and talk with the authors. Colleagues and friends who are teachers are also good sources of recommendations of textbooks and advice about how to best use them. Finally, there is information from computer mailing lists and web pages on the Internet. Lists on language teaching often have discussions on materials, and you can ask questions and may get good feedback. Many publishers have www pages and e-mail addresses, so you can check with them and also ask questions about the materials.

How do We Get Materials?

In addition to publishers, there are many possible sources of materials. There is a lot of material available on the Internet. You can search for materials when you have free time, and store them for your future classes.
Many teachers go abroad during vacations these days, and they can collect materials in English-speaking countries. TV and radio are good sources. They provide a variety of materials. The information is current and the language is natural, but the content has to be chosen carefully. Newspapers, magazines, advertisements, and other types of printed material are very useful. Teachers can take photos, make video tapes or record audio tapes. If they make plans before they go overseas, they may be able to make good video or audio programs.
Even in your home country, you can browse the world wide web and search for useful materials for classes. There are lots of sources of materials and photos on www.

Concerns About Materials

The market of language teaching materials are fairly large, and many companies are competing. They produce new materials and promote them with many advertisements and through their salespeople. You need to be careful about what they tell you. You always need to examine their materials carefully from the point of view of what is appropriate for your students and the classes you are teaching.
Another concern about materials is that the copyright issue. Many teachers violate the copyright laws every day. We cannot copy any copyrighted materials. Of course, we cannot copy them and distribute them to our students in the class. We need the permission from the publisher to do so.

Summary and Conclusion

Though there are five elements in language instruction, and learners should be the center of instruction. However, materials often control the instruction, since teachers and learners tend to rely heavily on them. Materials that are appropriate for a particular class need to have an underlying instructional philosophy, approach, method and technique which suit the students and their needs. They should have correct, natural, current and standard English. Teachers need to look for good materials, both commercial and non-commercial, all the time. They also need to be aware of commercialism and copyright issues concerning materials.

List of References

Allwright, R. L. (1990). What do we want teaching materials for? In R. Rossner and R. Bolitho, (Eds.), Currents in language teaching. Oxford University Press.
Clarke, D. F. (1989). Communicative theory and its influence on materials production. Language Teaching, 22, 73-86.
Kitao, K., & Kitao, S. K. (September 16, 1982). College reading textbooks do not meet needs. The Daily Yomiuri, p. 7.
Kitao, K., Kitao, S. K., Yoshida, S., Yoshida, H., Kawamura, K., and Kurata, M. (1995). A study of trends of college English reading textbooks in Japan: An analysis of college English reading textbooks for 1985. In K. Kitao and S. K. Kitao, English teaching: Theory, Research and practice (pp. 205-216). Tokyo: Eichosha.
Littlejohn, A., & Windeatt, S. (1989). Beyond language learning: Perspective on materials design. In R. K. Johnson (Ed.), The second language curriculum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O'Neill, R. (1990). Why use textbooks? In R. Rossner and R. Bolitho, (Eds.), Currents in language teaching. Oxford University Press.

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IV, No. 4, April 1997
http://iteslj.org/
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Kitao-Materials.html

SIHIR PEMIKAT SUAMI

SIHIR PEMIKAT SUAMI

1. Jangan pernah menolak ajakan berkumpul tanpa udzur syar'i. Walaupun suami suka bermasalah dlm memuaskannya.

2. Berhias dan bermuka manis di hadapan suami. Namun harus sesuai dengan kemampuan finansial suami.

3. Pilih tutur kata yang lemah lembut.

4. Jangan pernah merendahkan suami dari sisi apapun (harta, ilmu, agama, fisik, dll). Suami paling benci jika direndahkan oleh istrinya. Jangan sombong.

5. Jalin hubungan baik dg ibu/bapak mertua (ortu suami). Dan bantu suami untuk berbakti kpd orang tuanya.

6. Segera minta maaf dengan cara yg baik jika bersalah/bentrok. Sekali lagi, segera & dg cara yg baik. Jangan biarkan suami berlama-lama marah/tdk ridho. Jangan angkuh.

7. Menyambut suami jika pulang kerumah. Sambut dengan wajah berseri dan lain-lain.

8. Kerjasama dalam beribadah kpd Allah. Misal shalat malam bersama.

9. Jangan membuka rahasia suami, baik berupa kebaikan ataupun keburukan. Khususnya masalah ranjang. Jangan mengajak tamu ke kamar tidur tanpa izin.

10. Qona'ah. Tidak banyak menuntut. Mengerti kondisi suami. Tidak berkeluh kesah.

11. Perhatian thd sifat suami. Pahami faktor-faktor yang dapat menyebabkan kemarahan dan kebahagiaan suami.

12. Jangan menceritakan kondisi wanita lain di hadapan suami sehingga seakan-akan suami melihatnya.

13. Jangan mengingkari/melupakan kebaikan suami.

Subhanallah....

Lesson plan

A lesson plan is a teacher's detailed description of the course of instruction for one class. A daily lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide class instruction. Details will vary depending on the preference of the teacher, subject being covered, and the need and/or curiosity of students. There may be requirements mandated by the school system regarding the plan.

Developing a lesson plan

While there are many formats for a lesson plan, most lesson plans contain some or all of these elements, typically in this order:
  • Title of the lesson
  • Time required to complete the lesson
  • List of required materials
  • List of objectives, which may be behavioral objectives (what the student can do at lesson completion) or knowledge objectives (what the student knows at lesson completion)
  • The set (or lead-in, or bridge-in) that focuses students on the lesson's skills or concepts—these include showing pictures or models, asking leading questions, or reviewing previous lessons
  • An instructional component that describes the sequence of events that make up the lesson, including the teacher's instructional input and guided practice the students use to try new skills or work with new ideas
  • Independent practice that allows students to extend skills or knowledge on their own
  • A summary, where the teacher wraps up the discussion and answers questions
  • An evaluation component, a test for mastery of the instructed skills or concepts—such as a set of questions to answer or a set of instructions to follow
  • A risk assessment where the lesson's risks and the steps taken to minimize them are documented.
  • Analysis component the teacher uses to reflect on the lesson itself —such as what worked, what needs improving
  • A continuity component reviews and reflects on content from the previous lesson[2]

A well-developed lesson plan

A well-developed lesson plan reflects the interests and needs of students. It incorporates best practices for the educational field. The lesson plan correlates with the teacher's philosophy of education, which is what the teacher feels is the purpose of educating the students.[3]
Secondary English program lesson plans, for example, usually center around four topics. They are literary theme, elements of language and composition, literary history, and literary genre. A broad, thematic lesson plan is preferable, because it allows a teacher to create various research, writing, speaking, and reading assignments. It helps an instructor teach different literature genres and incorporate videotapes, films, and television programs. Also, it facilitates teaching literature and English together.[3] Similarly, history lesson plans focus on content (historical accuracy and background information), analytic thinking, scaffolding, and the practicality of lesson structure and meeting of educational goals.[4] School requirements and a teacher's personal tastes, in that order, determine the exact requirements for a lesson plan.
Unit plans follow much the same format as a lesson plan, but cover an entire unit of work, which may span several days or weeks. Modern constructivist teaching styles may not require individual lesson plans. The unit plan may include specific objectives and timelines, but lesson plans can be more fluid as they adapt to student needs and learning styles.

Setting objectives

The first thing a teacher does is create an objective, a statement of purpose for the whole lesson. An objective statement itself should answer what students will be able to do by the end of the lesson. Harry Wong states that, “Each [objective] must begin with a verb that states the action to be taken to show accomplishment. The most important word to use in an assignment is a verb, because verbs state how to demonstrate if accomplishment has taken place or not.”[5] The objective drives the whole lesson, it is the reason the lesson exists. Care is taken when creating the objective for each day’s lesson, as it will determine the activities the students engage in. The teacher also ensures that lesson plan goals are compatible with the developmental level of the students. The teacher ensures as well that their student achievement expectations are reasonable.[3]

Selecting lesson plan material

A lesson plan must correlate with the text book the class uses. The school usually selects the text books or provides teachers with a limited text book choice for a particular unit. The teacher must take great care and select the most appropriate book for the students.[3]

Types of Assignments

The instructor must decide whether class assignments are whole-class, small groups, workshops, independent work, peer learning, or contractual:
  • Whole-class—the teacher lectures to the class as a whole and has the class collectively participate in classroom discussions.
  • Small groups—students work on assignments in groups of three or four.
  • Workshops—students perform various tasks simultaneously. Workshop activities must be tailored to the lesson plan.
  • Independent work—students complete assignments individually.
  • Peer learning—students work together, face to face, so they can learn from one another.
  • Contractual work—teacher and student establish an agreement that the student must perform a certain amount of work by a deadline.[3]
These assignment categories (e.g. peer learning, independent, small groups) can also be used to guide the instructor’s choice of assessment measures that can provide information about student and class comprehension of the material. As discussed by Biggs (1999), there are additional questions an instructor can consider when choosing which type of assignment would provide the most benefit to students. These include:
  • What level of learning do the students need to attain before choosing assignments with varying difficulty levels?
  • What is the amount of time the instructor wants the students to use to complete the assignment?
  • How much time and effort does the instructor have to provide student grading and feedback?
  • What is the purpose of the assignment? (e.g. to track student learning; to provide students with time to practice concepts; to practice incidental skills such as group process or independent research)
  • How does the assignment fit with the rest of the lesson plan? Does the assignment test content knowledge or does it require application in a new context?[6]

References

  1. Jump up ^ O'Bannon, B. (2008). "What is a Lesson Plan?". Innovative Technology Center * The University of Tennesseee. Retrieved May 17, 2011.
  2. Jump up ^ "Writing Lesson Plans." Huntington University: a Christian college ranked among America's best colleges. 15 Mar. 2009.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Mitchell, Diana, and Stephen Tchudi, Exploring and Teaching the English Language Arts (4th Ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1999.
  4. Jump up ^ Lesson Plan Reviews Introduction. Teachinghistory.org. Accessed 15 June 2011.
  5. Jump up ^ Wong, Harry K. (1998). The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher. Mountainview, CA : Harry K. Wong Publications
  6. Jump up ^ Biggs, J. (1999) Teaching for Quality Learning at University (pp. 165-203). Buckingham, UK: SRHE and Open University Press.


Jumat, 28 Februari 2014

Synopsis for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo


 
Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist who works for the magazine Millennium, a local Swedish newspaper that publishes left-wing political articles, loses a libel case brought on by corrupt Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. The magazine & Blomkvist are ordered to pay damages and Blomkvist is sentenced to a short prison term.

While waiting to serve his sentence, Blomkvist is approached by a lawyer for Henrik Vanger, the frail & wealthy octagenarian of The Vanger Group, who lives in a remote island located several miles to the north of Stockholm, surrounded by other family members' houses.

It turns out Mr. Vanger wants to hire Blomkvist to unearth the truth behind his niece Harriet's disappearance some 40 years ago when she was sixteen. Although her body was never found, Mr. Vanger believes it was murder because that day there was an accident on the only bridge that links the island with the mainland. The bridge was closed, nobody could get out & nobody could get onto the island. Yet, Harriet just vanished into thin air. Although 40 years have passed on the cold case, Mr. Vanger still hopes to learn what happened to her, before he dies.

Before going to the island to see Mr. Vanger, Blomkvist is unaware that he is being followed & photographed by Lisbeth Salander, a Goth girl who makes a living as a computer hacker and who works part-time at Merrin Security Inc.

The young woman has a troubled past---due to crime committed in her youth, (later we learn that when she was much younger, she had set fire to a man, presumably her abusive father, in a car) she must report to a probation guardian who controls her finances. One day, she is informed that her previous guardian has had a stroke, and a new one has been assigned to her. During her first meeting with him, a lawyer named Nils Bjurman, he forces her to perform oral sex on him, threatening to accuse her of causing trouble and have her put into a psychiatric hospital, if she does not comply.

Some days later, Lisbeth Salander is attacked by punks in a subway tunnel and during the scuffle, her laptop computer is damaged, which requires her to re-visit Nils Bjurman to request some of her own money to replace it. She arrives at his apartment to get the money for the new computer, fully expecting she might have to endure further sexual harrassment from him, but is prepared, with a camcorder hidden in her purse, to record the violation. In spite of her seeming cooperation, Bjurman catches her completely off guard by throwing her down and hits her violently, then handcuffs her to his bed and binds her legs, proceeding to brutally rape her... again threatening her to keep quiet about the abuse.

Some time later, Salander shows up unannounced at Bjurman's door, and turns on him with an electric stun device. She strips him naked and binds and gags him, as he had done to her. She plays what she had recorded the last time she was there so he will understand that she has proof against him. Salander proceeds to sodomize him forcefully with a dildo she finds in his room, then using a tattoo needle, carves permanently on his chest and abdomen: "I am a sadistic pig & rapist". She threatens to reveal the evidence she has to the authorities and the media, and from now on, he has to abide by HER rules---never contact her again, not touch her finances, and release her from guardianship with glowing behavior reports in a year's time. (So as not to arouse suspicion.)

During his investigation, Blomkvist finds out his PC is being hacked into, after Lisbeth Salander sends an "anonymous" clue to him to assist him in the investigation of the disappearance of Vanger's niece, Harriet. He's able to trace back to Salander and comes to her apartment back in Stockholm where Lisbeth has just spent the night with another woman, named Miriam Wu, whom Lisbeth apparented picked up the night before. He persuades her to collaborate with him in his research. Together they dig up more and more troubling information which shows something more sinister than just Mr. Vanger's relatives preying on his fortune and who, perhaps, had succeed in getting rid of Harriet for the sake of inheritance.

As the investigation (and their relationship) progresses, Blomkvist and Salander return to the cottage Blomkvist is renting one night to discover the lock has been picked & someone has been examining their research. Blomkvist decides to pay a clandestine visit to the home of one of Mr. Vanger's brothers who had always been Nazi sympathizers. He is surprised inside, however, by the old man, with a rifle pointing to his face. Martin, Harriet's brother, appears & tries to calm down the old man, then leaves with Mikael.

Blomkvist confides to Martin a lot of information that he has dug up, and Martin leaves the room under the pretense of calling police. While Martin is out of the room, Mikael suddenly questions what Martin was doing in the old man's house, too, but the revelation comes to late, as Martin injects him in the neck with some kind of tranquilizer. When he awakens, he finds himself tied up and Martin reveals himself as a serial killer who has killed many women over the past four decades. He shows Blomkvist a collection of photos of all the dead women he raped & mutilated. The reason: "I take whatever I want". He admits that his father was a religious fanatic, and had taught him how to strangle victims. Martin puts a noose around Blomkvist's neck and winches him up to hang him.

Salander, after doing more research at the archives of Mr. Vanger's company, comes back to the house where they're staying and finds that Blomkvist is missing. After viewing the surveillance video and seeing who the intruder was, Salander rushes to Martin's house just in time to save Blomkvist from being hanged, taking a golf club to Martin's head and arms. Despite having a broken right arm, Martin gets away in his car and drives full speed but uncertain with Salander on her motobike in hot pursuit. To avoid a frontal collision with a big truck, Martin swerves off the roadside and the car overturns down a steep slope, coming to rest upside down. As Salander arrives, he begs and pleads for help, but she just looks at him and recalls setting the match to her abusive father in his car years before. Martin is burned alive when the gasoline leaks and catches fire as Salander just walks away.

Salander doesn't want to face the police so she writes to Blomkvist a note and leaves. With information supplied by Salander, Blomkvist goes to Australia to find a woman whose goes by the name Anita, who was Harriet's aunt and friend, but who was known to have died of cancer years back. He returns to see Mr. Vanger with Anita... or, the real Harriet... in tow.

It turns out Harriet was never killed by any of the Vanger family members. In fact back in 1965, she killed her own father after many years of being brutally raped by him, and by her own brother Martin. Her drunken Nazi father had chased her down to a pier where Harriet got into a boat. Harriet used an oar to knock him into the water, and keep him underwater until he stopped breathing. Everyone assumed he was drunk, fell into the water of the lake and drowned. However, she was seen by Martin and he continued to abuse her until he went away to college. One day she saw Martin had returned home and she decided to leave the island at once. With the help of her look-alike aunt Anita, she got off the island by hiding in Anita's car under a blanket & fled to Australia with Anita's passport. Now with Martin dead and learning her uncle Henrik had never stopped thinking of her, she decided to return to Sweden to reunite with him. For all those 40 years she sent him framed dried flowers every year, as she had done as a child, meant as a message that she was "out there somewhere," but he had always thought it was the killer who was sending them to taunt him.

Later, Blomkvist goes to prison to serve his three-month sentence. One day he receives a visit from Salander who brings him a lot of reading material. He finds it to be incriminating documents against Wennerström. Upon his release, Blomkvist again publishes these findings in the Millennium. Wennerström apparently commits suicide as a result. It is discovered that a large amount of money has been withdrawn from his Cayman bank account by a mysterious woman. Upon seeing a picture on TV, Blomkvist recognizes a now-blonde Salander and smiles.

In the final scene, Salander is shown getting out of a chauffered driven limousine, well-dressed and lovely, and walks away along the sidewalk of a sunny seaside resort with palm trees along the beach.
Page last updated by BigJobMan, 6 months ago

EDUCATION ISSUE: SCHOOL FACILITIES




            A school facility is becoming one of the issues in our education started from the elementary level until the university level. It has become our own responsibility as Indonesian citizen to overcome this problem in order to get the good result in our education. Based on Bafadal (2003: 2), Education facilities are all equipment set, material, furniture used directly in the process of education at school. Wahyuningrum (2004: 5) states that school facilities are all facilities needed in learning process including the moveable and unmovable things in order to get the education target. Also According to Moenir (1992: 119), facilities are all kind of equipments or work facilities that can assist the job process and are concerned with work organization.
            Based on the above definitions, facilities offer some benefits. They can make the work implementation proficiently in order to save time, increase the things and service productivity, get qualified and guaranteed result, ease the user, accurate in work stability, give comfortable feeling for the users, and give satisfactory feeling for the user.     
                Facilities are very important for the achievement of students. That is why there is the relation of facilities to student’s achievement. Number of studies has shown that many school systems, particularly those in urban and high-poverty areas, are plagued by decaying buildings that threaten the health, safety, and learning opportunities of students. Good facilities appear to be an important precondition for student learning, provided that other conditions are present that support a strong academic program in the school. A growing body of research has linked student achievement and behavior to the physical building conditions and overcrowding.
Physical Building Conditions
Decaying environmental conditions such as peeling paint, crumbling plaster, nonfunctioning toilets, poor lighting, inadequate ventilation, and inoperative heating and cooling systems can affect the learning as well as the health and the morale of staff and students.
Impact on student achievement
  • A study of the District of Columbia school system found, after controlling for other variables such as a student's socioeconomic status, that students' standardized achievement scores were lower in schools with poor building conditions. Students in school buildings in poor condition had achievement that was 6% below schools in fair condition and 11% below schools in excellent condition. (Edwards, 1991)
  • Cash (1993) examined the relationship between building condition and student achievement in small, rural Virginia high schools. Student scores on achievement tests, adjusted for socioeconomic status, was found to be up to 5 percentile points lower in buildings with lower quality ratings. Achievement also appeared to be more directly related to cosmetic factors than to structural ones. Poorer achievement was associated with specific building condition factors such as substandard science facilities, air conditioning, locker conditions, classroom furniture, more graffiti, and noisy external environments.
  • Similarly, Hines' (1996) study of large, urban high schools in Virginia also found a relationship between building condition and student achievement. Indeed, Hines found that student achievement was as much as 11 percentile points lower in substandard buildings as compared to above-standard buildings.
  • A study of North Dakota high schools, a state selected in part because of its relatively homogeneous, rural population, also found a positive relationship between school condition (as measured by principals' survey responses) and both student achievement and student behavior. (Earthman, 1995)
  • McGuffey (1982) concluded that heating and air conditioning systems appeared to be very important, along with special instructional facilities (i.e., science laboratories or equipment) and color and interior painting, in contributing to student achievement. Proper building maintenance was also found to be related to better attitudes and fewer disciplinary problems in one cited study.
  • Research indicates that the quality of air inside public school facilities may significantly affect students' ability to concentrate. The evidence suggests that youth, especially those under ten years of age, are more vulnerable than adults to the types of contaminants (asbestos, radon, and formaldehyde) found in some school facilities (Andrews and Neuroth, 1988).
Impact on teaching
  • Lowe (1988) interviewed State Teachers of the Year to determine which aspects of the physical environment affected their teaching the most, and these teachers pointed to the availability and quality of classroom equipment and furnishings, as well as ambient features such as climate control and acoustics as the most important environmental factors. In particular, the teachers emphasized that the ability to control classroom temperature is crucial to the effective performance of both students and teachers.
  • A study of working conditions in urban schools concluded that "physical conditions have direct positive and negative effects on teacher morale, sense of personal safety, feelings of effectiveness in the classroom, and on the general learning environment." Building renovations in one district led teachers to feel "a renewed sense of hope, of commitment, a belief that the district cared about what went on that building." In dilapidated buildings in another district, the atmosphere was punctuated more by despair and frustration, with teachers reporting that leaking roofs, burned out lights, and broken toilets were the typical backdrop for teaching and learning." (Corcoran et al., 1988)
  • Corcoran et al. (1988) also found that "where the problems with working conditions are serious enough to impinge on the work of teachers, they result in higher absenteeism, reduced levels of effort, lower effectiveness in the classroom, low morale, and reduced job satisfaction. Where working conditions are good, they result in enthusiasm, high morale, cooperation, and acceptance of responsibility."
A Carnegie Foundation (1988) report on urban schools concluded that "the tacit message of the physical indignities in many urban schools is not lost on students. It bespeaks neglect, and students' conduct seems simply an extension of the physical environment that surrounds them." Similarly, Poplin and Weeres (1992) reported that, based on an intensive study of teachers, administrators, and students in four schools, "the depressed physical environment of many schools... is believed to reflect society's lack of priority for these children and their education."
Overcrowding
Overcrowded schools are a serious problem in many school systems, particularly in the inner cities, where space for new construction is at a premium and funding for such construction is limited. As a result, students find themselves trying to learn while jammed into spaces never intended as classrooms, such as libraries, gymnasiums, laboratories, lunchrooms, and even closets. Although research on the relationship between overcrowding and student learning has been limited, there is some evidence, particularly in high-poverty schools, that overcrowding can have an adverse impact on learning.
  • A study of overcrowded schools in New York City found that students in such schools scored significantly lower on both mathematics and reading exams than did similar students in underutilized schools. In addition, when asked, students and teachers in overcrowded schools agreed that overcrowding negatively affected both classroom activities and instructional techniques. (Rivera-Batiz and Marti, 1995)
  • Corcoran et al. (1988) found that overcrowding and heavy teacher workloads created stressful working conditions for teachers and led to higher teacher absenteeism.
Crowded classroom conditions not only make it difficult for students to concentrate on their lessons, but inevitably limit the amount of time teachers can spend on innovative teaching methods such as cooperative learning and group work or, indeed on teaching anything beyond the barest minimum of required material. In addition, because teachers must constantly struggle simply to maintain order in an overcrowded classroom, the likelihood increases that they will suffer from burnout earlier than might otherwise are the case.
Source: (http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OESE/archives/inits/construction/impact2.html)  
FACILITIES PROBLEMS
·         School Building       
The broken school roof, 7 wounded people because of the broken roof school, three students got injured on their heads because the broken school, the broken elementary school (Indramayu), students studied on the street, 67 % of elementary schools in Sukabumi in bad condition, 2.278 elementary school in very bad condition, students studied under the trees, fifty thousands constructions are delayed, The rural vocational school are limited, The bad facilities in many schools, lack of 250 junior high school buildings in West Kalimantan, the bad condition of under bridge school, School needs librarians, no electricity  in some areas, 4.401 school in Riau are uncertified, 60  bad school buildings in Samarinda and many more.
 (http://Jurnal Pendidikan/614. Html)
·         Library
Actually, library is not just a place to put some books. But it is one way to improve the students’ achievement. It is “the heart of school”. Many schools do not have qualified librarians. Based on some research, there are  some surprising factors about the library. They are as follows; no students in library, only open in school hour (more a less 15 minutes), no cooperation with teachers to guide students to get information from library, teachers can not ask students to find books from library because library does not open after school, the librarian are often not in the library, the librarians does not promote their library actively and creatively. (jurnal.pendidikan.net/jurnal1.html)
·         Learning facilities
            There are some problems in learning facilities at school. First, In the school, facilities are available but they are not accessible to use.  Many facilities are kept in the head or vice master’s room. It makes the learning facilities can not be used regularly and efficiently. It needs time and procedures to use them. At least, the teachers ask permissions first from the head or vice master at school.  Second, there are no learning facilities because of the limited fund from the school to buy the facilities. For example, tape recorder, laptop, in focus and etc. Third, the school has the limited maintenance staff to make the facilities in good conditions. It will waste money if the facilities are not maintained well.
SOLUTIONS
            Government has the rules about facilities. If one school can not fulfill the facilities standard in their school, it will influence the score of their school accreditation. In Indonesia government rules number 19 year 2005 about the eight educational national standards. One of them in facilities standard in education institution rule number 24 year 2007. The standard facilities of one school must have these following items.
1.      Classroom is a room for theory and practical that does not need the specific equipment
2.      Laboratory room is a room to learn the practical lesson that needs the specific equipment
3.      The headmaster room is a room for the headmaster to manage the school   
4.      The teacher room is  a room for the teacher to work outside the classroom, take a rest and welcome the quests
5.      Administration room is a room to manage the school administration
6.      Library is a room for getting knowledge and information
7.      Students’ health room is a room for the  early sick students
8.      Praying room is a room for students to pray
9.      Students’ school association room is a room for the students to manage their organization
10.  Toilet is a place for the students to wash their hands
11.  ‘Gudang” is a room  to keep the equipments of outside class and school file
12.  Circulation room is a room to connect every parts  of building at school
13.  Sport place is a place to have sport supported by the sport facilities
14.  Studying group is  a group of students in one class to study.

            According to Hamied (2014) in the 3rd  Southern Region of Sumatera Teflin national Seminar dated at 9th  February 2014, On  the basis of the complexity associated with the process of learning a second language, teaching English to young learners requires fulfillment of fundamental bases which include (1) clarity of the target to achieve, (2) availability of qualified teachers and supporting facilities, (3) societal and environmental supports, such as exposure via different media to the target language consistent with specified goals as outlined above.
            Some aspects of facilities should be active in implementation the qualified facilities. First, 25 % of education fund from government should be run well in order to get good result education. Next, the role of School Committee to assist school in providing good facilities. We can commence with used books, magazines, newspapers, comics, etc. donated from our local community. There is no publication that is not useful to someone in some way. The main thing is that we start!
 Then, the school provides good facilities management and maintained staff. Also, there are some active librarians at school to  implement the idea to open library one or two hours after school hours end. And it should be “online library” because not all the students have access to browse the information at home. Last, we promote the lifelong learning at school and in their family.
REFERENCES
http://educationindonesia.net/perpustakaan.html
jurnal.pendidikan.net/jurnal1.html
http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OESE/archives/inits/construction/impact2.html
Impact of inadequate school facilities  on student’s learning